Hockey is back!

Excuse me for deleting my liveblog on the first preseason game. I found a live online feed to watch from Sportsnet and was watching it with friends... I think minimizing it every two seconds would have created even more of a ruckus. Yes, ruckus.

Mostly everyone has covered the media guide, the first game, the Red Carpet extravaganza, and the like. The one weekend that I'm swamped with stuff, I miss everything! Anyway.

I went to the preseason game against the Wild Sunday. Despite it being preseason, I still treated it as a regular season game given the few times I ever get to go to a game. So I was a complete fool there. Luckily, I wasn't the only one as it was the first hockey game for one of my friends which made it fun.

My record of winning games that I was at was 7-0. At this point, it's 7-0-1. I say since it's preseason and it was a shootout loss, it's not technically in my record. Right?

- My seats were awesome. 110 row 18. This was the game included in the season tickets package, so whoever had them (I think my friend's cousin) has a nice view. I'm very jealous.


And I guess it was almost a sold out game, but it didn't look that way. Attendance was 17,311.

-The game itself? We controlled most of the game, and besides the one little mistake from Spacek, (oh Jaro, you and your square head), it was a pretty good game. Boring at parts, but still good.

-I liked the tribute to Paul Newman a la Slapshot. There was a lot of clapping for him and what he did for charities, very nice.


-I'm LOVING the physical/stand up for your teammates kind of stuff going on. I haven't gotten to see the Rivet fight on YouTube yet... and even though there wasn't much with Goose's little fight, it was great to see.
Though, when I noticed that he didn't come back, I got worried. And now we know it's not good... surgery on the ligament in his thumb and out for 3-4 weeks. Bad times for my favorite, how many surgeries has that been now? The tendon stuff 2 seasons ago, sports hernia, this... not fun.
On the upside, it gives us a chance to maybe keep Clarkie in the lineup. Otherwise it could be waivers for my favorite rookie boyfriend :(

-Speaking of, Clarke gave a good effort in the game. He had some chances and set some good plays, like he's really trying hard to say up in the big leagues even with our over abundance of forwards. I was impressed with a lot of the rookies, especially Nate Gerbe. I saw him in rookie camp a few years ago, and it's still the same: he zooms around, goes into the corners, and obviously has the skills. He shouldn't be put in the lineup right away but definitely should be on the list for call ups. Impressive. But dude is short.

-Max was a crazy fool. I didn't see any of the bad actions that usually can come from him, more of the fast skating and the like. He's such a love-hate guy, and it was love that night.
Then Lalime got a lot of cheers for stops when he had the puck and the like. People are definitely liking him already.

- Benoit Pouliot was in the lineup for Minnesota and all I could think of was that NHL Access DVD or clips that they show from the past drafts on the NHL Network where he's doing his hair and depletes half the ozone layer with all the hairspray he uses. I didn't see him up close during the game so no hair check there. (There's a little clip of him here... this video and another one both have parts of him with the hairspray but get cut off. It's srsly a lot though!)

It was a fun time though, and now I'm dying to go to a regular season game. Who knows what's even left now... all I know is that I need to go to one if my Student Activities Board definitely decides to replace the Sabres game with an Syracuse basketball game. I'll kinda play basketball, but not watch it, sorry!

And the Bills 4-0, wooo!! We watched part of Sunday's game when we stopped at my house before the game, and then they showed parts on the screen at the game. Lots of cheers there too.

Oh, and last thing. Is anyone else a "The Office" fan? I'm a HUGEEEE fan and oh. my. god. the premiere. SO GOOD. Favorite part obviously was the Jim and Pam proposal. My friends and I squealed (no other way to describe it) so loud I'm sure people thought we were crazy. Good times.

EDIT: The Vancouver Canucks are naming Roberto Luongo as their captain, with 4 others becoming alternates, and two dealing with officials, then ceremonial issues. Very interesting... we'll see how that plays out.

"I don't think I'm in here..."

I wasn't planning to come home this weekend, but I'm really happy I did. The Puck Drop spec-tac-u-lar was pretty awesome. My brother was volunteering with UNYTS since a family friend is a VP of something or other, so we were there super early. Good ol' Catholic schools and their service requirements.

We had pretty close seats, but not pretty great seats. I've only sat in the 100's twice, and neither was that close to the glass (we were 6th row today). I realized today that you can only pretty much see your end of the rink, but whatever. I guess I'm spoiled by seeing everything from the 300's. And that sounds silly to say, ha.

Stupid glass things wouldn't let me take a picture of Rookies 1, 2 and 3.

I liked watching the scrimmage, even though I'm pretty sure I had no idea who most people were. Two different colors with some of the same numbers but no names. Besides the regulars, and then Nathan Gerbe and Tyler Myers, who worked by height alone, it was all guessing from there. I did like the kids behind me and their reasoning, "He looks like he's not American." Genius!

I noticed Teppo and Thomas Vanek both didn't play... Vanek wasn't in the jersey unveiling either but still signed autographs. Go figure. Anyway, according to the Buffalo News, Vanek and Goose are a little beat up.
Oh, and there was no logo at center ice, and no ads on the boards. I know it's just preseason, but it seemed super weird.

Then the jersey unveiling. I loved the intro video clip and then the theatrics along with it... dry ice, RJ announcing, the clips along with each player (even though the whole 'pick up your head really quickly then look at the camera and smirk/stare' was pretty amusing), everything. Every player who came through the zamboni entrance and onto the ice just made it feel like hockey season again.
I also loved the cheering for Teppo, which was easily the loudest, and a welcome for Craig Rivet and Patrick Lalime. Just awesome.




I also got sucked in to wating for autographs with my brothers, my sister, and her friends. The first line we were in wasn't that bad (near the section 100 entrance), but when a security guy told us that players were up on the 200 level sections and more tickets were there, I was stuck waiting in line so they could get stuff signed by Mike Weber and Danny Paille. I didn't get to go up but they got my yearbook signed, which was nice even though I had to ask! Then the line next us near Sabretooth's House was announced as Ryan Miller and I think there was a stampede. The staff had 300 tickets for each autograph line around the arena, and what he had left for that was gone in about 15 seconds. And then about a quarter of our line was gone too.

Eventually after waiting for a while, we find out it's Hank Tallinder and Drew Schiestel's line... both very nice. Hank was pretty funny. When he was signing, he said, "Let's put a big one right here..." and did it probably as slow as he could. Or at least that's what it seemed to me. He also made a mark with the sharpie on my page after signing and was like, "Oops! Well, I'll have to fix that." Into a smiley face.

Oh Hank, you're such a jokester.

...and he knows it too.

Then after, somehow we jumped into the last few tickets of what was supposed to be Paul Gaustad and Jason Pominville's line... turns out they had left just a few minutes before we got into the line and it was turned into Tim Connolly and T.J. Brennan. The security guard led me to believe false statements! Evidently their tables were back to back. Anyway, I was disappointed, but it was still good. T.J . Brennan looked at my yearbook and was like, "I don't think I'm in here..." until he actually took it from me, looked through and did find his little blurb. "Oh, wait!" It's okay T.J., just do what your shirt said, hug it out. It'll solve all problems, just ask Michael Scott.

Oh, and I have some videos if anyone wants to check them out. This post is already tl;dr, so let's make it better!



(Please excuse the taping in that one. I guess my youngest brother can't work his own camera.)



All in all, it was a really great time and I'm really glad that the Sabres did something big for the start of preseason/basically hockey season. And now, I'm sooooo much more excited for the season to start. Yay hockey!!

(I have a post talking about Pommer's contract and this summer and real stuff ready to post... eventually. And I'm hoping before the end of the year I can finish my 100 things. Just maybe.)

Yay!

Six more years of the system and puppies and rainbows and bliss!

(PS. I'll have stuff that's not stupid soon. But I'm going home for the weekend so yeah. Sorry so obnoxious. And don't ever go to Blingee, it'll eat your soul.)

Now I never want to play poker again.

I am LOVING my schedule this semester. Yeah, I have a night class on Tuesday and Wednesday, but they're just educational tech classes, no big deal. But that means after 12:20 on Thursday, I am done with classes until 2:30 Monday. Nothing on Fridays... so awesome. If I was the kind to drink and party, look at the time I could have! But what this all relates to, it's probably when I'll be updating the most now besides when I try for game days. Who knows.

Anyway... the list idea Dani had today looked good so I imitated a good idea :)

1) I'm going to a preseason game! It's the 28 against Minnesota and I'm excited. I know it's just preseason, but I've never been to one before. Let's hope my record of winning every Sabres game I've been to still holds... the 7-0 is still intact.

2) The Sabres are now giving everyone the chance to have a player related MySpace! If I still cared/didn't just go on to check band updates and contests, Goose would TOTALLY be my layout.
Related is the postings on the Sabres Facebook page about internships. How I would love to get involved with that, but infortunately I'm not a communications or business or anything related major. Plus I'm not home. One of my friends from Mount who actually goes to school with me now gets to do it and I'm super jealous.

3) I know I'm way late on this, but Mats Sundin signs... with PokerStars. I LOL'ed for a while after being frightened by his slightly uneven looking face.

4) I'm so excited to see Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers. It's their 5th anniversary as a band tour and they are going full out with things. A magazine all about their time together, chances to win all these personal meet and greets, video blogs about behind the scenes things... so awesome. They're gonna be in Rockchester on Halloween (awesome), then I'm roadtripping with my friend to Northampton, MA to see a hometown show the next day. Then they play in Buffalo on November 18. The best part is that it's acoustic and at Ashbury Hall, Ani DiFranco's redone church. It's gorgeous inside and I love it there.
And then before that, I'm working the merch table/get in free for Matt Nathanson on October 14. If you haven't heard of Matt, definitely check him out. He's getting much bigger with his music on TV shows and all this other wonderful nonsense. If you're going come visit me! October is going to be so awesome.

5) The David Archuleta song "Crush" is so catchy. It's been in my head alllllllll week.

6) The Penguins hand delivered some of their season tickets again, and I have to say I love this picture the most.

I bet you that cat has awesome seats.

7) We may be behind here at school, but I will never get sick of this video. All of my friends have resorted to quoting this almost 24/7. Can I have your numba? Can I have it?

8) There are only 29 days until Sabres season. And only 9 days until camp and the like. Thank god.

And the third jersey has been confirmed as the one leaked on message boards/TBN. Besides the weird piping near the arms, I'm a fan. 9 more days, for serious.

It's a hard knock life for this blog.

Poor little BAGMG. I've neglected you so much, I'm surprised I haven't been contacted by social workers or something.

My concert weekend was AMAZING. Jack's Mannequin was so great (and $5 great bands for $25!), OneRepublic is awesome live and John Mayer is a guitar god, seeing Jon Peter Lewis again was good, and Jon McLaughlin is even higher on my favorites list. Plus, he's also one of the sweetest people ever. I'm so glad I finally got to see him live. I have a bunch of videos on my YouTube account and pictures here if you're interested. It was seriously one of the best weeks ever.
Then my family and I went camping in Watkins Glen. I haven't gone camping in forever, so that was fun... but my sunburn was AWFUL. Still fun.

I'm finally back at Fisher. If there's something else besides the hockey season that seemed like it was 80 million light years away, it was going back to school. Not to say that I'm ready for classes (because I'm not!), but it's great to see people again, and move into my room (HUGE upgrade from my freshman dorm). And our food service changed, which is exciting. Yeah, I'm sorry that food is such a big part of my life. I'm Lebanese and a Mountie, which means food is huge, hah.

Speaking of college, I think I have seen about 15 rooms so far with Sabres things, 6 on my floor alone. I'm really hoping there'll be some good game watching parties... I know the girls above us are big fans and if we can't watch together, there will be communication through stomping. I CAN'T WAIT!

But seriously. My phone has a "d-day counter", and according to that, there are only 38 days until the season opener. It seems more like 138, but whatever. At least preseason is in 2ish weeks. And then we have some Bills to hold us over, kinda.

And in closing, still no Pommers news. We know it's happening, I just wish it was sooner. Right now, all I can think of him is in Kayne glasses or Boats 'N Hoes. (If my Photoshop wasn't acting up, there would be some pictures all up in here.) Thanks, Summer Mail Bag. Thanks.