Only 79 wins remaining for a perfect season. Buffalo took control early and never lost the lead tonight behind Marty Biron’s solid performance. Ottawa looked pretty flat early and you sense that maybe, just maybe, Ottawa’s run of regular season dominance is no longer.
Some clutch goals, some clutch saves, and pretty much a nice, dull, simple road game played by the Sabres.

3-0

Next game Friday…a mini-vaction of sorts.

Wow. Seriously, can anyone even explain the feelings after tonights game. Keep in mind of course, that this is game TWO of the season and it feels like we’ve just finished two playoff games.
In typical Buffalo spirit, after the plethora of penalties to accompany a clock outage, random buzzer buzzing, and a 2-goal deficit…many started to leave and many more (myself included) sensed the game was over. Thankfully Briere, Afinogenov, and co. don’t have that Buffalo self-defeatist attitude.
Intense. I mean, I always enjoy home openers more than anyother regular season game but I’ve never been so tense from one before. Most Sabres teams of late would have just rolled over and let Montreal run away with it after the Habs kept the goals coming to accompany the steady flow of penalties against Buffalo. This team is apparently different though. Despite all odds seemingly, we just kept chipping away.

2-0 my friends. A heart-stopping 2-0.

At Ottawa tommorrow. Should see Biron in net.

In today’s Buffalo News there is a piece on the 10 year existence of the Crossroads/Marine Midland/HSBC Arena, focusing on its successes and failures. The article says how it is a great success for the Sabres franchise but has created little spin-off.

While I don’t disagree with that completely there are some projects going on in that area that the Arena’s presence had a role in
1. Lofts @Elk Terminal
2. Savarino HQ’s
3. Cobblestone Lofts (construction to begin soon)
4. Cobblestone Bar
5. New Irish cafe/pub/restaurant (construction to begin soon)

And then we can add the Casino, Bass Pro, Harborfront Market, and a new mixed-use at the current Donovan State Office site.

The Verizon Center in DC changed Chinatown around completley. They even call it the “New Arts District” now. But Buffalo is not DC. Businesses are extremely careful about doing anything in the city. When the arena had its groudbreaking in 1994, downtown was not the most popular place to be. Only in 2004 did things start to get rolling around downtown with the completion of the Lofts @ Elk Terminal.

With a local economy that grows at a painfully slow rate, and the psychological barriers created by anti-downtown stigmas dating back to the 60’s, Downtown Buffalo is growing despite the conditions thrown at it for once. And HSBC is a piece of the puzzle that is helping it along.

Last night felt like last spring all over again. A game 8 of sorts. Except this time we were in blue and gold, and the Canes were rasing banners multiple. The atmosphere was similar, and the game kept going back and forth…and in a not-so-relaxing manner. Like last year, Miller was solid, and Briere was clutch.

Unlike last year…we left Carolina with a W.

I also apologize for my really choppy writing. I’m sick like a dog but feel guilty that I haven’t updated since Sunday.

According to Tickets.com, the cheapest tix availible for tonight’s PRESEASON game are $72.
I know there are some antsy Buffalonians who are dying to see their team again. Even if it means dishing out 72 bones for a game that doesn’t even count.

Got to read the Toronto’s media coverage on not only last night’s victory, but of course, the new uniforms.
It’s not just the Buffalonians who are offended I guess.
Canoe.ca
Toronto Sun
A Globe and Mail writer’s blog

Stopped by the Arena for most of training camp today. The center ice has the new logo, the electronic ribbon board has the new logos, and all the players had the gloves, socks, shorts, and helmets for the new logo. Other than that there wasn’t much to report on..
*Jim Corsi brought in some Italian goalies to play. They’ll be at camp but aren’t part of the organization
*MSG’s Kevin Sylvester always seemed like a charming, nice, young man on TV…he’s a blue collar foul mouth off the screen.
*Extremely uneventful training camp. As WGR’s Brad Ritter said during the final scrimmage…”I’m basically here to report if someone breaks their leg”. No legs were broken.

This is from Sabrefans.com since Sabres.com has since taken off the whole jersey countdown thingy.

Grrrr. The jersey numbers on the upper right side? Wtf?

JP Dumont’s 1year, 2.9 mil contract awarded through arbitration was rejected by the Sabres. Chances are he’ll be gobbled up immediatley through free agency with his solid career numbers in the “dead puck” era.

Sucks to be in a small market, eh?

http://sabres.com/multimedia.cfm?id=549&media=video

Most cities have press conferences when a certain issue takes the forefront of the discussion of our lives. Taxes, proposed projects, crime, etc. But in Buffalo we say “pfff” to that petty stuff

“LIKE, OMG. THE SABRES HAVE A NEW LOGO THAT I HIGHLY DISLIKE. STOP EVERYTHING!”

So Larry Quinn took the podium to calm our fears by announcing that we will also be wearing our traditional blue uni’s for a dozen or so games and that the logo/uniform unveiled on the interenet is incomplete. In any other city in America this press conference would have never happened. Besides, its not like we have any real issues in this city anyway, right?