To ddaryl

ddaryl, your Sabres aren\'t going to live past round 2. I will personally see to it that Jagr, Lemieux, Straka, Hrdina, Stevens, Kasparitis, Lang, Morozov, and Kovalev nibble the pubic hairs off your team\'s adolescent balls (which haven\'t dropped, by the way- calm down, I\'m just kidding!!!). The showdown begins on Thursday!!!

What\'s your prediction? I say Penguins wrap it up in 6 games. By the way, Hasek is my fellow countrymen (I was born in Czechoslovakia) and it\'s been a treat to see him progress as he has...he IS the best. I saw him when he was still a no-namer, back in \'85 or so. Yes, I was 5 or so then, but I remember him because we sat RIGHT behind him (behind the goal)- it was the first hockey game I ever saw.

Hell, even if the Pens loose to the Sabres I will be overjoyed. I love the Sabres with a passion- you\'ve got a couple of my countrymen on there besides just Hasek- Satan ("Satan is God," remember that?), etc. I damned near wept at their last couple years\' mishaps- was it 2 years ago they lost in the semi-finals and 1 year ago they lost to the #$@%$@^@ Stars?

By the way, I\'m not gay (just a happy person, high on life). I was just reeeeeeaally happy to see some new Xbox screens. You couldn\'t have picked a wronger person to say that to, believe me. I am one horny heterosexual SOB!!!!

My perdicitions

I don\'t make them cause I\'m superstitious

but the PEns have no depth

The Sabres are deep with depth and balance

The Sabres are we\'re the best team in the league in Goals Against

The Sabres get pretty balance scoring across 4 lines

The Flyers beat us 4 times in the regular season, so Pits regualr season record against us means little


You can use the Private Message system to address me personally if you like I\'ll start a NHL playoff thread and see who bites

The Pens have the best second line in all of hockey - Kovalev, Straka and Lang - those three are f@cking incredible, and Pittsburgh\'s first line isn\'t that bad either

However, past their very very good first two lines they don\'t have much depth, and they don\'t have much depth of defence at all either - the ex-Senator Laukannen and Kasparitis are their only two really good defencemen.

The Sabres on the other hand are pretty damn balanced, no major offensive superstars however Chris Gratton is tearing sh!tup  and with Heinze, Audette, Satan, Gilmour, Andreychuk (still the league\'s best garbage man), Barnes, Afinogenov, and Dumont they have grit and offence. Their defensemen are pretty good too with Rhett Warrener being an excellent stay at home guy, and Zhitnik providing the offensive jump from the blueline.

Who knew Johan Hedberg was so good? But he\'s still won\'t be able to outduel Hasek - I think it will be a tight series because I think Mario and Jaromir will step it up, but I think the Sabres\' depth and toughness will see them through in 7 games.

I want to see a Buffalo vs New Jersey conference final, that will be a war.

Although the series to watch in this round will be in the Western Conference - St. Louis vs Dallas will be a dandy.

I\'m with Kituka... Go Pittsburgh (my hometown team:))

Wow, Lavan knows the Sabres Well

You forgot McKee  and Kalinilin on D as well

weltall , yer from pgh?

hell, its a small world afterall

Originally posted by ddaryl
Wow, Lavan knows the Sabres Well

You forgot McKee  and Kalinilin on D as well

Thank you. I live in Canada, all we do is drink beer and watch hockey, lots of hockey. I like the Sabres, and I love what they did at the trade deadline adding Heinze and Audette - two very smart trades.

Yup, I forgot Kalinin as well - one of the top rookie defencemen this year - along with Kloucek of the Rangers (who looked really really good this year before he got injured) and Eric Brewer of the Oilers.

Kalinin is paired with Warrener right? I had Rhett in my regular season hockey pool, cost me a pittance but solid as a rock with the plus/minus and chipped in with one or two game winners as well.

The Sabres are very well balanced

I just wosh one of our guys would blossom into a solid 50 a year goal scorer

I can\'t wait to see what happens after the playoffs as well

We have Peca for trade bait, we are 3 deep in Hasek Backups so there\'s more trade bait. Hasek is rumored to be working on a deal with the Sabres for an additional year and a pay cut to hel the Sabres bring in talent. Adreychuck and Gilmour will retire freeing up cash as well

Yes, the off-season will be very interesting, I think the Sabres should resign Heinze, however I hear Audette wants Steve Sulivan type cash (5-6 million), which I think is a bit excessive; he may have been top-dog in Atlanta, but he hasn\'t been lighting the lamp that much for Buffalo (yet). Apparently, the Canucks were/are interested in Mike Peca and they have some very promising youngsters that could come the other way.

I think Afinogenov will be a 50 goal scorer some day, he only got 14 this year, but he\'s only 21 and he has some (for lack of a better term) mad skillz, and I think Satan is on the bubble of bursting out with a major offensive season any time now - he got 29 goals this year, and at 26/27 he\'s in the prime of his career and still has (potentially) a decade in the league left.

The Sabres defensive style doesn\'t help goal scores

but Satan is up and down, He\'s a 30 - 40 year guy at best

Afinogenov has potential, how he develops is to be seen

AUdette won\'t be a Sabre next year he hasn\'t done alot for us since he got here

Heinze will be re-signed IMO. He\'s big and fits our mold


Dumont has potential as another solid 30 - 50 a year man and he\'s young as well


Still the Sabres might have some room to swing a deal to bring in a pure scorer and ignite some  of our other guys

Originally posted by mm
weltall , yer from pgh?

hell, its a small world afterall

Yeah, but I only lived there for my first six months. Then we moved to Scranton, and after that to Richmond. I haven\'t even been back since then, but I intend to sometime.

Game 1: Pittsburgh 3 Buffalo 0

Hedburg..Hrdina..Lemieux..Primeau..etc...nuff said.

the MOOSE is LOOSE!

We had our chances but couldn\'t get it done

If we lose in Buf again Sat its pretty much over.

Hopefully the good guys will rebound.

Originally posted by mm
the MOOSE is LOOSE!

The Moose is Goose !!!!!!!


I\'d say we have a mometum change now.

I\'m shocked cause I didn\'t think we\'d take 2 in Pitt. but high quality teams find a way to fight back.

See ya Saturday