Superstitious Writing on the Wall

I don't really think of myself as overly superstitious. I think because Buffalo is so deeply entrenched in the "Woe is me! Toronto, Gary Bettman, and God Himself hate us" mindset, I try really hard to just let things be. If the team wins, it's usually because they're playing well. If the team loses, it's usually because they're not. I try not to read too much into anything else.

That said, there is one thing I enjoy playing around with and that's my computer wallpaper. Let me say this up front: One of my favorite things about owning my own computer, is the ability to make the wallpaper whatever I want. Seriously. When I get tired of looking at the current wallpaper, I put a lot of time and thought into the next selection. But during hockey season it's all Sabres all the time.

I think the superstition started last year during the Sabres' winning streak to begin the season. The player of choice - Tim Connolly - became a good luck charm and didn't come down until the streak was ended. From that moment on, the wallpapers were watched carefully for streaks both good and bad.
Timmy Connolly, the one who started it all.

Usually a player stays up until the team has lost three times, but slow starts call for desperate measures. During the first ten games of this season, a player was gone the second the final horn blew on a loss. I'm all for taking time to sort things out, especially when dealing with a team that's still pretty young, but there comes a point where you've dug a hole too deep to get out of. So far the biggest loser is Drew Stafford who couldn't even muster up one victory while the winner is Dmitri Kalinin's three game winning streak. (A little odd since that reflects their real-life play. Stafford has looked pretty overwhelmed at times and Tri - despite what some maroons in Buffalo will tell you - was our most solid d-man until his injury.) Technically every players gets his chance - even Andrew Peters - but I do reserve the right to recycle players who I really like or players who were really good luck during their previous cycle. You can't go to one guy too many times though. That throws everything off. When it's time to switch I'll usually go with a guy who's playing really well (you're up next, Pommers!) but real-life performance and wallpaper performance don't always correlate... though it's fun when they do.

Beginning the season with Stafford was too much pressure for the youngster.

Bucky Gleason's a doofus and Kalinin is aces.

Jochen Hecht is currently working on a two game winning streak. Can he match - maybe even surpass - Kalinin? We'll see on Thursday! Not that this has anything to do with the final outcome at all...
Let's do this thing, Yo-Yo!

(Please ignore my awkward hands. It was much harder than I thought it would be to take a picture of the screen with my thumb in it.)