the blue bombers are continuing their winning ways taking out the blizzard this week by a score of 4-1.

the blue bombers are in prime playoff position after taking out the hornets by a score of 8-3 on friday night…

we had a solid roster — bolstered by a visit from prodigal team member vince who gave us a nice preview of his impending return to the team in the fall after spending the last ~3 years in hawaii. vince even had the first goal of the night!

jamie continued his shooting rampage throughout the game — getting/taking chance after chance. on one of his goals, he ended up alone in the offensive zone, took a shot, grabbed the rebound, waited, waited, and shot again — scoring — before any of the hornets got back to defend. i was joking with one of the refs about that one… “shot, rebound, grabbed a sandwich, slept, went to work, called his family, shot, score…” ha!

dom was great in goal — albeit, relatively untested…

the hornets seem to let up late in the second period. demoralized? ahem. fred was his usual self — getting into dutch with the refs and generally playing the instigator role.

personally… i got a great pass from the corner from jeremy — total laser — and was able to zing it top right corner just from the top of the slot. in the waning minutes, i put out a pass from behind their net, through traffic, right onto karel’s stick and he, of course, put it home…

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

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

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.

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.