Our Last Game of the PreSeason Vs. Buffalo Sabres

 Well I don't know what it was, but tonight's crowd seemed more energetic than last week's against Washington. There were fewer Sabres fans than there were Capital fans, too. And there were more shots at and IN goal! We beat The Sabres decisively, 4-1!

Although I don't think the Nash-Carter combo has gelled yet, they did seam better than last year. And the team as a whole definitely played better. We had several Power Plays and we managed to get a score on one (when we were actually on a 5-on-3). More importantly, we killed off the Buffalo Power Plays *very* nicely. The one point that was allowed was when they had a 5-on-3 advantage over us, at the end of the third period. Steve Mason in goal was very very good. He was chosen as one of the Three Stars Of The Game afterwards, and the announcer said he had made 17 saves. So that sounds pretty top-notch to me.

I think my favorite part of the night was seeing both Russell twins (Kris and Ryan) on ice at the same time. I'm not sure if this was the first time ever, but it was the first time *I* had ever seen them. I like these guys!!! :-)

Next week there are three more pre-season games, but we don't have tickets to any of them. So this is our "last" pre-season game. Coming next for us: Opening Night on October 7th. I can hardly wait. It's against one of our arch-rivals, the Nashville (Sexual) Predators. I'll tell the story of our visit to Nashville then. Basically, we hate them (I think we have never won a game on their home ice...if we have, it's been a several years dry run). Our other arch-rival is *my* old team, the St. Louis Blues. (sigh) And I'll write about that when the time comes, too.

In the meantime, as promised, here are two photos taken from our new half-season seats. As you can see, they are not too shabby. You may notice the netting over the glass, which impedes the view of the ice at around the Blue Line, but we are used to it and can see "through" it. (Unhappy story: the nets are there

because several years ago a player for the Columbus Blue Jackets hit a puck out of the arena and hit a teen-aged girl in the head; she died the next day. So now all NHL arenas have these nets.) We are at the "Attack Twice" end of the ice, so it definitely is a different vibe than we had last year at the other end.

Here's another photo taken standing up when we gave the team a standing ovation for winning (note the final score, hooray!).  Also note that the top of the net intersects with the screen on the billboard, which was something we did *not* anticipate. So if we had picked a row higher or lower we would have gotten a better view of the screen!! Oh, well...live and learn. :-)  

GO JACKETS!!