OH, HI THERE.

So I'm assuming that you've all been waiting with baited breath for my next update. At that point though, you'd be dead, seeing as you wouldn't have breathed for a week now. So, short of death, I'm positive that each and every one of you have been worried sick that I got in a car accident, I possibly got clobbered over the head with a cane at the nursing home, maybe I got a look inside of Derek Roy's closet and passed out, or maybe I encountered Tim Connolly on Chippewa (enough said).

Well, my friends, my life is not always that exciting, and as much as it saddens me to say this, none of that happened, and I know you all have lives, so you weren't really worried. It doesn't hurt that I talked to at least a few of you on Facebook or through texts or emails.

But really, I had probably the shittiest week known to man. Not only did school start, but I think I'm going to resort to rearranging my ethics professor's teacher's face with my fist. I cannot stand the woman. Not only that, but there was a death in my family, which was extremely shocking, and now I'm sick, and there was whole bunch of other crap, but I can't even think of it right now because the Sudafed is going to my head, which feels like it weighs about 25 pounds right now.

Whatever.

I have to say, I'm in love with the photographers from this weekend. A while back, when the Sabres started taking those ultrasexy black and white pictures of the guys and throwing them up all over the arena, I was in love. But, at the same time, I was thinking, "Ummmm, no. These guys are not the most photogenic (coughTimConnnollycoughBrianCampbellcough), so why am I gushing over these pictures?"

But I've taken it all back, because they're really cool. They're artsy and they show the guys a little bit differently. I still like going by Connolly's because you can see his terribly receeding hairline, and Kaleta's because his face is mangled. Oh, and Mair's and Lydman's are pretty good, too, because the shadows allow you to see all of their scars. They're actually pretty neat.

So you can imagine my glee when I saw all of the ridiculous pictures they were taking this weekend.

Like this one:


But then you get true winners like these ones:




But I'm sorry, because Vinny takes the cake for the best looking boy of the night:


Niiiiiice!!

So the SuperSkills Competition was pretty entertaining. I can't stand Versus, so I watched on CBC. I figured some of the guys were mic'ed up when I saw the CIA-esque wires sticking out of their jerseys, but I didn't equate them with the Versus broadcast, so I missed out on that fun. Oh well. I was pretty amused by Ovie's antics with the sunglasses, and I just love his use of my ancestor's flag in his hat. Adorable. And I totally called Vanek using the Around The World. I didn't know he'd use it twice though. Cool deal.

I'm still undecided if I really will give the All*Star game my full attention this evening. I might. Really. As much as I am disgusted with the whole voting process and all, it could be entertaining. But if it starts to look anything like the YoungStars game was last night, I'll leave it on, but I'm moving on to the endless hours of psychology reading I have. Not that that is any more fun or anything. I just want Vanek to do well.

What's more, though, is my excitement that next week's games actually will be televised after all. When it was made known to me that no one in WNY could watch it at all, I was almost tempted to get into my car and drive somewhere--anywhere--that didn't have an ip address that I do, just so I could watch it. But I'm glad I don't have to do that, because it saves me a bunch of money, and a whole lot of sleep.

Seriously, though, I hate west coast trips. The guys never seem to have their feet under them during the first couple games, so it'll be interesting to see how they do. I think it would have been beneficial to get them out there a day or two early, but that can't happen because of the break. They should be quite rested, although that doesn't always seem to help, either. Vanek, in my opinion, is the only guy with an excuse to not play well.

Well, maybe he and Marc-Andre Gragnani. Yes, we called him up last night. Last time he put on the blue and gold, he skated with the forwards. This time, he's filling in for Henrik Tallinder, who injured his shoulder and is out indefinitely. Cool. Should be interesting, to say the least.

Even though I was one of those ones, complaining that we had too many defensemen up here a couple weeks ago, I knew something like this would happen. I really think Regier needs to make some sort of move to get an established d-man here, because we can't afford to throw our prospects in the lineup, especially with this roadtrip. Chris Butler has been exceptional thus far, and we've received much more than we could have imagined from him. But that's not going to hold true to everyone, so I'm just praying that Gragnani can at least keep it simple and not screw things up. The Sabres can't afford to do poorly on this trip because Carolina is only two points behind us; Pittsburgh and Florida only three behind.

These next four games will be vital to kicking off the playoff push. I just hope we can pull at least 5, but more ideally at least 6 points, out of this trip.