Well so much for that idea

(In which I use a ridiculous number of (parentheses) for some reason that is probably grammatically wrong, but I'm too tired and lazy to sort them all out. You get the point.)

I had this New Year's resolution of a sort to blog more.. then MSG and TWC decided to have a little spat and I wasn't able to watch my team for most of January and half of February (aside from a few games on NBCSPorts) It's hard to write about a team you can't watch.

So I fell off the wagon a little. But now the boys are back on tv, and they are playing much better hockey since the All-Star break so there's something to be said for all that.

They will probably still make a valiant (but ultimately too late) push to the playoffs, only to fall short by a point or 2 and thus getting a middling draft pick. (we should be used to this by now). or they might surprise us and squeak in at the 11th hour. Time will tell.

But tomorrow is DOOMSDAY - (AKA Trade Deadline Day) Last year I missed the madness because I was in New Zealand (or en route, the "time travel" to get there was a little whacky and kind of made my head hurt) and away from internets and computers and anything resembling hockey, as I was chillin the summer of the southern hemisphere (totally weird, btw, in a cool way) and didn't really worry too much about it. (ANd the Sabres didn't do much so that was little to worry about.)

But this year is (or may be) different. Roy is a name we've heard being tossed about quite a bit, as well as Gaustad (even The Hockey News mentions him as a decent pickup) and the thing is.. unlike last year when I was practically BEGGING someone to take Timmay Connolly off our hands and please for the loveofSabretooth SELL SELL SELL Stafford (while the selling was hot) I actually LIKE those two guys. I mean, really, who doesn't love Goose, with his funny nickname and his GreenTeam-ness and his good attitude and foxy faceoff skills? Right?

And Royzie, well, he's Royzie. He's infuriating at times, and occasionally quite skillful and brilliant with the puck (when he's not giftwrapping and presenting it to his opponents' sticks!) When he's playing hard (as he has been lately and did in the early days of his career when I fell for him in the first place), he's a great asset. When he's being lazy and boneheaded, he's a nusicance and you want him as far away as possible so he doesn't contaminate anyone else. He seems to be one of those polarizing player- you either love him or he drives you nuts. (And sometimes he does both at the same time, what a multi-tasker!)

But, from the time when I really started watching the Sabres in earnest (the playoff run of 2006, though I was living far away at the time) and the next season (when I came back), Roy always stood out. I picked him as "my" Sabre, and thus he remained. I officially switched my allegiance to Nathan Gerbe (you may recall my many soul-searchings and arguments with myself on the blog about it)... but even though I went with my gut and bought a Gerbe jersey with my Christmas money this year, I still love Royzie. He's still one of my favs and I will always have a place for him in my heart.

I don't want him to leave Buffalo, but I've felt it in my gut that he's going to be gone for a while now. (I even wrote about it here.) He's young enough and talented enough that in the right setting he could really thrive. His contract is not insane. The Sabres could actually get a decent return for him and he could be a legit #2 center on a team with a solid #1. He doesn't seem to do that well in the #1 role (though his faceoffs have improved significantly this season, I've noticed.)

Back to Goose for a second. On paper, he's not all that thrilling. Not a lot of goals, not a lot of flash and dash. BUT he owns faceoffs (and is very consistent about it) and he is the definition of "intangibles". He's a tough customer who will stand up for his boys (put aside for a moment the "Lucic incident-- I still maintain that the referees were letting nothing happen that night- I was AT the game and I noticed that from the beginning, AND any Sabre who had challenged Lucic would have been destroyed and they didn't need that. Moving on..) He generally plays tough and is not afraid to get his hands dirty. I like that about Goose. He seems to be a good guy in the room, and is a proven leader- again with the intangibles, things that aren't recorded, other than in the visual of watching him play. But those are the details that win hockey games, not just the goals and statbits.

So who knows what the next day will bring.. but we'll be here watching it happen. And I'll write some sort of recap of what news there is.

(Also in my "guys I don't want to see leave" category is Rick Nash from Columbus. He's the face of the franchise, and though he's maybe been coasting for a bit, during this terrible run of a season, I still think he wants to stay there- he SAID HE DID in an interview a few weeks back. And I'd prefer to see him in a CBJ uniform for a few more years at least. Just till they get a legit shot at the playoffs. It would be good for my home state.)

Wow are the Oilers this bad or are the Sabres this good? It's 4-0 Buffalo with 17 mins in the 2nd period. The boys scored on 2 of their first 3 shots.. this is sweet. Roy, Staffy, Paestch (say what?) and Hecht with goals so far. As my sis Brett said.. "Roloson needs to take nap. Or maybe he was napping." LOL Of course if anyone could blow a 4-0 lead, it would be the Sabres.

It's not too horrible watching a non-Sabres feed. It's not like we have RJ to listen to anyway and these guys are decent.

I have never even heard of half of the Oilers.

OOooh no Mair is broken now. Well, at least he's not a defenceman, but I hope he's okay anyway.

Watching western games always brings me back to the beginning of my hockey fandom, when I was dedicated to the Vancouver Canucks. They were not often on ESPN but you know that when they were (particularly the playoffs in 1994, the very beginning), I was staying up way too late and watching them. No matter that I had to be up at 6 for school, it was hockey and it was MY team and there was no chance I was missing it. Those were the days when I would watch any and all hockey I could get my hands on. The margins of my math and science and even occasionally history notebooks from high school were covered with hockey stats and facts and whatnot. I was obsessed and nothing made me happier than watching hockey. The love of hockey hasn't changed, though my notes are now online in the form of a blog and I don't watch the random games as much (evenings tend to be busy around here) but it's still hockey and it's still fun. ANd of course I live in the Buffalo area and watch as many Sabres games as I can but it will never be quite like the early days of hockey watching. I was thinking about that while watching the all-star game. It really made me miss Pavel Bure. I've babbled about Bure a few times on here so I'll spare you but he's been on my mind lately. I would pay good money for a DVD of Pavel Bure highlights. LOL

Okay.. back to the Sabres. Holy whoa there have been 137 coaching changes in the NHL since 1997 when Lindy Ruff was hired. He's so the man.

OH MY GOSH it is now 7-1 Sabres. This is hilarious but I feel kinda bad for the Oilers. Only a little though.. the Sabres need a game like this- perfect timing for it.

I just put a bid on an old Canucks Bure jersey. I own a black Canucks jersey (the old black, red and yellow ones) and I own a Pavel Bure jersey (Panthers) but I always wanted a Bure Canucks jersey so it's time. It's going for really cheap (I put a bid up to $25 cuz I don't need it but it'd be cool to own) and the bidding ends in 2 days so we'll see what happens. There are some sweet Pavel Bure items on ebay right now, including lots of white 'Nucks jerseys- which I always really wanted- but they are a lot more expensive. There is also a Pavel Bure watch, made by my Pavel's Great-Grandfather for the Czars of Russia. Mad sweet but way too expensive for my budget. It would be soooo cool to own one of those though, seriously. Oh well.

Hey guys, did I tell you that I'm going to Ottawa on Feb 6-8? My sis and I are participating in a triathalon- as a team- that includes an 8km skate on the Rideau canal (I'm doing that part), a 5k (I think) run (Renee' is doing that) and a cross-country skiing thing too (my sister's friend is doing that). Pretty sweet, eh? it should be fun. Our sister Brett is also coming along for the fun. We will be going to the Sabres/Sens game that Saturday night. I'm super excited about that because Sabres/Senators games are always fun and it's a great time to cheer for the other team- plus it's HOCKEY in Canada which is just brilliant. ;)

Wow Goose is bustin the commercials- Go Green and promo-ing the Infiniti car place. It's all good, he's looking rather dreamy so I'm not complaining. :)

Wow the Sabres really haven't played in Edmonton for 2 years? Weird. I def. like the whole every team plays every team thing. Good stuff.

Let's go around the NHL: Hot dang Rick Nash was the man tonight. He scored all 3 of CBJs goals, including the game winner in OT which was a sick goal too. Well done brutha.. OOoooh Ovie took a nasty hit to the boards but he came back later in the game so.. I hope he's good. I like him, I can't seem to help myself. And geez could the Caps have left Krejci any more ALONE to score that OT goal? That was lame horrible defence, my friends.

I really want to see CBJ go to the playoffs, it would make my Ohio-loving heart very happy. As of the moment, they are in. (dude on the broadcast just called him "Steve" Nash- no you ijdit[yeah I spelled it like that on purpose], it's RICK!) Ahem.. anyway I like the Blue Jackets, even though they always seem to play really well against us. I wasn't born there but I spent more time in Ohio than any other state (about 16 years) so I claim it as "home" and I want my "home" team to do well. They have amazing fans who always get made fun of (for no reason), a great arena (and a thriving Arena district in what was once the ghetto of Cbus), fantastic and well-liked ownership and Columbus is one of my favorite cities so it's time for them to get some love that doesn't start with The and end with Ohio State University.

Man I'm full of random tangents tonight. Okay boys it's 7-1 now and if you give it away, I will cry and disown all of you. Got it? That being said, continue to fire at will. :)

Staffy scores his 2nd of the game. 8-1. Ha. Make that a hat trick. Stafford just nailed another one and it's 9-1. Insane. Maybe Edmonton will put Roloson back in? LOL

Wow it's a good night for my fantasy team, even though I forgot to update. *I thought I checked but I guess not* Well all I missed out on was 2 goals (one was a PP) but overall I'm pretty set. It helps that Royzie has a goal and 2 assists and Pommer and MacArthur also have 2 assists each. Marc Savard (forgot he was on my team LOL) has a goal, as does Elias. Sweetness. We have 12 pts tonight. It kinda sucks though in my other league, because Rick Nash has 3 goals (which is sweet) but I forgot to set up Nabokov as my goalie and he's working on a shutout! Grrrr.

Whoa Edmonton scored. Ha. They cheered pretty heartily for him though.

Sweet move, Timmay-a shortie even! It's 10-2 now my friends. What a lovely game. There have been worlds of penalties though. Oh well, doesn't seem to be hurting the Sabres at all. LOL They are even playing good D even though it totally doesn't matter at this point.

Sick game, boyos. It was a blowout but it was still quite well-played, all around. REMEMBER THIS FEELING WHEN YOU CONTINUE THIS ROAD TRIP, MY FRIENDS. :)

And with that, I'm off to shower and get some sleep. I went sledding and playing outside for 2 hours today, I'm tired!

I am a terrible blogger

My life has been very busy of late. I haven't actually sat down to watch a Sabres game since.. the game against Atlanta? And even then I was only halfway watching it because I was cleaning the basement while it was on. The games since then have all been DVR'da nd watched in pieces or on fast-forward because they weren't worth spending the time to watch properly/and I didn't have time even then. yeesh. I *might* be able to see most of tomorrow's game, won't that be fun?

I have a date tonight (wooo!) so I decided to find a Hockey SAB early for you since it might be until next week if I wait- here ya go..



-Sergei Fedorov of the Capitals

AND



-Singer Gavin Rossdale.

Separated at Birth? You be the judge. :) ( I think that's an older pic of Gavin but I thought if it when I saw an interview with Sergei the other day so there ya go.)

You would be amazed (or maybe you wouldn't if you knew anything about Fedorov) by the amount of skanky pics that come up when you serch Sergei Fedorov. he's a skank magnet. Of course his associations with *gagpuke* Anna Kournikova (aka SkankQueenoftheUNIVERSE) will add to that total quite a bit. Yick. However, his hockey resume is quite impressive. He just became the highest goal-scoring Russian player in NHL history. Woo. he is also the 4th highest scoring Red Wing AND the most consistently booed ex-Wing since he gave them the big diss in 2003 to go to the Ducks. I'd boo him too.

In other news, Goose should be back soon! HONK!

And my sister saw Rick Nash at Panera today and made eye contact with him. She did not jump his bones or even ask for an autograph. Chicken. That's almost as cool (though not as amusing) as the day my other sister saw Fedorov at her tanning salon. She DID ask for an autograph, only because Sergei is our older sister's favorite player.

If you made any sense of that, you're pretty cool. And yes, I have a lot of sisters. (there is one more)

Time to get ready for my date.