Sabre Dance

Umm, I did. ?

In my experience (and humble opinion), if a player is trying to decide whether or not to retire due to health reasons, the question is (or should be) already answered. Especially if the health issue is multiple concussions. Too many players (in all sports) have decided to play one more season, only to have it come back and bite them in the end. You can't buy health and you can't set the clock back.

Unless there are some last-minute deals that haven't been posted yet, it looks like JBott is done. Ah, well....

Well, technically speaking the plural of "leaf" is "leaves". However, an individual who plays for the Toronto NHL club is a "Maple Leaf", so the team is made up of "Maple Leafs". (It even sez so on their jersey crest.) So, "Blow Leafs Blow" is correct. Either way, as long as we beat the bejeebers out of the buggers....... ??

Ah, yes...the future. At some point (not yet reached of course), the future must become the now.

In the very early days of the franchise, sometimes Steve's signs were the best thing about the game. These days, we don't even have entertaining signs to make the game "experience" better. God bless you Steve - you done good. Rest peacefully knowing you brightened many a young fan's trip to the Aud. Say hi to Punch, Seymour and Norty for us. Maybe you can ask them if it's possible to send down some help for their team.

Many Sabres' fans tend to fixate on a particular player (or players). They scream for them to play better or get traded, then weep and whinge when they are traded. NHL hockey is now a "what have you done for us lately" business; you can't afford to get too attached to a particular player. Unfortunately, many of us (yes, me too) do get a little too attached. More unfortunately, this seems to extend to the front office, coaching staff and yes, the owners. If the Sabres hope to ever win a Stanley Cup, the team management has to learn to be brutal - you play hard or you leave town. We are coming up on the team's 50th anniversary. When the team came into the league, I was in middle school; I will be retiring from my job soon. That's a very, very long time to be a fan and to get very little in return (especially lately). The original owners/management took an expansion team and built a Cup finalist in five seasons. We're right where we were five seasons ago with no real end in sight. Yeah, times have changes, but you still win hockey games by playing with urgency and passion. Another word for it is...pride. Where is the pride on this team?

The beach or the 500 mile race? Answer: Neither. Funny how an area with no snow can still produce a 21 car pile-up...

I think the entire Sabres lineup could use 400 watt-seconds across their crests... CLEAR!!

The answer you're looking for can be summed up in one word: intensity. In the few games that I have seen in the last few weeks, the Sabres lack intensity, sometimes for just a period or two, sometimes for the whole game. If you watch Tampa, they are always "on". No one is just gliding along looking for an easy play or just stick-checking. They take the body, they push the puck out of their own zone and they move with speed and focus into the offensive zone. Some of it is talent; most of it is hard work. (Same reason Vegas made it to the Cup finals last season with an expansion team lineup). When I watch the Sabres, I don't see intensity OR focus OR (most of the time) hard work. I have no idea what or who can motivate these guys to play harder. They seem to be OK with being middle of the pack. Until someone figures out how to push their buttons (if they have one), this is where we're at.

I'm always entertained by the schemes some come up with to buy a used vehicle. I was trying to sell my motorcycle some years back and was still paying on the loan. Someone wanted to give me a check every month, have me turn it around and make the loan payment, keep the registration (and insurance!) in my name and then use the motorcycle until it was paid off. I said, "Sure! Right after I run headfirst into a brick wall". Yeesh!

For the second year running, I will excuse myself from watching the Super Bowl. For the NFL, it's SNAFU: One team made it into the game after being on the plus side of a blown call by the refs, the other is the Patriots. I have no particular dislike for the Rams (in fact, I hope they crush New England). I just wish that interference call had been made and the game had played out naturally. Who knows? The Rams might have won anyway. But now? Well, this calls into mind (again) the legitimacy of NFL officiating. Do the Patriots really have many fans outside of New England? My impression is that they are just about universally disliked (hated?) around the league. Maybe the NFL is counting on fans tuning in just to see if the Patriots can be beaten. They really have been in way too many post-season games over the last 15 years. I am very suspicious of a team that has already been caught toying with the rules twice, and that year after year (after year) winds up on top of the league. Their performance goes way beyond what the laws of probability would predict. Anyway, I guess I'll be watching the Puppy Bowl again this year. Darn, those little pooches are cute!

I guess I am not totally understanding the idea of purchasing season tickets and then selling off the ducats to the most exciting games. Yeah, profit margin I know but still. I had partial season tickets years ago and I sold off the games I DIDN't want to go to, not the ones against our big rivals. It does kind of rub me the wrong way when there are so many Toronto fans in the building when the Leafs play, but I'm not about to tell anyone who has shelled out for a season ticket that they can't sell any games they want. I think maybe if we would up in a playoff against the Leafs, there would be far fewer sales to TO fans. I think... ?

How fast is Dahlin? Well, I hear he won't French on the first date....

Yep, my CD changer is a Sony as well. Not so strange - we both have excellent taste!

Apparently, I've been working too hard. When I first read the title of the thread, I didn't read "Wheeling Nailers"; my brain saw "Kneeling Whalers". Honestly, I'm scared for my (mental) health...?

I recently set up a small (but pretty good) system in my parlor for under $400. Dayton Audio makes a great little Bluetooth digital amplifier (it has RCA and 1/8" stereo inputs as well). 50 watts/channel plus a 100w subwoofer out. Model number is DTA-2.1BT and it goes for $89 on Amazon. I added a pair of ELAC Debut B6 speakers for $179 and a non-powered subwoofer from Amazon for $56. Add a few dollars for speaker cables. I use it to play music from my iPhone via Bluetooth and it sounds pretty amazing (both quality of sound and volume). (This has not replaced my "big" stereo setup with a Harmen-Kardon receiver, CD changer, subwoofer+amp and Paradigm tower speakers though). I like the setup because I can fire it up on a whim when I get tired of watching TV.

Back in October of '87 (maybe it was '88), my girlfriend and I were in North Buffalo for some reason and on the spur of the moment decided to take the Metro Rail downtown and catch the Sabres' season opener at the Aud. There were still orange seats available, so we bought tickets and headed up. Someone in the Sabres' organization had a wonderful idea for the opening game: Every seat in the Aud had a small plastic bag hanging on it. Inside was a small memento of the game (I've forgotten what it was) and a "glow disc". You know, it was like one of those glow sticks that you crack and then the liquids inside mix and glow for a couple of hours, except it was a disc. Some seats had blue discs (actually more of a purple) and the others had "gold" discs (really that hi-vis yellow). During the opening ceremony, fans were supposed to hold up the glowing discs forming patterns all around the Aud. Predictably, many fans decided to test the aerodynamic limits of the discs, launching them like Frisbees towards the ice surface. By the end of the opening ceremony, the ice was littered with thousands of glowing purple and optic yellow discs. Of course, announcements were made to try to stop fans from hurling the discs icewards, but to little effect. The maintenance crew eventually got the ice cleaned up. The game finally got going, but every time there was a decent hit or a lousy call by the refs, more discs came sailing down. I can only imagine that the genius that came up with this "glow disc" idea found themselves looking for work the next day.

To quote Max Webster, "...but it all becomes (at least to me ) Lip Service, Lip Service, Lip Service..."

The floors in the Aud were polished concrete - at the end of every game, kids would flip discarded paper beverage cups so they were open end down on the concrete floor. They would then step on them making a popping sound. The pops could be heard from all the different areas and levels of the building. To this day when I am walking out of the current arena, I expect to hear that popping. It's almost like the game isn't really over until the beverage cups pop....

You bet - there were three stairs for every row of seats. That is pretty dang steep!

My dad was able (on a few occasions) to buy orange seats from a co-worker who had season tickets. We arrived very early for a game and most of the orange seats were still empty. A fellow in the next section slipped while getting to his seat and actually slid down 6 or 7 rows on the tops of the seat backs. That's how steep the oranges were! (In fact, until the guy got a firm hold on one of the seats, he had a look of terror on his face; he probably thought he would slide down all the way and over the railing down into the blue seats). A great place to see hockey, though! Man, those were really the days!

Now, if we can get Dahlin to do a singing Elvis impression (a la Gilbert), we'll really have something! Seriously, he does sound very mature and thoughtful for one so young. A good sign.

I'm (tentatively) planning on retiring next April. Right now, I have about 8 weeks of combined vacation, personal and holiday time to use up in the next 7 months. I scheduled next week off, no firm travel plans, just a week kicking around at home. (Well, maybe I'll take a day trip or two). Anyway, as it always seems to happen, the week before I am to take off suddenly the dam breaks at work. Computers throwing errors, people needing me do do little stuff that has been sitting around all summer, etc. It never freaking fails. (Plus, I anticipate that when I get back from vacation that there will be an S-load of work waiting for me.) That's the main reason I have two months of time off saved up; I have to work twice as hard the week before and the week after my vacation). I can't wait to see what happens when I retire... ?

Thank you - don't forget to tip your server. I'll be here all week. Try the veal...