I was right

Timmy Ho really is a mirage.

Excuse me while I go laugh at his patheticness. No, I don't care that that is not a word.

However, mad props to Lindy Ruff for this:

"I think after playing a couple of games, it's to be expected."

He made a funny! I LOL'd, anyway.

WHY DO WE NOT PLAY UNTIL FRIDAY???

L-E-A-D-E-R-S-H-I-P... and other things

Brodeur is out for 3-4 months, apparently. Boo hoo... NOT. Oh, how I love being juvenile and '90s. Does this mean that NHL.com will take down their Brodeur watch thing?

With the return of Rivet, one would have to be absolutely stupid, high, or dead to not expect the team to play better.

I have been thinking about this a lot today. Carrying on the entire theme of "the team sucked last year because they had no leadership"... I don't believe it was, or is, exactly that simple. It is, but isn't.

Leadership. Last year we all saw that there was not one speck of that anywhere in the locker room. When things went wrong, everyone blamed everybody else on the team, and that was that. The only player that continually held himself accountable was Vanek; I gained a ton of respect for him last year despite his poor play the first half, and that has continued this season. All the others were always ready with excuses and cliches excusing their poor play. The bounces never went their way, their feet were never moving, and the defense had a breakdown on every goal against. Sound familiar? There was never any sense of accountability or responsibility in any player on the team (sans Vanek, of course).

Take Lindy Ruff as an example of how last year's little problems were (so far) all solved with the addition of one Craig Rivet. He is an excellent coach, when it comes to motivating individual players. I am certainly never in the locker room or privy to anything that is said, but I can say with confidence that last year, he was not able to focus on that one bit. Instead, he was too busy with trying to motivate the entire team to play well, and they were simply not responding. They were, and probably still are, a little too pigheaded for consistent straight-up positive response to what he tells them as a team, as a whole.

Enter captain(s). This team obviously responds extremely well to permanent on-ice leadership. Not only that, but Rivet has, according to the media, spent time after nearly every practice talking to the team and reiterating everything that Ruff said, as well as, I'm sure, putting his own two cents in; there is off-ice leadership as well. This takes pressure off Lindy Ruff and enables him to focus on what he is best at: motivating individual players to do well, while coaching a defensive system.

His weakness is capturing and keeping the attention of the entire team as a whole and getting them to respond on a consistent basis when there is no captain in place to reinforce what he says and keep the kids in line... if that could be called a weakness. Every other coach in the league, with the exception of Ron Wilson this year, has the benefit of a permanent captain to help him. It is highly unusual, and even bizarre, for a team to have a rotating captaincy. In fact, in my opinion it is completely stupid. I am sure that every other team in the NHL would struggle without a captain just as the Sabres did last year. When people said they were lacking an identity, what they really meant, I think, was that they were lacking leadership... Again, same thing, really, just semantics, but what a world of difference one person can make. When Ruff allows himself to function under the same circumstances as other coaches, he shows that he is without a doubt one of the best in the league at what he does.

I am just grateful that, as Heather said, the team at least recognizes that it is immature and stubborn and desperately needs an actual leader. They are reaping the benefits of that ability right now, and man, does it feel great.

HEY! Vanek, Roy, Miller, and Numminen have been named to the fan ballot for the All-Star Game. I just got the text... Voting begins November 12. I'd advise voting for Vanek and Miller multiple times a day, maybe for Roy if you're into getting as many Sabres to play in the ASG as possible, and not for Numminen at all because not only is his nomination incredibly random, but I am sure that he will need and greatly enjoy the rest.

Personally, I will be voting for Vanek and Miller every day, for Roy if he picks his game up and genuinely deserves it, and not at all for Numminen.

EEEEEEEEEEEE /fan girl squeal

TWO SHUTOUTS IN A ROW!

RYAN MILLER NOW LEADS THE LEAGUE IN SHUTOUTS, SAVE PERCENTAGE, AND GAA! (OK, apparently he is only second in GAA, to freakin' TIM THOMAS... except I got .947 as his save percentage, and NHL.com says it is .942. I think it's because I'm averaging all his save percentages together, and not dividing saves by SA... because that gives me .942... OH WHO CARES. HE IS STILL AWESOME.)

I'D LIKE TO KNOW WHERE ALL THE HATERS ARE NOW!

(Also, Lalime's little dance was freakin' adorable.)

Excellent game from everyone (on the Sabres) involved.

I cannot say enough about the PK units tonight.

We need three pigeons. One for Ryan Miller, one for Patrick Kaleta, and one for the PK units to share.

Just as I could not give an objective (read: calm) review after the Lightning game, so I cannot give one now.

I'm not even going to try.

They played hockey tonight. They fought through all the BS calls designed purely to even up the total on the box score at the end of the game, they did not give up halfway through the first when they had not yet scored (last year's team would have), they blocked shots all over the place... The defense was excellent... The offense was beautiful when it was allowed to function/when the Sabres were not busy killing off penalties...

AND MY BOY PATRICK KALETA SCORED A GOAL! And he got the puck out on the PK at least once every time! And he laid down on the ice to block shots at least twice! And... He is my favorite player, so I must stop gushing at some point, but man, if only there could be two pigeons! He also drew a penalty tonight, as always. We didn't score off it like we usually do, but complaining about that is just being nitpicky, after that game.

The Rivet-led boys are back. They were halfway there last game; now, they have arrived. Show me a weakness from this game, and I'll show you my loser look.

I love this. (Yeah, I may or may not have watched the game online, and not on GameCenter. Oops.)

I think not!

Craig Rivet comes back, and the Sabres outshoot the Devils 20-3 in the first period.

COINCIDENCE?

AAAAHHHHHH

Craig Rivet is back!

I know that picture sucks, but I'm too lazy to do anything other than a Google image search at the moment, and that's all they've got of him in a Sabres jersey! Also, I prefer in-game pictures to roster photos!

And that's all anyone needs to know about the game (that is starting in fourteen minutes!

YAYAYAYAYAY!

Loser Mode

The Bills have lost three of their last four games.

It was fun while it lasted.

Part of me wants the Sabres to be the better team, because I love hockey much more than I do football, but the rest of me recognizes that the Bills will not be playing in Buffalo anymore five years from now, and I would love for them to win the Super Bowl before they leave, go out with a bang. I could not stomach having them slowly become contenders only to win the year after they move. That would be more devastating than the day they finally do leave... Unfortunately it seems to happen that way almost every time a team is moved.

If you could not tell, I am already trying to prepare myself psychologically for the inevitable. We can talk all we want about how Jim Kelly is getting his group of investors together to buy the team and hope for the best, but at the end of the day, even if they got Golisano involved there would still not be enough money to get the job done. It is being said that the Bills will cost more to buy than any other sports team ever has. Perhaps Jacobs would be willing to sell the Bruins and pool his money with TG and Kelly and his group?

Keep dreaming.

I hate this. I am going to cry buckets the day they are sold, and I never cry.

Now, excuse me while I continue to bask in the glory of that oh-so-sweet victory last night and pout because I won't be able to watch the game against the Devils in which we will score eight goals on Weekes due to the fact that it is on Versus, so it will be blacked out on the NHL GameCast.

Also I hope that tonight is as awesome as last night. I spent a good half hour rapping "Lose Yourself" over and over again, much to the chagrin of my friend in whose room I was hanging out. Yes, it really was a good way to waste time waiting for the clocks to change. But, seriously? That song is so much fun to rap/sing, especially the part in the third verse about the teeter-totter caught up between being a father and a prima donna baby mama drama's screaming on and too much for me to wanna stay in one spot. Between the game and rapping that song, last night was win.

When are Roberto Luongo, Vesa Toskala, Evgeni Nabokov, Marty Biron, Chris Osgood, and Marty Turco going to stop stinking up the joint? And when are Biron and Turco and Brodeur going to have their first names listed as "Marty"? I mean, Daniel Briere is now Danny Briere.

I wish the Sabres played every night. If fatigue did not exist, that would be love. I would have something to look forward to every single day! Wouldn't that be special?

PARTTTTYYYYY

Third period:

-I have been screaming for a Vanek-Roy-Pominville line FOREVER. Thank you, Lindy Ruff!

-I kinda like penalties to the other team. You know.

-Derek Roy is an idiot

-Miller, Miller, Miller. SHUTOUT. YES I SAID IT. AND THERE ARE SIXTEEN MINUTES LEFT. I’M NOT CRAZY, I PROMISE. WHEN I CALL SHUTOUTS, HE FREAKIN GETS THEM. I’ve been wrong once in the past two seasons… but that’s it. You can just tell when he is in the zone…

-Goal posts are Ryan Miller’s best friend twice tonight

-lulz Paille blocked MacArthur’s shot

-Still doing VERY well at breaking up plays in front of the net

-BEAUTIFUL play on that Paille goal. Any breakaway in which Paille is involved turns into magical goodness.

-That hooking call on Roy was ridiculously obvious. I basically hate Roy this season.

-EEE I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE SHUTOUT. I TOOOOOOLD YOU!

I would like to take full credit for this game and its awesomeness. Oh, and Tim Connolly... wasn't all that bad, either.

Now, who gets the pigeon?! Vanek? Miller? Paille? Kaleta? NOT Roy.

This game was... interesting. I predicted them to win 5-0 (not here, but a message board), and I called Miller's shutout only a few minutes in the third... And Vanek scored two. Not three. No hatty. Just two.

I saw great effort from the team defensively. They were not as good as they were the first few games of the season, but baby steps, right? They were blocking shots all over the place and getting in the face of guys who dared stand in the crease and breaking up plays in front of the net all night long. I adored it. That is how you play hockey!

I am not even going to speculate on anything tonight, or write a novel on how much Derek Roy sucked. I am simply going to gloat because I called this game from the get-go and bask in the glory of winning with a Ryan Miller shutout. With Enroth's shutout the other night, I cannot wait until Lalime's contract is up and we have ourselves a beautiful 1A 1B goaltending situation.

I so desperately want to expound on how terrible Derek Roy was tonight. The idea is incredibly tempting. But, I won't. No bad thoughts tonight! No!

Tim Connolly even made it through the game without dying. Cheers to Timmah!

Oh, and as for all the blogs on wordpress.... Yeah, I'm having a problem with being able to look at them on my laptop. I have to go to the Google cache of them in order to read, and I can't comment... So, any of you people reading this right now, I DO read all your entries! I am just unable to comment on them. =(