Sabre Dance

Like Howlin' Wolf, I ain't superstitious. Unless it's playoff time. When I lived on W. 105th, I avoided watching any Sabres games at The West End after viewing a playoff loss in 1999 while there (even though I think we went on to win that particular series). Annoying CU students made that an easy decision though.

So, I spoke too soon. I now regret complimenting the officials a few days back. Most of their calls remain accurate, though in Game 4 tended to favor the Flyers or whatever Forsberg said. There were some issues in Game 3 —the questionable (to me) Diving call on Roy, the ignored spear thrown into Dumont's gut— but I believe those were honest mistakes. Overall, still no big complaints... I will refrain from any more comments, lest we steer towards No Goal territory. And just as I became too comfortable with the two-game lead, so did the Sabres. We gave up that lead fairly easily. But we knew it would be a tough, exciting series, didn't we? Home-ice advantage may be the deciding factor. Only in Buffalo did two Sabres earn hattricks in the same game; Only in Philadelphia did Forsberg finally show us why the media must refer to him as "Forsberg, the best player in the world..."

Of course, I also blame myself. If I hadn't watched the last two games on TV, maybe we would've won. I'll have to go back to listening to the radio: our strongest game occurred when my ear was glued to my 15-year old alarm clock radio. Game 5 is this afternoon; let's get ready for the Sabre Dance.