Taro T

It was a 4 on 4. McKee and a Sen went off for coincidental roughing minors when the Otters took the lead 6-5. Drury's goal was scored 4 on 4 as well.

You will not see Biron this post season barring some very strange circumstance (Miller injury, Sabres desperately needed a "karma" change, or something of that nature). I'd be nearly shocked if you see Marty in either of the back-to-backs. You will NOT see him start in game 2. He is a good goalie, but he is not better than Ryan is, nor does he have the same upside potential that Ryan has. The reason why they'd "give up" on him is Ryan is better. It's that simple. (Also, I wouldn't say they gave up on him. He is still on the roster and Mika is not.) Marty is probably the 20th best goalie in the league (some days I'd say top 15, some days top 30-35), but Ryan is better than that. There are teams in the NHL that Marty could start for, but there are several (including the Sabres) where he would only be the 2nd best (or in the case of a team like San Jose - 3rd).

Happy B-day, MiP. Hope this next year is better than last year for you.

If it was Gaustad or Grier that scored it, I'd say pass that didn't quite "work" the way it was supposed to. Timmy or Danny, absolutely intentional. Goal scoring is an art that can't be taught. You either get it or you don't. Timmy gets it (after a few year lapse of not getting it, but that was more a case of not getting how to get in position to score than not getting HOW to score).

One of the announcers said something to the effect of "Buffalo can't come back now" or "it becomes extremely difficult to come back now", and I turned to my wife and said "didn't they score a shorthanded goal already"? What a friggin' game!

Yeah, but earlier in the period when Emery gave up a HUGE rebound that went off of Phillips' skate back to where he could cover it, Benedetti (sp?) and Eliot were RAVING about how great Ray was playing the rebounds. Excuse me? It was just a case of the Sabres skaters and goalie being JUST good enough and the Otters not being quite there. This is going to be one for the ages. I love the new friggin' NHL. I honestly can't remember the last time the entire Sabres season was this enjoyable. Even in '99, they had Barnaby and Hasek feuding and the monumental 2nd half collapse (until Barnaby turned into Stuuuuuuuuuuu Barrrrrrrrrnnnes). It had to be early '80's at the latest. PS - Happy Birthday LSI.

Yeah, but Jagr had a good season and his team's fortunes had nothing to do with Lundqvist's hip.

This is where I like the extra day off in Ottawa. The Sens will have to deal with one extra day of the locals giving them flack for losing to a team that they outplayed on paper and also for Alfie not finding way to hit the empty net toward the end (I think it was Alfie, have to look at the replay when I will actually remember it). The Sabres have one extra day to try to figure out how to keep from giving Havlat breakaways. It also gives Miller 1 extra day to settle down. Getting the W in a game that he gave up some big rebounds AND 6 goals could go a long way towards calming his jitters. Also, 1 more game that Briere seemed invisible for large portions of the game but he gets a HUGE assist when the Sabres needed it. Sweeeeet.

Yep, from worst in the West to top remaining seed. There is a 100% correlation with Thornton donning teal and that team (and especially Cheechoo) turning the season around. It's not the Best Player award, it's the Most VALUABLE Player award. I'd have a tough time believing anyone but Thornton would have had that significant an effect on his team's success.

Well stated.

Hey, I thought Lundqvist would be at least 90% and that Koivu would play the whole series. (I should have known 1, but didn't have much of a chance with the other.) As for the West, I don't follow that nearly closely enough. I knew there would be at least one more upset than the Sharks, I just couldn't decide which one to pick, so I didn't pick any of them.

The Sabres did sign Numminen about 3 weeks before getting Toni. But the Sabres probably would not have tried to sign Teppo if they had Z (or if they had gotten Aucoin after they lost Z). I think the Sabres would have still tried to get Lydman if they had Z and not Teppo. It's VERY doubtful that the Sabres would have had all 3 D on the season opening roster as the team payroll would have been above the $29MM that the Sabres wanted to max out at. My gut feel is that Teppo is the one that isn't wearing a Shatanic Goat if Z is, but it is possible that Lydman is the odd man out. Lydman is younger and cheaper than Teppo, and as such I would expect that he would be the preferred target if Z is in the stable.

Zhitnik was NOT let go. The Sabres tried to sign him - both in '04 before his contract expired and in this past off-season. He would not sign with the Sabres prior to testing free agency and then the Isles made him a better offer (more years for comparable / slightly higher per season $'s). Had the Sabres signed Zhitnik, they most likely would not have signed Teppo. (Although it's possible they would have signed Teppo and then not traded for Lydman.) So the Sabres would most likely still be looking at the same depth issues they have had they signed Z.

No advice. Wish I had some. Sorry to hear your news.

Missed the immigration question. The sad part was seeing that most of the questions were answered correctly only about 1/3 of the time.

Dead on correct. Living is the last thing this PoS wants. I hope he lives to a ripe old age and then rots in Hades for eternity. I can wait a few years for him to get his richly deserved "reward".

A few extra scenes were added. The scene with Han and Jabba was originally shot with a person playing Jabba and wasn't shown in the original version of the movie. The computer graphics also weren't as intense, but were incredibly cool for their day. Stuff like when the X and Y wings are in formation, you don't see the pilots moving around inside the cockpits. You also don't have the halo effect when stuff explodes. Fewer computer generated creatures (or more exactly, none) in the backgrounds of scenes. Luke's hovercraft (or whatever it's called) "hovered" in the original by having someone manually smearing out the supports under it on the film. Nothing real major.

Eastern Conference 1 Ottawa vs 4 Buffalo - Ottawa in 6 (hope I'm wrong on this one) 2 Carolina vs 3 New Jersey - Jersey in 7 (ditto) Western Conference 5 San Jose vs 8 Edmonton - San Jose in 6 6 Anaheim vs 7 Colorado - Anaheim in 7

It was, if they had called Forsberg for slashing Max he wouldn't have been on the ice 2 minutes later to run around in his own end as Desjardins was giving the puck to Roy.

Pretty much all of the Filly fans I know personally are good guys that are REALLY into their teams (and ALL of them grew up near Filly). The thing is, even if they are in the majority (and I assume they have to be), their idiots are so friggin' visible that it's almost impossible to not consider the good fans to be the aberation and not the other way around.

We will know for certain after the Calgary game is done, but I don't expect to see them move the concert nor the lax game. The Sabres do have 1st choice of dates (for setting up regular season schedule), but the arena management won't keep the rink empty for 2 months on the hope that the Sabres could need the building on a particular night. The Bandits needing the rink is probably viewed as a slight surprise by arena management.

Probably because the game has been scheduled to be shown on ESPN2 for a few months and the game is already scheduled in the Mmarena and tickets have been on sale. (Basically, the same reasons that the Sabres can't bump the concert - too much money involved to change the schedule around on a 10 day notice.)

That was a bit before my time, but I've heard that the movie that stopped that practice was Hitchcock's Psycho. The way I heard the story, he didn't want people seeing the ending and having the rest of the movie ruined. So he required theaters showing Psycho to agree to not let people into the movie after it started. Is that really the 1st movie to do that, or is that another "urban legend"?

More likely a lack of faith in the Bandits getting top seed in the NLL and hosting the championship game. That game wasn't officially on the schedule until last weekend. Thursday/Sunday is doubtful, because then the series which could have ended in 7 on the 17th or 18th would most likely stretch to the 20th if it goes 7 games. That gives the league about 4 days of fluff time in the schedule to get the playoffs completed by the official last possible day of June 19. I believe they would much rather have the Sabres series end no later than the 17th.

Ottawa has the Dora love in this weekend, so it looks like games 1&2 will be Friday and Monday. Buffalo has a concert on Friday the 12th and the Bandits are scheduled to try for the title on the 13th, so it looks like games 3&4 will be Wednesday (10th) and Thursday (11th). If that's the case, I expect Game 5 to be HNIC and Saturday (13th) night. Game 6 in Buffalo would probably be Monday (15th) and Game 7 in Ottawa on Wednesday the 17th. We'll know the official schedule about 5 minutes after the Calgary game is over.