I’m a nerd.

I am publishing — if you want to call it that — an import file for Outlook with the entire 2008-9 regular season for the Buffalo Sabres.

I know that you can get the schedule from a zillion locations.  What’s different about mine?  I added the location for each game in the format “Arena Name (City, State/Province - Country)”.  I also set the “Private” flag and added a category of “sabres hockey”.

I am currently living in the Central timezone, so I have two files here to download:

Buffalo Sabres / 2008-9 Regular Season / Outlook Import File / Eastern timezone

  2008-9 Buffalo Sabres Schedule - Outlook - Eastern (11.2 KiB, 72 hits)

Buffalo Sabres / 2008-9 Regular Season / Outlook Import File / Central timezone

  2008-9 Buffalo Sabres Schedule - Outlook - Central (11.2 KiB, 40 hits)

– Destructions for Importing into Outlook –

1.  Click on the link for the schedule you wish to download and “Save target as”/”Save file” to your computer.  Remember where you saved the file to!
2.  In Outlook, click on “File -> Import and Export” from the toolbar
3.  Select “Import from another program or file” and click “Next”
4.  Select “Comma Separated Values (Windows)” and click “Next”
5.  Browse to where you saved the download file, highlight it and click “OK”. Make sure the path to that file is correct in the “File to import:” area
6.  Do not change anything under “Options”
7.  Highlight “Calendar” under “Select destination folder:” and click “Next”
8.  Make sure there is a check in the box in “The following actions will be performed:” to the left of “Import…”
9.  Click on “Finish”
10.  Do a happy dance.

i have tried, over the years, to keep track of many of the sabres players i grew up watching.  so many have become formative pieces of the buffalo organization, while others have had great success with other teams…  i suppose the best example would be lindy ruff, #22, who is now the coach of the sabres…

jim schoenfeld is certainly one of those guys!  i used to love to watch him play D.  he always had his “head on a swivel” and could always be counted on to give up the body in the defensive zone.  he was often known as a “goalie’s best friend”…

he has spent the last coupla years coaching the rangers AHL team in hartford and now…

he has been named the assistant gm for the new york rangers!

woo!  i hope i get to see him at a few games this season…

after losing briere and drury you just knew this was going to happen…

vanek — a restricted free agent — signed an offer sheet with the edmonton oilers this morning for…

wait for it…

7 YEARS and $50M 

wait for it…

the sabres matched the offer within minutes which is one of the richest and longest sports contracts in buffalo sports history.  and that includes the bills.

personally, i think that:

• it was a no brainer after losing drury/briere
• the contract includes 3 years of time where he would have been eligible for unrestricted free agency
• the money paid out over 7 years is pretty reasonable IF vanek can continue to produce like he did last season (43 goals…)
• the money paid out is actually front loaded so that in 7 years, he will be making less than half of what he will be making next year

however…  there are some downsides here.  the oilers (and GM kevin lowe) have set a bad precedent on being predators in the RFA world.  it may come back to haunt them when someone signs jarret stoll to a $50M offer sheet.   vanek is now making more than double what the next highest paid sabre.  that could cause a few rifts — both with the team and with the fans — if he does not produce…

i’m glad to have him back in the fold…

check out this article — “woe is buffalo” from page 2 at espn.com…

i have read it a few times.  more than a few times, actually.

i was bummed when the sabres season ended.  another promising season…   but all season long, i had a bad “feeling”.  why didn’t the sabres lock up drury and briere before the season started?  when briere got $5M in arbitration i could almost feel it coming.  darcy should have given him a long term deal right then.  the train was already off the rails.  and drury?  rumour has it that he was offered, and agreed to, a long term deal early in the season, but…  darcy never sent the contract.

now?  both of them are gone.  briere to the flyers for 8 years and $52M.  drury to the rangers for 5 years and $35M.  the sabres could have had both of them locked up at 2/3 of that cost if they had done it at the beginning of the season.

as the season was drawing to a close, i, as a long time fan, was willing to part with briere.  he had a great season — 95 points and MVP at the all-star game — but i knew — we all knew — that $5M was not going to get him back.  he may have gone with a hometown discount for nearer to $6.5M for a long term deal.  in the cap era, that number was not going to work — assuming the sabres were going to re-sign drury, not to mention vanek and roy (both RFAs).

whoops on that assumption.

the sabres alienated drury and, although they were willing to match the offer from the rangers, he was already gone — to his “hometown” team — leaving behind 3 years in buffalo that only further cemented his “captain clutch” moniker.

now what?  the sabres signed…  adam mair (perennial 3rd/4th liner with grit), peters (ye olde enforcer), teppo (a D man pushing 40 years old) and mike ryan (a promising AHL’er that spent some time up with the big boys last season).

vanek?  nothing.

roy?  arbitration.  paetsch?  arbitration.

wonderful.

i have a lot of faith in the abilities of the team.  they CAN do well.  but, as the ESPN article points out, the sabres have given up being a surefire cup contender for next season for a “i hope so…  maybe…” season.

woe is buffalo, indeed.

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.

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.

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.

the sabres played their second game at home, after giving up home ice advantage on thursday night…

a much better effort — especially in the first 20 minutes. but, frustratingly, AGAIN, the sabres cannot seem to put in a full 60 minute effort.

buffalo had a goal called back ~2 minutes into the game after roy shot it through the crease and the puck went in off of vanek’s glove. i really did not see the difference between that one and the pominville goal against the rangers (which counted, btw) — both times, the buffalo player was going to the net and took a hit that put them into the puck.

vanek literally undressed the sens D with a toe drag and loop to the forehand just a few minutes later. and then hect followed closely with a nifty wrister in to the top corner.

sabres up two to zip.

for the entire season — including the playoffs — the sabres had not lost a game where they held a two goal lead. 45-0 including the playoffs.

make that 45-1.

ottawa got an even strength goal from alfie late in the first and then two power play goals in the second to get them up 3-2.

the cardiac kids took it to ot, though.

danny popped one in with less than 6 seconds to go in regulation to take it to overtime.

fast forward to the second ot… heatley (or spezza?) wins a clean faceoff against drury (of all people!) and corvo knuckles one toward the net that bounces through miller. sens win: 4-3.

again… no where near the amount of effort or desperation needed from the sabres. now we are down two games — both losses at home — and headed to scotia bank place on monday. a must win for buffalo.

grrr. argh.

the final score was 5-2, but that does not even come close to telling the story of the game.

ottawa got out front early, two to zip, with goals from fisher and alfie. the first was shorthanded and the second was on the powerplay. it looked grim.

enter max. 2-1 at the end of one.

in the second, things were a lot tighter… a bit better back and forth.

loooooooooodman ties it up with a walk-in on emery that, i think, startled everyone.

after that…? all sens.

saprykin, of all people, scores in the third followed by spezza on the powerplay. mcammond tossed in an empty netter to make it 5-2.

where are the sabres of the regular season? where hath thou gone special teams play?

questions, i hope, that will be answered on saturday.