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?

Game recap: 2/17/09 - Sabres @ Leafs W

I am so glad that the boys decided to win on my birthday for once! Two years ago was all right since they received a point during it, but last year's was awful (the only good part was Vanek scoring). So I'd like to say thank you Sabres for not ruining my 18th birthday. I appreciate it!

I'll admit, since they were playing the Leafs and this game was televised on Versus, I hardly paid any sort of attention to what was going on. The first half of the first period was unbelievably boring. My mom even took note that Air Canada Centre was pretty much dead. There were no cheers, no chants, no nothing in the beginning. The Sabres were on the PK because Lydman took a penalty, but that was canceled out after Kubina took a penalty. The Sabres scored on the next ensuing power play if I'm not mistaken. I think a shot by Stafford tipped off a Leaf player, and it was 1-0.

Paille made it 2-0 a little afterwards, and then Ellis scored as well. A nice little 'I'll shove this under the goalie and see what happens' play. I was also very happy to see Paille score because the poor guy has been in the doghouse for awhile this season. He deserves a little something.

The score could've been 4-0 in the first, but they called off a goal because the puck apparently can't bounce off your chest and go into the net. ...Okay. Poor Pommers. After this game it's now the world vs. Jason Pominville. Oh, it's on world.

The Maple Leafs scored in the next period on a very stupid goal. It was on the power play (why is our penalty kill sucking lately?), and I think Blake passed it across the crease with Kubina coming up in the play and he easily tapped it in. First off, someone should've had Kubina. Craigory? Buts? Anyone? Secondly, Millsy, I read that play before it happened from my seat. I watched you slowly move over to the other side after Kubina tapped it in. I won't bag you a lot, but a little quicker next time, eh?

I did not see Stafford's second goal, so forgive me. The score ended with a 4-1 win by the Sabres. I probably would've enjoyed the win more on my birthday if it hadn't been stupid Versus. So so so boring.

Oh and as a final note, I officially hate New Jersey. Losers.

Daniel Paille, you depress me.

First things first, I got an email from Mike, the owner of a new website named NHL Snipers. He has a pretty good idea about how hockey bloggers can become more acquainted with each other. I've put the link to his website on my sidebar too, so if you want, you can check it out whenever you'd like to.

I can't believe that the last we've seen of Sekera was on January 14th, when the Sabres had faced the Blackhawks. That seems like a long time ago. I don't even remember how he was injured, to be honest. Sabres.com is telling me he was tangled up, but how it happened is not fresh within my mind. Lindy thinks that he's not exactly ready to come back yet, but Andrej thinks that he is. Lindy isn't the guy injured, but if he was my coach, I would listen to him and not come back until he said I should be ready to go. Still doesn't mean it wouldn't be awesome to see him back on the ice tomorrow!

I guess Derek is not going to take Thomas' spot next to Timmy and Drew, and I am pretty disappointed. Then again, the Sabres do not have a lot of depth at center as it is. I don't blame Lindy for not keeping Derek on the left side there. We need our centers to be centers and win faceoffs, make the little plays, etc. etc. I just hope Yo-Yo can play well alongside Timmy and Drew. He sure can't take Thomas' place, but he can still try.

Now, I was listening to Daniel Paille's interview from after practice this morning, and I thought it sounded very depressing. Just hearing about how he feels about his play this year wasn't lovely to listen to. He even looked sad and lost, like a lost puppydog. I sure hope that he'll be able to get back on his game...after being scratched for a bit, he deserves to get on some sort of roll. I hate seeing anyone on this team benched/scratched, but sometimes it's needed to light a fire under some butts.

He did it on his knees! On his knees!

*obligatory Thomas Vanek picture to fill in for a picture of Tim Connolly on his knees after scoring. Thank you.*

Tim Connolly can really do amazing things when he's healthy and ready to go, and we witnessed it once again last night. I couldn't believe the puck when in when it did. Carey Price looked lazy on saving that goal, and Timmy just decided to roof it and end up on his knees after scoring. I'm not even going to joke and say 'I hope his knees aren't shot now', because it's ridiculous goals like that that make Tim Connolly the type of player he is. He is ridiculous. He can make plays out of absolutely nothing. He is brilliant.

Other thoughts during the game last night:

-I was highly amused by the way Thomas Vanek paid no attention whatsoever to Lindy telling his PP crew what to do in the final seconds of the third. I don't know who it was, but someone took his place on the usual Lydman-Pominville-Roy-Connolly-Vanek power play (I know Numminen was on it for a time), and I think Lindy benched him. Okay, not benched per se, but he had him miss a couple of shifts. I don't really get mad anymore when Lindy does that, because watching Thomas' play last night, I actually think he deserved it. I don't think he had any shots on goal, he almost got what appeared to be a boarding penalty after hitting Higgins into the board (I think that's who it was), and he just didn't look very much like he was into the game last night.

-I didn't notice this until after the game, but was Danny Paille scratched? I didn't see a 20 anywhere on the ice, nor did I hear his name called by RJ anytime during the broadcast.

-I like it that we have guys on this team that can play two positions. Patches played splendid yesterday as a forward, even though it was weird to watch him flying around on a forecheck. He did have a superb goal which was nicely set up by Mairsy. We haven't seen it yet, but Pommers can also play defense. Sure, he plays the point on the power play, but you don't actually see any sort of defensive action during that. Most of the time you don't need it. Then Gragnani can also play both forward and defense, but I find that he's a much better defenseman.

-Considering Pittsburgh beat Columbus yesterday, they are now four points behind the Sabres, if I am not mistaken? I'm doing this without checking out NHL.com because I am lazy, haha. We are moving closer to the teams ahead though, with Montreal only three points away. I can't believe Philadelphia has three games in hand on us, what the hell? I hate seeing that whenever the standings come up.

-I am very happy that the Sabres have been playing better at home recently. It makes me feel good about my chances of seeing a win when I go now, because the last few times I've gone, I've endured more losses than wins. Pretty depressing after awhile.

Now that's what I call hockey!

I hate sucky quality pictures!!!!

Nice to see the boys slowly get back to how they were at the beginning of the season. They played more defensively sound, and even though there were still a couple of plays that were flimsy, everyone played great tonight. I'm not really mad at how anyone played. It was a team effort and they managed to get a shutout for Ryan, so it's all good.

I'm glad that Derek and Pommers could get goals tonight. Lord knows that they need to step up their productivity, even though it's still early in the season but come on, Clarkie and Thomas can't score every night. That's sort of ridiculous. Also good to see Pie-eh get a nice goal thanks to Patty K. Awesome 2-on-1 opportunity they had and they capitalized on it.

Oh and...Tim Connolly is back, ladies and gentlemen. Everytime he was hit tonight I had to cover my eyes. I was afraid he'd break something again but he lasted throughout the whole game, hurray! He got a point for assisting on Derek's goal too. 70-something points this year if he stays healthy? We can only hope, but then again, speaking of Tim Connolly being healthy is like taboo. Serious taboo.
"The man who's hotter than a firecracker..." <3