What a fantastic showing from our favorite hockey team. Talk about a fast and furious start!

Dwin! Dwin! Dwin! 54 seconds! and the BigKids line drop it like its hot! And a big fat assist for my boy Z! DWin scorzes! 1 - 0 Yotes. Tbo is already in trouble but he doesn’t know it yet. Ballard and Gaustad went at it for what seemed like ages in front of our crease. Bally pulls a standing hip check on Gaustad and gets away with knockin the hell out of him (helmet flying, nose bleedin, hell too)

We are zippin around with that puck so much I started wondering if it was just a major game of keep away, cuz the Sabres puck possession time can be counted on a 3 legged cat’s paws. But then Gaustad exacted a little revenge by slippin a goal through our 4th liners to tie up the game 1/2 way through the 1st period. They got a wee bit of life in ‘em but we smacked ‘em back down. We leave the ice tied up but we got more fire than they do and some PP time comin as well. 10 - 6 sogs, 2 - 3 penalties *which neither team capitalizes on*

Ok, so we come back out to a few seconds of PP, they kill it. But then poor Pratt is a prat and grabs a high sticking call, putting us right back on the PP. Niko ‘lil Ninja’ Kapanen sneaks in, steals a puck, strikes and struts back out with the goal KAPI scorzes!(unassisted!). 2 - 1 Yotes.

I keep sayin WG has some serious koolaide bein served at intermission cuz its all Yotes when 3 minutes later, the Captain gets his party on and plants a wrister past Tbo. Doaner scorzes! 3 - 1 Yotes. ( The captain has 11 games with points in his streak, 4 of them are multi pointers)

To round out the first 5 minutes of play, good ol DMo (musta accidentally sipped some of the score causing juice) plows a nasty slap shot past Tbo to make it 4 - 1. DMo scorzes! Now to be fair, the Sabres don’t lose their cool, they stay disciplined and work hard but they just have 0 confidence in their net minder at this point and it really shows, they get ultra careful and in this game that just doesn’t cut it. 14 - 6 sogs and only 1 penalty each * we nailed ours…they didn’t*

Big props as usual to our slightly ailing TQ! That boy is slightly insane. The guy is practically a game time decision and is still haulin ash and blockin shots.

So into the third we go, laughing all the way (well Breezy was probably yawning) The Sabres’ Drew Stafford caught the big guy on one of those perfect tripod passing maneuvers to make it 4 - 2 Yotes.

Roy’s line w/ Vanek and Stafford was the only line consistently troublesome all night. It turned out to be ’suck the life outta those suckers time’ in this period. First Boynk and Donor set up the big PM for his streak lengthening goal. Mules scorzes! 5 - 2 Yotes. (Mueller has points in 7 games, 3 of those are multi point games).

Not to be outshone by a PP Qb rookie, Jovo nails a PP goal to finish the rout. Jovo scorzes! 6 - 2 Yotes for the win.

What a holiday! What a performance! and you’ve already witnessed what a miraculously transformative experience a Coyotes game can be in the entry before this one. Come on out folks before there are no tickets to be had. We have been nearly at capacity for the last couple of games.

This was my backstage pass night and I have to say, the Sabres are classy. Thanks Ryan ‘Lady Killer’ Miller - you made my STH perk worth so much more by signing that jersey when you probably just wanted to get the hell out of the desert.

~photos by the ever miraculous BTinAZ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/9302501@N02/sets/72157603774680435/

OnyxStarr@coyoteshipcheck.com

Well I know I haven’t done the post game Sabres entry yet but I absolutely had to share what Bleedin Teal in AZ caught on film during the game.

There is a gentleman who carries the handle SinBin75 on the AZCentral board. He was raised in Sabres country. Now our friend Sin understands that when you are a 1A/1B fan you gotta take a lot of crap from your mates and sometimes total strangers when your ‘home’ team comes to town.

Sin geared himself up for it (and man did he take a huge drubbing all day in the comment section) about 18 pages worth… and his friends Q and DTG photoshopped him onto the worst pic of a Sabres fan ever taken. Our Sin is made of very stern stuff indeed and descended upon Jobing.com arena in all his Sabres finery (ok a Miller/30 jersey might not be considered finery in these parts) … but hey, one man’s junk and all that.

Now that you have the backstory, onto the really fun parts … besides the win of course.

Pictoral Tale of Redemption -

SinBin watches anxiously - not sure who the hell to root for.

SinBin looks on in disgust as his *completely done in by mismanagement* Sabres eat the 1st 3 goals.

The 4th goal begins the transformation.

SinBin returns to the fold in time to watch his now beloved again Yotes finish off the Sabres.

SinBin endures the laughing with true Coyotes pride.

There is more than just a return to the fold as the ending to this story. I took the much abused jersey down for backstage pass night. The gracious and ever so gorgeous Ryan ‘Lady Killer’ Miller signed it for poor SinBin. Now it can go on a wall somewhere. Where it belongs as part of Sin’s past and he can fully embrace his Coyote side.

~photos from the ever vigilant and photastic BTinAZ~

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9302501@N02/sets/72157603770064142/

The 4th game of the home stand promises to be another doozy.

Two goalies who have never faced each other’s teams. That means preparation and game film better have been done and watched carefully. The Buffaslugs are wounded right now, despite the 10 - 1 shellacking they gave an unsuspecting Atlanta team. They quickly returned to their slump in the very next game against a quixotic Leafs team and their road trip is pretty much off to a craptastic start.

Now don’t let that 10 game losing slide fool you. These boys have some pretty good firepower.  Campbell and Pomminville are no joke. Add into the mix the formerly very hot Thomas Vanek and this is a recipe that needs very careful handling (think unstable TNT with Roy as the fuse).  In the game against the Thrashed: “Reunited with wingers Drew Stafford and Thomas Vanek, Roy sparked the Sabres to life.  His line accounted for 13 points (7+5) and a combined plus-10 rating.” just ouch!

http://sabres.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=350511

They play very similar style to ours. Hard work, speed and no superstars. I have always been secretly fond of the streaky Kotalik (he gives his all every game) but I have no illusions that he could suddnely find his game and take it to us. These Buffalonians have hung in tight against power houses like Ottawa and New Jersey. Ryan Miller may seem to be struggling right now but there is every expectation that he will find the will to survive this road trip starting with Coyote fodder.

Bryz! will most likely be back in net and with Rhino back in action the lines will stabilize a bit. I liked seeing the Big Kids line back together, which puts Kapi back with Rhino and York and that also works fine for me. I am not quite sure where the recently called up BillT will fit. Hopefully between 2 mates who can yell “HEADS UP!” before the boy gets plowed again. I also hope Bill has been workin on his forechecking skills, otherwise he’ll find himself short on minutes and back in San Antonio faster than I care to speculate on. But the kid can find the back of the net and that may be all we need to tide us over until Vbrat gets healthy again.

We won’t be running 7 Dmen for the next 12 or so days as Jonesy has been sent to SA for  conditioning stint (Matty hasn’t been getting much ice time since Yandle moved in on his shift) the prolonged look-see at Yandle has told me a couple of things… the kid still gets nervous when pressed and often stutters when making decisions under pressure and he has hella offensive instincts though… he’s a keeper for sure and is really close to snagging a permanent spot.

As always we better start hard and fast, I don’t think this Sabres team holds up well under pressure. The odds are in our favor all the way across the board. But we better beware the old saying ‘on any given day’ lest we find ourselves on the short end of the score again.