Buffalo Boy's Blog
Giving You More Than Just My Two Cents
Panic Button: Hurricanes 4, Our Self Imploding Hockey Team 3
The panic button is officially being pressed. We have been in this rut since the road trip with two wins against the Devils and Bruins sandwiched in between we are basically coughing up losses since Anaheim.
We had this one 3-2 in the third on home ice against the worst team in the Eastern Conference and we cough it up.
Darcy, don't be the passive GM you have been, its time to shake this thing up cause its starting to break down. Its time to do something.
Category: Buffalo Sabres Hockey
Senators 4, Sabres 2
This one was painful to watch. I had the luxury of watching it live from the second row of the 300 level of the HSBC Arena and it was not a fun game to watch.
From a malfunctioning HD camera that didn't provide the league the necessary replay to properly review what all 18,000+ in attendance could see was a goal in the first period to Alfredsson and Spezza tearing us a new asshole this game was a disappointment of huge proportions.
We tied it up in the third and it looked promising but too many cutesy, putesy plays and too many giveaways cost this team a game they deserved to win for 40 minutes of and lost it based on the middle 20.
With 3 minutes left and a 2-2 tie I had a guy feeling that this thing could only end bad. The Senators claimed yet another win from our grasps and continued their 10 game winning streak.
What was a 13 point cushion a few weeks ago is now a slimming 3 point lead with still two games in hand. Mike Grier and Tyler Myers were the two best players on the ice, unfortunately neither one of them can score you the goals you need to win and shouldn't be expected to.
Myers was one of one or two Sabres to jump Chris Philips after Philips plowed over Ryan Miller, why all five Sabres didn't jump Philips is beyond me, instead the 20 year old rookie went in and dropped his gloves.That should be a much different response.
Now is the time Darcy, find a move that will improve this team. All but two players at this point are off limits, Tyler Myers and Ryan Miller are untouchable, everyone else can be had if the price is right.
Make this team better Darcy!.
Category: Buffalo Sabres Hockey
Happy Groundhog Day!
Ah yes another winter where a rodent thinks hes a weather man and tells us the obvious, 6 more weeks of winter. I like this day, not because there are 6 weeks of winter, but because its really the first time we start to think spring. Think about it, by the end of this month our average high temperatures go from a frigid 31 degrees now which is the coldest time of the year to a balmy 37 degrees for the average high temps. By the end of the month 5:00 pm will be afternoon again not night or evening as the sun doesn't set till after 6:00 by the end of the month. Ah yes, signs of spring begin in February and it starts with this day. The next significant date is in roughly 13 days when pitchers and catchers begin showing up at Major League camps in Florida and Arizona. Happy Spring everyone and yes Bill Murray is a god:Category: Groundhog Day 2010
The Grammy Awards (AKA Crappy Awards)
Yesterday I continued a tradition I am proud of, I didn't watch the Grammy Awards for the probably the 10th consecutve year. They are long, the music sucks and they don't award the best music, they award the music that sells. Its a popularist contest and nothing more.
All due respect to Taylor Swift but he album was not album of the year, there had to have been better music out there somewhere, they picked it because it sold the most, I don't have the numbers in front of me but I will bet everything I have that that is the case.
Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown as Best Rock Album? Come on, I like Green Day, but Im sure there was something better, it sold a lot.
The Grammy Awards have become totally controlled by the cooperate world both music and mass media and they award the music that sells plain simple, no one bothers to dig deep anymore to find the truly quality music out there, we just settle for what coorporately owned, mass media radio stations throw on their high rotation playlists and accept it for what is "good" and "acceptable" to listen to.
So, until the Grammy Awards gets honest with music fans and themselves Im not going to bother tuning in. They should rename it to the Award Show for Top Selling Music and just hand out gold dollar signs to each artist.
Sunday Retro
The SOTU was this past week and Obama is trying to get the "just say no" Republicans on board to help instead of hinder solutions to big problems. Why does it have to be So Political? Made me think of this little tune by Canada's Spirit of the West for Sunday Retro. Released in 1988 on their album Labour Day, Political was a big hit up north and a crown pleaser when they play it live to this day. Hope they make a Buffalo stop this year!Category: Sunday Retro
Republican Douchebag
Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer of South Carolina (figures, he works with the Gov. Scumbag Mark Sanford) says that if we show him the schools for the highest rate of free or reduced school lunches he will show you the lowest test scores....NO SHIT! This scares the crap out of me as someone with a masters degree in special education I think I would have ran up to his microphone and punched him in the forehead. His idea is to "stop feeding the animals and they will stop breeding". Referring to those kids who get free and reduced school lunches. It has nothing to do with the school lunches moron, it has everything to do with the fact that kids who grow up in poor socio-economic districts have poor home environments and less chance to succeed because of those poor home environments that are not conducive to discipline or ability to do their school work. Its all about environment in which these kids go home to. They can't afford school lunches, most can't afford their own lunches thus the need for free and reduced lunches at school otherwise these kids wouldn't eat! Ever see a kid with an empty stomach? Think those test scores are low now just wait! I hope the backlash at this guy boots his ass out of office. It shows what repukes are all about. Checkout the clip from the douchebag: Here is a jab back from one of my favorite talk show hosts The Randi Rhodes Show: Here is my solution to poverty, starve all the republicans maybe they will leave and go to another country to ruin.And the Repukes like to call Obama a dictator? This is the ultimate in dictatorship, keep the poor suffering so they can't fight back. Thats a dictator. If you sqaush the poor and middle class, only the wealthy survive. Repukes no longer can call Obama a Fascist.The Blizzard of All Blizzards: 1977
Whenever the weather gets bad around here all I have to do is remember the Blizzard of '77, I was only 4 then but i do remember drifts of snow up to our roof. It was by far and away the worst storm ever.
The stuff we get around here now is childs play. If something like that hit now we'd probably broken by it because frankly we have'nt seen anything close to it since.
This slide show is a great representation of what it looked like back then, most of us, no matter what our age was or what we were doing will not forget:
Category: Weather
Character Win: Sabres 2, Devils 1
To come back from the longest road trip in recent memory and defeat the second place team in the Eastern Conference would have been great by anyone's standards, but to do it via overtime and a shootout was just icing on the cake.
Ryan Miller may have been average the last few games of the trip but tonight he out dueled possibly the greatest goalie in NHL history maybe providing a little hint of what is to come in Vancouver.
Tim Connolly's streak is over but I'll bet he'll trade the scoring streak in for a winning streak. We are now one back of the Devils for second in the East with Boston, Pittsburgh and Ottawa up next all teams looking to catch us in the standings.
Its getting to be that time of year again....its almost playoff time, every game counts. This was a character win, one they probably didn't deserve but they got it and it counts.
Category: Buffalo Sabres Hockey
Speech for the Base
I was approaching the State of the Union speech tonight by Obama as the beginning of the end or a new beginning depending on how he addressed the issues that have the majority of his base to say the least nervous.
To put it simply Obama hit on the points he needed to, to keep me listening and supporting him for at least a few more months. He caught my attention again even if despite numerous well aimed and intentional shots across the bow at the repukes he failed to gain theirs.
After that speech though how can anyone in this country right now democrat or repuke deny that this president is willing to A) fight for middle class and the poor in this country B) willing to fight for what he ran on and C) Willing to work with both parties.
It was only a speech and if Obama learned anything maybe he has learned that he can't lead by delegating as much as he thought. His plans addressed in the speech included monthly meetings with leadership in both parties...how many presidents have done that? Our last president surely didn't.
We may not be getting the healthcare bill that we wanted but he hinted that congress should not give up..was he insisting that they continue to try to get a public option into the bill or to work with passing what the senate is passing down? One thing we did get is that he doesn't care that its an election year he wants it passed.
Plain and simple the president demanded action from both sides on big issues despite an election year, insinuating that they are not there to be re-elected but to lead and to get things done, not sit there and wait for failure just because you have an ideological difference.
The ball has been thrown to the republicans, if they work with it and attempt to get things done the rest of the year maybe they save face, if not the American people have got to be pretty damn obtuse not to realize that if the do nothing crap the republicans have been doing so far in Obama's tenure should not be tolerated.
This was my favorite part of the speech:
"From the day I took office, I have been told that addressing our larger challenges is too ambitious — that such efforts would be too contentious, that our political system is too gridlocked and that we should just put things on hold for awhile.
For those who make these claims, I have one simple question:
How long should we wait? How long should America put its future on hold?
You see, Washington has been telling us to wait for decades, even as the problems have grown worse. Meanwhile, China's not waiting to revamp its economy; Germany's not waiting; India's not waiting. These nations aren't standing still. These nations aren't playing for second place. They're putting more emphasis on math and science. They're rebuilding their infrastructure. They are making serious investments in clean energy because they want those jobs.
Well I do not accept second place for the United States of America. As hard as it may be, as uncomfortable and contentious as the debates may be, it's time to get serious about fixing the problems that are hampering our growth.
One place to start is serious financial reform. Look, I am not interested in punishing banks, I'm interested in protecting our economy. A strong, healthy financial market makes it possible for businesses to access credit and create new jobs. It channels the savings of families into investments that raise incomes. But that can only happen if we guard against the same recklessness that nearly brought down our entire economy.
We need to make sure consumers and middle class families have the information they need to make financial decisions. We can't allow financial institutions, including those that take your deposits, to take risks that threaten the whole economy.
The House has already passed financial reform with many of these changes. And the lobbyists are already trying to kill it. Well, we cannot let them win this fight. And if the bill that ends up on my desk does not meet the test of real reform, I will send it back."
Its time for the stalemate in Washington to end. That was the message tonight. Republicans/conservatives know damn well that they have sat back and done nothing but criticize everything from day one, from the closing of Gitmo to the choice of the first families dog.
They are the first to criticize but the last to come up with solutions. The president expects more. He mentioned leading instead of short term politics:
"Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it's not leadership. We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions."
Why can't our elected officials have some pride in what they do? Lead, both democrats and republicans were elected to serve the people of this country not sit on their hands to spite the party in power.
Im excited again, the democratic base should be excited, now its in the republicans hands. I doubt they will follow on this, I doubt they will change and if they don't....the American people need to remember and in November remember this speech, remember the fact that the republican party in this country is the very reason why the president didn't get more done.
