Columbus Shenanigans.

It's nice to have slept in my own bed last night but this weekend seemed unreal. A huge win by the Sabres on Friday along with clinching a playoff spot made the trip to Columbus that much more exciting since we didn't have to be nervous about maybe not making the playoffs. Tamara and I left early Saturday morning for Ohio and arrived in the early afternoon. I have never seen so many things on the highway closed for renovations. At least it wasn't like when Denny's was closed when we were heading for Ottawa last season...

We arrived at Nationwide Arena pretty early and could already see about 40+ Sabres fans across the street at a local restaurant. There were jeers at Columbus fans of course, and one fan replied back that we could 'go back to the empty arena'. I replied to him that he should come up for a game and then see how empty it is.

The Rivet jerseys were worn for this game and we received several snide remarks from Sabres fans. Tamara and I never had this problem at home but considering we seemed to be the only Sabres fans in attendance who were wearing any sort of Rivet jersey, we were being heckled. It's about the logo on the front, not the name on the back. Of course, after his little scuffle with Tyler Ennis we took the jerseys off. I had my Vanek shirt underneath, it was all good.

Now the Columbus fans...I admire their dedication but yelling at Sabres fans that we're going to get out of the first round and saying 'let's go, Flyers!' is...well. I guess since they had nothing else going for them, they had to say that. There was an old lady one row in front of us a little ways down that was pointing and yelling at me, saying we were going to lose the 'first game'. First sweetie, a playoff series is a ROUND. Secondly, I know some badass elderly women in Buffalo who could kick your ass so sit down. Seriously, Ottawa and Montreal was fine regarding opposing fans. Columbus was brutal. Coming from a team who was only in the playoffs once during their ten years as an NHL team, they think they have a lot of firing ammunition against other team's fans. Please get out of here. It was nice to see the Sabres win their first game at Nationwide, though.

The Philadelphia/Buffalo series is bound to be a good one if Friday night's game is any indication. A lot of aggressiveness and goal-scoring I'm sure. I can see the Sabres winning this round because of their playoff surge, let's just hope I'm right.

Trade Deadline Day recap (extra late)

Considering I had a lot to do yesterday, I wasn't able to make a post about what the Sabres did on Trade Deadline Day! I freaked out on Twitter about how the Sabres were probably going to do nothing except move maybe a draft pick or two since it was narrowing down to the last hour of the deadline but they made a couple of moves. Addition by subtraction so to speak.

So let's welcome Raffi Torres to the team! He was drafted by the New York Islanders and played for them while also playing for the Oilers and the Blue Jackets. From what I've heard, he's a power forward - he can score some clutch goals but tends to get physical too. He's a little bit better than Goose with the goal wise, but I think physical wise they're around the same. He's the leading goal scorer on the team now...yeah, I said that. Time to step it up Thomas!

Leaving were Nathan Paetsch and Clarke MacArthur. Patches went to Columbus while Clarke went to Atlanta. I'm going to miss the both of them - Patches for always being there when we needed him at defense or at forward and Clarke for his awesome fro. It's just too bad things didn't work out here. I wish them the absolute best with the rest of their careers.

Now that I'm mellowed out.

My initial reaction to the game while waiting for the subway to come.

I think I was kidding about Thomas Vanek being a jerk last night. It's just that he decided not to score when I was there, as usual. Whatever.

My brother and I decided to take the subway as per usual to the game because it's a lot cheaper that way. The only bad thing is that you literally have to sprint from your seats in the arena down to the train otherwise you will be one of the people standing in a crowded area. We left with about five minutes left in the third period so we made it out of there and got to sit down last night while going back to his car. On the way to the arena, this little girl and her mom sat next to my brother and I and she was was super excited because she was going to see the Rockettes. On the way back after the game, I turned to my brother when we passed by the Theater stop and said 'I wonder how the Rockettes were?' and he said 'A lot better than that game, I bet.'

We got to the arena stop, and went in to go up to our seats which were located in section 310. Their seasons' are in 318, so we weren't that far from my other brother and sister-in-law. My oldest brother stopped by to talk to one of his friends from college, and his dad and everything. I was going to say 'I really like your kicking jersey.' since he had a Vanek Away one, but I didn't. :P I guess they are going down to Pittsburgh today for the game, so I hope they get a better viewing there than they did here last night.

After getting some good food (I got pizza and a Coke), we headed up to our seats. They weren't too bad but they were in the middle of a row and we couldn't stand up. I'm so used to standing because of my brothers' seats. There's a wall behind them and they're at the end of a row, so we can just lean against the wall. Also, I had a pretty big guy next to me so I had to sit in an awkward position since his leg was touching mine. I had no problem with him, it was just that I was sitting uncomfortably.

I took video of the Sabres coming out on the ice, but of course my computer is retarded when it comes to uploading videos. I have no idea where to upload it to. x_X Freaking thing.
The first period of the game was blegh. We talked to my other brother and sister-in-law during the intermission, and we were going to go out after the game but then they opted not to in the third period. They were probably depressed from the score. We were too.
Second period was blegh until Jason Pominville scored, and the two guys next to me had their own sign that looked like a destination road sign and had 'Population of Pominville' on it and they velcroe'd a '6' on the sign. They didn't get on the Jumbotron, but in the third period they did. The camera guy was in our section for most of the third, and I got on the Jumbotron twice. My brother pushed me into the picture when the two guys were holding up their sign so if they showed that sign during the game on TV, I was the girl on the right in the Vanek jersey. :P

We decided to leave with five minutes remaining in the third, but that was because we were planning on going to the store. We passed by it and my brother said by the time we got out of there, the train would have come and gone so no store shopping this time for us.

Anyways, I think I wanted to commit some sort of murder last night. What an awful game to see live. You never want to watch blowouts against your own team. I wanted to stay until the bitter end though, even though we technically didn't but nothing happened after we left anyways. My brother and I both were surprised there wasn't even a damn fight until about the third period, and even that was only a small scrum. The Sabres looked like they already left for Pittsburgh before the game started. What a disgusting display of hockey. I hope Lindy smacked them all over the head after the game. Oh, and most of those goals were not Lalime's fault, so when everyone was freaking out when they put Miller in, I said 'Too bad neither goaltender can score goals for you.' Where was the defense last night? Holy mother of fuck.

Oh, and I don't want to listen to the postgame interviews, because if I have to hear something about the goddamn system from Lindy or Pominville, I am going to chuck this computer out of the window. You know what I have to say about the system? Screw it. Do we fans even know what it is? Sometimes they play it and other times they don't. I don't even know anymore. I'm just so sick of hearing about it.

I probably won't watch any of the game tonight because of the fact I have a parade in Toronto tomorrow. I think it might be on CBC, but I'm not too sure...if anyone has that station, and would like to see any of it, make sure to look out for the Attica High School Marching Band! Hopefully by that time I won't be absolutely dead from all the playing I have to do.

My oldest brother is an awesome person.

Guess who's going to the game tomorrow?

My mom came home today to pick me up so that we could go pick up my report card at Open House. I don't know why my school does it that way, but I guess it gives the parents an excuse to talk to our teachers and whatnot if they want to. My mother avoids that like the plague. My grades are as follows:

Studio In Art - 95
Economics - 94
AP English - 97
Band - 98
Lifeskills 2 - 99
Average: 96.65 (about)

I'm quite proud of myself. I thought for sure Economics would end up lower, but that's not bad at all for being my lowest grade. Oh, I can't wait until next semester when I have two more classes added to my grades so everything will be distorted.

Back to the title of this post: When my mom got home, she came into my room and was like 'Why do you sound so blah?' I tend to sound blah whenever I get home from school because I'm dead tired, but she gave me a hug and went 'Jason is taking you to the game tomorrow.' Well, my mood certainly changed! I guess he got an email saying that STH could buy more tickets for the game against the Blue Jackets, but it was first come, first serve. My other brother Corey is going with my sister-in-law in their regular seats, so I have no idea if we have seats near them now or what. I'll have to ask Jason that when I go to his house tomorrow immediately after having driving class. This weekend is going to be so hectic, ugh.

So yes, if any of you that are going (or are watching on TV) see or hear a girl in a Sabres Christmas hat with her Vanek Buffaslug jersey on that gets really rowdy during the game, that would be me. I am 1-0 for this season, and 6-4 at games since 2007. Let's hope it goes to 7-4 tomorrow night.