Does this mean Raffi Torres will get a hat trick?

I really love the first week after trade deadline day for many different reasons. Usually it seems the new guys have a ton of pressure on them and fans of a team wonder 'what can this guy do? Is he going to perform well or poorly? What can he do for this team?' Some of the new guys can go right out there and score goal or maybe even two. Steve Bernier did that his first game playing for Buffalo. Scott Walker scored twice last night for the Capitals. Even Clarke scored for Atlanta last night against the Islanders (with Max getting an assist no doubt!). I'm not expecting Raffi to score a goal, but I want to see his presence on the ice. I want to see him make a hit or two; get a little chippy. If he can do any of those things, I will be extremely happy.

What this team needs is someone to give them a little spark, and Raffi seems to be the guy to do it, if anything. Hopefully his physical game will cause other guys to want to go and do the same thing. The Sabres need to get back into the groove that helped them win games in the beginning of the season. I hope Raffi Torres can be the one that helps bring that swagger back.

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.

Postgame: 11-11-09

While this game wasn't as interesting as the blow out against the Oilers, it had it's moments. Tamara, and I called Drew scoring against simply because it was Edmonton. He had a stellar game against them last season and he put the first one on the board after a rebound. Then when Monty score, Tamara, a friend of ours and I all were jumping around because we were so excited for him. We love Monty, haha. I'm really glad he got his first goal! Now Craig just has to get his. He should do it against Florida next week...just saying Craig.

Let's talk about Thomas Vanek's game last night. Somehow had more than ten minutes of ice time even after all those penalties. THREE PENALTIES! Jesus, I would've rather seen him go for fighting or something instead of diving (?!), slashing, and hooking. At least he got an assist last night? I never want to see that type of game from him ever again. Bad hockey folks.

I really hope Clarke MacArthur isn't suspended for what happened to Reddox. From the replays that I see, Clarke tapped him a little bit and Reddox just fell awkwardly into the boards because of the position he was in. You can clearly see in the replay too that Clarke tried to help him until the Oilers started to come after Clarke. Here's to hoping that the guy is okay right now. That small hit looked scary because it looked like he wasn't moving at first...nothing you ever want to see in this game. Ever.

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.