ONE DOWN FOUR TO GO

against the Islanders that is...

Friday night? No Sabres game? Try the Canucks V. Stars at 10pm maybe on Versus network or you can listen here.. nhl com radio

Missed the 'Better Days' pre-game video? See it here.

Did anyone miss the pre-game 'Better Days' video?

If so, you can watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iws0Dw8iTU

thanks to YouTube.

6th Longest Game in NHL history?

Well it felt like the longest. Who fell asleep and thought they were just "dozing off for a while", and then woke up to find out it had been two or three hours and the game was still going?

That's 'cause the Stars V. Canucks game was the 6th longest in NHL history and I heard it was the longest playoff game though it's not been confirmed in print yet.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/stanleycup2007/story/2007/04/11/canucks-stars-one.html

Canucks top Stars in fourth OT

Henrik Sedin scored to end the sixth-longest game in NHL history, giving Vancouver a victory in their playoff opener early Thursday morning.
Sedin took a pass from his brother Daniel in the slot and fired the puck in the net at 18:06 of the fourth overtime period to give the Canucks a 5-4 victory over Dallas.
"I felt better the more we played," the goal scorer told Hockey Night in Canada. "It was nice in the fifth and sixth periods to feel you've got your legs."
The teams will return to GM Place for Game 2 of the Western Conference quarter-final on Friday (CBC, 9 p.m. ET).
Markus Naslund, Daniel Sedin and Mattias Ohlund each had a goal and an assist for Vancouver, while Bryan Smolinski also scored. Five other Canucks notched assists.
Roberto Luongo made 72 saves in his first NHL playoff game.

Not Sure Why They're using this song

Geez, I'm not sure why they are using this song by the Goo-Goo Dolls for the opening of the Sabres games but I'm guessing that we'd better get a bit familiar with it 'cause we'll be hearing it a lot..
Here is a clip that I found from YouTube with the original 'Goo' footage rather than the photos of the Sabres fans that has been promised to us but not yet been made available

Goo Goo Dolls:Better Days
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITM2AKRT9cI&mode=related&search=

Here are some of the words-

And you ask me what I want this year
and I'll try to make this good and clear
just a chance that maybe we'll find better days

Sabres irst series game times

Here are the Sabres first series game times and dates.

Game 1
NYI @ BUF
Today - 8:00
HSBC ArenaMSG, Versus
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Game 2
NYI @ BUF
Sat, 4/14 - 7:30
HSBC ArenaMSG, Versus, TSN
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Game 3
BUF @ NYI
Mon, 4/16 - 7:30
Nassau Coliseum MSG, Versus, TSN
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Game 4
BUF @ NYI
Wed, 4/18 - 7:30
Nassau Coliseum MSG, Versus, TSN
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Game 5
NYI @ BUF
Fri, 4/20 - 7:30
HSBC ArenaMSG, Versus, TSN
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Game 6
BUF @ NYI
Sun, 4/22 - 7:30
Nassau Coliseum MSG, Versus, TSN
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Game 7
NYI @ BUF
Tue, 4/24 - TBD
HSBC ArenaMSG, Versus
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Made My Daughter a cross bow shirt

After I looked all over at the local thrift stores and came up with nada, I decided to make a home-made Sabres shirt for my daughter because she wanted one, and it's already been sent out. Here's how it turned out.

PARTY IN THE PLAZA

PARTY IN THE PLAZA!

Last year the parties at the plaza were a real energy booster to get everyone fired up but if you didn't have tickets you were shit outta luck. Now, you're still shit outta luck for tickets to the inside of the HSBC arena, but you're not going to have to truck down to Dunn Tire Park to use their JumboTran. This year the Golisano is giving us a giant JumboTran in the plaza area so we don't have to leave our party spot.

Welcome to NHL.com

Welcome to NHL.com

Haven't used this site before? You don't know what you've been missing on the game day radio tab. You can listen to the coverage from the team that you want to win instead of hearing the TV's very often 'unbiased' account of the game. You can click on during dinner time and find out who's playing tonight or any night throughout the playoffs. If there is 8 games, there is 16 different radio coverage links. If there is 4 games, there is 8 choices of radio links. Best of all, there is no bullshit trying to create a user name and a password which takes too much time when you are in a hurry to listeing to the end of a game. Just give it try

http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?service=page&page=Radio

Tonight's preview

Nolan to face former team
8:00 PM EDT
TV Information
Local start: 8:00 PM
National TV:TSN (HD)
Local Home:MSG
Local Away:FSN2
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -Ted Nolan waited nine years to land another NHL head-coaching job, then led the New York Islanders to the playoffs in his first season back in the league.
And look where it got him.
Nolan is in Buffalo of all places, preparing to face the top-seeded Sabres, the team that fired him right after he took coach of the year honors in 1997.
"It's funny how life works sometimes," Nolan said Wednesday, a day before the opener of the best-of-seven, first-round Eastern Conference series.
Not that Nolan's spending a lot of time laughing or catching up with old acquaintances.
"I'm trying to come up with a game plan to beat this high-powered offense," he said. "We're going to have our hands full."
The Islanders (40-30-12) are the prohibitive underdogs after sneaking into the postseason by winning their final four games to clinch the East's eighth and final berth. And they'll play at least Game 1 without top goalie Rick DiPietro, who hasn't been cleared to play after sustaining two concussions last month.
Minor league backup Wade Dubielewicz, who closed the season with four wins, will start instead.
The Sabres (53-22-7) have been on a season-long roll in finishing with the NHL's best record. They closed by going 9-3-1, led the league with 308 goals, and are the healthiest they've been all season after forwards Maxim Afinogenov and Tim Connolly returned last week from injuries.
The Sabres roster is so deep that their so-called third line combined for 87 goals: Thomas Vanek with a team-leading 43, followed by Afinogenov (23) and Derek Roy (21).
"Our strength is our secondary scoring, which I really believe can be found on all lines," said coach Lindy Ruff, who replaced Nolan on the Buffalo bench. "I think sometimes opponents have to pick their poison."
Goaltender Ryan Miller added there's no secret to what will allow the Sabres to carry over their success into the postseason.
"If we play good hockey and play together and play with energy, we're nearly impossible to beat," said Miller, who won a franchise-record 40 games.
The Sabres won three of four meetings against New York, including a 6-4 victory on March 30. They also have the same core of players that got within one win of last year's Stanley Cup finals before losing to champion Carolina.
The Sabres, however, raise numerous reminders of why they're not looking past the Islanders.
There's last year's playoffs, when top-seeded Detroit was upset in the first round by Edmonton. And no team since Detroit, in 2002, has won the Cup after finishing first in the regular season.
"We want to make sure the confidence is there, but we want to make sure it's not overconfidence," Sabres co-captain Daniel Briere said. "We worked hard to get the No. 1 seed, and we want to use it to our advantage. We don't want to blow it in the first game."
The Islanders are in the playoffs for the first time since 2004, but haven't advanced past the first round since reaching the conference finals in 1993.
New York has been led by Jason Blake, who scored 40 goals and added 29 assists, and the team bolstered its lineup by acquiring offensive forward Ryan Smyth in a deal with Edmonton at the trade deadline in February.
They've been streaky at best this season. New York's four-game win streak to end the season matched its longest, but was preceded by an 0-3-1 skid.
The series features numerous subplots, the most intriguing being Nolan's return after his tumultuous departure in the summer of 1997. Nolan left the team after two seasons, unhappy when the Sabres offered him only a one-year contract.
"Let bygones be bygones," said Nolan, who didn't coach again until guiding Moncton of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League last season. "Buffalo will always have a special place in my heart. But now we have to try to beat their hockey team."
Sabres general manager Darcy Regier, who offered Nolan the one-year deal, is fine, too.
"It's 10 years ago. He certainly deserves to be coaching in the National Hockey League," Regier said. "And he's done an outstanding job with that team."