The Little Train That Could: Sabres Win 2-0.

Nathan Gerbe is a man on a mission these past few weeks. He scored both goals yesterday as the Sabres shutout the Habs, 2-0. His first goal had been a beautiful tip-in by a Tyler Myers shot. The second goal was all hard work as he dove to get the puck out of the zone, then won a battle versus a Habs player to ultimately shoot it into the empty net at the other end. A lot of Sabres fans have been getting on his case that he's too small and tries to act like he's a tougher player even though he tends to lose some battles no thanks to his size. Tyler Ennis is the same way but both of these guys have shown a lot of heart for the Sabres in the past few games. The two smallest players are certainly getting a lot done for the team, in a good way.

You can't say that the stellar play of Ryan Miller had nothing to do with this. He stood tall and made about three HUGE saves from what I remember. He kept the fort secure during the last minutes of play and it didn't turn into another Nashville fiasco even though the Sabres were pinned in their zone for a long time at the end of the second period. I personally thought Montreal would tie it up at some point but Miller stopped that from happening. Carey Price was great as well, and I can see why he is a candidate for the Vezina this season. Minus the almost goal he gave up, but he appeared calm and collected during that ordeal. Harry Neale mentioned Price tends to 'daydream' when he does moves like that. He clearly wasn't thinking when he gave the puck away. Good thing the Sabres sometimes forget they have an offense!

The next time the boys play is on Friday and I'll be missing it because of work. Florida isn't really a threat to us for a playoff spot but I hope that we won't treat them as a lowly team. Those always come back to bite us...

The Epic Adventures of Tamara and Shelby: The streak is broken.

Look at the Swede and I! Wooo, thanks to Tamara for taking the picture. :D

Since a friend of ours gave Tamara's ticket away for a stupid reason, we went to the game together last night. In my last TEAOTAS post, I mentioned how Tamara and I never go to the exciting games, and yesterday was pretty damn exciting. Four goals from Buffalo to start it off, and even though Montreal started to come back, it was good to see Buffalo not let up and get two more to put the Habs away for good.

Little things of note from the game last night:

-We saw Goose sitting up in the pressbox. Poor guy looked so bored last night. We betted on the fact that he more than likely wanted to be on the ice playing the whole game. I really hope he makes a fast recovery.

-Sabretooth attacked me for the third time when we walked past Sabretooth's House. At the Carolina game, he attacked me. Last night, he did it. Tamara made note that he always goes after me and I think she's right. His nose took out my ear yesterday!

-They had a montage of the Sabres being named an NHL team anniversary before the game last night instead of the video opener. They showed the Chris Drury goal (you know the one) and we both got chills. I got chills just typing it out, oh man. I miss that feeling.

-Every guy we called scoring (which was like, ten between the both of us) didn't score last night! One of us usually names one of the guys but this time, no one. Boo.

-Tamara's Lalime jersey is now uncursed! It had never been to a winning game, but last night, it was present. :D

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!

Fisticuffs a plenty, we'll see you next Saturday.

Forget that the Sabres blew a two goal lead going into the second period and lost the game by one goal; it's only the preseason. Even though it is pretty irritating they let that happen...Thomas even took one for the team and bled! The power play has been fail this preseason. We are missing Ales and Jaro on the backend, ugh.

Anyways, the main thing about this game tonight was the various scrums and scuffles going on during the game. I can't remember who Patty K hit exactly, but all I know is that he got in a huge fight with Ryan O'Byrne, and then ended up getting a game misconduct. That was the first fight. Then later, Goose went after someone else and got a 10 minute misconduct. Then there were a lot of other scuffles going on. This makes for a nice little rematch next Saturday at the home opener, which I now cannot wait for. I hope that there are plenty of fights, but with my luck, that won't be the case.

Even Ryan got into a little fight of his own which Gerbs had to sit in the penalty box to take his penalty. No one beats up on the little guy. The goaltender won't even tolerate that.

Tomorrow the Sabres face the Leafs for the last preseason game. Finally, regular hockey is going to be around the corner. I am so pumped for next Saturday!

Derek Roy lone Sabre invited to Team Canada Orientation Camp.

Oh my God, this is just like my last post except different guy and different team. No way guys.

Derek Roy is one of a million players (46 to be exact) going to the camp for Team Canada in Calgary next month. Team Canada is stacked in talent so I wouldn't be surprised if they won the gold in Vancouver next year. They are my third favorite team on the international level. Damn you Canada for having so many amazing players.

The Sabres actually signed someone yesterday and it wasn't via trade. Welcome to the team, Steve Montador! I'm quite proud of Darcy for doing business on the first day, that sly dog.

Let us not forget that our beloved Jaroslav Spacek has moved on and signed with Montreal yesterday (for more money than he's worth, sorry Spach).
I didn't know you long enough, Jaro! I miss you already! ):

Craigory, you are a fine older gentleman, sir.

I always love listening to Craig Rivet's interviews because he does sound like a true leader. He knows when to place the blame on the team as a whole, and when to compliment them. I liked what he said in his interview today about Toni Lydman going to shoot during the shootout. He said that his reaction to when his name was called over the announcements was like 'What the...?', and he also thought that it was a joke. No joke, Craigory. I am still bedazzled that he won it for us in the shootout.

Rivs also touched on Maxim Lapierre's hit on Patty Kaleta. I have not seen the hit yet but I'm sure I will eventually. From what others are saying, Lapierre should be suspended for the hit he put on him. The league does need to take some action but from what Lindy said, the league isn't going to look at the incident anymore and just shrug it off. If it's because Patty has been notorious lately for having questionable hits himself, that's bullshit. The league wants to get rid of headhunting but they don't want to take hits out of the game. Guess what, you don't have to, but you have to do something about this otherwise someone is going to lose their life out there, or their career is going to be cut short.

It's your call, Gary Bettman.