Great Hockey Weekend!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I've been under the weather but I think I'm finally on the mend. Hate cold season. But it's been an awesome hockey weekend! Sabres have won their last 4 games, and Thibault had his first shutout as a Sabres last night. Awesome!

It was a good win against Ottawa because they had just lost to them in their last game together. What's even better is that the Sabres swept Montreal. If you watched the game, you knew the (stupid) Canadiens were getting tired of being spanked by the Sabres. They were more focused on hitting Sabres players than actually playing the game. All the better that they were shutout, hehe.

It's nice to see Ryan Miller finally getting into his game, the more focused he is, the more so are the other players. It's been really exciting to see the newer players scoring. But some of the veterans have been a bit, quite a bit, disappointing. Afinogenov is the biggest so far (at a whopping -8 pts). I'm not going to get into how many game-losing pucks he's given way. Ruff has said he isn't ready to bench him yet, and Afinogenov has actually shown some improvement in the last 2 games. But I still cringe when watching him pass the puck in crucial moments. Come on Max, buckle down and tighten up.

Now what is up with Kotalik (-3 pts)? He was on my list to trade at the end of last year. Is he trying to prove me right?? Hey, Ales, most people try to prove me wrong, like Spacek.

The other disappointment has been Tallinder (-1 pts). It's like as if he wasn't even on the ice when his line is up. Maybe he's just still "mentally" recovering from his injury or perhaps he really doesn't feel 100%, which is causing his under-performance. Snap out of it.

But even with some very sub-par performances by these guys, others have really stepped up. MacArthur, who was brought up due to Connolly's injury, has been awesome. Vanek is starting to look like he did last year, Stafford and Gaustad, Campbell, Roy, Ryan, even Pratt, are looking mighty on the ice.

The real disappointment of the season, as it was last year, of course, are the refs. In every game, not just the ones Sabres play in, there always some bonehead ref not making penalty calls. I'm not talking about the gray zone (put it in the zone, eh!) types. I'm talking about blatant, in your face, only-a-blind-man-could-have-missed-that kind of penalty. But Rob Ray said it best, they're arrogant and think that the fans are out there to see them, not the team. HAHA!

Next game is tomorrow against the Capitals, and then the Blues on Wednesday. And the week after next, they'll be heading west to sunny SoCal to play the Ducks and Kings! Can't wait!