A Plague Upon Thee

¹⁴ they invaded all Egypt(Blueland) and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again.

Last night as the Sabres were set to take on the Thrashers, the worst happened, a pestilence of biblical proportion hit Phillips Arena. Buffalo Sabre fans descended upon Blueland like a swarm of locusts consuming our food, drinking our beer and filling our seats with Buffalo bafoonery. Before I comment about the game itself let me first make some comments about the atmosphere of the game.

Quite frankly I was both embarrassed and envious by the amount of screaming Buffalo fans in the arena last night. At times the chant for "Let's Go Buffalo" threatened to drown out chants for the home team. I realize some of these people at the game last night wear Thrasher blue for many games but when that team from Western New York shows up they lose their minds and don big fuzzy blue hats with Buffalo horns on them. The crowd was pretty large for a Thursday game...the problem was that at least 50% of that crowd were Sabres fans.

About the game, the Thrashers played a very good game overall. We took it to Buffalo and won the puck battles in the corners, out shot them in the first and second period and played a tight defensive game. Ondrej Pavelec had a very good outing and was strong in turning away 30 of 32 shots on the night. The PK preformed well turning away 6 out of 7 man advantages for Buffalo. The only negative I can really point out is that we took a lot of penalties last night and ultimately it was our lack of discipline that cost us the game.

The deciding factor of the night was an untimely penalty by Zach Bogosian for elbowing that kept the Thrashers on the penalty kill, which led to the Derek Roy power play goal. The other Thrasher killer was all the way across the ice and that was Ryan Miller. While I hate to surrender recognition to an opponent I have to say that Ryan Miller is quite possibly the best goalie in the league right now.

The Thrashers ended this home stand with a 2-1-1 record and with the exception of bending over and taking it up the ice against Washington we played well at home this stand. The Thrashers could ill afford to surrender the extra point on the table to the opposition but what's done is done. The boys in blue travel to Raleigh to take on the Carolina Hurricanes. While the Canes have struggled this year do not discount their ability to wreck our shit in hopes of salvaging their season. We really NEED those 2 points and the Thrashers will have to not lose heart that they lost last night and play the same brand of hockey in Raleigh.

Before I depart let me throw some shout outs from the game last night. To 3/5 of the Blueland Chronicle Crew...it was great hanging out with you guys before the game. To Virginia (aka Sunshine) of Getting Pucks Deep...what's up with you girl? First a Zamboni ride..now the Match Game...damn...that was cool...To Stephanie and Matthew from work...it was great to see you guys at the game too.

Everybody PLEASE come out and support this team...I hate to see more opposition jerseys than home jerseys in the stands