Far away from me

 I've written this post in my head so many times that I don't know what I'm actually going to put on paper. 

I don't care about hockey anymore. 

I want to care about hockey again. 

These two are related, and twined up in the Buffalo Sabres and what they are (aren't).

Hockey hasn't always been about a team for me. It was about the game, and about individual players. For me, the name on the front was a lot less important than the name on the back (Sorry Herb Brooks, that's just how I roll)

This doesn't mean that I haven't fallen in love with some teams along the way: The '94 Canucks will always be the team of my heart (and heartbreak). I have great love for the 2003 Devils- definitely a team I started watching because of Marty Brodeur and ended up really enjoying for many years after. And of course I fell in love with the Sabres (as individuals and as a team) during that magical 2005-2009? 2010? time. But what really draws me in to the game is the individual players. I want to care about who is on the ice and how they are performing day in and day out. And of course hockey is a team sport, so they need to be contributing to the team in order for it work, but to really draw me in and make me CARE, I need a personal connection. I say "personal", like I actually knew any of these guys. (Although, to be fair, I *did* actually know my minor league fellas, but that's a different story for another time.)

By "personal", I want to be able to name more than 2 players on the team. I want to know what their stats are, and what their strengths (and weaknesses) are, and to be able to write a scouting report because I've seen them play enough. (True story, I took an online hockey scouting and GM class back in 2010 and I wrote my final paper on the Sabres- with suggestions on who to keep/trade/let go to free agency, and it wasn't even work, because I knew so much about how the team and players worked at the time that it just flowed.)

I want that back. 

It's partly my fault. I got busy with real life (yay real life)- I was doing a lot of theater and that takes up evenings, so I stopped watching as much hockey. We had season tickets for a few years which was great and I went to a ton of games, but we let the tickets go after 2011 and that had an impact too. And the Sabres fell apart. That shouldn't have mattered so much but it really did. I might be a fair-weather fan (I don't really think of myself this way) and I don't live in Buffalo itself (but almost an hour's drive away, so not in the heart of things) and those are definitely factors to my overall ambivalence. But also, the Sabres stopped giving me reasons to watch. They traded or lost all the players I cared about and by that time I was so jaded (and again with the actual real life going on and not as much time to watch games) that I couldn't be bothered to learn about the new crop of players. 

I still adore the game of hockey, and there is a large part of me that wants to get back into it- learn about the team and start blogging again (I miss my blogger buddies, it seems everyone has kind of gone their separate ways too) and maybe I'll write more. (I always say that) 

I want hockey back. And more importantly, I want to feel something for hockey (and the Sabres) again. I'm just not quite sure how to get there. 

Olympics

YAY it's Olympics time!

Derek Roy is playing for Team Canada!

I'm watching the opening ceremonies and I need to blog about it.

The flag bearer from NZ is adorable.

Oooh Monaco's flag fella is cute too.

The commercial for The Voice making fun of famous people doing compilation songs/videos was great.

'Merica: go big or go home: 242 most athletes of any olympics ever.

Geez why do I always get teary-eyed about Americans in the Olympics? Country pride baby!

Montenegro's flag is cool

Mongolia's coats are serious.

Our team's gloves are ugly. The jackets are nice but the sweaters are dorky as heck.

Wow Bulgaria's neon green is... interesting.

Switzerland and Great Britain have competed at every Winter and Summer Olympics. Fun trivia for you.

Slovenia is in on the neon green action as well. What's the deal?

No South American country has ever won medals at the winter olympics? More trivia for you.

Ireland rockin the wacko neon green too.

I love everybody's scarves- Olympic scarves are boss

The Jamacians are bustin some great moves with their women's bobsled team

And Hungary is also neon green. Who knew that would be the color of choice.

Wow this North and South Korea showing up together is pretty beautiful though it makes you wonder... I do like how the Olympics can bring togetherness. I'm trying to roll with that.

Allright, now it's time for weird opening ceremonies stuff!

lost hockey blog

Where of where did my happy dreams of reviving the hockey blog go? It feels like my life has been on fast-forward for the last few months and I'm just now catching up.

I may get back to it... soon, I hope. I miss writing about hockey- I miss watching hockey!

But I just had to say this somewhere, and it fits with my other bits of nonsense- I keep seeing videos of Brian Gionta on twitter- my goodness, he's a handsome man.

That is all, thank you.

Well, that was unexpected

Derek Roy is playing for Bern of the Swiss league.

It just occurred to me to look him up in fantasy hockey, and that's what I learned. He had a PTO (wow, how the mighty have fallen) with the Caps but failed to impress, I guess, so left for greener pastures.

Didn't see that one coming, but he will likely do well there. It's just strange for me to think about. The European leagues were very popular among the random minor-league fellas I've known over the years, most of whom will never get a sniff at the NHL. So it's hard to wrap my brain around the idea of a guy who spent several years in the NHL playing there.

But again, he will probably do well there, so more power to him, I guess.

Let's see if it works

I've been trying to write this post for 2 days.

So far, all I've done is think about it. And the words aren't really flowing, but I'll do my best, before the emotions all trickle away.

Sunday was the Hockey Hall of Fame Legends game. Seriously, if you're a hockey fan, and you live within reasonable distance of Toronto, you should go to this game. It's THAT fun. The game itself feels like watching pond hockey- there are no real rules, no offsides, no hitting, just back and forth and a lot of smiling and laughing going on between players. For warmups, all the players skate around the whole rink, so everyone can see them. They mosey about in groups of 2 or 3, taking a shot here, pausing to have a word there- it's delightful to watch. And that's just the warmup. Every player gets a little bio and introduction before the start of the game, so you can know who's who and what they have accomplished. The names change each year, some guys are hall of famers, and some aren't, but they are all there because they want to be.

Then they get down to the business of the day, which is to present each of the new inductees with their official HHOF jacket and a snazzy watch. There's a video montage of the player, along with some statistics and whatnot. It's a nice tribute. Then they play a game. And oh, what a game.

Half of the players don't even wear their helmets. (Makes for good photo ops)
The referee has a microphone, and wanders about interviewing players in-between plays.
Music plays the whole time.
After scoring, the player who scored tosses a t-shirt into the crowd.
The ref interacts with the crowd constantly, commenting on jerseys and activities in the stands.
Every person on the ice (this year we had 3 women playing too!) is smiling and having a blast.

So that's the basic layout of the game.

This year there were some notable participants.
To start, one of this year's inductees was Sergei Fedorov, who happens to be my sister 'Nee's favorite player. She was unable to make it to the game (and she did think about going, but couldn't swing it with work) since she's currently stationed in Mongolia, so it was up to me to represent for Sergei. Also, having been to the game for Pavel Bure Day back in 2012, I knew that it was bound to be a good time.

So, Sergei is playing and that's cool.

Additionally, another inductee was Angela Ruggerio. I love her so much. I've got her autobiography and it is an excellent read. She's a very talented player (was part of the first 4 USA Olympic teams, played college hockey, etc) and seems quite intelligent and well-spoken. I think she'd be on my list of people to invite to a dinner party. :) SO getting to see her inducted, and play a game was really fun. She totally held her own with the boys- getting an assist and a goal. :)

Double cool when you add in Angela.

But what really took the cake was Pavel.

Yes, Pavel was playing again. Not only playing, but captain of the "World" team. I can't say how excited I was to see him again. I don't think words would do it.

Let's just put it this way. We entered the arena, and they were actually letting people down to watch warmups. (they did not allow this last time for some reason). I walked down to about 8 rows up and then just stopped. I found Pavel immediately, didn't need to see his name or anything. I think I'd know his skating stride in my sleep. It's IN me.

I got to about 8 rows.. then I stopped. I had to stop because my knees were shaking. Yep, it was like that.

Suddenly, I was 14 and it was the Red Wings/Canucks game I got tickets to for my birthday and I was standing 30 feet away from Pavel. Bure. 

Only this time I had a camera. And I used it to full effect. It is not a fancy camera, and I am a very mediocre photographer, but I got some decent shots of Pavel. And I will treasure them, because not only do they remind me of the fun that happened this day, but they remind me of my hockey heart. It's still there. Just as Pavel still has a good bit of the skill that made him so legendary, I still have the feelings that he once evoked in me. (He still evokes them.)

The whole game was amazing. Sergei had 2 goals. Pavel had a goal and an assist (or 2?) He played beautifully.

Truly, one of my favorite moments of the game- and I wish so much that I had gotten this on camera- I did take random videos throughout- was after Angela scored her goal (assisted by Pavel, of course), he gave her the cutest hug with a huge smile on his face. It was adorable and just the perfect melding of 2 of my great hockey loves.

My hockey heart was very, very full that day.

OKay so it was a little more than a week

10 days since my last post- that's not too terrible.

The tricky thing about blogging about hockey in the summer is that there is no hockey to write about. Sure, there are some rookie camps and prospect showdowns happening, but I'm not ready to delve in that deeply just yet.

It does make me reminisce a little bit about the summer of 2002, when I spent most available moments in Columbus, attending many of those very same rookie camps and prospect showdowns. But it was different then, because I knew several of the players in the Blue Jackets' system from the minor leagues.

Gosh, that was an awesome summer. We went skating practically every Sunday, and spent a heap of time watching young guys play hockey. I may talk about that a bit more here soon, whenever I get my thoughts in order. One of these days I'm going to write a memoir-

"In Pursuit of the Impossible Winter Dream"
(with something under in in parentheses about searching for my hockey love, but I haven't quite worded that part yet)

I even have the final sentence- "They are great memories, most of them, a few sad times and some wrenching bitterness, but mostly it was hockey and hockey is essentially good. At the heart of it, hockey is everything."

Now I just need everything in between. ;)

I'm not dead! (yet)

It's been 19 months since my last blog post.. no biggie.

And the irony of my last post being a resolution to "blog more' is not lost on me. ;)

I feel like I've kind of neglected hockey in the past couple of seasons. I didn't watch a single Sabres game on tv for 2 years *(we don't have cable anymore)* and only attended one (preseason) game last year. I did see the Canes in DC (yay Gerbe!) and the Red Wings in Philly last year, so I got a couple of live games. We didn't even get to the CBJ weekend with the nephews last season, (first time in 4 years) or the preseason Dannie b-day hockey game (first time in.. 7? years). Boo on real life getting in the way of my hockey dreams.  (and it's not like I've been out having fabulous adventures every minute either, my life has just been very busy with regular stuff.)

But I want to change that. It's almost hockey time again, and I want to return to my long-lost love. I miss it. I just renewed my subscription to The Hockey News, so that should help.

So here's to hockey!

Let's see how long it goes til my next post. (I'm aiming for a week or less.)

One of my new year's resolutions is to blog more. I wrote an entry in my lj-first one since.. September I think so here is the first blog entry since November. I hope the next one will be more eloquent- but I'm pressed for time at the moment.

SO all I have to say is

SHARPIE made Team Canada! WOOOHOO I'm so happy for my boy. (but of course I can't cheer for him cuz USA !)

So yeah, go Sharpie. Silver is lovely, isn't it?

But for my brilliant countrymen (and women!) I say GOLD GOLD GOLD!

Can't wait. Winter Olympics are SO. MUCH. FUN !

Questions

So...

If the Sabres only have 5 wins (25 games into the season), 79 goals against (that's a little over 3 per game, for those keeping track at home) and a -35 (I'm almost choking while typing that number) goal differential,

can we still refer to Ryan Miller as an "elite goaltender"?

Now, I know it's not all on him, the whole team is in shambles, they can't hit the broad side of a barn most days, and Enroth is no better, but Miller is supposed to be "the man".

Not feelin it.

Not really feelin anything about the Sabres this year. They look uninterested and uninspired on the ice, it's not fun to watch (and I've been quite busy) and they wouldn't know a win if it bit them.

I get that they are "rebuilding", if that's what you call selling off every player I remotely liked in the 6 years I've been a Sabres fan. But they aren't bringing in much of substance, and I'd love a couple of veterans to keep the ship a little more afloat.

I don't like Steve Ott, I think John Scott is a joke, and I'd be hard pressed to name 5 Sabres, let alone pick 5 that I like this year.

Ugh. I'm not jumping ship, but this sucks! It's a good thing I've got a lot of other interests to keep me occupied, and I'm a fan of other teams, because otherwise I'd probably throw myself into Lake Erie.

Let's go Buffalo. Let's go anywhere but here.

Support Sally

Hey guys..

I still have a hockey blog.

And I still read other hockey blogs.

This link- http://www.buffalowins.com/buffalo-bills/articles/mcfaddens.html

from Joe over at BuffaloWins is a MUST read.

I saw that, and read the whole story of beautiful little Sally Sunshine and her fight against Leukemia and it's breaking my heart, but she and her family are strong.

Don't take my word for it, go read and then if you can or you want to, there are ways you can help.