totally random.

i have been in plenty of golf carts with josh and matt. this story would be a reason not to get into another one.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070522/ap_on_re_us/golf_cart_plunge

allegedly, no booze involved.

a few folks have asked me about who is eligible for free agency with the sabres….

unrestricted free agents:

Daniel Briere, Chris Drury, Adam Mair, Michael Ryan (Rochester) and Danius Zubrus

Teppo Numminen, Timo Helbling (Rochester) and Mikko Lehtonen (Rochester)

Ty Conklin and Adam Berkhoel (ECHL)

restricted free agents:

Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, Daniel Paille, Andrew Peters and Clarke MacArthur (Rochester)

Nathan Paetsch

more importantly, though… Darcy and Lindy are NOT signed passed this summer.

the battle of the bottom of the barrel.

and another loss for HH.

1130pm game. we started with only 7 skaters — with an 8th showing up in the first period.

i thought we played as good of a possession game as we could with that many skaters. we did a fair job of “owning” our blue line. we scored early. (yay, me.) we just could not keep up without a good bench.

adam — amazing, yet again.

my goal was a tip and control off a shot from bobby. (btw, good luck with your mba, bobby!)

i got into it with the refs — AGAIN. this time starting from a slew of weak, one-sided calls on us. bobby had two penalties in the first 10 minutes… continuing with an important faceoff in our zone that should have been on my strong side… and then a quick whistle, when the puck was clearly loose that i argued for… which, in turn, got me tossed from ensuing faceoff. which, by way of my colorful commentary, got me tossed in the box for two. it continues to amaze me how much the refs at chelsea piers could care less about what they are doing. no icing calls based on phantom “tips”. constantly out of position. no explanations. for the $75 a game they make and the $8200 a season our team puts up, i expect better. really.

HH loses to cobra kai by a score of 3-2

attempted to qualify, again, at o’flanagan’s.

this week i was the tournament director as well as a player.

alison and i went up early for brunch — yummy omlettes! — and a few beverages before the matches started.

i missed out on the byes in the first qual and played one of two people i did not know previously — whendy. although small in stature, she intimidated me with her glove and fancy chalk contraption. she played quite well and got herself out of a few jams i put her in while trying to play some defense. dorie ended up winning — woo!

the first qual ended in record time and the four remaning players — myself included — decided to play a second qual. with only four players, you skip the first round completely and go right to semi-final play. i played joseph — an sl3 — that had lost to mandy the first time around. in all seriousness, i think we all should have had less to drink. ahem. i lost. mandy took down the second qual — woo!

i baked/brought cupcakes to the qual. thank you to joseph for actually eating one.

the sabres game was on as well… they lost too. go figure.

disappointment.

after starting the scoring in the second, the sabres gave up yet another lead in an all important game. down 2-1, the cardiac kids needed max’s PP goal late in the game to send it to OT.

OT… where the sabres had one of the best records in the NHL all season long. OT… where they showed their meddle in the series’ against the islanders and the rangers. OT… where the senators will to destiny finally overshadowed the buffalo stanley cup dream.

alfie scores in OT. season… over.

miller had, yet again, another strong game. what happened to the sabres versus the senators? what happened to the up-tempo, skate circles around you, goal scoring machine of a team? it was nowhere to be found — again.

TV note… (no, not thomas vanek…) — NBC sucks. With the game going to OT… They switched from hockey to… Wait for it… 1.5 hours of “pre race” coverage for the preakness. that’s right. instead of following through with OVERTIME PLAYOFF HOCKEY (in an ELMINATION GAME), the peacock decides to go all “heidi” on the NHL and go to “pre race coverage”. the game was punted to versus — severely limiting those who got to watch the end of a great game…. ugh.

woo! blue bombers!!

a week after a tough loss to guapos, the BB pulled themselves up by their chin straps and took out the number one, UNDEFEATED team!

the blast are always tough — and always at the top of the division. more often than not, though, we have ended up in tight games with them. i truly believe that teams elevate their level of play when they play a “better” team.

i actually love playing the blast — they are a bunch of good guys.

our first goal was a bit painful… i was one-on-one with the forecheck and their D was trying desperately to get rid of the puck. i stood in front of his slapshot hoping to take it off the shins. unfortunately, it was a “riser” and i caught the shot squarely on my stomach — the part with no protection. ouch. adrenaline. i grabbed the puck from there… behind the net… to the half-wall… pass to bart on the point… shot… rebound is hanging on the post and scotty taps it in for the goal. adrenaline — off. ***OUCH*** i still have a nice sized red/purple welt on my stomach.

the game was pretty “even” — more neutral zone play than i would have expected.

going in to OT, i had a plan… the blast, you see, have a “coach” — andrea. they also had a full bench. a full bench that andrea stopped using at the beginning of the third period. i put out three different forward pairings in the beginning of OT — none of which were jamie/will. the blast countered with their best guys for the first half of the OT. as soon as their “star” guys got off the ice, i put jamie/will out there. they had possession in the offensive zone for nearly the entire time and SCORED with just over a minute left in OT. woo!!

4-3 blue bombers over the previously undefeated blast — in OT

several months ago — before the baseball season started — i purchased two sets of cubs/mets tickets for this past week. one set for monday. one for wednesday. both night games. alison and i had been looking forward to seeing the cubs — as this is the only time they will be in nyc this season. and yes, i realize they could play post-season here. don’t get me started.

twist of fate…

alison needed to be in AZ for a long weekend with family. so i unloaded the monday tix to a nice guy i met while playing in a pool qualifier last saturday.

wednesday… raining cats/dogs/frogs/antelopes outside. alison and i watched 6 different channels full of weather and 4 different websites trying to figure out what to do. we even saw a tornado warning! so… we made the decision to stay home. we watched the hockey game (go sabres!) and applauded our decision not to go out there as we kept in tune with the weather in flushing (absolutely pouring…) over the next few hours. the game was scheduled to start at 710pm. AFTER the hockey game was complete (game started at 700pm) they STILL had not started the baseball game so we were REALLY proud of ourselves. (but they still had not cancelled/postponed) just before 1030pm — almost 3.5 hours after the game was scheduled to start — they started the damn game!!!

we were shocked. shocked, i tell you. there must have been 30 people in the stands for the game.

i cannot imagine WHY they would have held on that long — other than obvious scheduling stuff…

the mets are coming through, in a way… if we send in our tix to wednesday’s game, they will send us mets/twins tix for later this season… so at least we’ll see one baseball game we could care less about this season. 

now this one looked better to me…

9 seconds into the game. roy gets his skate on an errant ottawa pass, drury picks it up, shoots, roy does a nice stick blade up tip and in it goes. nice start!

max scores on a 5 on 3 in the second. and then drury gets one through emery’s shoulder.

three zip. sabres.

scary…? the sens scored 2 goals — to go to 3-2 — within 2 minutes in the second. both of them the result of GIVEAWAYS by buffalo.

miller stood on his head — again. 30+ saves.

the giveaways are killing me. the sabres have had success with their “system” all season long — except against the senators. something different would be refreshing… ahem.

so… back to buffalo for game 5 on saturday afternoon.

let’s go, buff-a-lo!!

gee whiz.

ryan miller stands on his head in net and the hockey gods decide to put a weird carem off the boards, off his leg and leaving the puck in the crease for a tap in by alfie. buffalo gets less than 20 shots — AGAIN. the only desperation i saw was in the last 5 minutes.

and, for the love of god, i saw something i have never seen before in over 31 years of watching and playing hockey.

buffalo gave up a 2 on 0. when they were on the powerplay!!!

now the sabres are down 3-0 in the series and i am going to try something new for game 4.

i’m going to the cubs/mets game.

not accounted for? that’s right. i’m not sure we actually showed up in a 9-1 loss to kpmg.

i would love to list all the things that went right during the game… here they are:

…

and that’s it.

i am honestly not sure what has happened to this team — especially since we clicked and started so well this season — but i am determined to help fix it. i have been working on some new defensive and breakout schemes for the team — “new” actually being a misnomer as we have no schemes now other than “get it out!!!!”. from there, i will tackle the offensive zone. i am really hoping we get a lot of guys out for practice on the 27th…

next game against cobra kai (that’s right, grasshopper…) on sunday at 1130pm.