At Last

Was last night a great night to be a Sabres fan or was it a great night to be a Sabres fan? Seriously, that game was flat-out insane! And you know the best part? I GOT TO SEE IT! FINALLY! AFTER TWO-AND-A-HALF MONTHS OF HOCKEY-LESS SUFFERING! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Due to some interweb-related magic (I'm pretty sure there was actual pixie dust involved), I was able to get the game (only the Lightning feed, sadly, but I'll definitely take what I can get) on my computer last night. The quality was a little stuttery during the first two periods but the feed smoothed out just as the Sabres did and I saw the best part of the game without too much difficulty. Sure beat checking Sabres.com for the scores, though.

The bad part about watching my first hockey game in such a long time is that I'm way out of practice with this whole "blogging-and-actually-having-something-legitimate-to-write-about" thing. Especially since the awesomeness of this game left me pretty much SPEECHLESS. Can't I just go back to having fake conversations with fish? No? Okay, let's see what I have to say.

-First things first, I have some presents to hand out to my favorite player-turned-scoring machine:

Shiny!

Bubbly!

Luminescent!

Whoa, back off Yo-Yo's cake, bitch!

Yo-Yo! I'm so proud of you! You did it! I knew you could! I believed in you since the start of the season, and you DID IT! Thanks so much for waiting until you knew I was watching. If I'd known that was all the encouragement you needed I would have moved mountains to get to watch the games sooner. And I like how you tried to play it off as no big deal in your post game

interview, like we didn't all see the giggly, giddy goal celebration with Pommers. I know you don't smile like that after just any goal, Yo-Yo. That was definitely a 20-goal smile.

-Wow, the Magic Jersey was in top form last night, its first time actually witnessing a game. Not only did it boost Yo-Yo to number 20 (and 21!) and give Vanek another hat trick, but it also apparently grants wishes. Before the start of the third, in a fit of crankiness about the ungrateful Sabres throwing away my internet efforts and late-night wakefulness in a 4-1 loss to Tampa Bay, I spat out, half-joking and half-mocking, "Here we go. They're going to score six in this period, I can feel it." Well. Clearly this jersey is not to be trifled with. I'm kind of afraid of all the power it seems to have. Can you imagine what could happen when I finally get to wear it to a live game? I will have to be very careful what I say from now on.

-Captain Pommerdoodle is incredible. And adorable. I'm so proud of him, and last night he was seriously challenging Mair for second-favorite status. Mairsy pulled ahead a little bit for giving Yo-Yo a hug instead of a glove-tap when he went down the bench after his empty-netter, but Pommer got right back in it when Yo-Yo revealed in his post-game interview that he had tried to give him the puck from his goal last game, thinking it was number 20 when it was only 19. Poms is so cute when he can't count!

-Speaking of post-game interviews, I love Lindy Ruff to pieces. Not only did he not hold the booing of the home crowd against them, he actually called them out for not booing enough. "I thought the booing was a little shallow, to be honest with you." HA! And then, when one of the reporters tried to get him to admit being pissed at Vanek, he counters with "No, I was actually mad at Derek Roy," to prove that he's not just politely demurring. I love it! I know there's been sort of an unspoken undercurrent of worry this season that maybe Lindy doesn't have this team under control anymore, and maybe even that it's time for him to move on, but to that I say NO WAY. Maybe it's just selfishness, but I would miss him too damn much.

-I love me a punchy Max. The Tampa Bay guys revisited his Halpern headlock a number of times throughout the game (mostly referencing how that was surely not good for Halpern's sore back), and I couldn't get enough of it. Just to see Max flying into the scrum and latching onto his shoulders like he was asking for a piggy-back ride. It made me laugh every time.

WOOOOOOOO! What a relief it was to see hockey again. I missed it SO MUCH! You better believe I'll be tuning in tomorrow, too, with the Magic Jersey and everything. Let's hope it's just as lucky. LET'S GO BUFFALO!

(Only time will tell, but I think I, with the help of last nights game, may have created a brand new Sabres fan here in Berlin. Poor soul.)

Ice Bowl Puts the "Desperation" in Desperation Hockey

Man, Buffalo, why so crazy? If you didn't want my family at the Ice Bowl you could have just said so, you know. Now I, like many poor WNYers, will be left out in the cold (or rather in the warm) this coming New Years Day when the Sabres play the Penguins at Ralph Wilson Stadium. I'm plenty depressed about this, because the timing for this game is perfect: three weeks after my 21st birthday (hello, tailgating!), and six days before I leave to spend six months in Europe (goodbye, hockey!). And the circumstances surrounding the selling of the tickets certainly doesn't help matters. I mean, why should Toronto fans (both of hockey and of baseball[?!?]) get to see this game, and not me? I realize it's a momentous, once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing that all sports fans, not just those of the participating teams, can enjoy, but why reserve tickets for them? Let them buy them (or not be able to buy them) just like everybody else. And then there are the people who picked up 15 extra tickets, expecting to make a huge profit off of them, which they undoubtedly will. I mean, good for them if they enjoy getting back the hard-earned money they spent on hockey tickets by gouging fellow fans for their hard-earned money, but there really should have been some kind of volume limit on tickets.

BUT there is a big bright side to this, and that bright side is, Buffalo, that we rule. We sold over 40,000 tickets to a game over three months from now in ten minutes. Those tickets were selling, as Heidi Klum would say, "like bagels." Really, really delicious bagels. Sure, some of those tickets were going to Toronto fans and scalpers, but judging by the sheer amount of whining from the locals I've been hearing (and heartily participating in), those factors only influenced when the tickets sold out (and probably not by very much), not if they would sell out. Thanks to us, the Sabres are now like the Backstreet Boys circa 1998, and that's awesome, right? I mean, they were practically bigger than Jesus! Seriously, as bummed as I am by my lack of ticket situation, I'm really happy and proud to know that Buffalo loves hockey this much. (Oh, and Jerry Sullivan, do you want to tell us now how unready the fans are for the season to start?)

In other news, Maxim Afinogenov is a devious Russian. The mystery surrounding Max's play and benching in the playoffs has finally been cleared up as Lindy explained that he smacked his head on the concrete while partaking in the team's soccer warm-up during the first round. This answers some questions for me, as I had been wondering if he maybe came back from his wrist injury too soon. But no, he was just showing off his sweet bicycle-kicking skills. Or perhaps slipping on a banana peel. Silly, silly Max. For his part, he's sure he has no idea what everyone's talking about. "Injury? What do you mean injury? Look, I am fine, I will show you. I will do a back flip!" Max, maybe next year you should wear a helmet during those soccer games.