finallllly

I haven't done a SAB since November 17, but I finally have a new one! I'm so excited about that. So without further ado, I present you with



Patrik Berglund of the Blues

AND



Actor James Van Der Beek.

Separated at Birth? YOU be the judge!

And tonight will be the Blackhawks/Devils game. Expect a squee/spaz post soon about Sharpie and lots of lovely pictures. :) YAY!

Happy New Year!

that was interesting

Boy Howdy, the Sabres took a while to show up tonight but when they finally did, it was pretty sweet, eh?

I turned the game on right as Miller was leaving in favor of Lalime. I was kind of amazed because Lindy almost NEVER pulls a goalie but I guess it worked!

I'm glad Staffy finally woke up and realized he's a goal-scorer. His penalty shot goal was just crazy! McFlurry barely even moved.. and then that 2nd goal was a beauty, not to mention that sick pass to Goose for the 3rd goal. Staffy had a great night.

I want to know when Royzie will return! I hate it when they don't say what's wrong with a player.. :(

But all that must be put aside for a while because tomorrow we leave for Chicago and the Blackhawks/Devils game which will happen on Thursday! WOOOOOO! Most excellent.

Busyness

I drove a long time today but I am now home. Woo.

The Sabres lost (again, go figure) to the Senators of DOOOM. GRR. At least they beat the Blues tonight. I heard the last few minutes.. all I was able to manage on the drive since WGR doesn't like to broadcast out too far. (Riddle me this: I was able to pick up the signal from OTTAWA a couple of years ago, but I can't get it in Bradford, PA? Nonsense!)

In a few days, I'm going to Chicago for a New Year's Eve Blackhawks/Devils game. It shall be most excellent and I'm super excited. Trying to think of some clever signage to catch Sharpie's eye.. hmmmm...

Speaking of my BlackhawksBoyfriend, today is his Birthday. Welcome to being 28, Sharpie! It's been good to me so far, hopefully 28 is a good year for you too. :)

Merry Christmas!

Hello Friends.. I have been a bit absent this week and I apologize for that.. I'm sure ya'll have missed my scintillating game recaps. ;)

In truth, I have been in the Outer Banks of North Carolina since Sunday evening, spending the week with my family at an amazing beach house. It's been interesting but great times, as always with my fam.

Thanks to Versus, I got to see the game against the Leafs, which was good (at least the end result was) but didn't see the absurdity of the Caps game. Oh well, c'est la vie.

In any case, MERRY CHRISTMAS from your intrepid crew here at Face First Into the Boards.

I hope you have a great day/holiday(s) with your friends and fam. I got some cool hockey themed presents and other great stuff, and will be going to Chicago for New Year's again this year for a Blackhawks/Devils game on New Year's Eve so there will certainly be hockey in my future.

Right now, my only Christmas wish, Sabres-wise, is for a WIN against those damnfool Senators.

a good read

For those of you who don't get The Hockey News' daily newsletter, Here is a sweet article about Ryan Miller. It's got some nice things to say about our #1 guy, all of it well-earned.(and nothing we didn't know already, as Sabres fans!) :)

Just wanted to share!

My turn

Okay I missed Wednesday's game so I couldn't comment too much on the goings-on, save that they were terrible by all accounts. I did hear the hit on Kaleta on the radio, and have since seen the replay and man, that is SICK!

We all know the facts- Ruutu is a cheapshot, finger-chomping, classless player who gets away with too much. Kaleta is an extreme agitator who occasionally hovers on the line between frustrating and cheap but let's face it- they are both human beings, and no one wants to see a human being get smashed head first into the glass, especially when it looks intentional!

We all know how the league has mad double standards and NO consistency whatsoever. This is hardly news, but what really bugs me about this whole debacle is no only the fact that there was no suspension, but what Bob MacKenzie and others on TSN had to say about it.

I know that others have already commented on this, but I'll throw in my 2 cents.
-I don't care who he is, no one deserves to be smashed like that.
-Kaleta is clearly hurt and DID NOT PLAY the rest of the game.
-Yes, Kaleta is an agitator, he's very good at goading other players into stupid penalties. Does he turtle on occasion? Yes, but it gets his team the power play. That's not chicken, that's smart. He's a hard-nosed player who will step up when need be, and he is NOT a faker! Show me one time he's faked an injury?

But here's the kicker- when they start comparing Ruutu/Kaleta to Koci/Green. Both hits are nasty and with Kaleta they are like.. "well he has a reputation.. blah blah blah." With Green, it's all "He's a star player, Koci should be kicked out of the league! 5 games minimum!!"

HOLY DOUBLE STANDARD BATMAN!

I get that Green is a great player, he is. But you could argue that Kaleta's 6 goals and physical presence are just as valuable to the Sabres as Green's (lack of) defence and 32 points are to the Caps.

And I hate to go here, but I do have to wonder.. this debate was on TSN. I know it wasn't Don Cherry, with his Canada-centric ways, but if you take note of the fact that Kaleta is American and Green is Canadian.. might that come into play, even if not spoken? Just wondering if Kaleta had been some bread-and-butter kid from 100 Mile House, BC, instead of Angola, NY- would they be treating him differently? Would they be all-- "hard-nosed, take no crap Canadian kid deserves better treatment from the League, even if he isn't s superstar?"

Dunno, but it's worth a thought.

**Please note that I am in no way stating as fact that the bias is there, merely suggesting that it could be part of the discussion. I have nothing against Canada-- I think it's a wonderful place and I have many friends who live there. I'm just speculating on a very strange discussion that should have been totally clear but somehow got all muddled, and I'm wondering at all the angles of why it's not just an open and shut-he should be suspended, no questions asked case.

Thoughts?

Ditto that

Yikes. I think I will just reiterate what I said a few weeks ago in this post.

DAMN Sens.

WHY are they the boogeymen for the Sabres? I don't get it.

Guys, I've been to ScotiaBank Place, and it's a really neat place to watch hockey. There doesn't seem to be any sort of black cloud hovering over the place, it's not in a shady part of town, it's not old and decrepit with the ghosts of hockey past.. it's just a rink.

Full of Senators and their icky voodoo that makes the Sabres forget how to play hockey when they're there.

I DON'T GET IT!

GRRR. Stoooooopid Sens.

what a move

Wow, this semi-ignoring the Sabres thing is working for me. I watched parts of the game last night while I was helping my sis make some gumbo (mmmm..) but I did see Kaleta's goal and WHOA NELLY that kid has some skills. He showed great hustle to get in position to score, then some brilliant (and patient) stickwork to put it past Halak and WOW.. another goal. Well done.

And the Sabres managed to win... again. I think they mean it.. at least right now they do. It's fun!

I would offer more commentary, but I was barely watching the game so that's all I've got. Maybe I'll more after Ottawa tomorrow but probably night because I think I'm having a girls night with my friend. :)

what do you know?

Wow.. what a week for the Sabres.

Monday-- they forgot to show up and played like they were skating throgh sludge all night to allow Marty his 103rd career shutout.

Wednesday- the 'good' Sabres showed up against a red-hot Capitals team and shadowed Ovie like a second skin (good job, Yo-Yo) AND kept the rest of those snipers from hitting the net to earn a sick, solid, 3-0 win of their own.

Friday- Lalime steps in against a streaking Blackhawks team and calmly turns aside 3498765 shots (okay, it was 38 but still!) to keep the fellas in a game that they thought started at 8:00 instead of 7:30. And boy, were those last few minutes tense or what? GREAT GAME!

Saturday- (I missed this whole game except for a few minutes of the 2nd which I listened to in the car) Patrick Kaleta has 2 goals.

Wait... come again? Yes, you heard that correctly, Patrick Kaleta has 2 goals and the Sabres beat the grossBadGuyRangers for their 3rd win in a row.

I LIKE THESESabres! Can we keep them? Please, mom, can we???

:)

Oh yes, and PLEASE VOTE FOR ME! (and your other favorite Sabres blogs) over at The Arena! :)

Thanks, and have a great day.

umm...

WOW it's snowy at my house! We didn't get anything yesterday when Buffalo itself and the Southtowns were getting hammered all day.. but last night around 9;30 or so, all that Lake Effect settled in.. and it's still here. We have probably at least a foot of snow on the ground and it is still coming. Good thing I'm not going to the game tonight, I'd have a tough time getting out of here. I do plan to watch it though! wooooo Sabres!

I'm assuming the Blackhawks managed to get a flight into Buffalo as we haven't heard otherwise. Maybe it was a late or long delayed flight and they're all tired! We can hope, eh?

I plan to spend my day reading my new book: Gabby: Confessions of a Hockey Liferby Bruce Boudreau. It should be very entertaining! :)

And really.. who writes these things? The game notes for today say that Lalime will be the starter, then proceed to talk about Miller the rest of the way. Say what? I'm not a professional writer or anything, but that just doesn't make sense. How can Miller be the 'game changer' when is isn't scheduled to play? Hmm..

That's about it. Maybe I'll do a semi-live blog tonight but no guarantees.. ;)

Be safe, everyone who is going to the game!!

what a game!

WOWZERS.

As terribly as the Sabres played on Monday, they were that good tonight. I know the grammar in that sentence is atrocious, but you know what I mean, right?

That was some kickin stuff. A few highlights because I'm too tired to string together anything coherent:

-Ryan Miller was brilliant tonight. He made some sick saves to keep the Sabres in it.
-'Call him Hank, Call him Henrick, Call him Tallinder' absolutely OWNED everybody on his goal! (and I LOVED RJ's call of it which I heard on the post-game) It's too bad you can't get an assist on your own goal, because he would have had one. He's really been great over the last few months. ;)
-WOOOO Nathan Gerbe! He played with tons of energy and was very involved in the play all night. A little sparkplug.
-I thought Hecht did a great job of shadowing Ovie (and Semin and Backstrom too) tonight. It seemed that every time Ovie got near the pick, YoYO was all over him. It worked!
-I am still more than a little enamored of Steve Montador. His post-game interview was cute when he talked about how Gerbe was a huge body in front of the net. LOL
-I wore my Tyler Sloan jersey but totally cheered for the Sabres! Sloaner didn't have the best night. He was on the ice for 2 of the Sabres goals. Whoops! And he still thinks he's a defenceman though he's playing on the wing. Oh well, he's still an amazing skater.
-Speaking of Sloaner, I made him a sign, but didn't get there in time to show it during warmups. I am always running late... maybe next time! IT was still sweet to get to see him play.
-All around, it was a fantastic group effort, something I wish we'd see more of from the Sabres. If they can play like this every night they would really be somewhere.

-AND PLEASE, someone tell me that you saw Lalime 'dancing' after the game as he was passing out head nuzzles and high-fives? It was totally awesome and I wish I had it on video. I think it's cute how he is always so happy for Miller when he gets a shutout or a big win. Lalime is a good team player!!

And that's about all I have for now. Stay safe and don't get snowed in! ;0

Marty's BETTER

I do love my Sabres, but they were pretty bad tonight. They looked like they were skating through sludge. Timmy Connolly in particular looked like shit.

Miller did not have a stellar night in net. He let in at least 2 goals that he probably really shouldn't have but it happens. TO the jerk behind me who kept talking about how Miller isn't an 'elite goalie', you can SHOVE IT! Miller has been playing extremely well this season, and is allowed to have an off night. (please remember, when you (a "Sabres fan")are shouting this crap about how the only elite goalie is Marty- that Marty let in 5 goals on 26 shots just last week. Does that make him any less of an 'elite goaltender'? I should think not. Shut up until you know what you're talking about.

The people behind me were ignorant, obnoxious, loud assholes and that kinda really added to the suckitude of the overall experience, but...

MARTY tied the shutout record RIGHT in front of me!!! I got to see history being (tied?) made!

That was pretty badass. The Sabres didn't challenge him too much, but there were a few shots that had a little 'mustard on them' and he had to work a bit for them so it wasn't just cakewalk.

Here is some video of Marty talking about it. <3

words fail me

So, we all know that Lindy is the longest-tenured coach in the NHL.. did you know that #2 (in the east), Claude Julien, was hired on June 21, 2007.. while Lindy Ruff was hired on July 21, 1997?

That is nearly (minus one measly month) a 10 year difference!

The rest of the list can be found here, if you're curious

I'm flabbergasted. I mean, I know that Mr. Ruff has been with the Sabres for a very long time, but what I didn't realize was just how short of a run the rest of the Eastern Conf. coaches have had. I wonder who is the longest in the West?

Wooohooooo

4 in a row!! :) Good job, Sabres. I only watched a bit of the game though. I missed the first because I was auditioning for a play.. came back to my car and it was 3-0 Sabres at the end of the 1st. Not too shabby. They scored the 4th goal while I was driving home.

Came home, turned the game on about halfway through the 2nd, and of course that nasty icky loser traitor bum Gomez scored while I was watching (and my boy Monty was on the ice too) in the 2nd. Gross. I folded laundry during intermission/the start of the 3rd and was sorta still checkin the game while visiting with my sis when the Habs scored goal #2. It was then that I turned the game off (as I told myself I would do when I got home if the boys started falling apart.) So I went off to check e-mail and such and then peeked at the score a few mins ago when there were 25 seconds on the clock and it was 5-2, then it was magically 6-2 and WOOO the Sabres won! :)

So I can't comment on the game itself but I like the score. Royzie scored again and added an assist and Pominville woke up!

C'est tout. :)

I don't know how I missed this..

This came out last week, when I was super busy with work and Thanksgiving prep, but it really must be shared. What an awesome story:
Sherry Ross calls play-by-play for Devils game

This lady is total my professional idol. AH-Mazing. I wish I could be like that.. maybe one of these days I'll get my break to do some color/analyst work for a minor-league team. The Grizz promised that IF IF IF I got to my 80 (or whatever the number was) new season tickets for the year, I could sit in with our broadcaster and do some on-air stuff in addition to the intermission interviews I was already doing. It was a great idea, but I couldn't make it that long.

Maybe one day...