And then there were Sabres

Last night I watched the Sabres for the first time in weeks! I've been really busy lately so I've missed a bunch of games. I listened to the 2nd half of Monday's game on the way home from the airport but missed Tuesday's because I was.. doing something. Oh yeah I think I was playing Rock Band. Hahah that stupid game is so addictive! (Glad I don't actually own it, we're borrowing it from a friend so I can't play it all the time which is a good thing.. LOL)

But yeah last night's game being in LA and all made it a 10:30 start and since I wasn't doing much at 10:30 I decided to hit the basement and do my old time-honoured tradition of watching/listening to hockey while putting together a puzzle. It's great fun and the game was awesome! I'm really glad I stayed up.

It's always so weird listening to the other teams' broadcast crew. (and unlike many of my friends, I don't have Center Ice so I don't get to see anyone other than the Sabres.) I must admit though, and I'm hardly alone here, that RJ is the best of the best of the best, sir. he may get a little crazy at times but he is VERY good at describing what's happening ON THE ICE and not getting too sidetracked. That's one of the things that bugs me most- when the announcers forget there's a hockey game on (ahemVS!ahem) and spend the whole time blathering on about what Ryan Smyth did over the weekend or something. I can appreciate the occasional tidbit about the players, or stats or items of interest- possibly more than most folks (as I'd LOVE to be a color analyst one day) but I also appreciate the value of what's actually happening IN THE GAME and I want to know about it. I often do other things while hockey is on tv (this is not new, I used to do homework to hockey games in high school, as the margins of my notebooks can attest- I used to have all sorts of random hockey stats and tidbits written in there LOL) so I listen more than watch and if you aren't describing the play, I get very cranky.

Phew.. all that said, the Kings folks weren't too shabby. They were kinda fixated on Ryan Miller and his positioning and the way he handled time outs and random minutiae like that, and also were all about both teams activating the d-men from the backend, (which they did quite splendidly actually) but even with that, they gave the Sabres some mad love and called the game quite well. Even their token 'girl' reporter, Heidi Androl wasn't too bad. She wasn't dressed like a skank and seemed to almost have a clue what she was talking about! (major points there- and of course I'm mad jealous of her and want her job like whoa.)

On to the game- and it was a good one! The Sabres put a lot of pressure but couldn't seem to finish in the first (and Quick is a solid little "quick and thick" goalie. I like him.) and the scoring was back and forth. There was a lot of action all over the ice, but it seemed like both teams kept it pretty clean but didn't let up at all on each other. I can't comment much on the actual action, since I wasn't watching, just listening with an occasional glance at the tv, but it was a fast-paced and fun game. It's a shame the Sabres had to lose but the Kings certainly played well enough to win.

I hope the boys can bring it into San Jose tonight.