Daniel Briere, the short, shifty little French Canadian with the soft hands got a wrist shot to flip up over Carolina goalie Cam Ward and just barely cross the goal line a few minutes into overtime on Tuesday night, and the Sabres are headed to Carolina for Game Seven on Thursday night! The Sabres are definitely not going down quietly.

The game was constantly in doubt, despite the Sabres decided shot advantage after one period. Out-shooting the Hurricanes 14-5, they only posted a one-goal lead at the end of 20 minutes. And it stayed that way after the next twenty. Throughout the third period it felt like the Sabres were connecting on points one and two, but not three. They were just not finishing. Good stuff was happening, but it felt like Buffalo was just waiting for Carolina to score.

Score they did. A perfect shot over the left shoulder of Ryan Miller, who had a fantastic game! He’s been amazing, to be sure.

But now, the Sabes head back to North Carolina, where they’ll face the Hurricanes – and their fans – in game seven. With a beaten up and weary team (that will not quit!) look for the Hurricanes to outlast the Sabres on their home ice, and advance (likely by even just one goal) to the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been an amazing season, but it looks like it will probably come to an end on Thursday night.

Of course, that said… I’m still a Sabres’ fan, so… maybe I’m totally wrong and we’re looking at a big 4-0 shut out victory for Buffalo in Game Seven! They’ve been a fantastic road team, and we’re due to put some points on the board…

You never know. 🙂

See ya on OLN (or your channel of choice…) Thursday night at 7:30pm EDT!

No, actually, that title is probably not what you think it is. It’s not the regular human body temperature (give or take 0.6ºF…) nor was it the high temp today on a sweltering, muggy, nasty Memorial Day in Buffalo. (Though perhaps it felt like it.)

Ninety-Eight degrees was the temperature in my office when we returned home from a couple days away. 98. That’s a lot of degrees for one office.

God blessed humanity with the person who invented the electric air conditioner. 🙂

Today is Memorial Day, and we are here in Clarence at Grandma & Grandpa’s house, getting ready for a parade this morning! We had a Memorial Day Eve party with our friends the Drakes last night. That was fun! There was a giant new swingset in the back yard that kept all the kids entertained for literally hours! 🙂

Today we’ll be doing the cook out thing (I think) with Jen’s brother’s family too. Holidays are fun family get-together times. 🙂 The only thing I am not looking forward to today is the weather report! Looks like it will be sunny and up towards 90 today! Argh. That’s definitely not good.

Well, have a happy Memorial Day. It’s a great day to remember that the freedom we have is at least in part a gift to us from people who were willing to even give their own lives so that we could live in that freedom. I post a link here every Memorial Day, so I might as well again. Click the song title below to listen to (and read the lyrics from) my song called:

Memorial Day

BUFFALO, NY – The Buffalo Sabres leave RBC Arena in Raleigh a tired, and almost spent team. Every time it seems they have the upper hand, a goalie change seems to completely stymie their scoring. It happened in game three of the Eastern Conference Finals, and it happened again tonight in game five.

Buffalo now finds themselves trailing 3-2 in the best-of-seven series. They are heading home, but after taking a serious beating in the previous two contests. Carolina has seemed mostly in control in both the game four 4-0 shut out and tonight’s 4-3 decision in overtime. The Sabres have certainly had their chances, but have not generally been able to capitalize.

Things looked to be turning around for the Buffalo club early in the second period of game five. Derek Roy’s goal put them up 3-1 on the road against a Carolina team that had been playing solidly all night. But their painful lack of depth on defense proved (perhaps) too much for them in the end. A few players out of position, a penalty taken, and the score was evened up at 3-3.

After a scoreless third period, which saw numerous opportunities for Sabres’ players to score on breakaways, the overtime seemed to be going well for this offensively-minded squad. Afinogenov had several chances tonight to put the game away, but could not finish. Grier likewise. The Sabres were definitely putting the pressure on, but substitute goalie, Cam Ward, was up to the task. He stopped every shot he faced coming in midway through the second period.

In the end, the Sabres will likely go down fighting. Look for a wild contest Tuesday night at HSBC Arena in Buffalo. Perhaps Buffalo will even prevail on that night. But I think Carolina, a fine team, will prove too much for this young hockey club. Carolina has experience and depth to add to the tenacity and offensive firepower with which the Sabres match them.

I think if the stakes were even, if Buffalo had not lost three of their top defensemen, we’d be seeing the Buffalo Sabres hoisting the Prince of Wales Cup at the end of this series. But the injuries will prove too much, and Carolina will win this series in seven.

On a super positive note, if Carolina advances it will be the first time (I believe) that Kevyn Adams will appear in the Stanley Cup Finals. Kevyn is from Clarence, NY where Jen & I went to high school. He was in Chorale with us way back when. I remember our chorale teacher pointing Kevyn out as someone who had a goal, and was going to accomplish it. He said, “You’re going to see Kevyn playing in the NHL someday…” Well, the someday is here, and it would be grand if he could have his name inscribed on Lord Stanley’s Cup. That would be a definitely bright spot in the end of the Sabres’ season.

But since we’re not totally dead yet…

Hopefully Kevyn will get to try again next season. 🙂

The Sabes are doing great, leading their series 2-1 after a great win last night! I did a search for the remaining games on OLN for this series, and posted those above. But, hopefully, if all goes well, we’ll only be playing tomorrow and Sunday’s games! Yahoo!!! 🙂

Go Sabres!

Was on a walk with the kids today and found a tree with these leaves…

Bonus points to the first one who can tell me what kind of tree it is!

The Eastern Conference Finals began this afternoon. We finished watching the game at around 9:45pm (tape-delayed by us, due to some other plans for this day). And I was just in shock. Seriously. This is nuts.

Buffalo has never won a championship. Well, I take that back… the Buffalo Bandits won the NLL championship their very first year in the league. What’s the NLL, you ask? Exactly.

But in 2006, it appears we have a very, very solid shot at this. The Sabres look to be, in my opinion, by far the best of the four remaining teams. They are playing aggressively, but smart. They are hustling all the time, making things happen. They never give up, and they never let down. Even when they were up 3-1 half way through the third period, they were still pouring it on. They have a rookie goaltender who is playing brilliantly, and though they are noted for their offensive production, their defense (particularly in blocking shots) has been simply outstanding.

If you haven’t watched the Sabres in a while, you won’t know any of the names. But as you watch them, you’ll notice that these young unknowns are quite talented, very team-oriented, and just super fun to watch!

Next game is Monday night on the Outdoor Life Network. I think you know where we’re going to be Monday night at 7:30!!

Care to read a couple articles (recaps) from tonight’s game?
Newsvine.com (AP): Sabres Hold Off Hurricanes In Game 1
NHL.com: Sabres Strike First, Lead 1-0

I know, you probably think I’m crazy. But I actually considered buying a plane ticket to go down to NYC today just to be there for the opening of the biggest and first 24-hour Apple Store on the planet. I mean, come on… it’s in my own state…

But, alas, the funds (and other obligations) prohibited me from partaking in such festivities.

Perhaps this is the next best thing?

(In case you are not prone to clicking on “hidden links”, Apple has posted time lapse “movies” of the activity outside the new store, and will continue to do so for the first 24 hours. The link takes you to the page where you can click and watch all of those hour-long “movies”. Fun!) 🙂

I was using our iPhoto app a bunch today, and I noticed that we have some really nice photos in there. I also noticed that it has been a while since I shared any photos here, so as I was about to pick some to post here, I realized that I could just use iWeb (another app that’s bundled with our Macs) to post the photos to a super cool web page.

So I did. 🙂

And I’d like to share. You can click on each photo to enlarge, or view a slideshow that in classic Apple style has lots of pizazz. There’s a cool reflection with each photo, and if you move the mouse to the top of the photo, all of the photos in the slideshow appear transparently over the top of that photo. You can then select whichever one you’d like to view next. Or, you can move the mouse to the bottom of the photo and pause the show, or go forward or backward. Neato. And really, really easy to do. Super easy.

My Dad could even do it, I bet. 😉

Well, enjoy the photos.

Have you ever wondered when Daylight Savings Time begins and ends? I found a nifty little website with a form where you can find out what the dates are all the way through 2099! Visit the website at this link: Daylight Saving Time – When do we change our clocks?

Have fun! 🙂