Let's do the time warp again

 Oooooooy what exactly was THAT? Defensive breakdowns galore! Not just breakdowns but catastrophic failures. This team is not looking good for the long haul that is an NHL season. They def have potential, and even showed a lot of it tonight, but then fell apart (again) defensively and it was just a massacre. 

I don't want to talk about it anymore. Time to move on to Chicago tomorrow. They seem to play better on the road, and Lyon should come back sometime this trip (tomorrow would be a great night to start him, Chicago is terrible and so is the rest of our goaltending, so why not?) 

In the meantime, and to lighten up the mood a little, Imma give you a Hockey SAB I have been sitting on for a bit. This one is unavoidable but super real, and I felt better tonight knowing that I am not alone in this- when Darren Pang referred to Josh Doan as Shane Doan. I mean, Panger is a boss and he's been in the game longer than I have, but every time I see ole Joshy D on the ice I am TRANSPORTED back to my early days of hockey watching in the mid 90s when Shane Doan was a force, playing for the Winnipeg Jets/Phoenix Coyotes. 

Exhibit A: 
Shane Doan, circa 2009 (the man does not age)

Exhibit B:
his son, Josh Doan, present day

Off the ice, it's a little easier to tell- but I swear on the ice it is a legit 20+ year straight up time warp and- not gonna lie- it messes with my mind a little bit. I already struggle with the fact that the Sabres have 2 players on their team whose fathers played in the NHL of my youth (and there are a few other fellas out there as well- how am I this old? I was in middle school when I started watching hockey!) so this is not a new problem for me but the striking resemblance is what really gets me here. I feel like I'm 15 again and watching hockey so I can go to school the next day and harass my buddy Garrett when his teams (the Jets/Coyotes- that's right, Shane Doan's team!) and the Blues lose to my guys the Red Wings and Canucks. *which happened occasionally* Those were the good ole days and we've embarked on a new world of hockey where my allegiances are to the Blue and Gold but I still fondly recall those early years. 

Though the early years of my hockey fandom were filled with MANY MANY lopsided losses and ugly games, I don't want to go back to that so Sabres- GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER! Hockey is supposed to be fun to watch and while there were some glimpses of fun tonight, the overall feeling was ROUGH. Just rough. 

Hope & Ruin

 The Good: 

The Sabres came out flying on Friday night and crushed the Blue Jackets 5-2. It was the most complete game I have seen out of all of them. UPL was great in net (not that the CBJs gave him a ton of trouble but he was solid when he needed to be), Norris stepped up after getting called out to put in 2 goals, my boy Quinn netted another one (he is so good) and they played 3 period of GOOD hockey. They didn't fall apart halfway through the game, or wait for the chances to come to them while idling in the neutral zone, they went hard to the net, crashed some bodies and put up a ton of shots. And it totes paid off. (Finally)

Eddie Golden (their special guest/ceremonial puck drop friend) was adorable in his purple suit and def brought some good vibes- I think the guys didn't want to let him down by losing. (Can Eddie be our new mascot and come to all of the games? please??) 

So, that was awesome- who are these Sabres and can we keep them (please?)?

The Bad: 

It didn't last. The 1st period on Sunday against Vegas was STELLAR. The Sabres had a bunch of shots, were putting on a lot of pressure, STEALING pucks from the Knights, just overall putting on a show. It looked like it was going to be more of what we saw on Friday and I was all in.

Then the 2nd period started.  

The Ugly: 

2nd and 3rd period on Sunday were some of the WORST hockey I have seen this year for sure and possibly ever. Vegas got not 1, but 2 shorthanded breakaways in the space of about 2 minutes. Ellis bailed them out of the first one, but the 2nd one scored. (It was Mitch Marner, what do you expect?) And the ones doing the giving away? Thompson and Dahlin! Guys, Thanksgiving is still a few weeks away, it is NOT time to be giving things away. 

At that point I think the Sabres wanted to decline any future PP opportunities. They certainly seemed to retreat into themselves after the 2nd Vegas goal, (Scored by Jack Eichel- *puke*) and the rest of the game was a travesty. They *almost* got something going in the 3rd period when Mallenstyn (I really like that guy!) managed to get a goal off a scramble in front (props to the 4th line energy guys for actually showing up for the 3rd period) but it wasn't enough. Final 4-1. 

So that was a game we'd all like erased from our memories. I hope they worked out some things in practice. Tonight is another home game (why are we SO bad at home?) against division rival Tampa Bay. It is MUST WIN game to get back on track. The Sabres really have to stop giving up points to division teams! I didn't pay much attention to the Sabres last year until late in the season but I guess the last matchup between them and TB was pretty wild. 8-7 win by Buffalo with 5 fights and 102 penalty minutes.. so we might be in for quite a show tonight. I remember a game against TB way back in 2007 or 2009 when the Sabres were down 4-1 until midway through the 3rd period, scored 6 straight to win the game 7-4. It was WILD. So as I well know, anything can happen. I just hope it's something good for Buffalo.  

I was really considering going to the game tonight since they sent out a text with $20 tickets.. but no one really wanted to go with me (and I am working 3 nights this week so having an night off is a good thing) so I decided not to go. But now if it's some wild game I'm gonna really wish I had gone! Oh well.. I'll be watching from the comfort of my couch. Either way, I just want a win! Pretty please?!?

Sabres, let's have a little chat

 Listen boys, tonight is Hockey Fights Cancer night. I will be in attendance. Y'all have not managed to win either of the two games I've been to so far this season. (And I only have 10- 7 more chances after tonight, so could y'all please get your act together?) 

But for realzies, tonight is probably going to be emotional. Cancer is horrible. I've been really lucky that it has not impacted my life greatly (though of course I have known some folks who have been taken by the horror, it was not anyone super close to me.) But my two dearest friends have lost parents to cancer and I'm sure there will be stories and such all through the game- and I'm feeling sensitive to feelings today, okay? (I already cried once just watching a video about the kid who is going to drop the puck tonight..)

SO, please can you just win tonight so I don't have to be sad about everything? 

I'll check in later. 

......Kthxbye

I don't know what to think

 Welp, it was a bit more than 4 days since my last entry- but 11 isn't too terrible, and real life has been pretty busy in the interim. 

The Wednesday game I mentioned in the previous entry was a bust- 3-1 loss to the Flyers. Once again, why can't the Sabres string together 3 good periods of hockey IN THE SAME GAME?  It shouldn't be rocket science, and yet, here we are. 

Then last Saturday was that stupid OT loss to stupid Tuch and the stupid Caps. Another come from behind to force OT but it wasn't enough. (Psst... you can't leave a guy like that alone in the slot...)

Tuesday night rolls around. Sabres are in San Jose- puck drop is scheduled for 10:30. People in the house were watching baseball- game 4 that went to crazypants extra innings, (Go Brewers!) but I had the hockey on my phone. Then for whatever reason the Sabres start time was pushed to 10:50? (Maybe they explained it on the broadcast, I wasn't listening- but it was ESPN so I didn't really want to be listening anyway LOL- so anyway, baseball keeps going, hockey is finally rolling. The Sabres actually looked decent in the first period, even with no score. Ellis was in net and he was holding down the fort, while the other fellas were putting on pressure. 2nd period- still good pressure, Zellweger finally puts one in to get the Sabes up by 1 going into the 3rd period. (This is the first time ALL season the Sabres have a lead going into the 3rd period). The baseball game finally ended around 12:30 so I decided to call it a night and went to bed, hoping to wake up to a Sabres win and they (for once) didn't let me down! 2-0 was the final, a shutout for Ellis and Benny finally got a goal! (Empty netter, but he had to work for it so that totally counts.)

The 2nd period was one of the best periods of hockey I had seen the Sabres play this year, very promising. They have done this before- gone out west and just dominated the teams out there- then come home and fallen apart again- let's hope for the first part but not the 2nd.. 

Thursday night- (last night as of this writing)- Anaheim. Puck drop at 10 and nothing to do Friday morning so we can stay up as late as we need to. Elly is in net again. Let's gooooooo 

And the Ducks scored 2 goals (2 PP goals, on 2 pretty weak penalty calls) in the first 2 minutes of the game, leaving me (and prob everyone else going) WHAT. THE. ACTUAL? Did the Sabres think the game started at 10:30? What just happened? 

But then.. then Ellis made a couple of strong stops to keep 'em in it- then the Sabres scored a fluky- bouncing goal to make it 2-1. I'll take that.  30 seconds later, Anaheim scores again. 3-1. UGH. 

But now the Sabres have a PP, and lo and behold, a PP goal! (who knew?) Suddenly it's 3-2 with 9 mins left. And then a few mins later, Tage scores to make it 3-3 and that's how the period ended. Everyone watching might have whiplash but the game was tied! WOOOO

2nd period was pretty tight, with a lot of pressure from the Sabres, and Ellis again coming up strong on his end against some good chances from Anaheim. Then Tagey decided he wasn't happy with just one goal for the night, and scores 2 more in the space of approximately 15 seconds and suddenly it's 5-3 Buffalo with the 2nd intermission looming. *Just in time to cash it in on the game, and fall apart, as we do* 

Now there is no way I'm going to bed early on this one. We're here for the long haul, and man oh man what a ridiculous turn of events in the 3rd. Sabres came out roaring, Quinn nets another PP goal (worst PP in the league, what?) and then Benny has a gorgeous semi-breakaway and rips one by Husso to give the Sabres a cushion of 7-4..... which they totes needed. 

Anaheim pulled their goalie with 6 mins left, then took another few mins but managed to score (and the Sabres kept trying to loft it into the empty net but missing the net and getting icing calls) not one, not two, but THREE goals in those last 3 mins or so, including one with 30 seconds left in the game to almost tie it. Through some miracle (and a whole lotta defence/goaltending by committee), they managed to hold on for the win. It sure wasn't pretty but 2 points are 2 points and we'll take it. 

Still gotta do something about that 3Goals against (avg) per game. 

Which team will we see tomorrow in LA? Time will tell..   

It's only been 4 days

 4 days and I'm back to posting! This a new record (at least for the last 15 years or so!) The Blog is officially back! (Now will anyone read my rambles? Who knows.. but I'm writing anyway!)

Since my last post, the Sabres managed an OT comeback win over Toronto (Owen Power- this guy is for REAL!) and then another come from behind to force OT against Montreal on Saturday only to lose on a goal from everyone's favorite Cauliflower (Caufield, whateve). Man I hate that guy playing against that guy. 

So, 4/6 road points against division rivals, a SO loss, OT win and OT loss wasn't a terrible way to end last week. I'd prefer 3 straight wins to giving up a point in that OT win, but also scrapping back in each of those games shows resilience and I like that. I just wish we didn't *have* to keep scrapping back to a tie. It's getting a little old. The Sabres desperately need a tighter D (to be fair, Dahlin was out for those 3 games and he is a HUGE part of our Defence) BUT STILL- maybe our goaltending needs to improve a bit... we KNOW that UPL can get the job done, but for some reason, he doesn't seem to be remembering it! 

I really want Lyon back. I picked him last year as my favorite Sabre (with Jack Quinn as #2 and he is coming along swimmingly) and he has been out since the Sep 26 preseason game with an unspecified "upper body injury" because it's hockey and we don't talk about Bruno (and by Bruno, I mean injuries.) It could be a decapitation or a hangnail, we don't get to know. (It looked at the video from the day it happened-- looked like some sort of shoulder tweak? ribs? WHO KNOWS?!) All I know is I want my guy back and maybe, just maybe, he can keep the GAA to less than 4 per game. (Only MAYBE but I'll take a maybe at this point!)

As if that is not rough enough, I got my The Hockey News Goalie Issue in the mail today, and they had an article about Lyon! Now if we can just get to see the real deal, I would be much happier. 

I'm going to Wednesday's game against the Flyers- hoping for a better return than the first game I went to (4-1 loss to Utah, what a drag).

Let's Go Buffalo!  

Guess who's back? Back again... (maybe for real this time)

 Hockey is back my friends--  and so am I. At least for the moment. But I think I might actually mean it this time. Last spring was a lot of fun but then I couldn't find much to talk about, plus I had a really busy summer of family fun and travel so as usual, rando hockey babble went by the wayside. 

But a new season is upon us, the Sabres might be good, and my niece is on board so she wants to talk about hockey all the time- and who am I to say no? LOL

So far the Sabres are 3-3-1 which isn't stellar but it def could be worse. They have shown glimpses of being a really good team and also shades of the terrible times. Guess we'll see how it all settles in. I have some thoughts about players but I'll save those for another post. (gotta spread out the posting) 

I DO have a Hockey Separated at Birth (SAB) for you that I have been sitting on for 6 months. And they were usually Wednesdays but sometimes hit on Thurs so I'm just gonna throw it out there for today. (I have at least 2 more in the works so this is good)

Here, I present to you: Mr. Chuckles, from the NHSTA billboards- there was one right by my house that was recently replaced but I used to look at it ALL the time: 

Now, I think Mr. Chuckles is actually a pretty cute baby, but he bears an uncanny resemblance to a former Sabre (whom some might also call a "baby" but I'm going to refrain from any commentary about that)

    

The ubiquitous billboard baby AND....

Jack Eichel (currently of the Las Vegas Golden Knights), formerly of the Buffalo Sabres. I picked this pic on purpose since it's young Eichel. I wonder if he IS Mr. Chuckles? Either way, is he in the right seat? 

You be the judge! 

Back with more soon. 

<3 your resident lazy hockey blogger

But I have a Sad :'(

 Well, I tried to be more prolific in my writing, but then the Sabres had to go and lose Game 7 in Overtime and then I was sad and didn't want to write about hockey. 

But I have still been thinking about hockey a lot. And J has been tracking the scores of the conf finals series (she is not happy about Vegas winning cuz they have gross colors- she is not wrong), and obvs Montreal isn't allowed to win, so I guess we're going for Carolina?

Anyway, I have 2 hockey SABs lined up (I'll save those for Wednesdays since that was the old day for Separated at Birth), and I might even have a Hockey Freak of Nature to share with you as well. 

I also re-subscribed to The Hockey News. I really like that they still have print media; I find it much easier to partake of a magazine on paper rather than online. We'll see how that goes. The price is still very reasonable. 

Onward and upward?

P.S. The Sabres re-upped Lindy's contract for 2 more years. This is excellent news. Lindy forever!

Remember those guys?

 The Sabres are back! As in, back in the playoffs, back in Round 2 and back on my TV. 

It's been a rough few (14) years around here.. somewhere along the way the Sabres totally lost me. I stuck with them for a few years after that last playoff appearance, but life got busy, we ditched cable, and didn't have season tickets anymore and, and, and... it wasn't that I didn't like hockey anymore, it's just that I didn't care enough to put in the effort. And whenever I would watch a game, more likely than not, it was terrible and not worth watching. 

So here we are. 2026. The Sabres were actually good this season. They started off terrible as usual and were completely in the toilet at Thanksgiving. Then they had a serious "Come to Jesus" moment with Lindy and decided that maybe they actually should figure out how to win some hockey games. I think they ripped off a 10 game winning streak, and then kinda tore up the rest of the season after that. I heard rumors of this 'good' team but as usual, was afraid to believe it. We have been let down too many times. 

But here we are, halfway through May and still playing hockey. Game 7 of round 2 is tomorrow night. I have watched all of the games so far and it has been FUN. My niece Jaycie (age 13 and no previous interest in sports or hockey) has been getting into the games - she even asked to watch when I wasn't home. She's paying attention and learning about the game and bonding with me and it's so fun! I did this with her brothers but she wasn't interested/I wasn't interested for half the time so we never had a chance to share this before. 

I think it actually started with the Olympics. We watched game 7 of the last 2 Stanley Cup finals cuz I happened to be home when the games were on, but it was just something to do. We checked out a couple of the 4 Nations cup last year (precursor to the Olympics) and that was a lot of fun. 

Then in February when the Olympics were on I was ready to watch some hockey! I watched a couple of the round robin games, then the women's gold medal game (USA BABY!) and the Men's gold medal game (USA BABY!) and she was kinda into those with me. She liked the figure skating more but the hockey seed was planted. We also watched the paralympic sled hockey gold medal game (USA BABY!) which was extremely interesting and fun. 

And now it's the NHL playoffs, and the Sabres are in it (and winning, sometimes, when they feel like it) and it's like 2007 all over again and I don't know what to think about any of it. 

I want to write about hockey again. I care about hockey again. I feel like these guys have a real shot. They have played hard all year, come from behind a bunch of times (including last night, scoring 7 unanswered goals after being down 3-1) and could totally take this game 7 against Montreal and advance to the conference final. One game. Let's do this! 

The city's statutes are sprouting Sabres jerseys, flags are everywhere, people are packing the plaza for the parties for home games, and they had the arena practically sold out last night for a watch party. It's so fun! I love springtime hockey and it has been SO LONG since we have experienced it. I don't want it to end. I hope it doesn't have to. 

Let's Go Buffalo! 

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!