SABRES: GIMME FIVE!!

Buffalo is on a roll! They won their fifth straight - tonight against Washington, 3-1. Number 55, Jochen Hecht, had 2 goals and an assist. His first goal came at 10:55 in the first period. The Sabres looked sharp in sweeping Montreal Friday and Saturday night. We won at home first, 4-2, then backup goalie Jocelyn Thibault shutout Montreal in his hometown,
3-0. He played for the Habs from 1995 - 1999.

Next up for the Sabres is St. Louis, a team I have supported as a fan over the years. In fact, I wore my Blues jersey proudly over the weekend as they beat Vancouver 3-1. Jochen Hecht actually played for St. Louis between 1998 - 2001. The Blues will be tough; they have won five in a row at home - BUT unfortunately for them they will be playing in Buffalo Wednesday night. There is a number 55 on St. Louis too: Christian Backman. Buffalo fans will remember another blueliner who is there now: Jay McKee. After ten years as a Sabre he signed in St. Louis last year. Until the Canuck game he was a scratch in five straight though.

The National Hockey League was founded on this date in 1917 in Montreal after a series of disputes within the (Canadian) National Hockey Association (NHA), which would see the NHA suspend operations and the new NHL start play. Montreal fans will also remember this date in 1984 when Guy Lafleur retired after 14 years and 518 goals with the Canadiens. Relive the memories with this YouTube footage!

Another classic Habs moment happened on November 26, 1958 when Maurice "Rocket" Richard scored his 600th career goal at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The current roster of Montreal does not have a number 55 - but there is a # 54: Mikhail Grabovski. Like the Sabres' Jochan Hecht, he was born in Germany. Here in Kelowna we cheer local boy Josh Gorges on!

Sweet 16?

The 16th was sweet for the Sabres! A 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens! We play them in a home-and-home series next Friday
and Saturday so hopefully we will "french fry" them again...

"The French Connection" for Buffalo had their jerseys retired together on November 15, 1995. There were no number 16's playing
in the game last night as both have been retired:
Pat LaFontaine for Buffalo early last year and Henri Richard for the Habs in 1975. 16 could be considered bittersweet for Lafontaine as he suffered a career-ending head injury in a game vs. Ottawa on March 16, 1998.

The Vancouver Canucks had an easy 6-2 win last night against Minnesota and their popular #16 had his first goal of the season!
Trevor Linden is in his 16th season with the Canucks (19th overall).

Two not-so-sweet 16's went at it before their game last Saturday.
Here is the footage as we Ralph 'N' Roll WITh the Punches!

Colorado Conspiracy?

Just two NHL games today: Vancouver beat Columbus 4-1 and Minnesota edged Colorado 3-2. I am glad Columbus lost to my second favorite NHL team because my favorite team, the Buffalo Sabres, were shutout by Columbus on Friday 3-0.

My prediction of Buffalo beating Montreal yesterday 3-1 was way off! Montreal won 4-2. I was reminded of that fact after the game when my voiceover friend, Robert Jadah, emailed me with the headline:
The Habs and the Hab-Nots.



The link for this blog is: http://www.habsinsideout.com

Robert's favorite sport is baseball and tonight Colorado finally got an opponent for the World Series. Boston clobbered Cleveland tonight

11-2 and will host game one at Fenway Park Wednesday. The Red Sox won the last three games by a combined total of 30-5 against the Indians but Colorado is even hotter (unless you are talking about the weather) - winning 21 of their last 22 games.

The Sunday night NFL game saw Colorado conquer Pennsylvania as Denver got by Pittsburgh 31-28 on a last second 49-yard field goal by Jason Elam. The coach of the Broncos is Mike Shanahan while Mike Tomlin is the Steelers' coach. There seems to be a lot of coaches named Mike in the NFL: Others include Holmgren in Seattle, Nolan in San Francisco and McCarthy in Green Bay.

3 strikes and you're out - of town!

Buffalo lost tonight to Columbus 3-0. We have now won 3 and lost 3 games this year. The opening to last Saturday's game against Washington is featured above with 3 Sabres making cameos: Ryan Miller, Tim Connolly and Brian Campbell. Tim was plugged in my last blog entry as one of the good guys sporting number 19. I also mentioned Joe Sakic and Steve Yzerman and you can see both of them scoring their 500th career goals by clicking on the video links at this page.

It was 50 years ago today that Maurice "The Rocket" Richard became the first NHL'er to score 500 career goals. He did it on home ice for the Montreal Canadiens against the Chicago Black Hawks. Final score for the Habs then: 3-1. Tomorrow night the Sabres roll into Montreal and for old time's sake I will predict a 3-1 final - for Buffalo. Here is the MSG-TV opener I am about to record:
AFTER A FEROCIOUS DISPLAY OF OFFENSE FOR THE MAJORITY OF THEIR HOMESTAND...
THE SABRES LEAVE HOME ICE LIKE A LAMB....SILENCED BY COLUMBUS.

AND NOW...THE START OF AN EXTENDED ROAD TRIP.
FIRST STOP...QUEBEC.
THE START OF THE SEASON SERIES WITH THE CANADIENS IS NEXT...ON MSG!

Merci et Bonsoir...