Ugh!

Sorry, I’m not going to give you one of my rising/falling stars column for tonight. I just don’t have the energy for this. I don’t know how brief or long this blog will be. It’s going to be all over the place. I’m just going to type away.

I feel bad for Tyler Ennis, Ryan Miller, Lindy Ruff, Steve Montador, Mike Grier, Tim Kennedy, the bloggers, the people who spend money on this team, apologists, pessimists and even the media. In the end, we all have our ways of showing emotion, but we really do want the Sabres to win. Playoff hockey brings out the best in Buffalo.

During the season, I was very guarded about this team. I just didn’t think they were as good as their highs or as bad as their lows. Quite frankly, I was more pessimistic than optimistic. However, when the playoffs were on the horizon, I really changed my tune. I wanted to be happy. I wanted to believe. I wanted to live the dream. Well, now I’m awake and I hate my dream. The Sabres just aren’t good enough.

I’m the type that wants our teams to go as far as possible in the playoffs. I’m not the type to sit there and say, “Well, at least they made the playoffs.” Maybe living in NYC for 8 years and hearing fans rip apart the Yankees for not winning the World Series every year has made me a harsher critic. I just don’t believe in excuses. I think they are way overused in the Buffalo sports scene.

My goal is to walk into a NYC office and sport a million dollar grin of winning a sports championship. I want to fly back to Buffalo on the night they win a championship, tip over a police car and get sprayed with tear gas. I don’t want to goto a rally and cheer for Scott Norwood and John Rigas. I want to win.

I thought the Sabres gave a great effort tonight. There was intensity, there was battle, there was passion. However, for about 4 minutes in the 3rd period, it was vintage Sabres all over again. Yes, they were some crappy ass calls in the third period. Yes, they are missing Vanek and Hecht. However, you can’t give up a 2-goal lead in the 3rd period! You can’t do it with Ryan Miller back there! You can’t go four games without scoring a power play goal! You can’t be a great penalty killing team during the regular season and give up two PP goals against a team that scored the least amount of goals in the NHL.

Plus, you are playing the Bruins! I’m sorry, I just don’t feel the Bruins are that good. They have Chara, some gritty guys, a rookie goalie and a bunch of retread Sabre players. Not to mention, they are missing their best scorer.

I really don’t wanna get into my disdain for Tim Connolly and Drew Stafford. I’ve said so much about these guys over the years that it has become overkill. They are bums. End of story. They need to be traded this offseason. I don’t care what Darcy Regier says. I’m done with Darcy playing his role as an accountant and telling me about the market. Trades happen in the NHL. Do your job and find someone else. For god sakes, your coach had to recall some dude, who is nothing more than a AHL goon, to send a message to the Bruins in the playoffs??? I mean, what kind of message are you sending to your own locker room? You’re not playing the Broad Street Bullies?! Sorry, but Boston’s toughness can be very easily matched.

Hell, correct me if I’m wrong, but do you remember seeing a Bruins vs Sabres game during the regular season that I had to worry about them kicking our ass? That’s what playoff hockey brings to the table; you play out of character. It’s the same thing Ruff always preaches. Is it really that hard to go over to Adam Mair or Paul Gaustad and order them to take out Lucic and Boychuk? The buzz I have to hear on twitter is that we need to start McCormick for the rest of the playoffs? Are you kidding me!? Get some balls, Sabres!

Back to the Sabres top 6 forwards; they are an embarrassment. It’s nothing more than a cheap way of saying that we don’t have a star player on offense. Using the term top 6 is a way to make fans think the team has a lot of talent. The Stanley Cup is won on star players. The Sabres have one star, and he’s not enough to win the Cup.

The bottom line is this; even when the Sabres give the greatest effort in the world, they barely get by. Just look at Game 1, they played great and won by only a goal. Yes, they won the division during a recession year in the Eastern Conference. But if you look at the talent of the top 8 teams in the league, it’s not even close. Tim Connolly, Derek Roy and Jason Pominville shouldn’t be your backbone offensively. I hate to rip open old wounds, but the Sabres need Chris Drury or Daniel Briere version 2.0. They need that guy who is going to say, “Fellas, get the hell out of my way because I’m scoring the game winner.” Besides Miller, they don’t have that clutch performer on this team.

Now, if you wanna believe in Tyler Ennis or Mark Mancari, that’s fine. However, I must warn you, I remember when guys like Roy, Connolly, Max, Kotalik and Stafford debuted, and everyone was talking about how great these kids were going to be and Regier was executive of the year. Well, where are we now? We have a great goaltender on a below average team.

All I’m saying is the time has come for some of these core guys to get moved. They have peaked. Derek Roy isn’t scoring 40 goals. Jason Pominville isn’t going to be scary good. It has been three years with this core and it has brought us nothing but pain. They had their shots and they blew it. They tried at times, but they are not good enough.

I can already see into the future of the Sabres end of the year press conference (Hopefully, the jackasses will have one, unlike last year). I can gage into my crystal ball and see them saying that we don’t want to make excuses, but…the Vanek injury really hurt us, the officiating stunk, we are against the cap and the Volcano in Europe have the players worried. They will mention some stupid stat that the team has the most wins in the Northeast of the country since the end of the lockout. They will mention Kovalchuk’s plus/minus rating. Whatever. They will make something up.

Of course, at the end of their presser, they will reveal their brand new retro home/away jerseys and beg us to buy them. Maybe they will use that money to upgrade their Cellino and Barnes pop-ups during the regular season. God forbid, it’s upgrading for all HD games. Yes, if this season ends on Friday, I’m blaming the powers that be. Yes, it has been a played out argument. But I just think the Sabres run their team like a corporation and care only about their bottom line. Trust me, you can care about making money, but you better care about us too. Yes, I’m being irrational and angry. However, I want to leave you guys all with this question:

Do you believe the Sabres management (Regier, Quinn and Golisano) have done enough to bring the Cup to Buffalo?