Sabres save the day

After oversleeping by an hour yesterday morning, I was afraid that my hounding efforts for the Buffalo Sabres this season would fall far below my expectations.

I'd missed the Sabres' first trip to Hockey Bay last December, when a previous commitment with the jolliest of elves meant a train ride rather than a hockey game. Then, yesterday, I missed the prime time before morning skate because of an extra 240 winks of sleep.

Thankfully, though, my hometown team took care of me as they headed off for the game, providing another 60 autographs, including 22 cards and nine pucks, for the collection.

Signing pucks, shown above, were:

Top row: Tim Connolly and Patrick Lalime
Bottom row: Craig Rivet and Henrik Tallinder

Signing cards were, from left, Jochen Hecht, Clarke MacArthur, Daniel Paille and Jason Pominville.

Other highlights of the day were:

~ Ryan Miller personalizing, at Colin's request, a Sabres replica jersey as well as a Sabres mini helmet and the Team USA jersey;
~ Nine cherry-picked players, including Maxim Afinogenov, Derek Roy and Thomas Vanek, and team brass on a Sabres mini helmet;
~ Converging factors adding up for two pucks from Drew Stafford;
~ Four cards each from Paul Gaustad and Jaroslav Spacek;
~ Thanking my stars for AHL specialty and team sets; and
~ Twenty players on Colin's latest team sheet.