"You had two penalties, and the Sabres keep rolling."

Not exactly the prettiest win of the season, but the Sabres still pulled out with two points in overtime. For the record, Tamara and I chanted Timmy's name throughout the OT and called him scoring the game winner. We are obviously psychic, yo.

While it was nice for the boys to get the extra point in OT, the last few seconds of regulation were BAD. Point number one, don't screen your goaltender. Point number two...reflections are bad. Ryan really had no chance on it considering it was a deflection, but when you end up giving up the equalizer when they pulled the goaltender AND you're on the power play? Come on guys. Though, it could've been 3-1 if they counted Timmy's little hand pass empty netter, but those are the breaks. It's not like the Leafs were right behind us in points where it's bad that they got a point.

They get back in the groove tonight on Halloween, and I hope the Islanders don't 'scare' them away, per say.

You keep on rocking, Drew Stafford.

A very happy birthday goes out to one of our favorite, incredibly hairy but hardcore right wingers, Andrew* Stafford! He is twenty-four years old today. (: Oh, and look! They play the Maple Leafs tonight so maybe he'll be able to score a pretty sick goal against them like he did on Febrary 4th last season. I remember these things WAY too well.

In addition to his birthday post, I'm a posting the Fabian video. If you haven't seen it, I'm sorry for the damage this will do to your brain. If you have seen it - sorry again.

Fabian (Live) Video by Red Seal Peach - MySpace Video

Leopard pants have never looked so good.

*Tamara and I think that Drew isn't his actual name, so we will go with Andrew here.

"I smile because I love the children."

I think we all knew by the Tampa game (if not before then) that Tyler Myers was probably going to remain a Sabre for a duration of the season, but there was a small sense that he would be sent back to juniors for contract reasons. He is now a restricted free agent one year earlier. He could be an unrestricted free agent a year earlier if he plays at least forty games this season. I have a feeling that the team is going to keep him in the lineup for most of it, unless they need to scratch him for injured defensemen coming back. For now, he's here to stay with the big club. Congratulations Tyler! I hope you decide to shave that Dirty Sanchez you have starting sooner or later...

So, how crazy was the save Ryan Miller made in the second period? At least, I think it was during the second period. He jumped because of an incoming puck, and then he slid back into the net to make a very nice save. The Devils feed didn't show the whole thing and we were disappointed. That was worth a second look.

I never want to watch a Sabres game on another feed again. I should have said that last year during their road trip. Ugggh, I am not looking forward to the west coast trip in January.

Bow down.

Today is Chris Butler's 23rd birthday! Happy birthday, Sir Christopher!


Make custom Glitter Graphics



I would have made a more proper post if I didn't have to go to school at this moment. Have a great birthday, Chris!

So how aboot them Canucks?

One thing I really fail to do with this blog is talk about the other hockey teams I like. I think I've mentioned the Canucks twice or three times this season in my posts, and for that I'm sorry. With the Sabres schedule being so screwy this month, I really need something to talk about. That brings me to the Canucks game last night.

Roberto Luongo had his 21st shutout as a Canuck last night, and Michael Grabner scored his second goal of the season on the power play. I didn't even notice while watching the game but Michael was standing in front of the net on the power play and deflected it in. Sounds like another player we know and love, and I got so giddy. His first stint with the club during the preseason didn't go so well but after a month of being in Manitoba, it's really helped him.

Willie Mitchell gave Sam Gagner a nice smack in the nose that caused him to bleed significantly. I love when they have to stick up what looks like gauze up their nose to stop the bleeding. Poor guy, at least it didn't hit his eye or anything.

They have currently won three in a row and play the Red Wings next, who have lost three in a row. Woo!

Thank goodness for that long reach.

My thoughts are still pretty jumbled from the game tonight (or maybe I have a pizza hangover from the Domino's I had during gameplay) so I can only think of some things that crossed through my mind during the game tonight.

-WHERE IS PATTY? (Tamara eventually spotted him and put up a post-it to signify where he was sitting).
-Craig Rivet totally shaved inbetween the first and second periods. Fact.
-Mike Grier looked SO happy when he scored and it made me smile too.
-Vincent Lecavalier is so gorgeous that it should be illegal in the entire world. I could watch him on my screen all day.
-Marty St. Louis is so tiny!
-Mike Smith needs to chill out. It was a little immature for him to be destroying his water bottles at the end of regulation.
-Cellino & Barnes popping up on the screen? Yeah. I will never get used to that.
-Derek Roy is doing nothing with this Diabetes thing so far this season. He hasn't scored yet.
-Speaking of THAT thing, I got all excited when he was down on the ice. I cannot stand him and if a little roughing up can change his attitude, then good. With that said, the officiating sucked tonight (oh, and I was glad Thomas was sort of checking to see if he was okay. Good sport, Thomas!)
-And another thing, I don't know if Ryan Miller can act.
-I should have more faith in Thomas with shootouts. Sorry dude.
-Okay Tyler, you can stay with the big boys.

In a galaxy far, far away...

I sadly couldn't pay much attention to the game last night because I was part working on a five page paper (which only reached three pages and a few sentences) and on my application for an EDL.* I did pay enough attention to watch the Sabres dominate in the goal scoring department in the first period. I completely missed Clemmensen get pulled though? Fail by me. Vokoun shut down the Sabres pretty well after letting in three in the first, but at least they scored a ton in the first.

While doing my EDL application and having my mom talk to me, I missed most of Chris Butler's interview. I am a sad Shelby. I know it's on the website so I will eventually get to watching the entire thing. Give me time Chris, give me time.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Carubba Collision not just because the Austrian was involved, but because it was a pile up. I love those. I'm just glad no one had gotten hurt because of it.

Speaking of Austrians, if I'm not mistaken Michael Grabner from the Vancouver Canucks scored his first NHL goal and point last night! There are high expectations for him because he's playing well for the Manitoba Moose and I'm glad he was called up! Woooo!


I find him to be very adorable. (: Aww. I'm so excited for him.

Fare thee well, Daniel Paille.

Lord knows I'm going to miss that dumbfounded look on his face. Good luck in Boston, Pie. At least you'll get to play there, huh?

The Epic Adventures of Tamara and Shelby: Thomas Vanek and Maxim Afinogenov are best friends.

Tamara and I made our fourth trip together to the HSBC Arena to watch the Sabres take on the Thrashers. We specifically wanted to go to see Max make his first trip back to Buffalove and successfully got some pretty decent seats (even though the guys behind us were total assholes). Ironically, the game that was being shown on the Jumbotron before the game started was from about a decade ago, and Max was just a baby Sabre then. Those were the good ol' days.

To have my title of the post make sense, when we went to the practice in the morning, Tamara and I were waiting for Max to come out of the tunnel for the Thrashers. As soon as we saw the long, straggly hair we knew it was him. Thomas skated right over and gave him a little handshake and they spoke for a bit. I've heard stories of them being really close, and I'm sure he was really sad when Max left town so it was nice to see them converse and such during practice.

I sported Tamara's Lydman jersey as she wore her Lalime jersey. It was weird to have someone else's jersey on other than Vanek or Pominville, but also a nice change. I need more variety in my life with these guys.

The guy on the poster was Derek Roy last night so we passed up on buying it. I don't want him staring at me in my room, noooo thanks. We unsuccessfully found Drew Stafford's portrait AGAIN in the arena and we have no idea where he is now. We've look everywhere.

Now, I was working on four hours of sleep in the past two days because we had gone to see Paranormal Activity at 12:30 on Saturday morning. We didn't get back to my brother's house until two something and then didn't fall asleep until after three. I had a dentist appointment at eight so I didn't get much sleep at all. The Sabres weren't helping me as they quickly fell to 2-0 in the first period. Clarkie getting a goal certainly woke me up, and the fact he is now leading the team in goals. I would say I didn't see it coming but Thomas is out, so when he gets back, I'm sure he'll get the lead again in goals.

I have no remorse in saying that I cheered for Max last night after he scored. I was so sick of most of the arena booing when he had the puck, and I feel like him putting it in the net was justice. Yeah, he pissed me off a lot the past two years but who hasn't on this team at least once a season? Derek Roy just pisses me off 24/7. Max is going to do well in Atlanta with the Russians there, so I think it's going to be a good fit for him.

Tamara and I are currently two for four with games that we've gone to where the Sabres have won, but it's okay. This was their first regulation loss of the season and they have a few days to rest until the road trip next week in Florida. If they can play like they did against Detroit down there, then they'll be sure wins.

...If the Sabres can dominate Detroit, why couldn't they do that against Atlanta ever?

This is the look of (perplexed) perfection.

Thomas Vanek thanks you for your time, and wants you to watch out for him in the game tomorrow. Because I don't care what anyone says; I have a feeling he's going to be playing. If not, then my intuition made an oops.

EPIC DOMINATION! (For real this time)

I love getting out of class early so that I have time to update my blog inbetween class and work, so here I am to talk about the epic game from Tuesday evening against the Red Wings.

This week I am currently watching over my brother's house, and I thought for sure that he would have digital cable again, but he didn't. This forced my mom and I to watch the game on the crappy internet feed, but I was so glad I was able to watch this game nevertheless. The way they manhandled the Red Wings really got me excited, and while this game could have been an absolute fluke, I would like to hope that this is a sign for things to come with this team. They played well defensively, Ryan Miller was there when he needed to be, and the pucks began to go into the net.

While we had that scare of Thomas possibly being out for weeks, now it has shortened down to days. Thank goodness. Like I said in my previous post, I wouldn't mind if he had been out for a few weeks but I'm glad that we're getting good news about his injury instead of extremely bad news. Hooray!

I am really happy about the points being distributed all around the team as well. I was looking at the stats after the game on Tuesday, and a lot of guys have between two to five points already in four games. That isn't bad at all. I would rather have goals and assists distributed around a bunch of guys instead of the same four or five guys every game.

I think getting Mike Grier back really did something to this team...and I like it.

Not as bad as originally feared.

I was going to make this post about Thomas Vanek already posting about his injury status BUT I read some delightful news on Facebook. According to the WGR website, his injury isn't as bad as they first thought and now Lindy is saying that they'll see how he feels from day to day. I am so ecstatic about this news, you have no idea. Not that I would have cared much if he missed a few weeks, but I'm glad that the injury isn't too bad.

...Later I'll make a post about the game from last night. After my brain melts from my Math quiz.

EPIC DOMINATION!

The Sabres dominated the Red Wings tonight with a 6-2 win over them. I am super excited about that. I think I'll make the proper post tomorrow once I finish wallowing in my sorrows for the loss of Thomas Vanek for the next few weeks. ): I hope that means like...two weeks. Oh maaaan. ):

I didn't know I was tuning into a Minnesota Wild game last night.

I'm so glad that game was boring for most of the time. I went over to my brother's last night, expecting a lot of cheering and yelling at guys for doing stupid things but NOTHING was going on. It only got exciting near the end after Mike Grier scored. Then we had something to cheer about.

I'm sorry, but I don't want these boys turning into the Minnesota Wild or the New Jersey Devils of old. I like my hockey exciting and not sucking the life out of me as I watch it. Maybe it's because Nashville and Buffalo play around the same type of game now, but I remember when games against them used to be high scoring. Remember two seasons ago? Yeah. I want that back please.

Oh, and I wish Derek Roy didn't have the 'A' for road games. It's my opinion, but I don't think he deserves it at all. He has the wrong attitude on this team and he needs to get rid of that. I'm sick of it.

The Sabres website is being rude with me and cutting off the Tim Connolly interview at the two minutes mark because I missed it last night. My brother and I kept switching between the Sabres game and the Pens game, but it was mostly so we could watch the Hockey Hotstove. That little intermission segment is awesome and highly entertaining. I'm so glad I live in an area now where we get CBC.

I hope they don't play like this against Detroit on Tuesday...

The Epic Adventures of Tamara and Shelby: Someone Destroyed Tyler Myers?!

I would first like to say that I give up naming my fantasy team because I am obviously a lazy ass. I have no time to look up pictures and come up with stuff about these guys that I don't know about, so I just won't name them anymore. Both of my teams aren't doing too hot currently anyways, but I think that's because I have Chris Osgood on BOTH teams. Yikes.

Tamara and I attended our third game together last night after acquiring tickets for cheap on Craigslist. They were only forty per seats and we sat in the 100s. Good deal, even if it was a value game. We parked a little closer than we did for the home opener and that was a good idea because it was freaking cold last night.

When we had gotten into the arena, we took notice that they are NOT selling the Game Night programs anymore. Instead, they're selling posters of players every game night. Last night, it was Craig Rivet (guy on season ticket = guy on poster?). Tamara and I were extremely giddy and we both bought one. They're only two bucks too! We also got the magnetic schedules, which I was extremely pumped about. You have no idea.

Our seats were located where the Sabres shoot twice, so we got the Coyotes during warm ups. Tamara took plenty of photos of Scottie Upshall for her friend, and we saw him give a puck to a little kid in a Briere jersey - a jersey from when he was in Phoenix. THAT'S old school right there. Did it make sense? No, but it was still cute and he was wearing the wacky jersey tat I adore so much from Phoenix. I may be one of the only people too. We also saw a 'Go Hamilton Coyotes' poster which I did not agree with. I don't want them to move up around here, no no no.

The bitter fans are already in their midseason form as I heard the guy up in the 300s yelling 'FIRE REGIER!' from our seats in the 100s. I also heard the yells of guys calling Vanek lazy, but whatever.

Now I love big hits, but when Patrick Kaleta laid out Petr Prucha (which I didn't realize it was him until I read the little thing on the website about him this morning), I sat there in shock. He wasn't moving at all after the hit and I certainly didn't want to applaud. I'm just glad he made it off the ice okay. I don't think it was a dirty hit, it was just scary.

Which brings me to what happened with Tyler Myers and Clarke MacArthur's goal. I was paying so much attention to him scoring that I didn't notice Tyler curled up in the fetal position on the ice. I gasped and Tamara and I were really hoping that he was going to be okay because we weren't cheering anymore or anything. When he got it, it was a huge sigh of relief. I still can't believe he got destroyed. I guess the kid does have some flaws. It's okay though, he still played a pretty amazing game last night.

I could talk about Thomas Vanek's goal in two paragraphs, but I'll just say that they freaking finally put one in on the power play with his goal. Figures he would score on the power play. I was just glad I got to see his first of the season. Good stuff!

I have no idea what game we'll be going to next, but I'll make sure to keep you all posted.

How quickly did YOU get your driver's license?

"That was great, like having another son in the house. One of the funniest stories ever was how he got his driver’s license. In NY state it usually takes at least a month. Somehow Thomas figured out a way to set the world record for the fastest license. From the time he set down to get the application and the time he actually got the license was like 48 hours. He had to take a 6 hour course, he had to do all these things and he did it just like that. I went with him to the driving test and he passed immediately. I think the examiner was a hockey fan. That was really funny. Nobody will ever get the license faster. Because you had to guess a code on the computer or had to wait at least to wait 2 weeks to get that code. But Thomas simply guessed the code by playing around on the keyboard."

-Steve Bartlett, Thomas Vanek's agent.
What a smarty pants.

Oh, and look at what Joe DiPenta did in Portland:

Craziness.

The Epic Adventures of Tamara and Shelby: Home Opener Edition.

I'm really sorry that I forgot a pregame post to this game. You would think with all the excitement of hockey being back, I would have enough motivation to at least write a decent lengthed post up here but the Canucks game kept me distracted. This is sad to say considering they were shut out by the Avalanche 3-0. Can you say 'ugh' with me?

We arrived to the arena a little late, but it was okay. We walked around the 300 level to try and find Drew Stafford's portrait, but it was nowhere to be found. Does anyone know where it happens to be? If you do, it would be really great if you could let us know...we just want to see where they moved it to. If anywhere for that matter, good lord.

Our seats were awesome. The guy we had bought the tickets from wasn't kidding when he said that they were great, though I felt that if I got up to cheer, I would fall over the railing and roll down the steps. Definitely not a good thing. I highly approve of the opening video they used. That got me pumped for hockey. Hells bells was a good choice for a song to be included. Nothing sappy!

I really wanted them to announce the boys while they were still in a circle after they came out, but I guess that might be asking for too much. It would've been a cute idea too! It was so good to see them be announced one by one because it's been far too long since we've seen some real hockey be played.

I liked our seats because we had a ton of Habs fans behind us that all spoke in French, and I love French accents so it was so funny and cool to hear them jibbering behind us. I did NOT approve of them chanting 'RI-VET!' whenever he got into a scrum. I was upset and not a happy Shelby.

Tamara and I had met two guys sitting next to us, and we pretty much spoke the entire third period to one another about going to other arenas and players we liked. They were super nice, and I usually never spoke to any other fans at games just because I don't have anything to talk about with really anybody, but that was a lot of fun. We might go to the Phoenix game, so it would be cool if we were able to see them both again.

You know what happened during the game, so I won't give a recap here. I just thought it sucked that Montreal got such lucky bounces. It IS the first game of the season, but I don't think that first goal should have counted. Goalie interference, flat out. I'm pretty sure Travis Moen hit Miller before the puck slid under his legs.Total bullshit, but whatever. The good news is that they got a point. (Oh, and we now get free stuff at Dunkin Donuts since Timmy scored tonight, woo!)

We waited out back for autographs for a little while, and amazingly, the one and only Austrian in my life decided to stop and sign stuff. We think it was only because Craig Rivet was in front of him and he was stuck in traffic, so there was no way for him to get out and then the flood of people practically mauled his car. Anyways, it was funny because this woman stared at me and then looked at my jersey saying 'You know Vanek is in that car so you can get your jersey signed.' and I was like 'Oh, thank you! I already had him sign one of my jerseys though.' Tamara and Meg practically pushed me to get it signed...but not really. Tamara can quote me on this because I don't remember how the convo went down, but she went up to him and asked him to sign my jersey for me as I stood twenty feet away because I am a wuss, haha.

So yes! I now have two jerseys signed by Vanek, and I have one left that can be signed by him so next time, I will go up to him and ask him myself. I guess I was just scared it would be like 'rawr!' and I am scared of a rawr!Austrian.

To top the night off, Tamara and I were walking back to her car and some guy in a Habs jersey in a car near the lot we were in shouted to us 'Hey, I'm sorry that we kicked your asses tonight.' Tamara said 'I wouldn't call a win in OT 'kicking our asses', exactly.' So he repeated the phrase and I yelled back 'Too bad your 100th anniversary sucked!' Yeah, it just needed to be said. Their season last year was a bunch of epic fail, even though they did make the playoffs. Ahaha, it was just so perfect.

Overall, our trip was very fun even though the Sabres lost in overtime. The third game we attend to together may be next Thursday, so watch out for a post if that's the case!

Your studdly right wingers!

I am so slow on showing you guys my fantasy team, so I'm sorry about this. You probably don't want to see who these guys are anyways, haha! Anyways, the third installment of the Scandinavian Studs right wingers!

Right Wingers
Marty. St. Louis

The other number 26 in my life is this guy right here. I love that he was undrafted and he's such a good player and everything. He tends to be Vincent Lecavalier's right hand man, and I know that he'll be bringing a lot of assists to the studdly Scandinavians. Oh, and he should never try tanning. Just for the record.

Devin Setoguchi I had to look up Devin on Wiki because I don't know much about him. Turns out, he spends a lot of time on the first line with Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton. All I know is, I really like his shirt. I'm trying to figure out what it is. A woman and her long blonde hair, standing in the wind? I don't know. I think I'll be getting a lot of goals from him, at least, I hope so.

Jamie Langenbrunner I had no idea that Jamie was so young. I also forgot that he was captain of the Devils this year, so again, I don't know much about my fantasy team at all. Oh, and he's nearly 35 so he ISN'T young. He just looks to be young. If I'm not mistaken, he's been bringing up a lot of points himself on the Devils. I love point producers that can rack up both goals and assists.

Pregame post perhaps later? I won't have time to do it tomorrow probably, but we shall see!

OH, AND DREW STAFFORD IS PLAYING TOMORROW?! YAAAAAY! *does happy dance*