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.

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?

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...

"I'd rather drink a cup of Drain-O..."

I'll have decent thoughts of the Sabres/Thrashers game tomorrow after I get some much needed sleep. The only thing I have to say right now is that I don't know what's going on with Derek Roy, but I'm not liking it. What an incredibly stupid penalty to take in OT of all times. The whole game isn't his fault, but nice way to screw up our chances at the end there, buddy. I don't want you to become the Kotalik of last year where he would get stupid penalties at the wrong times.