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!

coming coming soon

I am really distraught about Royzie. :( Obviously he's done for the season and the injury sounds pretty gross. I just hope he recovers completely and doesn't try to push it. But I will miss him!

And ugh.. I am so over this year's Winter Classic. I'm so annoyed (as I've said beforethat Sid and the Penguins get another turn. They could have given the game to someone else.. that would be fair! Share the wealth, NHL. Boo on that. I may watch some of the game (I'll be in Pitt for New Year's) but I don't care all that much. Go Caps. haha It will be cool if Sloaner gets to play though. He's back off the IR so I hope he'll get a shot. That would be awesome for him. Of course, this is all assuming the weather cooperates. We'll see, I guess.

That's pretty much what I have. I went to a Dayton Gems hockey game last night. They play in the Central Hockey League. It was a good time. I really do love minor league hockey- it has its own flair. The difference between these guys and the NHL is pretty extreme though. Hahaha. Bruce Boudreau's son plays for the Gems.. He's TINY! He's got some decent speed- but sometimes forgets where his teammates are. I doubt he'll ever make it to the show but he might get a shot at a higher league at some point.

Tomorrow is more hockey- the (defending Kelly Cup Champion) Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL this time. Should be a great time. :)

dude..

So I got an e-mail from The Hockey News inviting me to re-subscribe. I have had a subscription on and off for at least 10 years now. I really do enjoy reading it, but let the subscription lapse when I realized that I had a 2-foot stack of UNread issues in my room. But I kinda want to have it around again. I do enjoy print media, even with the glut of internet-ness out there *much of it very good*, sometimes it's nice to have something to HOLD in your hand. I very much feel this way about books. I think the idea of e-books is great, but I still prefer bound paper and probably always will.

Anyway the point of all this is to tell you about a bizarre picture I found on the site. It was a photo teaser about the magazine, as well as the Draft Preview and Future Watch, 2 special issues of THN that you receive with your subscription. It also included a picture.. of either the season in review magazine or the Preview, I'm not sure which. I remember getting it but don't recall which one it was. It features everyone's favorite player, Sidney Crosby, holding The Cup. Fair enough, it was the Penguins who won last year. My issue is not with Sid, but the picture, and the photo editing..

Observe:



So.. either Sid has a random 3rd hand no one knows about.. or someone miffed a photo editing job. Hmm.. I wish I still had the magazine around so I could check if it made it to the print copy..

it had to be done

Today I read a very amusing article about the Vancouver Canucks and sex the night before a game. It's not bad, I promise. You should read the article, but basically it was a question of what kind of habits the players have during the playoffs and how they differ from regular season and such. "Coach, what are your expectations, and in fact your advice to players, with respect to daily health routines, whether it is sleep, eating habits, training, recovery, diet, sex? You know, all the normal things people do every day?" was the question posed to Vigneault."

He deflected the question with a 'you'll have the ask the players, I can't control that' response and so she asked the players. Their responses were quite amusing. So, naturally it got me wondering how our dear Sabres would handle such a query. I think we can all imagine the scene. I think it might go something like this:

(female) Reporter: "So, Sabres, what do you think about sex on the night before a game? Good idea? Bad idea?"

Timmay Connolly: I'm undressing you with my eyes. Want to do it right here and now?

Jason Pominville: (clearly uncomfortable) Um.. well, every night I go home and eat dinner and then after dinner I clean the kitchen and walk the dogs and then after that I come home and take a bubble bath then we read stories and I go to bed.

Patrick Kaleta: (giggles) Sex? Yeah! Good idea! *high-fives Timmay*

Ryan Miller: I can't change any of my habits. Don't want to mess with the mojo. But it is an interesting study. I look forward to hearing the results.

Derek Roy: I know a place on Chippewa..

Patrick Lalime: Have you SEEN my wife? *grin* Besides, I'm not likely to play, am I?

Craig Rivet: No comment.

Adam Mair: Ya know ladies, 31 is the new 21.. *wink*

Tyler Myers: *looks around confusedly*

Paul Gaustad: I am much too much of a gentleman to even consider the question.

Thomas Vanek: I think that would have to be no, ya know, because if I played poorly the next day, I'd never be able to have sex again!

.....

Yeah, I think it'd be something like that. I can't add much more, player-wise because the rest of the boys just don't lend themselves to responses in my mind the way those guys did. If any of you wonderful readers want to add to the discussion, feel free to leave a comment. ;)

This is so cool!

Hockey Weekend Across America

Check it out- and if you live somewhere that it makes sense (those of you actually IN Buffalo and the surrounding suburbs might have a shot at this) then check it out!

And wear your favorite jerseys to work/school tomorrow. :) Awesome.

Just wanted to share.

stuff that rocks

Assuming anyone still reads this after my confession the other night, I want to share some fun things with you!

Of course, most of y'all have probably already seen/heard this, but the San Jose guys doing an impression of RJ was too great not to share:



Also, this fantastic discourse on why the Devils are amazing is also too great not to share- The Devils Own. It's from this blog i just found- The Two-Line Pass Blog- but for all I know, y'all have been reading that for years. If you haven't, you should. If you have, why didn't you share it with me? LOL

Enjoy. I may try to watch the Canucks game tonigh, because I rather enjoy them, but only time will tell if I'm feeling in the mood. ;)

maybe you want it maybe you need it

I'm going to avoid all thoughts of impending DOOM (Lalime might not be able to play tomorrow? What?) and just go on with the usual Wednesday fun.. A SabresStyle Hockey SAB!

For today's exhibit, we have, in his 2nd appearance on Hockey SAB:



-Timmmmmmmmay Connolly of the Sabres

AND




-Isaac Slade, lead singer of the band whose songs are on repeat in my head- The Fray. I don't know if the pic does it proper justice, but watch one of their videos (and note the supercute guitarist!) and you may see what I'm feelin here. He reminds me of Timmy.. Weird.

Separated at Birth? YOU be the judge. (and tell me, which do you like better- this week's, or the last appearance of Timmy as a SAB? )

Discuss. ;)

P.S. This is the 42nd entry tagged "hockey SAB"- woot! (almost) one a week for close to a year now. My first post was March 10 and the first SAB was March 26. :)