HOCKEY!!!

I thought that perhaps I should update this.

There has not been much to say. Beyond Miller's blog update and the ever-entertaining Tim Connolly Injury of the Month, what is there, when I do not watch games?

...Only, wait. I watched the game tonight. I had a feeling that the idea of watching the Sabres in glorious HD on our rather big television would be far too tempting to resist, and I was right.

The game was much better than what I had become accustomed to before I started my Buffalo sports hiatus ten days ago. They were beautifully physical. I greatly enjoyed all the hits and all the times that Craig Rivet and Paul Gaustad took exception to Jordan Staal's being near Ryan Miller. At least this time there was no spearing necessary.

I must complain about the officiating, though. I must. It is unavoidable. Why is it suddenly a penalty for Patrick Kaleta to hit and/or touch other players? The first penalty called on him tonight was ridiculous enough... He was given a roughing penalty essentially for allowing some dude on the Penguins to slowly push him to the ice. Honestly what in the world... I could have inflicted bodily harm on a referee right then and there, but then later on, when he was given a boarding penalty for hitting Satan? Oh, please. Please, please, please. Spare me. I was incredibly mad, which basically means that I just kept shaking my head and saying, "What? What? What?" And if I were there in person, I would have said something to the referee, more likely than not. I missed who the officials were because I missed the first two minutes of the game due to the fact that my mother was still in the room and had control of the remote at the time. I mean, there were plenty of ridiculous calls in the game and plenty of non-calls to go around, but those two calls on Kaleta I think sum the officiating up pretty well, better than any of the other individual calls of the game.

I adore Drew Stafford (FOR TONIGHT ONLY) and Paul Gaustad for scoring two goals each tonight. I thought that Vanek did not have a very good game... It would have been an excellent game if he were, say, Jochen Hecht, but for Vanek, I thought it was weak. I know that, up until ten days ago anyway, he was dominating every single game every time he stepped onto the ice, and now I expect more out of him. I am sure that he does, too.

There isn't really much else to say... I only hope that the Sabres can make it three in a row tomorrow night. I'll even likely watch the game again! I actually decided a couple of days ago that it was time for my little vacation from Buffalo sports to end, because I suddenly couldn't stand the thought of missing even one more game, when previously I was like, "This is great! No being stressed out over stupid sports all the time, and I have all the time in the world to hang out with my friends and with the guy I happen to maybe be in love with! SWEET!" Out of nowhere, that changed.... I went from YAYAYAYAY YEEESSSS THIS IS THE BEST IDEA I'VE EVER HAD!!!!!!!! to I reeeeaaaallllyyyyy miss the Sabres and Bills... Just out of nowhere, like a light switch went off. It was nice to be reunited with one half of my loves tonight. The other half will unfortunately have to wait until next week, because this week I will be in a car somewhere in Ohio when the game starts.

My Bengals fan friend and I enjoy arguing over who is more tortured by our sports teams. I always win.

And, yeah, that's it. Just good to see a nice effort from the boys for my first game back from break. All my wounds are healed now. I won't hold a grudge... I promise.