03 March 2008

Blogging in Enemy Territory (Wings 3, Sabres 2)

Bear with me, this is going to be an odd sort of personal narrative-y recap, but the experience of seeing the Wings in another city was too fun to pass up discussing almost as much as the game.

In a whirlwind of activity that involved a lot of trains, a trip to Toronto to see a Marlies game (they lost, but as they were playing the Stars I got to jeer at Toby Petersen, so I consider it a success) and very very little sleep, I found myself in Buffalo last night at a bar watch the Wings play the Sabres. Convenient, boys - thank you for scheduling that so nicely for me.

I of course wore a Wings shirt and was jeered at on the way in to the bar (packed, as expected), but there were quite a few Wings sweaters as well. I don't know where its owner managed to pick one up so soon, but I also saw a Steve Bernier jersey making its way around the bar. I'd say it was a bit early for that, but considering his performance in his first game, sure. We took our seats at the bar and I endured another good-natured(?) round of booing while indulging in some sort of delicious amber ale microbrew.

Going in to the game I was worried, given the Wings' performance lately, but they apparently wanted to show me that it was, in fact, okay. I missed the last game due to work, so I hadn't seen him back yet, but it delighted me to see Niklas Kronwall warming up. The team seems to be pulling back together so I decided to be optimistic.

My game notes (which I stopped taking after the second period) are as follows:

  • I HATE ANDREAS LILJA.
  • Oh my god someone chain Dominik Hasek to a post.
  • The Buffalo announcers are concerning me. I know Ryan Miller has been a little shaky at times this season...are they trying to feed his ego by saying things like "What a great shot! Nice save!" on things like weak shots right into his chest?
  • Was that Dallas Drake who just scored? Seriously?
  • The drunk guys behind me think that "DETROIT SUCKS" can fit into the same rhythm as "Let's go Buffalo!".
  • Okay no, of course it wasn't Dallas Drake.
  • I miss Nick Lidstrom real bad.
  • That WAS Dallas Drake what the hell?
  • Making fun of the Lions is a universal method of making friends. They still, however, boo when your team scores.
  • What the heck is Aaron Downey doing on the bench there? Thanks for highlighting us looking like idiots, MSG.
  • Oh my god someone SERIOUSLY chain Hasek to a post - actually strike that, it is entertaining when he tries to run people over.
  • I LOVE ANDREAS LILJA.
  • What's this secondary scoring thing, do we do that now?
  • No one in this bar likes me very much. (With the exception of a very drunk guy who thinks I should accompany him to a strip club post-game.)
The Wings goal-scorers were Val Filppula, Kirk Maltby, Johan Franzen and (I KNOW) Dallas Drake. There was a marked absence of score sheet domination from the Eurotwins, but it was nice to see other player stepping up.

Overall I was surprised, people were generally friendly (although seriously Buffalo, SERIOUSLY, we don't want Ryan Miller. Seriously. I promise. No less than three people mentioned this to me in the course of the evening.) and post-game we met some nice Sabres fans on the train (via...singing Queen?) and headed to a bar with them (They bought us drinks! I like Buffalo!) where we ran into......the guy who jeered at me on the subway before we got to the bar. I think this should be symbolic or something.

Anyway, Buffalo has good beer and entertaining fans but I have not been converted, though I may make it to the Capitals game on Wednesday. Take that Eastern Conference. (Oh and I still think I hate Andreas Lilja.)

3 comments:

Katebits said...

You keep your filthy hands off Crunchy, Detroit!

Oh suuuure, you say you don't want him, but who WOULDN'T want Crunchy?!

Glad Buffalo is treating you well so far!

Steph said...

You can keep your Crunchy, we've got enough hipster clothing shops around these parts!

Kirsten said...

LIDSTROM! YOU ARE KILLING MY FANTASY TEAM BY BEING HURT. GET THE FUCK BACK!