Packing Peanuts and the New Kid

by Ryan

First of all, there is a website that is trying to end our lives. We will link to it endlessly from now on, but here is where you want to go to learn more about hockey then you'd ever like to admit. Let's just say that the statistical quality of our posts is about to go up quite a bit.

Also, a quick thanks should go to Mirtle, M.D. for the heads up on the site, as well as making The Great One's Page hysterical.

We're gearing up for the third round here, as well as getting ready for the big birthday bash on Monday. More on the latter later, but for now I thought it would be good to share with you some helpful links if you are hockey-depraved at the moment.

- Here are the Conference Finals schedules: East and West. From the looks of it we should be all set here in WNY, and all of the Pens series will be on CBC if you can get a decent feed. (Has anyone else had a crazy picture this week?) For anyone that doesn't have Versus drop a comment and we can direct you to a proper illegal internet viewing source.

- Kevin from Bfloblog says the Sabres have signed Felix Schutz. I'm sure Hecht is pumped.

- We now know that the Sabres will have picks 13 and 26 in the Draft in June. A thank you goes out to San Jose on that one, we hope you enjoyed your one-time-use redhead.

- If you have an idea for Nathan Gerbe's preliminary nickname, feel free to put in the previous post. Spontaneous nickname contests are what this blog is all about.

- Mirtle has a good look at officiating in the playoffs so far. The trend is pretty obvious to the ordinary viewer, but seeing the numbers really does drive the point home. Officiating this year as a whole has been uneven and at times downright conflicted. The gradual slide from post lockout penalties to today's penalties is quite drastic, and you have to wonder if the league will respond in any way this summer.

- I know you were all worried, but Sean Avery is okay and yes, we were included in the will. What we have is special and something you just wouldn't understand.

- As far as that whole Balsillie buying the Sabres thing, well, whatever. His motive is to move a team to the Hammer, and he isn't fooling anyone anymore. If Bettman wanted him to do it, he would have. Personally I think there are better locations than sandwiched in between Buffalo and Toronto. Namely, here. Also, after viewing Copps for myself, it would take a whole mess of money to either renovate or build a new facility, and other locations have venues at the ready.

To conclude, I'm not worried at all. The Sabres aren't going anywhere, and if Golisano sells it isn't going to be someone who plans on renting U-Haul trucks the next day. Besides, when you plan on running for Governer it's a bad idea to piss off a major population center, right?