All-Stars

I'm really digging the fog "screen" with the projected names and numbers that the players skate through. Very cool.

-I didn't notice Shattenkirk or that random guy from the Ducks last night during the draft.. weird... oh wait are they rookies?

-My nephews are watching this with my nephews and they appropriately booing the Rangers and Bruins and Flyers and Senators.. hahahaha I have taught them well! Haha now they showed Tyler Ennis and Benj said "Yay now that's what I call my favorite!" hahahaha they are too cute.

-Let the games begin! :) I love super skillz.

-The goalie race was possibly the awesomest thing I've ever seen in an All-Star game. Rock on- and the backwards D-man race was fun too.

-Why did Team Staal pick Mike Green for fastest skater? He is not fast.

-I love love love the breakaway competition. It's impressive and fun. The level of talent on display is insane.

-Sharpie owned the accuracy competition. Why did Toews have a do-over? Bum.

-What's with the random kids on the benches? Are they the players' kids? Kids who won some competition?

-How hot is Sharp? Just saying. Daaaaaymnnn boy.

-Team Staal is OWNING! :) 18-6 WOW

-Shannny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-They are having the worst camera angle issues. figure it out peeps!

-The relay is nifty. I dig the puck control parts.. so sweet- and Tyler Ennis killed on that part- he made it look easy and I know that it isnt! Good job, bro.

-It is cracking me up that they are all chomping on gum like baseball players.

-I don't want to say this publicly, but it's true- Claude Giroux is kinda cute. Whoops.... yeah, I said it. It's like Marc Savard from last year- why don't they ever mic up someone I already know and like- like Kes or Sharpie?

-I want someone random to win the hardest shot competition- let's see what happens.........
Team Staal ahead after 2 rounds.. nothing too shocking yet.
C'mon Sharpie.. with the win! Still that was an odd choice- he isn't much of a hard shooter, just accurate and fast, like the announcers were saying. I don't mind him getting some face time though.
Here comes Chara and Weber- now we're getting serious about this shot. 104.6 for Weber- yeesh. 104.1 for Chara. WHOA. Make that 104.8 for Webs.. and he wins it. WOW.
Tricky Ricky.. what ya got for us? 88.5? Weak! C'mon bro.. you're better than that. yeesh not a good showing for you my man. Ovie broke the radar.
WOWZERS Chara beat his own record- 105.9 MPH.

-How about this shootout? The goalies are bustin. Woooo P K Suban finally scored on McFlurry! :)

-Nash finally got one through! Nobody can score on his own goalie..
Man.. this is kind of wild- there were so many misses in the first round.
Corey Perry is the last man standing. :) Good for him!

Team Staal with the win. yaaaay baby!

Absurd

I am watching the All-Star Fantasy Draft and it's HYSTERICAL! (and hot. Can't deny the hotness factor- they are all wearing suits and have their hair combed and yeah...sorry, I'm a hormonal female, what do you want!?)

Some points:
-Let's talk about the Captains- Gotta love Listrom, he's always classy. Marty St. Louis is cute and little and Patrick Kane is a DORK.
-Eric Staal looks constipated or like he has a headache, Ryan Kesler owns my heart and Mike Green is a lamer.
-I still (don't judge) think Eric Staal is kinda cute. (even if he makes weird faces)
-Team Staal OWNS!
-Whoa splitting up the Sedins! WHOOOAAA. And how awkward did Kes look after he introduced Daniel? Hahaha
-Dude. Shea Weber is Nashville's HIGHEST scorer with 30 pts? And they still got a pic but Buffalo didn't? GRR.
-Yay Thunder Bay Boys- called that one- welcome Sharpie!
-"I'm gonna go with my boy_____"
-'Hawks reunion over here with Byf.
-Toews totally looks like he's going to cry! LOL @ him and Kaner
-Yay Jeff Skinner- he's cute in a dorky little kind of way.
-Team Staal def. wins in hot goalie points.
-David Backes is gross (and wearing an ugly suit) but he's funny.
-Ooh Lidstrom just earned a hotness point with Richards.
-More hotness on the scene with Letang.
-It's killing me that Royzie isn't here. :(
-Speaking of, once again, HOW IS IT FAIR that there are no Sabres, Islanders or Panthers in this game? RUDE! (I bet if Royzie hadn't gotten hurt he'd be in but still... Vanek is pretty legit.)
-Havlat add some hotness to Lidstrom- plus he has the red beard thing going on.
-Ditto that for Kopitar (minus the beard).
-Ooh Tazer is so the whipping boy for tonight's festivities! Poor guy. He's taking it well, though.
-But at least our Sabre Rookie Tyler Ennis is on the right team- Team Staal! Yay for Ennis the Menace!
-I'm sorry, but the DEVILS (who I love still but are atrocious this year) have an All-Stall but not the Sabres? BULLLLLLLSHHHHIIIIITTTT!
-The numbers on the jerseys are cool looking!
-EWWWWWW Phil Kessel is so nasty I'm glad he's still hanging at the end.
-LOL Duchene is SO AWKWARD- it's very funny.
-Loui what is up with your hair dude? He used to be hot but now I dunno.
-Eric Staal wins- because he picked Statsny over Kessel== wooohooo!
-It would suck so much to be the last person picked!
-Whoa wait a minute- the last guy gets a car? That's lame. Whatevs.
-I have to wonder if they had jerseys made for everybody in both colors because they didn't know who was going to be picked when..

In conclusion, Team Staal FTW- they got all the right guys and they have to win! :)

I love All-Star Weekend. It's silly and fun and so much awesome facetime with the boyos. :)

missed connections

I'm reading a book called The Puck Stars Here: The Origin of Canada's Great Winter Game Ice Hockey by Garth Vaughan. It's pretty neat- he chronicles the start of ice hockey- not indoor organized hockey (which was more or less introduced to Canada by James Creighton in Montreal in 1885), but what came before. And it all started (like many things in Canada) in Nova Scotia in the early and middle 1800s.

Now that makes for a cool story and it's interesting in itself but what is really fascinating to me is the fact that I had ancestors in Nova Scotia just prior to that time. My something-times great Grandfather, Michael (not Michel, interestingly enough) Dupuis, went from France to NS (for reasons unknown to us) in the 1640s or so- we dont know exactly when but his son Martin was born in Port Royal, NS in 1665 so they were there then.

The Dupius lived in Nova Scotia in the area of Grande Pre and Port Royal (close to Wolfville and Windsor) until 1785 when the British gained occupation of Nova Scotia and expelled the Acadians. The Dupuis (at least the ones in my line of ancestry- don't know about others, though if I ever visit, and I want to, I want to try and trace them too) left for Louisiana and the rest is history (that's where my Mom (and Dad) are from).

And where was hockey (or hurley as it was initially called, after an Irish game) being played? In Halifax, Dartmouth, Windsor and Wolfville, primarily. Right where my people (had they not been French) would have been living.

So I can't help but imagine how life would be had the French not been expelled from Acadia. (Obviously I wouldn't be here and be me, since my Dad's fam came straight from France but that is not the point.) It's all about decisions made or not made, turns taken and not taken, and the paths we choose or are sent on. How close we can come to history and yet miss it entirely.

Just something that made me think...

what a game

I feel like I should write something since I was at the game tonight (3rd in a row!) ..

It was an intense game and there were so many frickin Habs fans there it was annoying! The ones around us were mostly okay but the 2 girls in the row in front of us were just obnoxious. They weren't wearing any pants (tights are NOT pants) and we could see the one girl's underwear- classy, eh? Ugh and they kept standing up and pounding on the glass and smashing themselves on the glasss- it was gross. And then they kept yelling at the random Leafs fans behind us- 1967 *which is, of course, the last time the Leafs won the Cup.* Honestly, it was funny for about a minute- but they kept saying it.. and then we'd cheer "let's go Buffalo" and they'd say "Never won a Stanley Cup". Woo. It's the middle of the regular season. Montreal hasn't won since 1993 so get with the times. And they were only up by 1 goal but they were so cocky about it- so we cheered extra loud and hard when the Sabres scored. And during overtime, we all went NUTS and they just sat there and whimpered. HA!

The poor Canadiens though- they lost about a zillion players tonight- their guys were dropping like flies. That's never fun- and most of them were just random plays or getting hit by pucks or falling wrong. No fun at all.

Nathan Gerbe had a little scrum with (gaghurl) Scott Gomez. It was amazing. Gerbe rocks my socks. :) He's so feisty and little!

I really love it when the Sabres win when I'm there because I get to see Patrick Lalime do his little victory dance- it's so cute! He has different moves for each player too- he and Montador (whom I also love) have a strange sort of routine going on.. it's hilarious to watch. :) He may not be the best goalie, but I have a soft spot for Patty Lalime- he seems like a fun guy!

Speaking of Steve Montador- he is very flexible. He has a stretching routine he does before the start of each period and WOW it's nice to watch. Sorry, had to get that out there.

There were some serious bullshit penalties tonight. The "goalie interference" on Gerbe was crap- he got shoved into Price- not his fault! And the Kaleta one at the end of the period was uncool. It was right in front of me- he was shooting the puck AS the buzzer went off. He didn't know how much time was on the clock. Crappy call there too. But the ref made up for a little bit later on one of the calls, I forget which one. The Gomez high-sticking was a little scary- any lower and he would have removed Gerbe's head! It was vicious, and I'm glad they called it, even though he made little contact. I hate that punk.

It was a fun night overall. And I didn't have to beat anyone up- that was lucky. :)

Wednesdays are for..

It's Wednesday and I have a hockey SAB for you, my friends. :)

I also have a few links to share.
Puck Daddy's Mid-Season MVP list
-Pretty good list here. I love that Sharpie and Kes made the cut. I would have put Royzie as the Sabres MVP because he was getting it done, unlike some other mofos. He picked Vanek, who hasn't been as good. (and not just cuz I'm a Derek Roy fan!) It's worth a read though- he has some interesting insights into teams I don't pay much attention to.

and
Puck Daddy's Mid-Season Goats- underperformers
- I think he's pretty on-par here too. Thank you for picking Timmay for the Sabres! See, it's not just me that thinks Connolly is a piece of crap. YAY! He is so harsh on Marty Brodeur though- but it is warranted. Marty's season has been abysmal. Poor dude- I do not know what is up with him! Another interesting read.

And now, on to the main event- this week's SAB. I was watching Prince Caspian the other night, which is a pretty fun movie. I am reading the Chronicles of Narnia- something I've always meant to do but never did. I read The Lion, The Witch, and the Warderobe forever ago, and have seen the old movies and the new one and saw it as a play once, but never checked the others. They are good books and quick reads. :) Anyway, so watching Caspian, I noticed a totally random SAB. I already used Ben Barnes as a Hockey SAB with Kris Letang.. this one is some random dude I don't even have a name for-he's one of Miraz's advisers and I don't even know who
the actor is, but he looks like..





Ryan Kesler!

Separated at birth? YOU be the judge!

Pretty crazy, eh? I had to rewind it and grab a screenshot- thank goodness I was watching it on the laptop, so it was easy. WEIRD. And again, I have no clue who the actor even is- maybe it is Kes! He has many talents, perhaps acting is one of them?

what the?

Tonight might have been the first Derek Roy-less Sabres game I've been to since 2003 (before he was a Sabre). Crazy stuff. I miss my boy! (and I was stupidly excited to see the little interview him him on the website yesterday!)

So yeah.. about the game. WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED, BOYS?!

The first period was sweet. They came out hard and had a ton of shots and managed 2 quick scrappy goals. And I thought we might have a shot. Haha yeah right, this is the Sabres, remember?

Then they all forgot how to play hockey. No one was skating hard, no one was hitting (except Gerbe and Ennis- what the?), they were passing the puck to the Flyers.. it was ugly.

I thought Gerbe was decent tonight. He was all over the ice, hitting guys and scampering around like a maniac, but to no avail. He was trying though, which is more than I can say for some of the Sabres.

I still cannot stand Tim Connolly's play. WHY IS HE STILL A SABRE? I have said this over and over again- and tonight I heard at least 3 other people comment on the worthlessness of Connolly. UGH.

Stafford wasn't too good tonight, and neither was Pominville. These guys need to step it up.

Mike Weber looked like he was going to kill someone tonight. He is an intense looking dude. I was really noticing him- he was right in front of my face all night (our seats are in row 2, section 116, so right inside the blue line- where he is for faceoffs and such for 2 periods so he was standing out for me tonight.) He's taller than I thought.. and again, I wanted to see him bust someone's face. He and Carcillo might've made a nice bout.

Goose and Hartnell was a sweet fight. Then Hartnell gave away his stick while he was in the penalty box. I saw it happen- craziest thing ever- some kid comes over and he just passes it over the glass. WHOA. That was pretty cool, even though I can't stand him. Points for him.

I sat next to a random cute guy at the game. He and his buddy were Flyers fans (gross), but he was wearing a Winnipeg Jets Teemu Selanne jersey- random! SO of course I asked him about the jersey and he said he's been a Selanne fan forever. Cool, cool. And I asked if he actually liked the Jets or just Teemu to which he replied "I'm a Coyotes fan". Good for him. We sort of had a conversation, but I felt like he didn't want to talk to me. (he seemed impressed when I actually knew something about hockey..) It was entertaining enough- and he was cute-- and not rude about cheering for the flyers- he was cheering but being cool about it-- so yay for that.

Time to move on- unlike half of Buffalo, I'm not living in the past. Briere is gone- yes, I know- he scores on us all the time, that bastard- now GET OVER IT! Next game-Hurricanes.. bring it on! (no more Ray Whitney though, which is sad. I enjoyed seeing him!) I may be in attendance at the next game.. we'll see. Till then..

spread the love

I told you I'd get back to my Derek Roy pining- and here we go.

I googled him (this is hardly a new activity but sometimes random things appear) and found some gems today- I did the picture search. There's the always classic laser background shot from his bantam hockey days (he would be 13 or 14 in this pic) -



And then this really nice shot of him signing at Dave&Adam's. I don't know why I like it so much but I have a thing for the pics of hockey players signing things with their heads down-- and looking very concentratedly-(is that a word?) at what they are doing. I have one of Brendan Morrow that's brilliant and a rather old hockey card of Pavel Bure with the same situation going on that just melts me. Thank you, whoever took this picture. Plus, I just love how his hair is curly- it looks soft and I want to touch it! (I know, I'm terrible!)




And then there's this- which could rightly be called a "Hockey Freak of Nature". I don't even know what to think about this one- they are on cafepress- and you can get shirts and whatnot that say "I <3 {insert Sabre here}" but I think that Royzie has the only teddy bear. What the?



But ya know what- that bear looks really soft and snuggly. But then again, I dunno if even I- a self-proclaimed and unashamed Derek Roy fangirl- could go there. It's just too weird. (this coming from the girl who has a Derek Roy light switch plate cover- it was on ebay and cheap and I love it LOL)

I know.. I need help. I probably just shot whatever credibility that I gained by that decent and well-thought out post about the World Juniors all to hell. Oh well, I am who I am and I don't plan to change. I love Derek Roy primarily for his hockey talent (when he chooses to share it with the general public- which was happening quite a bit this year, for a change.) I also happen to be a woman who enjoys a good looking man. And Derek is a good looking man. Good combination in my book- you really can't go wrong with that. :)


And one more link of fun before I stop embarrassing myself
some old pics of Derek that I found on a site for his old bantam team. The pic from draft day is hilarious- his dad looks kinda scary though!

I should blog more

And now back to your regularly scheduled Sam-wanderings and drooling over (pining away over) Derek Roy, etc.

I need to keep up with the blogging. My production has seriously slowed since I started this baby back in 2008- it's been almost 3 whole years!

I don't think it's that I love hockey any less (like that could happen), but my life has gotten progressively busier and I have less to ramble about. Well, that's just silly! So it's one of my not-exactly-but-sorta New Year's Resolutions to blog more- both here and over at my livejournal, which I have had since 2003. I also noticed that my lj-production slacked off a bit when I moved the majority of my hockey rambles to here. Guess my life just isn't that interesting.

So what to babble about today? I didn't watch the Sabres last night- I was going to, but I had a phone call with an old friend of mine- then my sis called from Afghanistan (I LOVE modern technology!) so I was busy. Then I wrote that crazy post about Canada/USA and the World Juniors- see below- please read and review, if you would be so kind!

But it looks like the boys lost.. in overtime. Yick on that. January always seems to be a terrible month for the Sabres. I could look up some stats but I'm feeling lazy. I know we had that painful 10-game losing streak in January a couple of years back, and we always have some mad west-coast trips. Strugglin.

I dunno. That's all I have. My poor fantasy teams are like the Sabres this year- nothing good going on and I've kind of ignored them for large stretches of time. I'm trying to get back into it, but it is most likely too little, too late. Whoops!

Stay tuned.. next I might talk about the stupidity that is the political all-star balloting b.s.

A rare thoughtful post

Okay the title is a bit misleading. I do sometimes post thoughtful things- I try not to just post whatever is on my mind without thinking- but this one is going to get a bit deeper than I usually do with my meandering memories and random game recaps. Tonight I'm going to talk about Patriotism and Cultural differences. Yeah, I know- deep stuff. More like what you might find in a Sociology class than my hockey blog but it is here nonetheless. And I hope you will read it. It may provide some serious insight into my hockey-warped brain. Or may not, depending on how well you already know me. So here goes nothing..

With all of the chatter in Buffalo about the World Juniors, there has been a serious undercurrent of anti-Canadian sentiment and some nasty USA/Canada discontent. This is not very typical of our dealings with our neighbor (neighboUr?) to the north, as generally we tend to get along pretty well- at least since 1812. Many Americans (especially in the mainstream media and entertainment outlets) tend to regard Canada as a little backwards, somewhat meek and very non-confrontational, also as a land of snow and flannel-wearing, hockey-playing lumberjacks. While some of that may be true- Canada is a pretty polite and clean place in general- it would be like saying all Americans do is sit around eating hotdogs and throwing footballs while wearing dirty white t-shirts and cowboy hats. (much of that happens too, but I digress.) Perhaps the most telling point of that stereotypical Canadian is the hockey playing (or at least hockey fan) aspect.

Much as it is considered "un-American" to not like baseball or football, it is considered "un-Canadian" to not like hockey. And it's less of a Patriotism thing than a Cultural norm- something that is just accepted as fact. If you are Canadian, you should like hockey. This does not mean that every Canadian likes hockey (not every American likes football either) but they are probably at least somewhat familiar with the sport because of so much media coverage and exposure to the game throughout their lives. Again, I hearken back to the football analogy because it seems most appropriate to my experience as an American. Even if you don't quite get all of the rules, you are expected to have a rudimentary understanding of the game and you are often derided for not caring enough about it. (at least this is true in my life- it's not a rude thing, but I am certainly looked at funny when I say I don't really care about football but REALLY LIKE hockey.)

All you have to do to really see the difference is to look at hockey in the media. In the US, football, baseball and basketball are well represented on ESPN and the national news channels- CBS/NBC/ABC/FOX. Where is the hockey? Occasionally on NBC (only after football is over and never in primetime) and on VS- a channel which shows the niche sports- MMA, Bull Riding, Soccer, non-premier football matchups- a very glaring difference. In Canada, you see hockey IN PRIMETIME on CBC- the main news channel. Hockey is to Canada what Football is to the USA.

Now let's look at the World Junior Tournament. This is the premier hockey tourament for players 20 and under. It is also an international hockey event. It's a BIG DEAL. But in the US, we just don't care that much about hockey- outside of a few regions and our NHL teams. It's just simple fact. So where do the IIHF folks set up the Tournament when it's scheduled for the USA? In a border city, of course- because Canadians LOVE the World Juniors. ( I read today that a Canadian friend of mine has been watching the World Junior tournament since 1989. I've been a devoted hockey fan since 1994 and have watched Olympics and World Cup hockey but never the World Juniors. Case in point.) And then people claim to be surprised when Canadians flock over the border to attend these games. I don't know why- it's obvious. It's not that Americans don't care about our Countrymen doing well in an international tournament- I imagine that, given the choice, most folks would cheer on the red, white and blue- but it just doesn't really register on the national scope the way it does in Canada.

Think of this for a moment- right now the college football bowl games are going on and people go NUTS for them. Painting themselves in team colors (whether they went to the school or not), having huge parties and celebrations for mere football games played by 18-20somethings. Similar ages to the kids playing in the World Junior tournaments. Hmm.. ever think of that? Also check the NCAA Basketball tournament- similar situations and no one even thinks twice about getting excited about that. Sports are exciting- especially when they involve something the average person can relate to. We all love the underdogs and "our boys" (wherever and whoever they are) and the storylines. Many Americans can remember throwing around a football or playing a little hoops in the parking lot as a kid- it's a fairly shared experience so no one thinks it's strange to get excited about some kids you don't even know playing a sport that you do know so well.

Well- imagine for a moment that in Canada, that shared sport is very likely to be hockey. And then maybe we're on to something here. It's not about a lack of patriotism on the part of the Americans- we do care about our guys and gals- we just can't relate (most of us) to the feeling of blades and ice and pucks. It's not a shared national experience. And it's not necessarily any more patriotism on the part of the Maple Leaf-bedecked folks either- but again- shared emotions and experiences make it much more relate-able and real and "worth" watching.

I've been called a "Canuck" and a "Canadian" quite a few times in my life. Sometimes it was meant derisively and sometimes not, but I chose to take it as a compliment. It usually comes about through hockey discussions. I choose to see it that someone finds me to be so steeped in the traditions and history of hockey (of my own doing) that I seem "Canadian" in my love of the sport. I think that's cool. It doesn't mean I actually WANT to be a Canadian- it's a beautiful country but I like mine just fine. I feel very blessed to have been born into the United States of America- it's a wonderful place. Sure, we have our issues, but I wouldn't want to live anywhere else!

That being said, I have at times wished that I was in a more hockey-friendly place. I love the game so much and I feel like I've missed out on so many hockey-related experiences that I can never have because of the culture of the place in which I was raised. Only in that sense do I wish to have experienced another place- but wait- I can- through literature. And I do. Which is probably why I'm writing this now.. I have read so much about hockey and specifically the impact that the culture of hockey has on young Canadians that I feel like I can speak about it in (hopefully) an informed manner- especially with my contrasting experiences as a hockey-loving American who was born and raised in a very un-hockey environment. I had to make my own hockey- and I did.

So to all the haters out there, I just want you to stop and think a minute before you accuse your fellow Americans (or neighboring Americans) of not being supportive of their country or not being Patriotic because they aren't going ga-ga over a tournament that is happening inside the US border (barely). Instead, realize the cultural difference between our two countries that are so close together geographically but worlds apart sports-wise.

And then go out and cheer on your team in whichever way you desire and have fun because, after all, isn't sports supposed to be about fun?

Thoughts?

who knew?

Who knew the Sabres had it in them.. what a strange game tonight's was. I listened to part of the game while I was driving, then watched the 3rd period/OT-shootout while flipping back and forth between that and the Winter Classic game.

Hello Drew Stafford. Where have you been? Never mind all that, just don't go back there, please?!

In Winter Classic news:
-Wow it is seriously raining there, I can't believe they are playing on that ice. It looks terrible!
-Why isn't Tyler Sloan playing? I was hoping he'd get the chance for Washington, but I guess they have too many D-men.
-It just makes me think about being there for the Blackhawks/Red Wings game 2 years ago.. the most incredible hockey game I've ever been to (and probably ever will go to, unless I find myself at a Stanley Cup deciding game or something. It was unbelievable.) I did write about it here if you don't remember or want to review. ;)
-YAY Caps scored again! 3-1. Take that, Sid and Co. WOW that was a really sweet goal too.. and the pass was unreal. Well played.
-Did I mention how Darren Pang is announcing this game? I love Panger- he is so old school and it makes me happy to hear his voice again.
-Capitals win! :) YAY!