My, My, Mister Danny Pie

Yeah, I'm pretty clever when I need to be.

So tonight, I went with my friend Kristina to the Sabres/Bruins game. It was Daniel Paille's first game back in Buffalo after being traded from the Sabres to the Bruins a few weeks back. This was one of the main reasons I wanted to go to this game. But surprisingly, in what can only be described as insanely ironic, guess who was pictured on tonight's ticket?

WEEEEIRD.

Lo and behold, much like numerous other Sabres/Bruins games I've been to before, we lost. Come to think of it, we are something like 1-6-2 with a tie or two thrown in when I've seen them play, but the LAST one I went to we won in OT (on a Clarke MacArthur goal, if memory serves me correctly). No such luck, as we lost this one in OT 2-1. Had to be that jackass ginormous oaf Chara scoring the goal (Sorry Zdeno, but I'd like you much more if you weren't constantly playing for teams I despise) in OT. But FAHHHKIN LOOCH (aka Milan Lucic) scored the Bruins regulation goal, and anyone who knows me knows how I love the Looch. And Goose scored for the Sabres! I think it was just Bad Asses Scoring Night at HSBC Arena. I also was pretty disappointed with both the large number of Bruins fans in our section and the fact that during the second period we took a bunch of crap penalties and decided we'd take a whole THREE SHOTS. I think in the third, we had three shots in the first two minutes. No joke. Anyway, we play Ottawa tomorrow night. I'm praying Lalime doesn't play but at this point, I think we should let him play A game, because then we can have fresh things to bitch about. :)

The Canes won AGAIN. They took a SO win against Toronto last night, which really isn't too much considering Toronto is the only team that sucks worse than the Canes right now. But for those who didn't hear about it, here's what happened (via highlights I watched of the beginning- since I was at work, and watching the rest online)- Canes go down 3-0 after one. At this point I check the score and want to put my head through the wall. Score two in the second. I get excited. I get home, and it's 4-2 and I'm thinking, great. A freaking loss to Bore-onto. Then Tim Gleason comes out like a freight train (I saw from here on) and scored two in roughly four minutes and bam, tie game. So it's 4-4 and there's about forty-five seconds left, and I go upstairs for A MINUTE so I don't burn the house down making dinner. I come back, and it's OT. At 5-5. I am puzzled. Ian White had scored with exactly 30 seconds left to make it 5-4 Toronto, and then Erik Cole scored with three effin' seconds left to make it 5-5. Then shootout, with goals by Ruutu and Jokinen, and another win. I think this is going to do wonders for their confidence- hopefully they can overtake the Islanders soon.

And the Flames... uh... got killed last night. I got home and they were losing by about four so I just went back out. haha

And that's it. Sabres play the Caps, Flyers and Canes next week. Sabres/Canes should be interesting- you can find me in Section 109 with my friend Stephanie in my Lindy Ruff jersey. Should you be there, say hello!

To cap this off, I must state this for the good of the blog. This week, I went to my new favorite sports memorabilia purchasing center, First And Goal on Niagara Falls Blvd. I bought many a neat item- a newspaper from Gilbert Perreault's retirement, a Sabres "Crunch Towel" from god knows how long aback, and the highlight- in tribute to the blog- this poster.




That's the man himself, Mike Foligno, on the left. My wall = HAS MORE MIKE FOLIGNO. And add in some Dave Andreychuk and John Tucker and you've got the BUFFALO SABRES TOP GUNS (circa 1986 when this poster was made, apparently haha).

Now that this blog has more Mike Foligno, I'm out. Later!

Sabres Post-Game- v. Florida, 11/18/09

Here's my recap.



Sabres score. Panthers score three.



Sabres score again. Panthers score three again.



Simple recap. We looked like crap, but it isn't the end of the world because HEY GUYS WE LOSE SOMETIMES. I'd rather not lose to Florida. By Four. But hey, maybe this will be good motivation for Boston, and we can level the boom... I hope. Please?



Also, the Canes kept it close but *gasp* *shockedness* LOST IN A SHOOTOUT. WHAAAAAAAAT? An OT loss? Go figure. And Calgary last night didn't even make it to OT, they just lost 3-2. But they're still sick, and that was their first regulation loss of the month, so whatever I'll take it. These things happen. Just hopefully not often, please. I like wins. :)



Sabres play Boston and Ottawa this weekend, then play Washington, Philly, and Carolina next week. I will be at the Carolina game because SOMEHOW, by some act of God, I am not working Black Friday or the day after. Don't ask me how I got those off because yes, I work in retail, but thou shalt not complain when thou art bestowed a gift. If we can come out with four of six points I'll be pleased. Six for six? Sexy time.

Done!

Thank you Jesus.

The Canes won a game. Albeit, they blew two three goal leads. And allowed two goals in less than 20 seconds. And even though more than halfway through the second they were up 4-1, twenty minutes later it was tied. And it took them until a shootout to win.

But a win is a win, and this one was WELL NEEDED. Because let's face it- fifteen games would've been unacceptable. I'd still like to think that they won solely because of Rachel's birthday. That's why Brandon Sutter scored, anyway, and without his goal it's a 4-3 loss. Just sayin'.

Also, the Sabres swept a back-to-back. Against Calgary and Philly, nevertheless! Friday's game was tough, a real back-and-forth battle. Calgary struck first, with Langkow getting a goal just over a minute in. At that point I feared the worst, but Miller (as he usually is 85% of the time) was on his game and was solid from then out. Roy even got a goal. ON THE POWER PLAY. What are the odds? We took it all the way to the shootout at 1-1, and then Pominville and Roy scored in the shootout and Miller stopped three of four shooters and laid the boom on Rene Bourque, settling the score at 2-1.

Much to the chagrin of a certain blogger who shall remain unnamed, the Sabres decided not to go to Lalime for the second game of the back-to-back. Now, I'm all for the backup goalie- with the exception of the Sabres' last two- but seriously, I don't think Lalime would've fared good at all. With the way the Flyers play, and the way they played last time we played them (and yeah, I know Miller was in net), we needed to ride that hot game by Miller on Friday into Hotladephia. It was a risk that paid off handsomely. Drew "Sicktastic City" Stafford was out with a hip flexor, so the Sabres called up Tyler Ennis. And that move also paid off, since Tennis The Menace scored his 1st NHL goal in the second to give us a 2-0 lead. Miller played sicktastic himself, gaining the first star of the game and making some saves that brought severe levels of thrash in the process. Goose even scored, which pretty much spelled to me EPIC WIN even though we gave up another goal on OUR PP, and we won 3-2. All in all, a wonderful weekend.

We play the Panthers, Bruins, and Sens this weekend. Hopefully we can pick it up and get four points at the least (I'd like six, but I'll settle for four).

Also, while reading the blog of the blogger who shall remain unnamed, she mentions this quote-

"...you must have forgotten that this is the Buffalo Sabres. We don't use our back ups until someone gets hurt, and THEN you play them and THEN you yell at them for being rusty."

Last I checked- and I could be wrong here, as I have before- Marty Brodeur has been doing that for a large amount of years. Miikka Kiprusoff too, as well as most goaltenders who are completely awesome without having long streaks of sucktitude.

Part of being a backup goaltender is that you can come into a situation where your starter either needs a rest or is not faring so well and you can hold the fort down. Lalime was a pretty good starter, sure, but his time is gone. She usually ALWAYS uses the excuse that he was the best goaltender in Sens history (which is not saying much when your goaltenders include Tom Barrasso in his twilight, Ron Tugnutt, Damian Rhodes, and Don Beaupre). That's grand, but what happened AFTER he left Ottawa?

(Key note- this blogger in question has also told me that stats are useless. Okay, sure. They just keep track of things like goals, assists, goals against, and WINS just for kicks. Stats are sometimes useless, but definitely not when you see these!)

4-18-8 for St. Louis. Sent to the AHL where he finished 6-6-1 for Peoria.
4-6-1 for Chicago in 06-07. Played also in the AHL for Norfolk, 3-1-0.
16-12-2 for Chicago in 07-08, which is why I didn't mind us picking him up at first, but then again I hadn't seen his previous stats.
5-13-3 last season in Buffalo.

That makes him, in the NHL the last four years, 29-49-14. Take away Chicago in 07-08 and he's 13-37-12. That is unacceptable for a backup either way. But yeah, we should start him in an important game against the hated Flyers. Good luck explaining that one when we get absolutely effing hammered to oblivion.

And I'm done.

LET'S GO HOCKEY!

OMGBLOGOSPHERE

Hey guys! So it's been a few days. Let's recap!

The Sabres won, beating Edmonton 3-1. This game was pretty sweet, actually, since most of you know already that I absolutely HATE the Edmonton Failures, being the Flames fan that I am. Even sweeter was that former Flame Steve Montador scored the GWG. Thanks, guys!

In not so sweet news, Carolina is still losing games. AND Manny-Fucking-Legace (Pardon my language. I have to say it like that because when I picked up on the Blues a while back he was their starter, and the last year he played he was so bad that that was automatically what I called him) is their goalie now, so God save us all. Maybe, JUST MAYBE, we can beat the Islanders tomorrow? Please?

Calgary is doing pretty fantastic. Missed the game against Montreal because I have had a lot of family insanity going on, but I caught most of the replay on NHL Network. Holy crap, Miikka. I'm really excited for tomorrow night's game- Flames/Sabres. THIRD ROW. That's going to be a goaltending duel to the max (I hope, but as long as the Sabres win since my loyalties ALWAYS lie with them).

People need to stop crying about hip checks.

Saw the Portland Pirates tonight with my friends Stephanie and Kristina. Sick game, 6-3 Portland win. My older brother Matthew this past summer at training camp would always say to me, "Check out this Paul Byron kid. Next big thing, I think." and ironically enough, he scored tonight. I laughed. But then a lot of people scored tonight, the Italian Stallion included. SICK. And Rochester has some pretty annoying fans- the girl behind us spouted some "hockey knowledge" that apparently we only beat them because they played all weekend blahblahblahblahblah. Yeah toots, you played no games the rest of the week besides Friday/Saturday/Tuesday (note the two days off) and tonight, and all the games were close so there was no travel really involved. Teams in the NHL do that, actually. Quite often. Get a clue.

I don't know. That just bothered me (and Stephanie as well, so I wasn't the only one at least).

Well, I have a very early morning tomorrow, so I shall bid you all farewells! Sorry this is kind of out there and choppy, I'll save my later work for after the Flames game. I shall be sitting third row in my Lindy Ruff jersey, so feel free to come down and say hello even though the only person I know of who reads this is at Clemson and thus, will not be watching. I actually think she's going to the Canes game for her birthday, which is Sunday, so IF BY ANY CHANCE someone else reads my blog, go to thehurricanesiren.blogspot.com and wish my lovely friend Rachel a Happy Birthday on Sunday. She's gonna be the big 2-1!

Please, Canes. Win one for Rachel's birthday, if nothing else because losing to the Islanders is unacceptable. As is losing to the Wild after you've lost to the Islanders. PLEASE. PLEEEEEEASE.

Done!

The Dirty Dozen

So guys, here's a joke-

Q- What's worse than losing your twelfth game in a row?
A- Losing your twelfth in a row. TO COLUMBUS. After your starting goaltender gets his thigh sliced.

Cam Ward is out a month it looks like according to reports. Could be more.

CROWN ROYAL, COMMENCE!

The most epic of fails- 11.6.09

So here's the recap-

The Sabres lost to the Flyers. 5-2. Tyler Myers scored, and hell Derek Roy scored AGAIN. But this time, we just looked like shit all across the board. But our losses have been only a few, so I'm not going to bitch this evening about the Sabres.

Which is great, because the fucking Leafs ended up beating the Canes.

I checked the score two times. 2-0 Canes after one, 2-2 tie after two. I didn't even want to know what happened after that, because I pretty much knew what the hell was about to happen- and that, what was about to happen was a completely epic fail. I guess normally one would say, "Well, Canes, looks like there's nowhere to go here but up."

Except that's a true fact when- oh, yeah- YOU ARE IN LAST PLACE.

I just... really, guys? I mean, that's great you played the first 20 minutes. Here's the problem- there's sixty. That's right, three periods make a game. This might be hard to comprehend since it seems these days you're only interested in playing a period (or sometimes, even less) but seriously, if you stop playing hard and scoring goals, the other team will catch up to you. No no, it's true! I mean, you have to be attentive and alert the whole shift. No turning over the puck, no practically gift-wrapping goals by passing directly to the other team, no more weak glove side PLEASE.

I'm not going to sugarcoat this- this team looks like crap right now. And all the Boychuks and Sutters in the world (and there's a ton of Sutters, believe you me- they'll even take Bruce at this point) aren't going to do a damn thing when you aren't playing the game of hockey correctly. So whether it be by trade, waiver wire (Jussi Jokinen anyone?), Tom Barrasso beating the shit out of everyone on the team with nunchucks, I don't care. DO SOMETHING. PLEASE.

And make that SOMETHING winning a game. Because Jesus, 11 in a row? Your fans deserve better.

/rant.

Blogospherical rambling II- Carolina Hurricanes

Dear Hurricanes,

What can I say about you that hasn't already been said about cheap hookers? You're a cheap form of entertainment, but you underperform, and people leave afterwards feeling disgusted and unsatisfied most of the time. This season started pretty damn bad, but after losing your first two you came out and won the next two. After that Florida win, I thought, "This is just what they need to pick things up!"

But YOU thought, "Okay guys, we won two games. Wait... how did we do that? What are fundamentals? Disc in net? I no get. How do I play this crazy game? Uhhh... let's see..." I mean, that's what it feels like. You lost to Tampa, and that sucked enough. A 5-2 loss to Tampa is unacceptable. But no, why stop there! Why stop at one! You had a THRILLING LOSS to Pittsburgh, then lost a heartbreaker to the Devils, then lost to the Islanders (who were put here to hate on my teams) in a game you should've won twice over, then Colorado, Minnesota, St. Louis, Philly, San Jose, and Wednesday's 3-0 blanking by the Florida fucking Cat Turds. Really, guys? Really? I mean, I'm not one to jump ship on a team. I am going to stick with a team thick or thin (see: Buffalo Bills). I fell in love with you last season. I still love you guys this season, but you're not giving any sort of effort, and that makes me sad. You're like the Ike to my Tina Turner- you're just going to abuse me until I leave, crying and bloody. I'm pretty sure of it. Ten losses in a row is bad. Where do you even start? Without Cam I'd like to think there would be some pretty ugly double digit scores. The Defense is... oh wait, there's defensemen? WHAT ARE THEY DEFENDING?! Some of these games have been downright sad to watch. The offense... they're pretty offensive, so I guess they're there. It's just altogether bad. I just think that, when you outshoot the FLORIDA PANTHERS 21-4 IN THE FIRST PERIOD YOU SHOULD GET A GOAL FOR CHRIST'S SAKE! COME ON NOW!

I mean, seriously. If you guys lose to the Leafs... well, I guess the positive here is that I'll be working. And then I'll be too drunk to care after that. And there's a girl at Duff's who "feels the pain".

-Mikey

Blog Pt. I- The Sabres.

Dear Buffalo Sabres,

I was really kind of sad/pissed off/in need of mass alcoholic consumption after Saturday night's... I don't even know how to describe that. Spectacle? Vulgar display of failure? I don't know. It was fucking bad. To recap, you lost by fucking FIVE GOALS to the Isles. Oh wait, I dedicated part of the below blog to it. Read that shit.

So you might understand, Sabres, that I was a little hesitant going into Wednesday's matchup. I was stuck working the mall AGAIN like I was Saturday, you were playing the Islanders again, Doug Allen didn't sing the National Anthem (I forgot he didn't sing it on Wednesday, which made me sad, but I sang the Canadian anthem out loud at work anyway whilst up on a ladder sizing dress pants). The odds were- oh wait, the Islanders. You guys FINALLY REMEMBERED you were playing the Islanders. Something clicked. And once Derek Roy finally added a number in the G column, I knew. I just knew we had to win. And then Tom scored- surprise there, he did that quite a few times last year- and then Goose scored, and if I had to pick one way to seal a win, I'd choose that. But you shut out the Islanders, Ryan. You said, "Hey guys, remember last time? Savor that, because I'm coming in here like fucking Patrick Swayze in 'Roadhouse' and I'm gonna mess you up something fierce." And then, he did.

So yeah, it's just a win. And they're just the Islanders. But I'm really proud of the way you guys played last night, not letting the epically large fucking failure that was Saturday weigh you down.

Love, Michael.

P.S.- Thank you so much, Hockey Gods, for allowing J-Ho to come up to (possibly) play this weekend. Very much appreciated. :)

Halloween hockey = super scary.

Hello hello, folks! Happy Halloween to everyone, first off. I might as well open with something positive sooo... let's start by saying first that I haven't drank myself into a coma yet! SOLID.

So today, I worked. Ten hours. At the mall. Which was dead. Needless to say, there was hockey on ALL DAY. That I missed.

Oh, wait, apparently I didn't miss ANYTHING.

See, there are four teams I follow semi-religiously to insanely. They are, as follows- St. Louis Blues, Carolina Hurricanes, Calgary Flames, and Buffalo Sabres. The Blues and Canes are the newest additions. I started picking the Blues up after Jay McKee signed with them a couple years back and it stuck- so hard, in fact, that I have their third jersey. It's the coolest jersey that isn't the Sabres third (or the Canes third, because that is pretty badass) and that team is freaking awesome. The Canes I explained earlier- thank you, Rachel and Chad LaRose. The Flames I've stuck by for the last thirteen years- ever since the Winnipeg Jets left. You know how I picked them? I wanted another west team that wasn't in the desert. Theo Fleury's photo that I ripped out of a magazine was on my wall. Sold. Simple. And the Sabres... I mean, I live in Buffalo. I'm from Buffalo. It only makes sense. I've loved the team since I knew what the heck hockey was.

So today, all four teams played. And the results were downright spooktacular (I'm using this as a bad adjective here). Blues and Sabres were both shut out. The Blues were shut out by the Panthers, 4-0. 34 shots by St. Louis, and approximately zero percent of them reached past the goal line. The Sabres were blanked by the Islanders. I don't really understand what it is with the Sabres and the Islanders (minus earlier this year when we effed up Dwayne RoliePolieGoalieson something fierce. But that's usually how it goes- the first game of the year we played them last year I think it was 7-1 or something like that, then we lost the next three times. Nice to see that isn't changing thus far. A 5-0 loss isn't easy to digest in any spectrum, but the Islanders? We couldn't get ONE GOAL ON THE ISLANDERS? Oh well, at least Biron got his 200th win. I guess I can pretend to be happy for a second.

Oh wait, that second is gone.

The Flames... well they looked pretty bad against Detroit. Thankfully it was only 3-1, but to give up a goal less than a minute after scoring the first goal of the game, then give one up shortly thereafter? Ridiculous. Thank you, D. Brent Sutter was not pleased, you could see it in his face that he probably wanted to go out there and sock Mark Giordano right in the kisser. Thank God he didn't, because Detroit wouldn't have had a pylon to weave around! And who needs defense when you have... just standing there?

And that brings me to the Canes. Ohhhhhhhhh boy, the Canes. Where do you even start?

I guess I will start by saying that I am watching the replay of that game now. And good Lord, this is really, really, really bad. I mean, I already watched the highlights, and I thought THAT was bad- since they lost by five and all. But when you actually WATCH the game... wow. First off, Aaron Ward... I don't know what that guy is thinking half the time he is on the ice this year. I don't know if Scotty needs to sock him in the other side of his face to even things out, or if maybe he's a Boston Bruins mole who is trying to sabotage the team on purpose, but he just looks like he doesn't know where he is. The rest of the D doesn't look all that much better, so it's not like there's much to compare to. Thank God Timmayyyyyyy is back soon because sweet Jesus, if the D isn't gonna do anything at least beat the crap out of peoples faces. Leighton looked kinda.. bad, but I can't blame too much on him- unlike Tripp (Tracy, the color analyst on FS-Carolinas, who I'm pretty sure has some sort of awkward obsessive man-crush on Staal and Cam), who seems to be ready to burn Leights at the stake. True, six goals IS a lot, but it's not like they (being really anyone on the team) played any better the other seven losses before. It's all a team effort. I don't know what more Mo can do with the team besides staging fights to the death at Center Ice for who stays on the team. This is bad. Brandon Sutter scored a goal tonight- the ONLY goal for the Canes in their 6-1 loss to Philly- which was his first in the NHL (Edit- The lovely Rachel has let me know that this was actually his second goal. This is why I keep her around because her vast knowledge of all things Caniac have helped me much the past year. THANKS RACHEL!). They're talking about him staying in the NHL, which would be awesome because I like they guy- I have his helmet, and he's a Sutter so I gotta show some love. At this point though, I don't think he'd be too worried about going back to Albany. Ugh. Hopefully I'm celebrating a win tomorrow against San Jose, because if not I'm sure someone is getting fed to the lions.

So yeah, Halloween's been pretty beat. At least the candy is free! Right?

When in Rome.