My current schedule is making it hard for me to get in here and post more than 2 to 3 times per week. So, while I would love to jo down all of my thoughts on the game the next morning, sometimes that is simply not possible.
Now back to our regularly scheduled drivel.
The game monday night against Pittsburgh, all homerism aside, was the most entertaining game I've watched this year. It had everything except a good scrap. The boys in the AGH sweaters were flying. It almost seemed like they were playing to show up the national coming-out party for Sid the Kid (who, in some ways, I feel bad for... but he seems to be handling all the attention just fine so far) and Saint Mario. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Mario's, but it's hard not to give him a little grief for the way he's portrayed (an image he does nothing to dispel, either) by the NHL and their new partners OLN.
If you didn't catch the game, I'm sorry for you, because it was a great time, in spite of Brian Engblom who is flat-out horrible. It was great to finally not hear him open his mouth during the end of the game as Emrick took over and it finally felt like a professional hockey broadcast and not a fashion show. Both teams had me out of my chair at least 9 times (and that's not counting trips to the little hockey-addicts-room). Overtime was spent standing behind my wife and grabbing hte back of the couch with both hands. It was close to a playoff game in it's intensity. Marc-Andre Fleury was amazing as were the pipes which frame the edges of his little world.
The Sabres hit the post at least 5 times. Thomas Vanek's first post came after a great little play to bank the puck off the endboards and rifle a shot past Fleury's glove. Had that particular piece of vulcanized rubber gone in that would have to go down as one of the single most creative first career goals ever. Fleury's stop on his wrap-around attempt late in the thrid period at the end of a long shift was other-worldly.... Hasek-like, if you will. It was a tremendous effort by Vanek to see the opportunity to win the game late in his shift, when he could have just dumped it in and gone for his scheudled change. There's a fire in this kid that Satan will never have, and that difference alone makes the substitution of one for the other a win for Buffalo.
Jochen Hecht's game-winner was payback for a similar chance in the first period. Fitzie had a strong game as well, confidently eliminating people in his own end, pinching when possible (for the game's first goal, most notably) and later seeing the opportunity to lead a rush or two catching the Pittsburgh defenders flat-footed. Though, to be fair, the rest of the team did a lot of that to the Pens during the game. This was a game dominated by Buffalo on home ice and one they deserved to win. The Pens best players were Fleury and Ziggy Palffy, who, for all of the hyperbole surrounding Crosby and Lemieux, made the best passes and created, alomst single-handedly, the Pens best scoring chances.
Tonight's game in Tampa was one I was planning on attending in person but in the end I decided against for work-related reasons. The Sabres are 3-0 at home. Great stat. In 2003-04 they were 8 games over .500 at home and 5 games under on the road. Had they played better on the road that year, they might have made the playoffs... of course beating the Isles once wouldn't have hurt either.
This is largely the same cast of characters from that year, so let's see how much 'character' this team has. Winning on the road against a quality opponent like the 'Ning and then against the best goalie in the league on Saturday will go a long way towards dispelling what reservations I still have about this group of players.
Ta,
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