Amber Alert for Hockey Players!

Well what can you say about the Senators. They are having a great playoffs. I guess we will have to see what happens, but for right now I am not holding my breath. I would love to believe that they could pull it off, but it will be tough. Anyway, I got an email today that was pretty funny, so I thought I would share it with you.

***Amber Alert***

We are urgently looking for a group of 20 hockey players, believed to have disappeared between the 2nd and 3rd round of the NHL Eastern Conference Playoffs. Last spotted in New York City on May 6th. The leader goes by the name “Danny.” The group consists of a bunch of multi-nationals. It is believed that they all understand English, but you never know! We expect them to be in fine physical condition because they haven’t hit anything in weeks! If anyone knows their whereabouts, please advise the Buffalo Sabres home office. they must be found before 7pm Wednesday and flown to Ottawa before it’s too late! If found, there is still that slight chance for 4 in a row!

Over even before it started!

For all you readers of my blog (which is probably only my little brother Shaun) this is going to be another hockey rant, so be prepared. You know the funny thing is I never played hockey or even what it was when I was little. Know I am addicted to it like crack.

Well I have been getting ready for the Sabres / Sens series by reading up on ESPN, NHL.com, and just other sporting websites. I do have one question. Is the series over with. Did the Senators win? Because everwhere I read Buffalo is getting beat by the Senators. The Senators have to much momentum moving into the Eastern Finals. They are going to run all over Buffalo. They cant compete with the Heatly, Spezza, Alfredsson line. They couldn’t stop the Jagr line, how are they going stop Heatly, Spezza, and Alfredsson. If I am not mistaken Buffalo won that series.

Predictions are one thing, but to count a team out even before the series has started is another thing. Ok, so Buffalo didn’t play that great against the Rangers. And maybe they were expected to sweep the Islanders. It took them six games to move on. So what. Nobody is talking about how it took Detriot to win in six games.

I have come to realize that everyone hates a No. 1 seed and everyone loves an underdog. Even though we are the No. 1 seed in the East, I feel like we are the underdog with all these reports of the Senators beating Buffalo.

Let me tell you, it might have not been the best series against the Islanders or the Rangers, but these boys are here to finish what they started last year.

NBC – Cry Babies or Whiners?

Sunday afternoon the Buffalo Sabres finished the Rangers off with a 5 – 4 victory at Madison Square Garden. It was a hard fought battle by both teams (buffalo didn’t play well at all against the Rangers in games 3 & 4) and if you look back at my earlier posts I did say the Sabres in 6. However, I did have some problems with the coverage of the series. Except for games 1 and 5 the coverage was mostly on Versus or NBC. That shouldn’t matter to anyone right! Wrong, to a Sabres fan that is everything, especially since NBC owns Versus. For the entire series all I heard was how good the Rangers are, Jagr this, and Jagr that. I DON”T CARE ABOUT JAGR. If you are a Rangers fan you were probably in heaven, but for a Sabres fan it was HELL! I mean the sportscasters on Versus couldn’t even say the players names right half the time. One sportscaster call Derek Roy “Travis Roy.” WHO THE HELL IS TRAVIS ROY?

I guess the culmination was this past Sunday afternoon even before the game started. Yeah 2 out of the 3 sportscasters picked Buffalo to win, but Brett Hull had to open his mouth. We don’t hate you in Buffalo Brett; we just hate how you cheated to win a Stanley Cup! I don’t suggest making any plans to broadcast or even visit Buffalo any time soon Brett after your comments on Sunday. You probably wouldn’t come out alive. Ok, back to the game.

The First period was rough, 1 goal by the Rangers. However, the second period was great. Buffalo, in true Buffalo fashion came out and scored 4 goals, but if you were listening to the game and not watching you probably wouldn’t have known Buffalo scored 4 times. The sportscaster kept talking about Jagr, or how the defense didn’t slide over and that is the only reason Buffalo scored. At one point they broke from the Broadcast to show Roger Clemens announce that he is going to return as a Yankee. WHO GIVES A SHIT! I was quite confused? But when the game came back they were still talking about Jagr. “If your wondering, Jagr is not on the bench. He has gone to the locker room for skate repairs. So for all you fans out there wondering were Jagr is, he’s in the locker room getting some repairs.” Wow, I am going to sleep so much better knowing Jagr is ok. I think during that time Buffalo scored. Do you think there was a, hey nice goal, or way to pass that puck. Instead, us Buffalo fans got. “Jagr is still not on the ice. Buffalo has some great opportunities right now with Jagr not on the ice.” So you sportscasters are trying to tell me that the only reason Buffalo scored is because Jagr wasn’t on the ice. Give me a break!

If this game wasn’t that important then I probably would have listen to it on the radio instead of watching one of the worst broadcasts of a hockey game. That wasn’t it. Then the excuses and the whining started. They were tired. Moving the game back a day broke our momentum, yadda, yadda, yadda. I thought it was a disgrace to hockey and all the fans that these Broadcasters at Madison Square Garden and at NBC couldn’t just congratulate the Buffalo Sabres, but instead have to come up with excuses for why the Rangers lost.

I hope I have to never watch another NHL game on NBC, but unfortunately NBC only cares about playoff hockey and not regular season hockey. There logo should be “If your not a Ranger or Yankee, we don’t care.”

Well it’s off to the Eastern Conference Finals. I am going to go out on a limb and pick Buffalo again in 6. This series is going to be harder. Buffalo needs to play a lot better at home and away.

Jazz at the Lincoln Center

Saturday night I got a chance to see Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra at the Rose Theater in New York City. They presented a program entitled “The Legends of Blue Note.”

The music is some of the best ever made–Lee Morgan’s Cornbread, Horace Silver’s Song for My Father, Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage–all wrapped up in album cover art as bold and legendary as the music inside. The JLCO with Wynton Marsalis debuts exciting and long-overdue big band arrangements of the best of Blue Note, complete with trademark cracklin’ trumpets, insistent drums and all manner of blues.

The concert was unbelievable and did I mention my seats. Yeah, I didn’t. The Rose Theater is designed so that audience surrounds the performers. So there is the regular orchestra, mezzanine, and balcony seats, but there is also box seating all the way around the theater. My seats were in the orchestra level on the stage. I was 20 feat from Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (the picture above is from my camera phone). Wow, I keep forgetting to mention that I got to meet Wynton. However, my friend had the camera so once he emails me the picture I will load it for you all to see. You should really go and see the Wynton Marsalis and the LCJO. Probably the best concert I have ever seen. Yes, better then Billy Joel and Huey Lewis and the News.

Can you use that word in a sentence?

This past weekend I traveled with some members of The Vanguard Marching Band to New York City for their spring trip. Saturday night I saw a great concert at the Lincoln Center (Rose Theater) (more to come on that later) and Sunday afternoon I saw probably the best musical that I have ever seen. I laughed so hard that when I work up this morning my insides were hurting. Yes you were probably asking, Nick you were in New York City and the Sabres were playing, why didn’t you skip the musical and go to the game? Well from what I heard the game was pretty bad so it was probably better that I stayed at the musical.

Personally I was tired and was looking foward to getting into the theatre so I could sleep. Well, that changed in a heart beat. Right from the start I was out of my seat. You know how some musicals have funny momements, but sometimes are lost in dialouge. Well not at this musical. From start to finish was complete hysterics. The name of the Musical is “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” So if you are ever in New York City and looking for a good show, this is the one for you. The best part about this is Mo Rocca from the Daily Show (with John Stewart) was playing the part of the Vice Principal. Click the picture for a larger view of me, Jefe, and Mo Rocca.

How to win the Stanley Cup!

The Avery Effect

Well game one is over, and the Avery Effect was foiled by a 5 – 2 Sabres victory. To tell you the truth I was looking for Sean Avery a number of times during the game and didn’t even see him. He had two penalties and that was about it. However, the fans sure did let him know that he was No. 1 in their hearts every time he touched the puck. Hopefully the Sabres can keep this momentum going for the rest of the series. Lets see how Avery does in Game 2 Friday night. (Avery’s effect never really started to become visible until Game 3 of the Thrashers / Rangers series) Below is a quote from an article on Nhl.com.

Sean Avery’s pre-series comments of wanting to “hurt” the Sabres got the Rangers forward all the attention he wanted, booed every single time he touched the puck. The chants of “Avery, Avery” echoed throughout HSBC Arena after the Rangers winger took a foolish holding penalty just over four minutes into the game. The crowd was cheering when Avery was sent sprawling on the ice later in the period when he was kneed by Buffalo defenceman Jaroslav Spacek. He was not injured on the play. Avery took another holding penalty 4:23 into the third period, much to the delight of the crowd, who once again showered him with “Avery, Avery” chants.

The Next Round!

Yesterday the NHL released the semi-finals schedule. The Sabres will be playing the Rangers. Are you worried! I’m not. The Sabres have dealt with the Rangers all year and they did it pretty well, but since the Sabres don’t have key marketable players like Jagr, Straka, Nylander, and Shanahan you never hear about how good the Sabres really were (are). Versus drove me crazy with this all year. For example, back in November all game the Versus commentators would talk about how great Jagr is. How good of a striker Straka is. Yet they forget to mention the score 7 – 2, Buffalo leading in the 2ND Period. Ok all you Ranger fans out their settle down. I think you guys have a great team this year (or should I say your key players have a great team this year) and I think the Rangers will give us a run for our money. I believe the series will go to 6 and I will tell you why. (NO SWEEP) After a while your key players can only do so much. They can only score so much and they can only skate so long before they become fatigued. Sooner or later they will begin to break down. Buffalo roles 4 lines all the time. Probably the quickest team in the league and they don’t spend a lot of time playing the hitting game. A lot of teams have tried to keep Buffalo down all year by playing the hitting game and it didn’t work. And if your not paying attention they will transition on you like vultures feasting on a dying animal. Look at game three of the Islanders series, Adam Mair scored. Who’s Adam Mair. I think he only had about 3 goals the entire regular season. For A minute I forgot Adam Mair was still playing with the Sabres. All this talk about the Rangers Sweeping and the last time they swept they ended up winning the Stanley Cup is driving me crazy. Not this year folks.

Let’s Go Buffalo!

So my prediction is Sabres in 6, but yet again I could be wrong.

Happy Sheeping!

Two Feet!

While most people shuffle off to Mrytle Beach (entire city of Auburn), Florida, or some other place thats warm during spring break I usually find it very relaxing to sit at home and do nothing (watch the Sabres acutally). This year was a little different, I spent my first two days of spring break digging out of 2 Feet of snow. Thats right 2 feet of snow in mid-April. CRAZY! The forecasters say we get a freak storm like this every 20 or so years. To tell you the truth I am pretty sure we get a freak storm like this every year at this time. These forecasters really make me mad. We live in the North, we get snow right up until June. Next thing you know they will be saying that rain and hail in August is the sign of the end of the world.

Buffalo Sabres Playoff Opening

As you can tell or might notice (from my blogroll) I am huge hockey and Buffalo Sabres fan. Throught out the playoffs the Sabres have been playing a video before every home game. It kind of has become somewhat of a battle cry for the fans and the players. I thougth I would share it with you because its a really well done video. Enjoy! (There is always room on the bandwagon for the believers)