Ryan Miller- LIKE A BOSS.

Hey! Sorry I've been kind of slacking the last week and a half. I had off all Thanksgiving weekend and thus, was out and about laying down the boom. Whatever the hell that means. I DID get to watch a bunch of hockey, and the Sabres played a few games in there! We didn't quite win against Washington- got shut out, 2-0 actually. That game was kind of rough to watch- especially after Ovie got more board on Kaleta than Tony Hawk (Of note- I once had an argument with Katy about the Ottawa/Buffalo brawl. I was 110% certain that it was Adam Mair who had talked shit to Dany Heatley and NOT Patty Kaleta, because I remember Mair apologized after the game. I was looking for a picture of the brawl online when I stumbled upon this- http://artvoice.com/issues/v8n46/adam_mair#SlideFrame_0 THANK YOU. That's a win).

The Philly game started off wonderfully! Drew Stafford scored a goal and we killed a 5 minute penalty (because Kaleta must've been pissed he was taken out, he decided to follow suit and got kicked out Friday) and then about eight milliseconds later, we let in two goals to end the period. Thanks, guys. Luckily, those would be the only two goals Miller let in- and also lucky for us, we remembered how to score goals. Or rather, Paul Gaustad and Tim Connolly remembered- which is good, because TC needed to remember, as he was in a little bit of a slump. And remember he did, since he had two goals and two assists. Miller played spectacular to end the game and the Sabres won 4-2. Time to go back home and play Carolina.

Boy, what a freaking game that was.

The game started off a goaltending duel. Minus a craptastic Tyler Myers turnover that led to Matt Cullen roofing the puck over the shoulder of Miller, the two goalies were dictating play. By now everyone and their grandmother and their grandmother's bridge club has seen Miller's wonderful save on Brind'Amour, so I'm only going to say this- it was MUCH better in person. I can honestly say I haven't seen a standing ovation for a save and heard cheering that loud for that long for a save since the days of Hasek. It was insane. And then the game itself pretty much changed in the favor of Buffalo. Mike Grier scored the tying goal two minutes into the third, and after that it was all Buffalo. The Sabres made Michael Leighton look like Kathleen Leighton in the third period, and after Grier scored, Clarkie, Roy, Hecht, and Vanek all scored. For the second time in two days, two things happened. We won, meaning we won our second back-to-back. I think we might've won two all last year, come to think of it. And for the second time in two nights, Carolina let in five in the third period. I'm thinking that's some sort of record.

Toronto Monday was next. Toronto was coming off of two wins (against Tampa and Florida, but you take what you can get), and was supposedly hot from what Versus tried telling me. And for the first 30-something minutes, it looked like it. And then we realized who we were playing and Tim Kennedy scored, and then Hank opened up the third (read: twenty seconds in) with a goal and Jochen scored AGAIN. And Miller... yeah, he let in zero goals. This is always good if you want to win games, not letting the opponent score, and he ACTUALLY GOT ANOTHER SHUTOUT. Actually, he leads the league in SO. And goals against average. And save percentage. And he's third in wins.

This leads me to my next point- while Miller is THA BOSS, I really wish we had a competent back-up for him. I do NOT think Lalime is the answer at all. He's been absolutely brutal since we signed him- and come to think of it, he was brutal between his Ottawa stint and his fluke year in Chicago the year before we signed him. I've gone over a million times- I like the guy, I dislike the player. He's a great guy, but Jesus. We can do better. Call up Jhonas, claim Valiquette from waivers, do whatever the hell you can. But PLEASE DO SOMETHING. If we make the playoffs (there's that Buffalo optimism shining through- IF), I don't want Miller to burn out. I like long playoff runs. No, I LOVE long playoff runs.

And that's it.