I've been savin it

I met Tim Connolly!


I wanted this to be its own post.. but check it, guys and gals:

Pretty cool, eh?

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Now it looks like one of those stupid chain letter e-mails. Haha. No peeking!

In all seriousness, I did not meet THE Tim Connolly, or even someone of that name, though the fella in the pic, whose name is Mike, btw, looks an awful lot like our buddy Timmy. (refresher pic)

Mike is friends with my friend Bryan and was at our church's dinner dance on Saturday night. I couldn't help but notice he looked like Tim, and I pointed it out.. He said he gets that a lot. Once, he was at a bar and was upstairs (I take it there was sort of a balcony thing going on, you could see the 2nd floor from the ground floor) Ryan Miller and some other Sabres- he can't remember all of them, thinks Pommer was one, walked in. Mike was there with his friends. The next thing he knew the bartender was giving him a drink. Mike says- 'who is this from?' the guy responds that it's from 'your friends..' Mike looks at his buddies, no one did it. Bartender says- 'Your friends the Sabres, downstairs.' So Mike goes down and walks up to Miller, says "thanks for the drink, buddy." Ryan is like.. uh do I know you? Mike tells him that Miller bought him a drink, and he was upstairs. To which Ryan Miller replies "We thought you were Tim!" Hahaha great story and I could totally see it.

So that's an amusing Sabres bit for today, as well as this week's hockey SAB- my new friend Mike, and Timmay Connolly. (this is Tim's 3rd appearance as a hockey SAB, and I don't even like the guy all that much. Wow.)

quite a few

Wow, it's been some days since the last post I made. Sorry for being a hockey-slacker! I'll try to get back into it. it's not that I don't care, it's just that I've been busy this week. I haven't seen a Sabres game since the terrible effort against the Flyers. I missed that pathetic show in Boston, as I was taking in the much more entertaining "Guys & Dolls" in Springville, was having a girls night (much-needed) with my friends on Wednesday, took my nephews to see the NU Purple Eagles (lose) on Friday and at a dinner dance for church last night.

However, it seems that the Sabres are back on track, at least for the moment. I heard the end of Friday's game, and I liked what I heard. :) I've read about the other 2 and it's good stuff. I am happy that the boys are playing with an edge and standing up for each other. Royzie finally seems to have remembered how to score goals, which is great, Miller owns everyone, and we are still getting scoring from all 4 lines. There is much to be thankful for, and I just hope the boys keep pushing and don't let up just because they got a couple of wins.

I watched the first part of practice on Thursday, as the boys were at the Pepsi Center, and I was there with my nephew, as we usually are on Thursdays. He is so into hockey.. it's just super cute. And he asks me to identify all of the boys as we see them.. it's pretty funny.

Some random observations from practice:
-before hitting the ice, the Sabres usually go to the upper level of the facility to lift weights or some other manner of off-ice warmup sort of exercise. It's ONE flight of stairs, BEFORE they do any work. Yet half the guys take the elevator. Seriously, dudes? The ELEVATOR? I think they crammed 10 guys into it on Thursday for one trip. It was a bit silly. All of you Gaustad fans will be happy to know that Goose is saving energy by taking the stairs. ;)

-James Patrick is extemely foxy. I have not really, properly noticed this before but it is so true. He is just suave and very good looking. I felt that I should share this since I was really struck by it on Thursday.

-You can tell that Patrick Lalime has children by the way he notices little ones. I had my nephew with me, and we were sitting in the rink near where the Sabres took the ice. Lalime was the first player out and he looked over and smiled and waved his glove at my nephew. It was really cute. Matt Ellis also noticed and waved. This is not to take anything away from the other guys, because I understand that they are there to work and they are focused, but those small gestures really meant a lot to me and the little guy.

-I hinted at it in my previous post, but it's time to come out with it. I AM TOTALLY INTO STEVE MONTADOR. I know next to nothing about the guy, and he's not even the sort of hockey player I typically notice/go for, but there is something about him that has captured me. I've been puzzling through it in my mind for days now and I can't quite explain it, but I can no longer deny it. Maybe it's the fact that he played right defence, and because our seats are 2nd row just inside the blue line, I see him up close and personal when I go to Sabres games, maybe it's the hair (I do like a man with good looking, long, hockey hair), maybe it's the hawk-eyed gaze and how focused he is on the ice- man lemme tell ya, that dude is SUPER tuned in to the game when he's out there and concentration is HOTTT-, maybe it's his crazy gap-toothed smile, but whatever "it" is, he's got it. And I'm in. I need to research him more, and I may post about him again soon but there it is. Y'all heard it here first.

That's all for tonight, but hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with a fantasy hockey recap *I ignored my teams all week but actually had a decent showing* and then a very special announcement and possibly a hockey SAB. No guarantees, since this is the final week of rehearsal for a play that I'm in.. but I will try!

oh me oh my

Dear Sabres,

That was pretty pathetic. Can we please just forget tonight happened? Well, except for Royzie's goal. I'll keep that.

Love,

Sam

P.S. Hank was pretty badass tonight- with the end-to-end rush and all. Well played, my lad.

P.P.S. I think I might have a teensy, tiny little thing for Steve Montador. Don't ask me why, I'm still trying to figure it out myself. I'll get back to you when I know more.

WOOOOT

DEREK ROY SCORED A GOAL! YAY!

Also, Tyler Sloan scored a goal for the Caps tonight. He's been randomly playing on the left wing. Good for him! :)

Yay hockey! More to come- I was AT the game tonight and I have some thoughts but I'm really tired.

I figured it out

Guys, I know why Derek Roy isn't scoring goals:

it's MY fault!

See, when I got my Roy jersey for Christmas, almost 2 years ago, the Sabres had that pathetic 10 game winless streak, and Royzie didn't score a single goal in that stretch. Before that, he was the team's leading scorer- pts AND goals.

Then he finally broke out of that slump (and the injury that happened during it) and scored a hat trick in that bust-up of Atlanta and actually did very well for the rest of the season. That was the time when Royzie and Pommer were in the Top 5 goal scorers for the 2nd half of the year. Ah, memories.

Flash forward to this summer. I met Derek Roy in August and had him autograph my jersey. He hasn't scored a goal since.

I think I even joked that I hoped it didn't curse him, and here we are, 10 games into the season and Roy has 8 assists and ZERO goals.

I blame myself. Apparently my fandom is dooming my boy. I shall have to renounce all Derek Roy love until such time as he finds his scoring touch again.

I'm quite sorry to have deprived the Sabres of a top scoring threat, but I am quite happy that the rest of the boys have stepped up. So, from now until he gets his act together, I shall try to treat Derek as "just one of the boys" and give him no more notice than I would.. say, Steve Montador.

Derek, you're on notice.

this kid is too cute

So.. i was at the Pepsi center on Thursday, as per usual, to take my 3-yr old nephew skating.

And who should we see when we exited the rink but Tyler Myers, Mike Grier and Tim Kennedy!

Benjamin (my nephew) was fascinated- he LOVES any sort of "hockey guys", and just stared at them. It was cute. He said "Sam, who are those hockey guys?" and I told him they were Sabres. He just kept looking. Hahaha. Then we took off our skates, and I saw Royzie wander by. We had some time, so I told Benj that we could stay and watch the Sabres skate for a few mins.

So we go into the rink where they were skating, and they wander out.. I point out who is who and he is wide-eyed and loving every minute of it. I noticed that Goose wasn't on the ice, and I mentioned it to Benjamin. He loves Gaustad- probably has to do with the Goose name- he always calls him "Paul Gaustad Goose" like it's all part of his name, LOL.

So he wants to know where Goose is.. and I say that I don't know. I tell him that maybe Goose wasn't feeling well- he can relate, having just had a bout with the flu himself and telling us that he "wasn't feeling very well" for a few days. Then Benj tells me that that wasn't it, but rather Paul Gaustad Goose wasn't playing hockey
"Because he didn't do his schoolwork."

That cracked me up all day.. I'm pretty sure that wasn't why Goose was absent, but it was way too cute for me. The kid knows- hockey is fun, and you can't have fun if you didn't get your work done. LOL
Of course we know that Goosie IS sick. :( Hope he's up and at 'em soon!

I didn't see or hear tonight's game (I'm in Ohio) and it seems that I didn't miss much. All I have to say is OUCH!

Oh wait, I do have something to say- HOW DOES ROYZIE STILLLLLL not HAVE ANY GOALS? Get on it, my man!

I need to catch up

I haven't posted in a week and a day.. EEK! In that time, I have been a game (Friday) and watched 2 others. I should get on with the writing. I also managed to catch a cold along the way, so I've been feeling a bit blah and haven't been internetting as much as usual. SO instead of some long-winded (me? long-winded? surely ye jest!) post, I think I'll throw some bullet points out there and do it the easy way.

Friday:
-The game was fun.
-I really liked the tribute to Marty Biron. It almost brought a tear to my eye. Well done, Buffalo. :)
-I think the applause when they announced Myers' goal was the loudest it was at any point the game. We love this kid!
-Myers is the real deal. He will make some rookie mistakes (see: his mis-read on Max's goal Saturday) but he has such skills that we have to keep him! I might say more on him later.
-woohoo for 6 goals! :) I like it when that happens.
-Sitting next to me for the game were 2 fellas from Los Angeles, who were on a hockey road trip. They were really neat to chat with and are blogging about it, so check 'em out! :)

Saturday:
-I missed most of the game and most of the goals BUT..
-DON'T LET KOVIE HAVE THE PUCK IN YOUR ZONE. HE WILL SCORE!
-Poor Max. It was clear that his time in Buffalo was up, and it's not like he skipped town to spite us, but he was very popular here so it was a bit rough for him to get such a reception. Of course scoring against us didn't help his case!
-Say what you will, but if you watched closely, Myers kinda misplayed Max on his goal. Not saying that he could have stopped it (Max can be super dangerous when he's ON), but Myers stayed with him, then kinda backed off. I don't think he was prepared for the speed that Max is capable of. Not a black mark on the Wunderkid's record or anything, but something that I noticed that a more seasoned d-man (or someone who had played with Afinogenov before may have done differently)
-The Sabres looked tired.
-WHY do we always play Lalime against Atlanta? This never ends well. I am always defending Lalime because he often gets thrown into difficult situations.. maybe next time can we play him on game 1 of a back-to-back when the boys have fresh legs? Dunno.. just a thought.

Wednesday:
-DUDE. 5-1 after the first? Sign me up for these Sabres! :)
-Darth Vader and storm troopers dropping the puck? 'Nuff Said. :)

I may scratch up a SAB for ya soon to make up for missing it yesterday but no promises..

And one other thing, to close:

Mike Grier: 2 GOALS
Tyler Myers: 2 GOALS
Patrick Kaleta: 2 GOALS

Derek Roy: 0 GOALS. Yes, you read that right.. ZERO GOALS.

What?

Fantasy Hockey Roundup Week 2

Here it is for Week 2:

Trick Nashties (IPB AmazingLeague)
Record: 5-5
MVP: Bryzgalov was a super stud for the 2nd week in a row (who knew?) with 3W 0.95 GAA, a .959 Save% AND 1SO
Honorable Mention: Henrik Zetterberg 1G 3A 1PPG and 13SOG
Most Useless Team Member: Martin Havlat- 0G 0A -2, 1SOG LAME!
----
Into The Boards: (Cincinnati Cyclones League)
Record: 0-12-3. Yeah, you read that right.. I won ZERO categories. My team needs some serious maintenance. GRRRR I seriously got owned in faceoffs and shots on goal!
MVP: Sharpie led the team in points again, he really is a stud.
Honorable Mention: Marty Brodeur. 2W 1.96GAA, .923 Save% and a shutout
Most Useless Team Member: Marc-Edouard Vlasic- 0G 0A 0everything but a -2 and 5 SOG. STRUGGLIN.
----
RedRogues (Z is for Zamboni)
Record: 4-8-3
MVP: Sharpie owned again with 2G 2A 4Pts +2 and 12SOG
Honorable Mention: Steven Stamkos again with 2G 2A 2PPG and 23 Faceoffs but his -5 Sucked!!
Most Useless Team Member: Danny Cleary. NO points whatsoever. Not even any PIMs but he did get 4 SOG. Oh and he also hooked me up with a -1.


So.. I need to pay closer attention to these guys and do some tinkering, but I have been busy and not very internet-y for a while.. so I'll get there eventually. Good thing there's no money on this or anything.. hahahaha

Eventually I'll come back with some thoughts about the Sabres.. if I can ever sit down long enough to write them all up.

Sabre Sightings!

Today I took my 3-yr old nephew skating at the Pepsi Center. We do this often on Thursdays, since he is learning to skate, and they have a preschool skate in the mornings on Thursday, which are not too busy for us otherwise. He did very well. It was only his 3rd time with his new hockey skates. (I bought them a few weeks ago and when we tried them on he said 'They're cozy!' You may all ooh and aww now. LOL)

So anyway, there we were. I had a vague thought that the Sabres might be at the Pepsi Ctr today because of the Lady Gaga? concert at HSBC.. so I was not surprised when one of the ppl working commented on my nephew's Sabres shirt and said we could watch the Sabres later.

Well, we finished skating around the time when the fellas were wandering in and warming up before hitting the ice. We couldn't actually stay to watch them skate- we were meeting my sis for lunch- but we did see some of the guys. Butler, Tallinder (WOW he has skinny legs!?), Lydman, Mair ( I think), Lalime, Grier, and 2 guys I didn't know on sight (they had hats on) walked by and kinda glanced over as we were taking our skates off and putting shoes on (there was no one else there) but that was about it. Though when we first came out from the rink we were on, there was one guy down the way, with shorts and a Sabres sweatshirt on. He was just kind of chillin, walking around a little. When he passed us, he looked over and smiled. It was Ryan Miller. :) (He also has stick skinny legs, but I already knew he was a beanpole LOL) It was a nice little smile though. I wish we could have stayed to watch them skate, but they weren't on the ice and we had things to get to. it was still cool.

Oh and I LOL'd when I saw a van out in the parking lot, replacing the glass on one of the Sabres' windshields. I mean, I know that the glass places say they can "come to your workplace" to do the work, but it struck me as amusing, none-the-less. It was a fancy sporty car too.

This is freaky

I promised to get back on track with the Hockey SABs so I found a really good one for today. It hit me completely randomly.. I just grabbed on the first name I came up with, which was for some reason (I was looking at my fantasy stats right before this) Ethan Moreau. I couldn't picture his face in my mind, though I had a vague recollection that he was a nice lookin fella. Little did I know just how nice.

So I called up some google images and what to my surprise did I behold but? Moreau looks quite like one of our beloved Sabres. But don't let me tell you, look for yourself:


-Ethan Moreau of the Oilers

AND



-Paul 'Goose' Gaustad of the Sabres.

Separated at Birth? YOU be the judge. It might all be in my head, but that is kind of uncanny. They could be brothers.

C'est tout!