My tv made my chest hurt

Playoff hockey is the bestest!

There I said it. Ain’t this fun? I never would have thought the Sabres would have made it this far in talking Hockey back in December.

It is a hoot in general. I’m getting a kick out of watching how Nathan Gerbe is getting under the Flyers‘ skin, how Tyler Myers is playing even taller and how Ryan Miller shut everybody up with a stellar performance including that robbery of old friend Daniel Briere.

Enjoying the ride and I’m looking forward to being late for dinner on Sunday to go work at Game Six. It has been the best of the playoff series thus far, but I sort of think whoever wins, might just be too spent to go much further.

(from the Buffalo News)

That said, I’m looking forward to working the Sunday game. The arena doesn’t always have the pulse that the Aud did, but occasionally the personality, the buzz is palpable. That feeling of shared excitement makes friends out of complete strangers, and being part of something bigger than you is well, kind of cool.

So, yeah, Jason Pominville, when the powerplay stinks up the joint for five whole minutes, we’ll voice displeasure. When the refs are befuddling, (to both teams), we might make some sounds as well.

This all bodes well for the future, not only for the good vibes coming from the new ownership, but the way the young guys are finding their games and making the building shake in the process. And last night, made the guys across the courtyard in my apartment building nearly scream both their flat screens off the wall.

It’s all part of the fun, cuz I don’t give an expletive either.

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Sabredance, the Wrath of Khan

Pegula! Say it again. Pegula! Say it and you smile a little.

While it was a little creepy to see him cry at the sight of Gil Perreault, it was also kind of awesome. The Sabres‘ new owner is saying all the right things. I know what you are thinking, we’ve heard comments “getting the tools” needed before, but there was a lot to like about the passion Mr. P showed and you hope that gives a good shift kick in the pants to those on the roster and those in charge of building the roster. The Golisano years were pretty good despite some of the curious dealings in recent seasons and I’m curious if Darcy Regier can rediscover the mojo that he had that brought Doug Gilmour, J.P. Dumont and Daniel Briere among others to town while shipping the likes of Chris Gratton out of town.

I’ve been a fan since almost the beginning too and it was good to see that Mr. P wants to recreate Buffalo as a destination to want to be to play hockey.

So, this is all well and good, but as they say, Rome wasn’t burnt in a day, so it will be interesting to see events in the coming days more so than the press conference.

It’s a good start, the new boss says the gloves are off. I worked the Bandits game on Saturday night and watched that underpaid bunch play with passion that would make the Sabres worldbeaters if they could summon it.

Good Start, Mr. P

I wonder

I wonder:

Winning cures a lot and sells a lot of merchandise. As a long suffering Sabres fan, I’m eternally grateful to Larry Quinn for going out and finding Tom Golisano and saving the franchise. That was a remarkable thing. But the shortsightness in the long documented contract botchings of Chris Drury, J.P. Dumont, Daniel Briere among others is still baffling to me. Perhaps you do have to draw a line in the sand in terms of salaries and whatnot, but I think the eventual Cup win that team would have had would have sold enough merchandise to make up the differences. Remember all the many trips we all took to Trench printing outlets during the Bills Super Bowl years? I wonder what Terry Pegula’s first actions will be for a team that has been more consistently interesting off the ice than odd, hopefully before more of Ryan Miller’s prime goes completely to waste. It wasn’t so long ago that the Arena was a tough building to come into and play, like a mystique was in the making.

But alas