So tonight I’m flipping through sites and articles and checking out Anything Sabres, and I come across this attempt at a clever piece in the Welland Tribune. (For anyone not from these parts, Welland Ontario is about 25 miles west of Buffalo just across the border.)

The salient points? We lost our NBA team, never won a Super Bowl, never won a Stanley Cup, thousands of jobs gone and more leaving by the day. And we pathetic WNY’ers are just sooooooo desperate for any sort of championship so we could feel good about ourselves again.

Then the kicker… ain’t happenin! The writer, some beady eyed, flapping headed Canuck named “Bernd” goes on to gloat how his (suddenly beloved) Senators will be fine, wraps himself in his maple leaf flag, and concludes the piece by saying “Buffalo, better keep those Stanley Cup parade plans on hold.”

I have no problem with Canadians from Nepean and Kemptville and Cornwall and Hull, QC supporting the Senators. I do have a problem with any Canadians who can easily catch 2, 4 and 7 with a set of cheap rabbit ears doing likewise.

Wayne Redshaw is a long time hockey writer from the Welland Tribune.. . Heck I remember reading his articles in Sabres programs when I was 12 years old and the top row in the Aud was colored grey. Wayne still covers the Sabres, and I’m going to make a point of giving him an earful in the pressbox tomorrow about his colleague “Bernd”.

As an aside… too bad this wasn’t a Bruce Garrioch piece… the ‘tee-hees” would have been off the charts!

My patriotic fervor is climbing… my love for the red, white and blue manifests itself through the glow all over me and the love I have for our country.

Hey, all of Canada is tuned into CBC and TSN and are all of a sudden rooting for their beloved Senators and their fellow countrymen, guys like Daniel Alfredsson and Anton Volchenkov, to bring home the Stanley Cup to the place where it rightfully belongs, right? So tit for tat - I and all of America are gripped with Memorial Cup fever. And not one, but TWO American based franchises are representing Old Glory in this year’s tournament, which begins tonight at Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

Four teams participate - the winner of the three major leagues in Canada - the WHL, the OHL and QMJHL. The fourth entrant is the host team, which this year is the Vancouver Giants.

The Medicine Hat Tigers won the WHL, but it was the Plymouth (MI) Whalers taking the OHL crown, while the Lewiston (ME) Maineiacs became the first American based team ever to win the Q. So we have two shots at bringing the Memorial Cup to American soil.

The teams play each other in a round robin format, with the top two finishers then facing off in the championship game, set for Sun May 27 at 4PM at General Motors Place. Would it not be awesome if those two teams end up being Plymouth and Lewiston? What would Don Cherry then have to say? Oh, how the Canadian hockey purists would howl!

I am no expert analyst at junior hockey, just someone who loves the atmosphere and feeling of attending at game at this level. But my pick to win it all is the Lewiston Maineiacs… they swept Val D-Or in the QMJHL finals and did so in impressive fashion. All of French Canada is still horrified asking themselves how this could have happened, and in the next 10 days the rest of their country will be pondering the same question.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

Complete Memorial Cup schedule (all times EDT)
Fri 5/18 9pm VAN 4, PLY 3 OT
Sat 5/19 4pm LEW 3, MH 1
Sun 5/20 4:30pm VAN 2, LEW 1
Mon 5/21 8pm MH 4, PLY 1
Tue 5/22 8pm PLY 2, LEW 1 OT
Wed 5/23 10:30pm MH 1, VAN 0
Thur 5/24 10:30pm tiebreaker game PLY 5, LEW 1
Fri 5/25 8pm Semi Final VAN 8, PLY 1
Sun 5/27 4pm Championship VAN v MH

As Pundit likes to say, “I read it so you don’t have to.”

Frank Finnigan came from Shawville. Oh, and he played for the Senators 80 years ago. And his number was retired.

And Senators coach Bryan Murray hails from Shawville. Yip, yip, yippee! Isn’t that cool?! Isn’t that great?!

Link to Bruce’s column here. I’ll be generous here and keep it to a respectable 7 tee-hees. I could’ve come down harder.

Tickle that tummy!

Kevin at Bfloblog shares this story about a female fan wearing Sabres garb who got punched in the face at Scotiabank Place last night following the Sabres 3-2 victory. This brought back memories of my first visit there.

It was 1997, and Game 3 of the first round of the playoffs, and my brother Taras and I made the journey up there; he had gotten some awesome club tickets thanks to a contact he had at the Sabres.

As we walked towards the arena, we got the typical hoots and jeers from the tailgaters in the parking lot… all good fun and we dished out the trash right back. But one particular group of knuckleheads were especially vile and condescending, sitting on the gate of their pickup and drinking their beers. We ignored them.

Gratefully, sitting in the pricey seats we didn’t take any crap and were in fact surrounded by other Sabres folks like Jay McKee’s mom and Matthew Barnaby’s brother, along others. The Sabres’ Dixon Ward scored with, I think, 18 seconds left to stun the crowd and give Buffalo the win. Of course, we were on cloud nine, and as we exited the building, we ran into that same bunch of knuckleheads…college age or so. I walked up to them, extended my hand, and said… “gee tough loss guys, but it will be a long series may the better team win.” (Little did we know then..game 7 OT.. Derek Plante…) The one dude looks me over up and down and spits a huge honker right into my palm. And then the profanities. I was going to swing a punch but decided not to. So we just walked, but not before my brother took his boot and kicked over their little hibachi grill, coals and brats spilling onto the pavement. I thought for sure this would be it, the fight would be on and we’d all be arrested, but these guys just stood there and continued hurling profanities.

It gets better… we find a Kelseys Grill in Nepean (one town away) and go in for some late night brews and appetizers. We’re both wearing Sabres jerseys. The place is half empty, but the hostess says it will be a 15 minute wait. Half an hour later, and we ask when can we be seated, and the hostess summons her manager, and Mr. Snooty says that they are closed for the evening, and to please leave… dripping in sarcasm and nastiness (four other parties were seated while we were waiting and the sign on the door said the place was open till 1AM).

At this point we left, shed the Sabres garb and went to another place and got waited on pronto.

I like Ottawa, and for Pete and me it is one of our favourite USRT destinations. And I admire the passionate fans and Lyndon Slewidge is THE best anthem singer in the four major sports. But fair warning…all this myth about polite and friendly Canadians goes out the window when it comes to their Senators… the fans there become real bastards. And having seen Sabres games in both Toronto and Montreal, I would never make the same categorization in those cities.

“How Could This Have Happened?”

Thus week’s Puck Stop. Check it out!

Daniel Alfredsson levels a cheap hit on Henrik Tallinder during the overtime of Game 2.. Garrioch’s take? “There is no chance Alfredsson will receive any kind of suspension from NHL VP Colin Campbell …”

Did we expect any different sort of commentary from the biggest mouthpiece of the Ottawa Senators’ Amen Corner?

Absolutely 8 tee-hees.

Tickle that tummy!

An awesome game turn out into a nailbiter… Buffalo scores seven times and is in total command of the game, only to see Ottawa crawl back into it late. But it was good news for our guys in the end as Buffalo takes it and sends Ottawa fans home disappointed.

OK… this is really about the Buffalo Bisons game last night at Lynx Stadium in Ottawa. But I sure as heck wouldn’t mind copying and pasting this text into a Sabres recap 14 hours from now.

Keep hope alive!

Those who will be attending the FA Cup Final between Manchester United and Chelsea at the new Wembley Stadium in London will be the judge of that. This stadium will final open its doors after much controversy, delay after delay and cost overruns.

More info here from The Independent in the U.K.

A USRT journey to the United Kingdom has been bandied about from time to time. Wembley Stadium would certainly be the marquee event.

We’ve remarked on numerous occasions how great it is to work with and interact with the Buffalo Sabres’ media department. They are all top notch professionals, easy to work with, and responsive to our needs.

Media Relations Coordinator Chris Bandura is a key part of that team. But we knew Chris before he joined the Sabres. He held the same position with the Rochester Americans prior to his “call up” to Buffalo. Living in West Seneca, he commuted every day to Rochester, putting in huge hours not only with the long ride, but also the time that such a job demands.

In February 2005, we did a nine day USRT journey through New England, and one of the stops was Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire, and the only day we could fit that one in was the skills competition of the AHL All Star Game. We contacted Chris, and he was only too eager to jump through hoops for us to make sure we got credentialed for the event. Sure enough… Chris gets a hold of Jason Chaimovitz, the PR guy at the AHL, and bam! Our tags under the Sports and Leisure Magazine banner were waiting for us at the door. Looking at the media seating chart that day, we knew there was no other media outlet in attendance who was smaller or less significant than we were.

Go to a morning skate, a team practice or postgame, and Chris is at everyone’s service. “Who you need to talk to?”, he asks. “Can I help with anything?” This is just the kind of guy he is.

Chris travels with the team to all their road games, and also handles the Buffalo media corps who goes with the team. We had the chance to cover six road games this season, and Chris handled our needs and requests promptly each time.

We are always grateful to Chris Bandura for his support, his good cheer, and for doing his job according to the title - media relations. That is something we will always appreciate in Chris!

Game 2 of this series wasn’t even in the books yet, but Bruce Garrioch was already focusing in on the battle between Ray-Ray and Dominik Hasek.

So on our BG tee-hee scale with a range of 1-10, we give this story a solid 6 tee-hees.

Tickle that tummy!

Maybe it’s just not our time.

I am thinking about how exciting and electric these games were a year ago, heart stopping, edge of year seat moments, magical outcomes. When Dan Briere scored in the frenzied closing seconds and the arena erupted in joy, could this be yet another improbable finish in the making?

But here is the painful fact - the Sabres should have never put themselves in that position in the first place. Once again, this team got their “A” game back, came out smoking, dusted off the disappointment of the disallowed Vanek goal (”You hope they get it right” said Lindy Ruff again), and scored two goals. Two goals! Several more scoring chances went for naught; Lydman’s bouncer clanged off the post. This game should have been over early.

But the Sabres attack mode seen in these playoffs in occasional spurts was gone by the second period. Shots on net, scoring chances were few and far between. And AGAIN the Sabres found themselves shorthanded by two men, and when Ottawa seized the opportunity late in the second that goal was a real crusher.

Lindy referred to this power player scenario two separate times in his post game comments. “They got handed another five on three. I’m disappointed with that.” Then later…”Give us a couple of five on threes. We’ve had tough calls that leaves us five on three. Zubrus lifting the stick. Campbell with the nudge…”

The third period was dreary, depressing and painful to watch… on several rushes the players seemed out of position. In one sequence to the left of the Buffalo net Afinogenov checked his own player; Once again shots and scoring chances were virtually non existent, and dare I say it, but it was actually fun watching Ottawa win every little battle, making the smart plays, moving the puck to a safe place time and time again. I could only watch in frustation knowing deep down who the better team was.

Once Buffalo scored to tie it, you had to wonder if this would be a deflator in the Sens locker room, just as the Rangers had gone through almost the identical scenario just eight days earlier. The Sens Jason Spezza replies, “We knew we had to put this one behind us fast and regroup. Nobody here panicked. We’re figuring we had the upper hand in this one.”

Spezza was right. The Senators came out smoking in the first overtime, controlling tempo of play and keeping the puck bottled in the Buffalo zone for most of the period. By the second overtime, they had darkened the shot clock at HSBC Arena. Perhaps it was another errant squirrel that chewed through the wiring, or more likely the team had had enough of displaying this embarassing stat for all to see. Nonetheless, the Sabres started throwing every puck in front of Ray Emery, and at last perhaps something good would happen! But when Spezza won that draw and got it over to Corvo…just like that the Senators had won the game. Said Joe Corvo afterwards, “This was the biggest goal of my career… by far.”

Everyone in Buffalo is so heart broken and so disappointed this morning. Since September we have all geared ourselves up for these days, these games, and nothing short of a Stanley Cup parade will suffice. Is this team really that bad? Do these guys really lack what it takes? Yes Ottawa is the team that is “scary good” in these playoffs, but didn’t I see the Buffalo Amerks take it to these same guys back in February?

So I will wrap myself in the warmth of this thought - Scotiabank Place is not Buffalo’s house of horrors, but the venue of some of our greatest triumphs - 1997, Steve Shields stonewalls the Sens in game 6 to send the series back to Buffalo; 1999, Hasek stops 40 plus shots to secure the opening game 1-0 win, then Miro Satan with his 2OT game winner in game 2; 2006, the crazy track meet in game 1 and a 7-6 overtime win, then Jason Pominville’s shorthanded goal in overtime to take this series.

Yes it will be noisy and loud come Monday in Ottawa. They are awesome fans there and love their team and they should be loud.

That being said, see you in Buffalo next Saturday - 2PM faceoff. I will have the AV pressbox chair. Believe.

An awesome, upbeat article on Sabres owner Tom Golisano in today’s New York Times.

These two quotes jumped out at me, first on the financial state of the Sabres:

“We can remain profitable as long as we play decent hockey,” Golisano said. “If the team were to evolve into a lower-echelon team, I think there would be significant concern about losing money.”
It seems, for now, a faraway concern. Golisano considers the young roster of the Sabres perfectly positioned for years of Stanley Cup contention. The importance of profit may be less of a concern for Golisano, who considered his foray into ownership more an act of community service than investor prudence.
“The personal satisfaction of seeing the enthusiasm, the excitement of the people of western New York toward this hockey team, is worth to me a hell of a lot more than the money that we may or may not make,” he said.

More encouragement about the future of the Buffalo Bills:

He has no plans to rescue other ailing sports franchises, unless it means helping western New York.
“The only thing I will say along that line is that I would hate to see the Buffalo Bills leave the area,” Golisano said of the N.F.L. team, owned by the Wilson family since the franchise began in 1959, and not for sale. “And if a situation arose where I needed to be involved in that, I probably would consider it.”

I’m proud to say I voted for this guy for Governor… three times… and that is long before he had a whiff of owning the Sabres.

The first hint I got that this would be something different was while hanging out on the Plaza 90 minutes before the faceoff. I was people watching, and paying particular attention to the media types, and the camera guys, who were mingling within the crowd. And I saw the mic flags… TSN, Rogers Sportsnet, The Score, Global, A-Channel. That’s when I realized that all of Canada had sent media to Buffalo to cover this event.

Then my next thought…how the hell are they going to fit all these people into the pressbox?

Last year during the Conference Finals series, it was a pretty full pressbox, and that was for the paltry contingent of ‘Canes media… the Cletuses, Roscoes and Goobers of the world… and Ned Barnett. Now multiply that visiting contingent by five, and change the names to Gord, Brent, Luc and Lanny. That adds up to a crush of people.

Here’’s how the Sabres handled it all… there are two seating tiers in the pressbox, at the west and east ends. Then in the corner right off the elevator is an auxiliary pressbox which is rarely used during the regular season. That one was opened, and then the team did one better… they added a set of risers in all three pressboxes, with a row of tables and chairs, and thus created a third seating tier.

As for how we fared… here is the email we got from Kevin Snow at the Sabres before the series started.
MEDIA CREDENTIALS: Sabres credentials issued for the 2006-07 regular season will be honored for the Eastern Conference Finals, but press box space is limited. Please contact Kevin Snow to verify your attendance. Please include name and affiliation for each request. All individual game requests must be submitted 24 hours prior to the desired game. We will do our best to accommodate each request, but nothing is guaranteed. If a seat is unavailable in the press box, there will be space in the Sabres media room downstairs to view the game (on a big screen TV) and allow for post game access.

So I’m thinking.. no frikkin’ way is Artvoice getting our usual spot on media row. The non dailies (Artvoice, Sports and Leisure and Metro Source) are usually relegated to the farthest three seats on the lower tier… seats 2, 3 and 4.

But as I checked in, I looked at the seating chart, and there we were, in SEAT 1! They removed the TV monitor that normally sits in that spot, mounted it on a bracket three feet behind the chair, and created another position. Kick ass!

Memo to Ottawa Citizen, La Presse, RDS and other compatriots… please don’t send anyone else to Buffalo… seat 1 is absolutely the end of the food chain!

I’ve been revved up… waiting for Bruce Garrioch to start his rips and rants and his “in your face commentary”. I even hijacked Buffalo Pundit’s MKG mockability ratings, the hilarious critiques of Mary Kunz Goldman’s inane Buffalo News columns. I was ready to start picking apart Garrioch’s missives, in true Pundit style.

So wasn’t I disappointed to check out today’s Ottawa Sun, this story and this story, just regular ole’ game reporting.

I probably didn’t know what to expect… but there’s still plenty of hockey to be played and we keep hope alive.

What can one say? This was by far the worst effort of the Sabres in the playoffs.

Despite some shoddy play, the Sabres managed to crawl out of a 2-0 hole to tie the game after two, then totally became unhinged in the third period. Oleg Saprykin’s tap in 7+ minutes into the third turned out to be the game winner.

Buffalo’s power play has been a sore point all season long, but the special teams took the ineptness to a new low tonight, failing to generate any real scoring threat despite numerous opportunities. Buffalo’s first power play resulted in a shorthanded goal as Kalinin made one his first dumb plays of the night giving away the puck and allowing a breakaway. “We weren’t very good with the puck, and Dmitri wan’t the only player who struggled out there. Our puck management wasn’t very good.” said Coach Lindy Ruff after the game.

With Ottawa clinging to a 3-2 lead with 5 minutes to go, I turned to my seatmate, Matt Ondesko from Metro Source, and said “Matthew, if Ottawa wants to salt this one away, they should now commit a double minor penalty. That would be lights out.” He laughed. He didn’t argue.

Ruff also criticized his players for the unforced turnovers. “It was a turnover that led to the winning goal.” said Ruff, adding “We came out great to start the game, maybe our guys got a little rattled.”

If there was one bright spot on the Sabres team, it was the play of the Afinogenov-Roy-Vanek line. Max was absolutely filthy out there, making plays, controlling the puck, taking hits and dishing it right back to the Senators.

Bottom line - special teams! Five on five the Sabres win 2-1.

Peter was in the seats tonight, I was in the very crowded pressbox, and I’ll have a story up on all that hubbub tomorrow. But the report from the 100s was that there were only a very small and scattered contingent of Senators fans in the audience. We expect that to increase in game 2.

As always, Peter likes to spot the cool jerseys in the crowd, and tonight he reports that it was a toss up between an Afinogenov Moscow Dynamo and a Hecht Team Deustchland.

Here’s a scary stat - Buffalo has dropped the opener in a best of seven series 14 times in franchise history. They have come back to win the series but one of those times.

One could sense a lot of confidence, perhaps even a swagger, among the Sens players after the game tonight. Unless Buffalo figures this team out and fast, this series could be over soon.