Tabula Rasa

A new season. Let's start fresh, shall we?

In the interest in starting fresh, I probably shouldn't open by discussing the R-word, but let's just say that it's a good thing I didn't resolve to lose 20 pounds, because I would probably weigh over 500 by now. This new year I will resolve to have more resolve, but that's still a few months off.

I have no excuse for my long, long absence, except: Who knew it was so hard to graduate from college? Finals were practically nothing compared with the organizational hassle that preceded me actually getting my hands on a diploma, and even the all celebrating was draining. It left me with no time for hockey, let alone hockey blogging. And even once all that rigmarole died down, it was hard to get back into the once-a-week rhythm, especially since it was suddenly the off-season. So I decided to take a break when the Sabres did.

But, if I'm being perfectly honest, blogging wasn't the only thing I took a break from this summer. I also took a bit of a break from being a hockey fan. I can't recall watching a single playoff game, though I'm sure I had the opportunity, and off-season roster moves (even those involving the Sabres) passed mostly under my radar. My daily blog rounds slipped to a weekly, and eventually to a monthly rotation. I stayed informed, but only long enough to file the facts of a trade or a signing away without analyzing, judging, or critiquing possible repercussions. After the last two summers spent fairly agonizing over every bit of team and league news, I found this to be a refreshing approach.

That's not to say I shed my fandom completely. It was a bit like having a long-distance boyfriend who texted me from time to time, reminding me that I was interested in him and letting me know that he picked up that Mike Grier that I always liked. The Sabres were the old flame that I kept meaning to call, but never actually got around to calling, because I knew that when the time was right we would just pick up where we left off. As unideally as things ended between us last time, there are no hard feelings. Some distance was just in order so that my heart could grow fond again.

And my heart is so fond right now.

I am so ready for hockey. Sure, the Sabres didn't make all of the improvements that I would have liked, but then who am I to judge? I'm showing up on opening night under-informed, out of practice, and metaphorically 350 pounds overweight, so it's not like I've dedicated the off-season to self-betterment, either. And, as a new season begins, my dissapointment in the things that haven't changed pales in comparison to my joy at the one big thing that has stayed the same: I love hockey. Right now that's all that matters, and the other factors - Will Myers stay? Will Tallinder be traded? Will Hecht get his mojo back? Will we be good enough? - are just little surprises waiting to happen along the way.

So, here's to a new season and a fresh start. Hopefully, now that I've transitioned from the life of an over-scheduled, over-stressed student into the bright, new, post-grad world of semi-employment, I will now have the time and energy to enjoy and blog to my heart's content. I sure have missed it. In fact, so eager am I to get back into this blogging deal, that if I had my way I would be attempting an all-out game diary tonight to celebrate my grand re-openning, but since the bright, new, post-grad world of semi-employment hasn't yet yeilded things like a TV or cable or Center Ice, the machine I would be doing the typing on is unfortunately the same machine I'll be watching the game on, and I just don't think I have that kind of coordination. Maybe another time.

As for the Sabres holding up their end of the deal, they'll be able to win me over easily enough tonight, as my excitement is high and my standards low. After working on my feet for 27 hours in the past two days, the only way the Sabres could ruin my day-off good mood would be by forcing me to stand up. As long as there is hockey and I get to stay sitting I should be happy. (Of course with those words I have undoubtedly sealed my fate of being miserable with the outcome of tonight's game. The Sabres I remember aren't ones to let that sort of challenge lie.)

Let's Go, Buffalo!

If The Season Ends...

... and you weren't around to see it, did it really happen? Isn't this like a tree falling in the woods kind of a thing?

You'd think, given that rehearsals are weekday evening types of occurrences, that a Saturday afternoon game would be one of those very rare instances when I would get to watch. Well, not when the game coincides with work weekend, when I have to spend all afternoon hanging lights for our impending performance. If there's one thing four years of college education has taught me, it's that the theatre department always gets the upper hand.

To be honest, though, I'm not sure I really would have been grasp the game even if I had been able to watch. It's been months since I saw a full Sabres game (to be fair, only mostly because I haven't been trying: last week's Capitals match-up was cut short by a technical failure). Even though it's finally, finally warming up around this place, it seems impossible that the season is over. Now, I'm no dummy. I have the internet, and my regular daily blog rounds, so when all reasonable hope was gone, I knew it, and when all mathematical hope was gone, I certainly knew it. So it's not like I didn't know that this was their last game, but I think it's going to take a while for that to really sink in. I've grown so accustomed to the thought that, even though I can't see them, the Sabres are still playing hockey, that it's hard for me to comprehend a world in which, even though I can't see them, they are done playing hockey. It's sad to see it phrased this way, but I've gotten so used to being hockey-less that the end of the season doesn't really phase me. Not that it should be some big dramatic event, but other than the content of the blogs I read, nothing in my life is going to change. Just like all last month and more, I still won't be watching hockey.

It's hard to remember at this point, but I'm pretty sure last season was different. The two seasons were superficially pretty similar: they both ended with the Sabres just barely on the outside looking in, and they both contained month-long stretches of me not being able to watch. But somehow, last season, even though I was six whole time zones away, I felt something. Maybe it was just my residual affection and expectations for the 2006-2007 squad ultimately ending to disappointment, or maybe it was just my favorite player having one of the best years of his career and getting nothing to show for it from his team, but there was definitely a feeling of loss and lament. This time around, I got the text message telling me the Sabres had won their final and meaningless game 6-1 and all I could do was stare at it blankly, wondering what it could possibly mean. 

Only one bit of information in the text solicited any kind of response in me: Thomas Vanek made it to 40 goals. Initially, I took this as a very small victory in a mostly painfully unremarkable season. Last season, even though it saw Sabres hockey and Sabres fans come crashing back to earth, there were still a number of positives to take away. I think back to my upgrade/downgrade ratings of last spring, and how I gushed about Pominville, Hecht and Spacek, and it seems all so foreign. Now, either I've grown bitter or the team has grown insufferable, but either way, I'm sure if (maybe when?) I replicate that exercise for this season there won't be half as many upgrade labels. And as I pondered the text message further, even Thomas Vanek, who was one of the brightest spots from the very beginning of the season, getting 40 goals isn't that great. Sure, he probably would have made more if he hadn't been injured, but as it stands that's only four more than his total last year, when he was downright brutal until the All-Star Game. Not meaning that I'm at all unhappy with his performance this season (hell, I didn't even see half of it), but I think it really puts this season into perspective that these are the types of positives that we have to hang on to.

By the way, as I'm typing this, it's 11:53 PM, so I totally made my resolution this week.

Blowing It

It's Friday. I haven't posted in almost exactly two weeks. Less than three months in, and there goes my resolution. Well, I can't say I didn't make it longer than I thought I would.

But here's the thing: I'm not the only one who's blowing it. Three weeks removed from Miller's injury, the Sabres are five points removed from a playoff spot, and the outlook is suffocatingly bleak. All across Buffalo, fans are reacting accordingly. Even the most levelheaded are begging for the team to be blown up. Even the most steadfast are either prematurely switching off the games, or preemptively not tuning in in the first place. I don't mean this to be insulting to Buffalonians, but we've put up with some pretty crappy sports teams in our day, so if we're whining this much, it has to be bad. Hell, it's been bad enough to finally erode the teflon coating of Lindy Ruff's job security. That's bad.

To be honest, when I first made this resolution, I wasn't really being realistic about what this year had in store for me. Sure, I knew I'd be in rehearsal most nights, especially in the second half of the semester. I knew I was going to want to spend time with my friends, and that watching hockey wasn't really their idea of a good time. I knew that illegally obtaining out-of-market games through the internet is unreliable and unpredictable. So I expected that it was going to be challenging to keep up with the Sabres. What I didn't expect, was that I wouldn't even want to make the effort to try to keep up with the Sabres. If you'll notice, the above discussion of how bad the Sabres are is shaped exclusively by internet hearsay. The fact is I haven't seen a game in I can't remember how long, so I have no idea exactly how bad they've been. I just know it's bad.

Don't get me wrong, I still love hockey. I still keep up with my daily blog rounds; I still use every opportunity to bitch about Alex Ovechkin with my Caps-fan friend that I get; I still fill at least some part of every call home with hockey talk. I'm just not that interested in watching the Sabres anymore, and that isn't always because of time issues. Right now, for instance, I'm on spring break, which means no rehearsal. I have plans with friends, but not until later. I could totally be watching the Sabres play the Flyers right now. But instead I'm writing this blog post and doing some homework. (Homework! On spring break!) I'm not in a place to analyze this at the moment, but for whatever reason, I'm perfectly content to get all my Sabres knowledge second hand right now. And with the way the team has (reportedly) been playing, I don't see a need for that to be changing anytime soon.

Still, I'm not going to give up that easily. I may be totally out of the loop, I may be totally disinterested in getting back in the loop, but I'll still be here every week, churning out some sort of blather, pertinent or (more likely) not. I may be blowing it, but there's time to turn it around. If only I could say the same for the Sabres.

Uh oh. It's Saturday, isn't it?

End of the week! Quick, post something!

Uh... the last time I got to watch a full Sabres game (stupid theatre), Tim Connolly was still injured. So when I heard the news that he'd re-signed for 2 years $9 mil, I almost spewed Kix all over my keyboard. But apparently he's worth this money? Go figure.

Well. I'm pretty sure that's all I got. 

Until next week!

Place Holder

It's been a busy week. I sort of had to scramble to come up with something to fill my exhausting weekly quota of one whole post, but then I remembered this post about the Hockey Hall of Fame that I started more than a month ago and then abandoned. I don't have time to give it a full write-up (overall, thumbs up!), but please enjoy some clips of what was definitely my favorite part. My brother and I had tons of fun calling different plays in the HHoF makeshift broadcast booth. Here are the highlights of our highlights:

My reenactment of a Mike Lange call.

My tribute to Alex Ovechkin's famous, unparalleled passion for hockey. 

(Excuse my lack of diction [bad actor!], the lyrics are "And I will be the one to hold the sport of hockey down...")

Rick Nash is cool as a cucumber.

Marty Brodeur is batty as a bat.

(Once again, excuse the giggles, we were feeling super loopy by this point.)

Maybe next week I'll be able to get back to writing about actual current hockey, although the text I just got from my mom suggests I might not want to. Apparently Jeremy White on WGR has started calling Hecht the new Dmitri Kalinin. Great. Clearly Yo-Yo has stopped accepting my letters.

Blacked Out

I may have mentioned this before, but I'm currently studying to get degrees in both German Studies and Theatre at a small college in Saint Paul, MN, and in case you were wondering, the life of a German and Theatre double major is a largely hockeyless one. 

It's like they've deliberately teamed up in order to deprive me of my favorite hobby and second-favorite hobby (watching and blogging about hockey, in case that wasn't clear), two seasons in a row. Last year it was my German major that forced me out of the country, forced me to rely on fickle internet connections and a weakened sleep schedule in order to even get a glimpse of my team. If you'll remember, the long months of separation eventually drove me into the arms of another sport. This year the Theatre major is picking up on that slack. I've just been cast in a show set to open at the end of the semester, and it's going to be eating up all of my prime hockey time. Between now and mid-March I'll need to attend two rehearsals a week, and from then until the beginning of May it will be four nights a week. Add in the fact that I have a night class, and that's 3 to 5 nights a week spent not watching hockey until at least mid-playoffs. Ouch. Since I don't have a TiVo (hell, I don't even have a TV set), I have no recourse but to sit back and let the hockey happen around me, deaf and blind to it all.

The timing pretty much tells the whole story of my relationship to my two majors. Whereas my German major turned out to be trying to save me (as it tries to save me in a lot of situations, mostly from going insane) from watching the end of an eventual 10-game losing streak and an unspectacular push to almost make the playoffs, my Theatre major is (as per usual) trying to ruin my life. The Sabres look like they're finally pulling their shit together, and all of the sudden my Theatre major needs my undivided attention? That can't be a coincidence. Sure, for a while there we were a heartbeat away from starting a traffic cone on defense, and the situation hasn't gotten that much brighter, but Ryan Miller has been, in the words of Marshawn Lynch, "too solid... way too solid," Thomas Vanek has continued to dazzle, and even Drew Stafford, for God's sake, has woken up and started devouring brains like it's going out of style. This team, for the first time since the beginning of the season, seems capable of (and maybe even destined to?) make the playoffs, and this is when I have to stop watching? I call bullshit, Theatre major.

I'd love to say more, and hell, maybe even watch some of the game that's starting right now, but--you guessed it--I have to get to the theater.

P.S. Just to be clear, this isn't to say that I plan on slacking on my resolution to post at least once a week, but perhaps you'll understand if my posts start to contain little more than hearsay and speculation, mixed with a large portion of complaining?

Playing Catch-Up

Just to be clear, when I made my resolution at the new year to post at least once a week, I was intentionally vague about how a week was defined. Did I mean there wouldn't be more than a week between posts, or would I be going by the calendar week? Well, considering it has been more than a week since my last post, I'm going to define it right here and now as the calendar week. So since my last post was on the Sunday of the last calendar week, this totally counts. Just so you know.

There's been a lot to say about the progress the Sabres have made in the last few games, but I haven't really had a chance to write about it until now, so instead of writing a series of focused and more in-depth posts like a real blogger would do, I'm going to have to do a bit of recap style of the past five games:

1. Considering watching the Winter Classic made me want to listen to Elliott Smith and lament the sorry state of my hockey team, I thought the outcome of the Detroit game was pretty okay. Sure, it would have been great to have held onto that lead for two minutes longer and steal at least a point, but at the end of the day, we didn't really deserve it. Miller played just as out of his mind as he did in the game before against the Rangers, but the skaters were largely overwhelmed and openly scrambling for most of the game. Still, it was a far better effort than I had been expecting/prepared to see, and I'm willing to give them a pass for it. Maybe I'm being too soft of a fan, but the Red Wings are just so damn good, that I'm just happy it wasn't a blow out.

2. Actually, I was so pleased with the effort in that game that I came out thinking we had a legitimate chance against Chicago, even with Lalime starting. Which, once again, when you consider the way the Winter Classic made me feel, is kind of incredible. Well, I'm not exactly sure what happened. Maybe I tricked myself into thinking the team had started giving a damn when they actually hadn't, maybe Miller was the glue that held it all together, but one thing's for sure. That game blew. It blew so hard, I can't even remember at this point what the big picture of that game was like. When I think back on it, all I see is this one Numminen pass that happened, I think, sometime in the second period. There were at least three other Sabres around him as he was crossing into the neutral zone, in varying states of pass availability, and he chose to float the softest pass I've ever seen right between all of them for an easy interception. As I said to my mom, as we rewound our TiFaux to watch and wonder what the hell he was thinking, it was like he was trying to use his pass to describe the axis of the center of mass for all the players he could have passed to. (I'm so glad I took AP Physics in high school, so that I could use it to find new and creative ways to describe how my hockey team sucks.)

3. In any case, it's a good thing they won the Dallas game the way that they did, or they would have put me dangerously close to breaking out the Elliott Smith again. Truth be told, I didn't end up seeing the game in it's entirety. I missed the OT period altogether, and only saw the shootout the morning after, because I broke the cardinal rule of TiFaux and forgot to record the show directly after the game in case it ran over. In my defense, I was under the impression that we were going to catch up to the recording before it finished, and at the point in the game when it still would have been viable to record the next thing, the Sabres were looking so lackluster and destined to lose that it never even crossed my mind that it could be going past regulation. Anyway, it's been a while since we saw the team come back like that, and on a day when Mike Schopp's assessment of the team as "gutless" wouldn't stop running through my head, it was nice to see them gut out a win. To be sure, the Stars aren't as solid a team as they once were, and have apparently had trouble holding onto leads all season, no matter how cushy they might seem, but taking the momentum back when the other team is running away with it is something this team has done far too seldom lately.

And I know I might be biased, but while Goose definitely stole the show, I thought this was Hecht's best game in a while. Given the fact that I reacted to him getting the puck in front of a wide open net by wanting to shout "I cannot believe he missed that!" there's definitely room for improvement over his recent play. Even with the goal aside, he was hitting (well, what passes as hitting from Yo-Yo anyway), actively backchecking, and moving the puck well in the offensive zone, at one point laying a beautiful pass right into the crease that Pommers couldn't get to. Sure, he was his usual stone-hands self at a couple of points when shooting at the net, but he's sitting past the halfway mark of the season with 5 goals, so I'll gladly take normal levels of offensive dysfunctionality as long as he looks like he cares.

4. Those of you that read Top Shelf and The Willful Caboose (which should be all of you, if you know what's good for you) already know that I spent Saturday's game with the lovely and talented queens of the Sabres blogosphere, Heather and Katebits. That's right, I have star power. If you want to know how you too can lure famous bloggers to your house, apparently the perfect bait is a combination of HDTV, various kinds of wings, and, in Heather's case, an Andy Van Slyke baseball card.

Aside from the HD feed acting up, it was pretty much the perfect game to spend with people you've been in touch with for over a year, have a lot to talk about with, but have never met. As Kate said before she left, it's been a long time since the Sabres have had a game that they've just straight-up won, without much drama or fanfare, and that sets the perfect background for a "getting to know you" type situation. Not interesting or boring enough to be a real distraction, and a pleasant result for everyone, especially since I still have a healthy hate for Carolina.

The HD problems were kind of maddening, though. Since I'll be spending the rest of the season trying to stream the games online, this was going to be the last game I'd see that was even vaguely in focus, and I wanted it to be the best. Instead we got to hear the same obnoxious guitar riff over and over again most of the time, and when we finally did get RJ, the audio was a second or two ahead of the video, so that we already knew the outcome of every shot, sometimes even before the shooter had the puck. Which was very comforting when the Hurricanes were shooting and we already knew it was going high and wide, but it was kind of a downer to know that Kotalik's slapper wasn't going into the net like we hoped. It was definitely frustrating, but also kind of surreal and hilarious, and the high-five celebration of Connolly's second goal was tinged with me giggling about watching that move set to the soundtrack of what sounded like someone diligently practicing Guitar Hero.

In any case, it was definitely a blast to have Kate and Heather over to my house, and I know my parents and I all enjoyed it. I think the Sabres did as well, to be honest. The first few minutes of the game were a little hairy, and we all got ready to brace ourselves for an oncoming disaster, but as soon as we got really settled--I needed to put my jersey on, and Kate had to use the bathroom--they scored and never looked back. Also, the second Heather started to pull out of my driveway just as the third was starting (she had to leave early to pick up her husband from the airport) the Canes scored and Tallinder got called for a penalty. Coincidence? I don't think so. Clearly the three of us present at one time is a force to be reckoned with. Clearly we need to do it again sometime, for the good of the team.

5. In all honesty, I didn't see the last game against the Panthers. Aside from the fact that I was somewhat out of sorts moving back out to school and busy reuniting with my friends after break, I just completely forgot that the game was even happening. And since it seems the routine text I got telling me the outcome and goal-scorers doesn't even come close to telling the whole story, I'm not even going to try to pretend like I know anything about what happened. Suffice to say, those were two points we needed, and I'm glad we got them.

I'm having problems with the internet right now, so it's looking like I won't be able to watch the game tonight in Tampa. In fact, it's looking like this post won't even make it online until after the game, but trust me when I say I wrote this beforehand: This isn't a team we need to beat to keep our place in the standings, not like Florida, but I believe it's a team we need to beat to keep our honor. Hopefully the boys keep that in mind. In the meantime, I'll be keeping my eye out for a text.

Resolution

The sports fan in me waved 2008 goodbye with no lack of relish. I even considered writing a hate letter to the calendar-year 2008 Sabres, before I decided that, even given my sporadic blogging style, I had already wasted enough time and space writing about them. The real person in me (because everyone knows sports fans aren't real people), however, is approaching 2009 with no lack of apprehension. This is the year I graduate from college, provided everything goes according to plan, and enter the real world. (Even though I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as the real world, because John Mayer doesn't lie.) This is the year I have to start making important decisions like where I'm going to live and how I'm going to earn income and just exactly how much I'm going to starve myself in order to afford Center Ice. Though I know nothing I do immediately after college is necessarily permanent, I'm sure this year will be a turning point in some way or another. If ever there were a time for a serious New Year's resolution, 2009 would be it. So. Here goes:

In 2009, I resolve to post in this blog at least once a week.

Hah! That's right, the real world can kiss my ass!

My life will be a mess this year, but that doesn't mean I have to be serious about it. Spending my last semester trying to balance my crazy workload with living it up in the last few months together with my friends won't leave a lot of time left over, and while I could decide to spend it fretting about my future, I'd rather be doing this. Wherever life takes me over the next year, it probably won't be Western New York, and if I'm going to need blogging and the Sabres to keep me in touch with my roots, then I better keep this baby in shape.  For better or worse, writing and this hockey team are important to me, and I've been disappointed with the way I've let this blog go.

Now, I realize this is a huge commitment. We in the blogosphere like to call a commitment of posting once a week "being a blogger," so that right there should tell you how intense this is going to be. I was tempted to up the ante to twice a week, but that seemed like setting myself up for failure.

If I'm being honest, all this resolution is really going to accomplish is a few headaches and major over-usage of the "I'm a Horrible Blogger" tag before I eventually abandon the cause, but I still think it's worth a shot. And as a preliminary measure of showing my re-dedication to blogging, I've finally posted a contact e-mail to the right, for those of you who have been wondering where to send your love letters and death threats. I'm looking more and more like a real blogger all the time!

Quick note, I'm heading up to Toronto today to take in the city, the Hockey Hall of Fame, and the International Bowl. That's at least two posts of potential content right there, and if I spread it out over the next two weeks, I'm 3/52 toward accomplishing my goal! (Surely finding ways to cut corners in your resolution in practically the same breath as declaring said resolution is the secret to success.)

Happy 2009, all, and good luck with any resolving you decide to do!