I’m a nerd.

I am publishing — if you want to call it that — an import file for Outlook with the entire 2009-2010 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 / 2009-2010 Regular Season / Outlook Import File / Eastern timezone
[download id="4" display="both"]

Buffalo Sabres / 2009-2010 Regular Season / Outlook Import File / Central timezone
[download id="5" display="both"]

– 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.

14 January 2009

Chicago 4 – Buffalo 1

This was the first game I put in BOLD when the schedule came out.  A tough one for me personally.  My adopted team, by marriage…  The team I put a lot of faith in and held season tickets to….  Against my childhood team.  The team I identify with in so many ways.  What is a hockey fan to do?

Wuss out and regress!!

I sold my seasons (in section 330) for the game and sat with our friends Mark & Mary in the 200’s — on the other side of the rink.  Wearing full on Sabres garb, natch!

On to the game…

---

First Period:

Kotalik – from Numminen and Mair on the right circle
Sharp – with the puck floating on goal line for 5+ seconds
Lotsa sabres fans – “Lets Go Buff-a-lo!!” chant is frequent and LOUD
Weird one? Lalime kicked it under himself – Toews with the tally….
Scrum on the Chicago net with Gaustad and Seabrook – ‘Hawks takes four

Second Period:

Sabres PP is just atrocious…
On the other hand…  GREAK PK from Chicago!
Havlat – strong to the circle with a wrister top shelf (where momma hides the cookies?)
Eager pummels Sabres right at the benches resulting in a…
6 minute PP for the Sabres — I do not think I have ever seen a 6 min PP…
Fantastic PK from the ‘Hawks — HORRIBLE PP for the Sabres

Third Period:

Lotsa sabres fans outside – in between periods…  Much bonding!
Wiz – from the point and through traffic

---

Overall… Excellent effort all around from the ‘Hawks — especially with the amount of PK time they had to kill.  It was a bit bizarre to be in Sabres garb at the UC, but I look at it this way…  Every other year. 

Buffalo Sabres v New York Islanders.

Big melee at center ice.

Check out Kaleta’s body slam — ~25 seconds in.  Even with the slam The Code still exists as Kaleta eases up until Witt starts cracking on the back of his head. RJ, of course, is priceless with the call!

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
[download id="1" display="both"]

Buffalo Sabres / 2008-9 Regular Season / Outlook Import File / Central timezone
[download id="2" display="both"]

– 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!!