All Star Skillz time

So here we are in Ottawa- sorry, Kanata (which really isn't quite the same thing), Ontario for the NHL All Stars Skills Competition. (And yeah, I'm not just being lame, I've been to ScotiabankPlace and it's actually a really cool place to see hockey, but it's a bit outside of the city.) However, Ottawa has the Rideau Canal so they totally get the win. (and a lot of jealousy from me)

The intros were cool- I liked the pics of the players as kids. My nephew was pretty upset that the announcer wasn't getting excited enough about their names though. LOL

The fastest skater was fine- the goalie race still cracks me up.

Now we've moved on to the Breakaway competition.
So far, Corey Perry wins- that stickwork was INSANE- the puck was GLUED to his stick.. then he scored!

okay, PKane with the superman dive was pretty funny.. and I didn't even catch how he slid the puck from his hand to his skate.

Tavares hitting it off his stick was pretty slick, especially the switching hands.

3rd round..
Carey Price- he saved it facing backwards!? that was great.

Did the puck really just break on Kane? Or did he plan that?.. ah okay it was planned.

Perry is cracking us up with the mini-stick.
I just voted for him.

Oh come on. Perry was better than Kane! Though Kane was creative, Perry had more skill. (and creativity)

On to the Accuracy Competition:
-Poor Cody...
-Stamkos' gum is really bright.
-Wow Jamie Benn. I was wondering why he looked so unhappy early, he just had an appendectomy. Wow.
*I don't like how there's no scoreboard keeping track of how many targets they've hit. I can't always tell if they hit them.

Jamie Benn with the win there.

And on to the Skills Challenge Relay- I dig this one.. they have to do such wild stuff.

My favs are the stickhandling through the obstacles.. so amazing. And I would get SO DIZZY going through the pylons- reminds me of the hockey class I took in college- we used to do figure 8s between cones- they were a little further apart and we were nowhere near that quick. LOL

Letang just owned that One-timer deal. 3/4
Hank Sedin seems impatient with the passing thing at first then starts owning.

Team Alfie got the win there- way less time.

Love how Pommers is hanging with all the Sens. I thought you guys were enemies! ;)

I am amused by how the "cones" are Gatorade bottles.

Pommers takes it in the Clutch for Team Alfie. :) Good job! (Ottawa fans should know about Pominville and clutch- see Playoffs, 2006, Round 1)

You're not Tim Thomas.. This is Tim Thomas... *kissy kissy* (This commercial will never get old.)

--Hardest Shot time:
Luke Adam from the Sabres acquits himself well with a 98 and wins his round. :)
Alfie is killing it, 101.1, 101.3. WOW
Team Alfie is owning it so far.
WAIT 106.2 Chara. What the WHAT?
And hold the phone.. 108.8. Weber came back with a 106 but Chara's 106.2 and 107 were all over it. Who would stand in front of that?

Team Alfredsson still winning but Chara caught up with that ridiculously hard shot.

What's with the R2-D2 Verizon commercial? I'd totally buy him over a phone. He'll talk back to your snooty C-3PO droid, navigate your X-Wing, talk to your hyperdrive and fix it, he'll serve drinks on your party barge, keep your lightsabre and handily toss it to you at the right moment.. I mean he's pretty indispensable really. :) And that other thing.. just a phone.

Only 11 players (and a rookie) in the shootout? I thought it was everybody.

This part is usually all about the goalies.. let's see what happens.
NO goal for Datsyuk- wow. But we know Lundqvist is sick.
Stamkos with the fake.. nice one bro.
Whoa Malkin snuck it right under the leg..
Tavares scores- Team Alfie still winning-and 2 goals so far
CoreyPerry just misses high- he hit the post.
Spezza pulls Price out of the net but keeps the puck and sneaks it in far side.
Team Alfie up 14-10 now.
Thomas stones Giroux (good, I don't like him)
Gaborik tries to flip it on the glove side and Elliot says NO!
Alfredsson goes 5-hole on Thomas for the score. (Maybe Tim was being nice.. LOL)
Kane stoned by Elliot and it's 15-10 Alfie
Thomas with the poke check on Neal.. no goal!
Iglina sneaks one in.. through the 5-hole. Wow.
Michalek stopped by Thomas and it's 15-11 Team Alfie
-Wow why does Gary Bettman look so angry? This is great!
Round 3
Quick stops Benn to keep the score where it is. He's so good this year- too bad his team is not.
Pominville scores a snapshot high glove side on Howard! :) Let's Go Buffalo!
Lupul gets robbed by Quick, much to the fans' delight.
Letang slips one by Howard on the backhand. It's 17-11 now.
Timmonen does some voodoo and somehow scores on Quick.
Suter hits the crossbar on Quick
Daniel Sedin misses.. and we're done with the initial round. Only 6 players remain.
YEEESH Lundqvist with the split for the stop.
Stamkos with a SICK spin-o-rama.
Iginla goes wide.. he's done. He's so smiley though!
Tavares still in with the high backhand. Team Alfie up 19-12 now. Only one Team Chara player still left.
Timmonen misses and Team Chara is DONE. We still have a few more players though, and we need a winner.
Spezza's up- he's stopped by Price. The crowd sighs.
*sidenote- Pommers looks lost without his Sens buddies*
Alfredsson gets stopped by Price. Crowd loved that. Or not.
Pominville scores on Thomas! The crowd cheers. :)
Tavares Misses..
Pominville comes in 2nd! Good job!
Stamkos is the winner. :)

Phew. Team Alfredsson with the win 22-12. :)

and there we have it. Tomorrow is the Game.

Analyze this!

Apparently, according to my post labels, I haven't talked about google analytics in 2 years! *It's possible I've done other posts and just not labeled them.*

So today I checked it out- I have now been visited by every state in the US! Montana took the longest to come on board.. but I'm everywhere. Whuhahahhaaa. I also have many visitors from Canada, then the UK, France, Russia, and Germany are up there. I've been visited from all the continents (except Antarctica) and many many different countries. :) (of course these people never comment so it's probably random pageviews but whatevs.. makes me feel good.)

And then we get to the fun- search terms!

There are the usual thousand and one about Derek Roy and Travis Rycroft (still don't get that one) but I found some fun gems in there..

-"Hilarious randomness"- totally something I said, I'm sure. It was searched not once, but twice!

-"i hate shoes" - who knows? but I agree.

-"2legit Montreal" just amused me

-"bad ass Howie Dorough" ? Hahaha yeah right, the backstreet boy known as "Sweet D" is not BA , sorry.

-"you hurt me so bad but I keep coming back" - yep, Sabres, I'm talking about YOU!

-"explain the theme of rough all over again"... I have no idea about this but I find it intriguing and I may have to use that one of these days..

-"is my Blackhawks ticket legit"? Dude, I have no idea but for your sake I hope so.

-"Patrick Sharp and Samantha"-- YES.

-"Samantha hunt hockey Sabres"... how did you find out about that?

-"there's this that I like about hockey, my lad"- again I have no idea but I need to keep this and use it one day.

.... and there ya have it. All-Star skillz tomorrow. I will be watching (I think) and live-blogging (I plan to anyway)

Ciao!

Food for thought

So..

I finally got around to perusing some of the Blogger Summit #2 videos on Sabres.com today. (So I'm a little late to the party, nothing new there- I've been avoiding that place lately, nothing but bad news. I actually went to Sabres.com looking for some highlights (found 'em) and possibly an interview (no dice) from last night's game (WIN!) against the Devils.) I listened to the first 2 periods and then got home (no radio service and I didn't want to break out the computer) and waited by the phone for my text.. and waited... and waited. That was a long one, eh?

But it was a win!

Sorry, got excited for a sec. What I was saying is that it was cool to watch some of the videos- I'll probably go back and check a few more- but I noticed something.

There were only 2 lady bloggers that I could see.

What is up with that? I know there are a ton of quality females out there writing about hockey.. where are they? Were they all at the first blogger summit?

And what does a person have to do to be asked to attend such an event? (update their blog more than once a month? Hmm.. maybe I should get on it.)

I guess what I'm saying is- if any Sabres-folks are reading this- I'm more than just a spastic, roster photo-obsessed, make-up-conversations-with-players-and-post-them, hockey parody song writing (got a real good one coming soon), sporadic-posting fool. I actually know hockey and love hockey and the Sabres and would really dig going to an event like that.

Just sayin', ya know, in case anyone is wondering. *shuffles feet*

......and now back to your regularly scheduled hockey (related) drivel. All-star game this weekend- you know I can't resist blogging about that! :)

Tired

I'm so tired of the Sabres telling us that they lost because they didn't battle hard and they didn't start off well.

Guess what guys- YOU are the only ones who can control how hard you battle and how quickly you get it going. Hockey games are 60 minutes long. Everyone knows this. So why do you only show up for 23 minutes? Or 43 or 58?

GET. IT. TOGETHER.

Luckily for me, I'm in Louisiana hanging with my sis and eating delicious food and doing other things with my life than watching a losing team play like losers who don't care about playing well or winning. And on a night like tonight, that's actually a good thing.

I'm not giving up on the Sabres, but I'm pretty annoyed with them right now. Let's say we're taking a "break". It's not me, it's them.

One word fail

On Twitter tonight (my new go-to for dialogue while watching listening to Sabres games (sorry about the lack of blogging, it's hard to blog a radio-only game), Scott, from Buffalo Sabres Nation tweeted "Well, if I had to sum up the Sabres' players, coach and GM in one word this season: "complacency." You?"

And it got me thinking:

My initial response was:

Ineffectual

Also:

Frustratingashell (that's one word!)

But then I got to thinking about it some more and other, highly descriptive one words came up:

Inconsistent
Disheartening
Empty
Pathetic
Coasting
Struggling
Stagnant
Uncommitted
Non-cohesive

I'm sure I could come up with others (I can actually be pretty good with words, on occasion) but you get the (depressing) picture.

This team is NOT getting the job done. Sure, they have dealt with some adversity- crazy injuries, bad hits, non-calls, etc- BUT so has every team in the league. There's a point when excuses just become empty, just like the platitudes the Sabres mouth after each game and practice-
"we've just got to stick to our system and stand up for each other.
"we've got to settle down and not grip our sticks too tight"
"We have to play our style of game and not let the other teams run us around"

Blah blah blah the System won't do jack if you can't play with a little HEART. That's one of the biggest things I see missing from this Sabres squad. This team has no heart, no pulse, no grit or determination. I don't even think they are necessarily soft (a common complaint) but more that they aren't tenacious at all. They don't look like they care.

And that's where the breakdown occurs.

Back when the Sabres got fun for me- in the playoff run of 2006 (I wasn't even living here at the time) and during the subsequent season- 2006-07, they played with HEART and SOUL and GUTS and SWEAT. They came from behind again and again and again and again and it was FUN. It was fun to watch, it looked like they were having fun playing- and this whole city was alive with Sabres fever. That was a glorious season. They ran out of gas in the playoffs but it was a great run.

Where did that team go? I don't think it was Briere and Drury (that's so 5 years ago). Other than those 2, the core of this team is the same guys who were there then. There have been some minor changes, but for the most part, the guys who made that glorious season such a great experience are still in the room and on the ice. But they can't seem to get that magic back. They aren't playing with the hunger and the desperation and the fever that those players had (even though many of them ARE those players.)

Let's look back on the roster: Roy, Pominville, Vanek, Miller, Gaustad, Stafford, Hecht, even Kaleta were there. That should be enough, considering that this is the basic "Core" that the organization has been built around.

THOSE guys need to step it up and lead the way. They are old enough now to BE "that guy" and lead this team out of the basement. Someone needs to take it upon himself to make it- something, ANYTHING, happen for this team and soon. Else they are dead in the water and it will hurt. It may feel like spring in WNY, but it's only January and the Sabres still (barely) have enough time to turn their season around.

And if they can't, or won't, then it's up to one of the "new" fellas to step up and step in and grab this frickin bull by the horns and right this ship and all those pithy cliches about getting it right. JUST DO>.... SOMETHING!

And if everyone on this team would play with half of the fervor that little Gerbe does every night, they would make some progress. I know, I might be biased, but seriously, he is really standing out to me right now- he's hitting and taking shots and TRYING out there- the rest of the team needs to get it in gear.

WHO WILL IT BE?

Let's Go Buffalo!

I caved

This may be the longest post ever.. (but does anyone even read my blog anyway?)

I said I didn't know if I was going to watch the Winter Classic.. but I was wrong.
I'm going to watch it, even though it's the 2 worst teams EVAR!
-Because it's hockey and I love hockey and I'm totally snowed in so there's nothing else to do today anyway.
-Because it reminds of watching the first one with my besties and having a HILARIOUS day inventing the "87" club!
-Because it reminds me of GOING to the Winter Classic in Chicago.
-Because I got a little choked up watching/listening to Jeremy Roenick talk about the alumni game.. it reminded me of when I first started watching hockey.

I almost cried during NBC's Olympic review thing.. what is wrong with me? (Oh I know.. hormones)
And maybe I missed it but I didn't see the "Do you believe in Miracles? YES!"... not sure how I missed it or not sure how it wasn't there.. so I'll just chalk it up to my lack of attention-span.

............moving on...........
-Sorry it's not hockey time yet, they are still talking about the Olympics- I'm actually getting pretty excited for the summer Games. And they used such great music to introduce it- Jurrasic Park and then Robin Hood. :) Niiice.

Oh please don't talk about the Vancouver games. It's too painful. :(

..it's snowing again. Ha. Welcome to my life.

ooooh they're showing a documentary about the '72 Summit Series? SWEET! I've read about it but this looks awesome.

Speaking of reading and Soviet Russia (where Book reads YOU!), I'm reading this really awesome book called "From Behind the Red" by Tod Hartje- the first American to play a hockey season in Soviet Russia. So far it's pretty cool.

Great SUBWAY commercial, Phelps! I liked it. :) Eat Fresh!

-----now we have hockey- warmups time---- gosh I don't like these teams!----
I'm more or less ignoring the warmup chatter. But I gotta say how much i LOVE hearing Darren Pang! He is my favorite announcer of all time- I want to be like him when I grow up!

What's up with the funky old golaie pads that Biron and Bryzgalov are wearing? And HELLOOOO Mr. Lundqvist- yeesh he's pretty.

This pond hockey thing looks SO FUN! (and colder than cold)Love the MsConducts "fishnet" hockey socks. Awww getting all teary again about the G-Men. (gosh, settle down)

Ok Bryz seems pretty hilarious. Kinda wish I had HBO so I could watch 24/7 but alas..

LOLZ Milbury just said "BlueSHITS" on air! LMAO

In their Winter Classic montage- why did they show 2011 before 2010? Sid v. Ovie is more important than Philly v. Boston? RUDE.

Psh.. 40 degrees these guys are lucky! It was way colder than that for the Chicago game and worse for the Buffalo one!

Almost game time! Teams are taking the ice. Interesting music..

This is a good rivalry game but again, I dislike giving it to teams that have already played over teams who haven't had a turn yet!

I like the nod to the "roots" of the game by singing "Oh Canada" at a game between 2 American teams. Just like we do in Buffalo! (It's actually weird for me to go hockey games when they *don't* sing Oh Canada)

And then I wonder- do I have to stand with my hand over my heart for the "Star-Spangled Banner" when I'm home? Never sure what the proper protocol is here.

.....Interesting rendition of the "Star-Spangled Banner", and mad *drool* over the F-18s! YAY AIRPLANES!

Goodness I don't know about playing Puck Daddy's drinking game,I'd probably already be drunk! Should I try it? I have some wine and some beer here.

WOW great block by Henrik! (he's pretty so I can cheer for him)

I guess if I was FORCED to choose, I'd go for the Rangers. They have fewer players that I absolutely can't stand.

I totally forgot Danny Briere played for the Flyers. Gross.

Hopefully the weather that arrives will be snow rather than rain- rain at the winter classic is just wrong! (PITT!)

WOWZERs another solid stop by king H. That was pretty redic. Good job keeping that little punk Giroux from scoring! I don't like that guy!

I love how the players have to walk to the lockerrooms. :) Hockey in Baseball stadiums is totally cool!

I also love watching goalies walk in all their gear. For some reason it's very entertaining to me.

Awww Bill Clement! I love him even though he was a Flyer one day. That's okay to me he's just a kickin announcer. :)

Even not being a Flyers fan (furthest thing from it), the Alumni into is pretty cool!

WOW they mentioned Paul Gastad before Crosby OR Ovechkin (re: old Classics)! GO GOOOOOOOSE! :)


mmm Winter Classic hot chocolate! I still have my cup from the Chicago game, it was a really cool travel mug. :)

I always expect a guy with a cool name like James Van Riemsdyk to be attractive, but he's just..... not.

I'm doing some serious multi-tasking here: watching the game, blogging, checking facebook, tweeting, texting, drinking, eating and of course spending a little time writing about Gerbs on my livejoural (I'll spare you guys). Phew. This is tiring.

And then my brother called! Add to the multi-tasking!
EWW the Flyers scored, I may have to chug my beer!
EWW they scored again, DEF have to chug it. (so I did)
Then the Rangers scored. I cheered. What is wrong with me?? LOL

3rd beer in!

"how long as Lilija been a Flyer? he used to be a... what do you call those bloody people?"
"Red Wing?"
Yeah, Red Wing! (Love chatting with my sis during the game!)

Who are these guys playing in the intermission? The Roots? Eh.. not impressed. Then again, I was on the phone so I was only sorta appreciating it.

I'm glad it's snowing. Seems appropriate!

YAY SUBWAY ad placement! :) Eat Fresh!

3rd period is underway. What will it bring? Do I have to call my sis and bro again to have some goals scored? (no one scored till they called me and then there were 3 goals while we were chatting!)

*I might be a little drunk. Halfway through my 3rd beer in the last 2 hours. I'm a lightweight!*

Mike Rupp is the king of clutch goals- remember the 2 he scored for NJ to win it in game 7 back in 2003? I DO!!!!! Cleveland boy for the win!

Rupp did it again!!!! I love that guy. :) (back to the NJD days...)

HOLY WHOA it's 3-2 Rangers. Never thought I'd be cheering for the Rangers EVER but I'm kind digging it. I know I hate them LESS than the Flyers, at least on an individual level.

And with that last overhead shot, I've finished my 3rd beer. Yeesh I know I'm a lightweight but I haven't had 4 beers in a night since.. I don't remember when- maybe last new year- I had several beers and a bottle of arbor mist and it was an awesome drunken moment.

Crap, Laviolette called a timeout- that's 2 drinks. I need another beer!

Holywhoa... Briere for the penalty shot! ?

SAVE! In your eye, Danny boy! When you left Buffalo, you were dead to me. I am happy you missed it.

Time for more chex mix. Then maybe some dinner, if I can manage it.

Wow never thought I'd be happy to see the Rangers win a game! IthinkI need to drink nmore! (as you can see, I can't type) LOLZ I'm leaving it.

Oh no, a final aerial shot (takes a drink)

Wow, really, no post-game?

Okay I'm out. Peaceeeee homies. This was fun.