Now Do You Believe? The Campaign Continues!, May Day!, and When 32 Cents Makes All the Difference!

While I was at work today, my boss (who is a huge Sabres fan) and I were talking about the game last night and the Sabres in general and she mentioned at one of the last games they were looking at Gaustad and Miller as prospects for the 2010 Olympics! What?!? This is awesome! Of course I needed to find out more, so I googled it and this is the info that I found.

On the Sabres broadcast of Buffalo-Toronto tonight, they said that Brian Burke, GM of the US Olympic hockey team, said that they were looking hard at Paul Gaustad for the team in 2010.

YES!!! This is awesome! So, Goose may not have gotten voted in for the 2009 NHL All*Star Game (trust me it was not for lack of trying on me and Harley's part, we made t-shirts, Dang It!), but..... he's being looked at for the 2010 Olympics! Awesome! Now 5 days after the "Honk the Vote! Gaustad in '09!" campaign has ended, I now have a new campaign..... *clears throat*..... "Now Do You Believe? Gaustad is Good! Scary Good! Gaustad in Vancouver in 2010"! It's not as catchy as "Honk the Vote", but you can't vote for players to go to the Olympics, so I thought I would steal a classic RJ quote. I think Goose is greatly unappreciated, but if Brian Burke is scouting him for 2010 Olympics obviously people outside of Buffalo are realizing (or believing) he is good. It's kind of growing on me, so I think I'll keep it, unless anyone has any other suggestions, I'm all ears.

While I was googling about Goose being a prospect for the 2010 Olympics, I came across Brian Burke's name and I'm going to be honest, I didn't know who he was, so I googled him and found out that he was the president and GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs (all right, I probably should have known that). Then I came across this article. Speaking of RJ quotes, this man was the reason for the famous "May Day! May Day!" call and now he's playing for Toronto? It's kind of depressing since he's now playing for the Leafs and they are one of our arch rivals and all, but he started his career in Buffalo. I don't want to see him playing for the Leafs! ICK! Grant it, he has become a suitcase in the NHL and now playing for Toronto, this is his 7th NHL team, but Toronto!?! I didn't mind him playing for the Ducks, because after the Sabres the Ducks are my favorite NHL team. The only reason they are is because I loved the Mighty Ducks Movies as a kid and had a huge crush (well, still do) on Joshua Jackson and the kid who played Adam Banks (He was really good, but really quiet and never threw it in the rest of the team's face that he was really good, but I hated the fact that he had a thing for Connie, the girl goalie. Hey, I was 11 at the time.) Thanks to those movies I started at a young age having a crush on hockey players and the Ducks being my 2nd favorite hockey team, the Sabres have always been my first. So, while Brad May was in Anaheim, I didn't mind him playing there, but now Toronto, it just makes him seem like a traitor. I know hockey players don't have a lot of say in where they are being traded, but I just wanted to vent that this saddens me a wee bit.

I'm sure that everyone is aware of the Jarkko Ruutu biting Andrew Peters. I was teaching last night and unable to watch the game, but Harley texted me to tell me that Peters was bit by Ruutu. I really couldn't believe it, but what I couldn't believe more was the fact that he didn't get a penalty and Peters had to serve a 2-minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty! Really?!? Ruutu can bite someone, but if you make a big deal about being bite, you are in the wrong. I really don't see the logic in that one, probably why I'm not a hockey referee. If I was Peters once I found out that I was serving a penalty anyway, I would have skated over and punched Ruutu in the face why he was putting in his eye drops. If you're getting in trouble anyway, you might as well do something worth getting in trouble for. Go Big or Go Home! Since I was unable to watch the game, I found a clip of it on youtube....

I must say I'm very impressed by the way Peters handled himself when being interviewed about the incident, saying it's up to the NHL on what to do about it. Well, the NHL is suspending him for two games and fining him $31,707.32 because he is unable to play in those games. You think they could have rounded it up to a nice even number, like $32,000.00. I mean at this point does the 32 cents matter? Anyway, I'm glad to see he's being punished that's really unacceptable behavior and I like how Petey said that these guys are suppose to be role models for kids and doing something like this hurts the reputation of the NHL and the game, more than his thumb. Well put, again I was very impressed with Peters and how professional his interviews were.

Lindy's interview on the situation reminds me why the Ruffinator is one of my favorite people in this world.

I love how he admits he find the situation a bit humorous and goes on to talk about seeing someone get in the back. I'm really not sure why he kept referring to witnessing that, but apparently the Ruffinator found it relevant and that's good enough for me. He also goes on to talk about how well Chris Butler has played and Toni Lydman's return to the line up. He seems like he doesn't want to send Butler back, but he doesn't give us any inkling about what the Sabres organization is going to do with so many defensemen. Only time will tell. He also talks about Tim Connolly returning and how Tim never plays like a player coming off an injuring and never plays soft. He speaks very highly of Timmy (as he always have) and says that his gift is to draw players toward him and open people up even if it does put him in harm's way. And Tim has been in harm's way most of the time, missing the last 249 games out of 358 due to injury, that's over 67%, but apparently that's the sacrifice that comes with such a great gift.