Welcome Back

by Ryan


This is where the summer ends
In a flash of pure destruction, no one wins
going nuclear, nuclear.
-Ryan Adams


In hindsight, deleting this blog may be the best thing to happen to it.

The good news is that everything is back to normal, comments and all. There is a lesson in this: if you want something bad enough, spam the crap out of Blogger Support until they give in. (In a related story, the rest of the Roost is entitled to punch me in the face at a time to be determined later...)

Sure, the past two days have been exhausting, and I hate myself for being stupid enough to kill it. But I did just get to use a Ryan Adams quote, and being forced to read 120+ posts has helped me gain a bit of perspective on things.

This blog really is in its infancy, but we’ve had to cover a lot of important events so far. Chris Drury and Daniel Briere are gone, and we may have just witnessed the apex of hockey’s popularity in Buffalo.

But what does this mean? Here we are, just fans of the game, writing about what we know and love. But there are so many "hockey fans" around here these days that it’s hard to get a good grasp of what people think. Blogs are popping up all over, analyzing things with absolutes and rash statements about anything involving the ice.

So what does this mean? Nothing. These things shall pass, and sooner or later the genuine article will stay around.

I would like to think that we are the genuine article. I know that this hockey thing isn’t going to fade from my life anytime soon. In fact, I’ve been salivating for a sheet of ice since summer began. This is a part of me, as much as my lack of a jump shot and good dodgeball skills are.

One of the things I’ve noticed about my posts is that many of them involve hope. Personally I feel that hope is a necessity when dealing with the Buffalo sports scene. If you haven’t noticed, we haven’t won anything substantial in decades. This sort of puts you in a pessimistic state when you think about it.

Still, I believe there is something good in sports. No matter how bad your team may be, there can be joy taken from it.

The upcoming Bills season is a perfect example of this. To he quite honest, I’m terrified of this Bills team. It has the potential to be exciting, but excruciatingly mistake-filled. This defense could kill any chance for a winning team at the exact same time J.P. Losman could make "the leap" and play like he should.

Is this unfair? Well, no, it’s football. And if there is anything we have learned from sports it is that it emulates life perfectly in regards to fairness.

Even so, there are going to be moments of joy. I still remember those two 83 yard bombs Evans caught in Reliant Stadium last year. Out of everything, even the loss on Christmas Eve, that is the most vivid memory I have of the season.

So here’s to J.P making the leap, Money making us smile, and some good memories that make it all worth it.

Oh, and always read the warnings when you are pressing buttons. Don’t be an RJ.