Number 48

It's come to my attention that certain Sabres fans out there are just now deciding to set aside their feelings of goodwill towards Danny Briere. I would ask these people where they've been for the last four years, but I'm sure they're not part of my audience (because no one is).

Seriously, people still like this guy? Really, her? I mean, I understand not wishing his career would go up in overhyped, overrated, overpaid flames like I for one did when Chris Drury left. (And, man, is it just me or is that working out like gangbusters?) After all, it's pretty clear by now that Briere wanted to stay with the Sabres but the feeling just wasn't mutual. No matter what we personally felt about keeping him, we're forced to accept that this one is on us. But to my mind, that entitles him to be spared jokes about him eating his own boogers and not much else. If Briere the Sabre was your absolute favorite player, I can see spending a season or two pining and getting nostalgic whenever he visited, but four years is just excessive.

Setting aside for the moment that he's a Flyer now, he's just a very unlikeable player to play against. He's a creative, skilled little punk who won't pass up a chance to score a goal, draw a penalty or throw a slightly cheap shot behind the play. Sure, these are all things that made him a great player to root for when he played for us, but the thing is he doesn't play for us, so not only are we not obligated to like him for all those reasons, it just wouldn't make logical sense. Why would you want your competition's best players to do anything but disappear?

Plus, you know... HE'S A FLYER NOW. If the Flyers-Sabres history isn't enough to turn your stomach, then that putrid shade of orange sure should be. There's only one player who I managed not to despise for donning that color, and I don't think anyone will ever again be able to duplicate the perfect storm of lovable personality and somewhat hapless hockey skills of Marty Biron. As it was, it was tough separating my love for Marty from my hatred for everyone else around me, and if he had been just a bit more of a goaltending threat, I'm not sure I would have been able to manage it. (On a side note: I had totally forgotten until I just googled that Biron is part of the Rangers system, now. I'm sure my brain intentionally misplaced that information to save me from having to reconcile that disparity of affection. In fact, I think it best if I vow never to think of it again.) Point being: Danny Briere ≠ Marty Biron, and I don't see the point of liking a Flyer who is not Marty Biron.

Fortunately, I only have to address myself to the fans in this matter, as the players seem to be getting it right (see above). It's been far from perfect, but I have very few complaints about this series as we head into Game Three in Buffalo, and I want to see us give number 48 in orange our most ruthless reception.

TL;DR: If I were in charge of the music in HSBC tonight, this song would be getting a spin:

Hockey Players are Cheap and Easy

The internet has a new toy!

Everyone's getting in on the fun of Hockey-Reference.com, which is home to not only more hockey stats than you could ever need, but also a kind of internet whorehouse where you can "sponsor" different players and use the ad space to enhance or deface their profiles as you see fit. Of course, anywhere you get to pimp your website and be silly at the same time is like a blogger's paradise, so the internets have been abuzz lately as everybody's been plunking down the (PayPal) dough and snatching up their favorite players.

Alas, Yo-Yo was already taken by the time I caught on to this whole trend. After I'd finished rending my clothing and tearing out my hair, I picked up the pieces of my broken heart and bought Marty instead. The reasons were fourfold: 1. I didn't want any Flyers fans getting to him first, 2. The tagline of my blog fits in well on the profile of a notorious chatterbox, 3. I realized during the Versus intermission piece on him that his accent has more Buffalo than Quebec, and that's just wicked, 4. I love him. Of course, then I felt bad about putting up $10 for a Flyer, even if it is Marty, and none for my boys in Blue and Gold, so I went and got Official Second Favorite Sabre Adam Mair as well. The reasons here were pretty much onefold: he kicks ass. All in all $20 well spent, I think.

Aside from the fun of the sponsorships, I'm absolutely fascinated by the broad scope of statistics available on that site, and regardless of the fact that I don't really understand stats, nor do I have any real use for them, I can see myself wasting a lot of time there. Hey, maybe I'll accidentally learn something while I'm at it!

By the way, while trying to learn more about this Felix Schutz character I'm bound to fall in love with someday (despite the fact that he looks astoundingly like a chubbier version of my cousin), I came across this tidbit in his Q & A session on Sabres.com:

Jochen Hecht is German and he came over the first day of camp and said hi and said if I needed any help that I could ask him. Some of the younger guys helped me out too, but pretty much everyone was really great, a bunch of good guys.

I did keep in touch [with Hecht]. And there is another guy, [Phillipe] Gogulla, and we were hanging around and talking German at camp.

First of all, how cute is Yo-Yo, being all helpful and stuff? What a sweetie! But more importantly, I'm just going to say right now that if I ever hear Jochen Hecht speaking German, I may just faint dead away. Just saying.