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| Bulldog |
Thanks and Goodbye
Thomas Vanek and Ryan Miller have to go. Preferably this summer before the clock starts ticking on the final year of their contracts.
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Buying Time
Change. We inevitably want it when we don't get the result we want from one of our teams. The Bills have made plenty of changes over this 13 season playoff drought.
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Worst Play Ever? Alex Ovechkin's Backcheck
Mike Schopp and the Bulldog are just recovering from watching this play from the Rangers/ Capitals playoff game Wednesday night.
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Suffering Through Lowered Expectations
I want to get something out of the way right away. Suffering? Really? I know how it sounds in the building and certainly on the radio, but we are not suffering nor will we be if our hockey team is even worse than they've been recently.
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The Bills Make Me Wanna...
Smile? Well it is a start at least. This is why you draft a quarterback. Even better, this is why you draft a quarterback early. It gives your fans hope and hope, if you let it, can make you smile.
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Bulldog: Sabres Try to Hit Reset
The best part of trade deadline day 2013 happened between 4pm and 420pm. It was at that point that we already knew that there was a deal sending captain Jason Pominville to Minnesota for a pair of young players and maybe some picks. That wasn&
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Sabres: Are you ready to deal?
(WGR - Bulldog) Ready to deal?
I had a thought last night as the Jarome Iginla trade drama was unfolding in Calgary. One of the many NHL writers I follow on Twitter posted something about moving the legendary Flames captain as necessary but also sad. Around the same time I came across a tweet from Daren Millard of Rogers Sportsnet that said the Sabres and
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Waiting
(WGR Bulldog) Waiting
I am a patient boy, I wait I wait I wait I wait.
Maybe I've been waiting my entire life to work Indie rock legends Fugazi into something I could post on the WGR website. Or maybe I listened their album 13 Songs while running around Delaware Park this morning trying to think of something worth posting at all. Maybe this will prove worthy.
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Bills - Rebuilding
Rebuilding Bills
I don't think this should be much of a shock to anyone, but I want to write it down nonetheless.
The Bills are rebuilding. You know what usually happens when you rebuild? You lose more than you win, often by a lot. Any chance you're thinking that the Bills are going to be really good and end their 13 season playoff drought probably is the
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Sabres - Halfway to where?
(WGR - Bulldog)The Sabres Halfway To Where?
The 2013 Buffalo Sabres are halfway to somewhere. Where that is exactly is tough to pin down. Last place? Somewhere between last and 8th? Oblivion? The playoffs?
Man, I don't know. There still are 24 games to go and I like to try and be optimistic. Really, being pessimistic is so easy. Especially
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Sabres: Myers Growing Pains
(WGR - Bulldog) Growing Pains
Whiner Line caller..."Stop comparing Tyler Myers to Zdeno Chara. He's not Chara." This isn't exactly a cheap shot at the Whiner Line. The point gets made plenty often enough to me via E mail.
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Bulldog: So where were you when you heard the Buffalo Sabres had fired Lindy
So where were you when you heard that the Buffalo Sabres had fired Lindy Ruff? I don't think that I'll ever have any trouble remembering where I was. That's because I was live on the air in the middle of a rant about how obvious it was that Ruff needed to be fired.
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Sabres: Shiny objects don't fix the problem on the ice.
(WGR Bulldog) You know what's funny to me? That one of the most consistent criticisms of the Golisano ownership group, and really of Larry Quinn specifically, was that he was just a land developer.
The flawed and ultimately failed Bass Pro project had Quinn's fingerprints all over it so its easy enough to understand why that criticism was leveled as often as it
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Bulldog: Sabres Are Not Hard to Play Against
Sandpaper. Grit. An edge. It seemed quite evident from the moves made back in the summer by Darcy Regier that the organization was intent on becoming harder to play against. Regier told us as much when he came by to visit at one point last spring after the season had ended.
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Sabres: Not Retaliating was the key to Sabres turnaround on Bruins
Sabres Defending One Another
Fans have been mostly universal in their praise of the Sabres for defending one another so far this season. Some examples for you.
Drew Stafford fighting Scott Hartnell in the opener after Hartnell hit Tyler Ennis from behind.
Patrick Kalets punching Phil Kessel in the back of the head a half a dozen times after Kessel ran into Ryan
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Bulldog: Sabres Beatdown in Beantown?
Last November 12th Milan Lucic cannonballed Ryan Miller, the Sabres cried to the league, the goalie suffered a concussion and the team proceeded to wonder about its own guts for what seemed like the next 2 months. Or maybe it actually was the next 2 months. Maybe it was longer.
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Bulldog: Are We Done With Fitz?
Duh, idiot, of course we are. Did you watch him play last year? He sucks, your blind and your stupid.
Sorry, just paraphrasing my e mail bag for you, complete with "your instead of "you're".
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Sunday! Sunday! - New Bills coach and the NHL is back!
I didn't get up Sunday morning until about 8:45, which for me these days is really sleeping in. Early ice times and a different lifestyle make that so. Straggle downstairs, coffee already made, grab the newspaper and head for the living room.
Love Smith? That's what the cover of the sports section looks like.
Ugh.
Fortunately
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Bills Fall Apart In Toronto
It's 4:26 pm and the Bills game has already become unwatchable. Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson has scored on runs of 14 and 25 yards. One to the right, the other to the left. No Bills player touched him on either play.
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Bills: Chan Gailey Was Scared
Remember when the Bills beat Arizona back in October? I said that day that it seemed like Chan Gailey had done everything he could to lose the game but a few of his players bailed him out. Sunday against the St. Louis Rams Gailey had no such good fortune.
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Bills Win, Some People Watch
One of the most frustrating things about seasons that get away from your football team is what to do with the games that are left once you've crawled from the wreckage of another season in flames. You can keep doing the denial riddled playoff dance.
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Bulldog: Holiday Season And Bills Are Cooked
Aah the holiday season. Thanksgiving is in the rear view mirror, the playoff races are heating up in the NFL, and the Bills are shot. Please with the Giants were 7-7 last season.
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NHL Lockout Blues
I've already got a problem and this is the first paragraph. Lockout blues implies that I'm lonely and in some way desperate for the NHL to return to my life.
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Gut Punch
I thought all week long that a Bills win at New England would be incredible. This is because of the fact that, well, the Bills never beat New England in New England. It's also because the Bills have not looked up to trading punches with any of the good teams they have faced in 2012. Really, they've gotten pounded twice and just sort of put down last week at Houston.
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Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
That's the title of a Neil Young album. Sorry to his many fans for dragging him into this.
I would have preferred to call this 'Long May You Run' but for that to happen Chan Gailey would have had to remember that his two best players are his running backs.
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Remember March? March Was Awesome
Mario Williams came to town and stayed. One day became two, then three. He saw deer in Jim Kelly's backyard and we loved that he liked that. We loved that he liked things about us that we're not even all sure we like about ourselves.
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Bulldog: Don't Be Afraid to Eat
That's what my Grandma Urban and Aunt Rita used to say at family gatherings when I was a kid. How many of those family gatherings were marred by heartbreaking losses by the Bills I can't be sure. Likely more than a few.
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Bulldog: OnTrack?
There's a question mark in the header there because while I was hoping for 4-2, which would have meant an opening day win over the Jets, 3-3 coming home to face Tennessee is ok.
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Bulldog: What Are We Doing?
Right after Fitzpatrick threw that horrendously ridiculous looking ball that was picked off near the San Francisco goal line in the 3rd quarter, I asked Mike Schopp a question. This being our tenth season working together, I asked how many games a year we've had like the one against the 49-ers.
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Bulldog: Easy Prey
Aren't you sick of it? I mean just sick of it. Had it up to here, or there, or anywhere you like. We've been here so often that we should have the market cornered on the highest levels of frustration imaginable.
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Bulldog: So Far, So Good
Three games into the 2012 season and the Bills are, it's safe to say, uhm, er,uh, what?
Take two. Three games into the 2012 season and the Bills are, it's safe to say, 2-1.
Congratulations on clicking on my post today. How's that for insightful commentary? The Bills won on the road for the first time in more than a year and that's something.
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Bulldog: That's More Like It
Let's see, can the quarterback take care of the ball? Check. Can he make some throws please? Check. How will CJ Spiller do filling in as the starter at running back? Super-sized-check. How about some pressure on the opposing quarterback? Check. Five of them if you like. How about some turnovers? Check, check, and check. Maybe a
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Bulldog: Ugly
The piece I wrote for the website on Friday was titled sweet relief. Whoops. There was no relief provided on Sunday as the Bills opened the 2012 season by getting curb stomped at Met Life Stadium by the team most observers agree they need to be better than.
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Bulldog: Sweet Relief
A guy called us on Tuesday and stated that he was worried about the Bills 3rd down defense. This concern was based in part on a perception that the Bills were really bad in this department last year, and, while not good, there were 13 teams in the NFL that were worse playing defense on 3rd downs. The caller was also worried about the Bills performance in this area during the pre
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Bulldog: Where's the Fast-Forward Button?
I said it a couple of weeks ago when camp opened. The cycle is the same every year for me. Alright, football practice, awesome. That's quickly followed by looking forward to the first pre-season game. Then, nipping at the heels of that thought, holy crap, when does the regular season start?
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Bulldog: Alright, Practice on Two. Hut, Hut.
The first real sign that the NFL season is getting close arrives on Thursday when the Bills begin their annual training camp in Rochester. Sorry, but organized team activities and mini camps aren't really signs of anything getting close but more just things on the calendar that mark the time.
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Bulldog's Top Ten American Rock Bands
From the conversation on Schopp and the Bulldog on Thursday:
1. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
2. Metallica
3. The Beach Boys
4. The Birds
5. Van Halen
6. Neil Young & Crazy Horse (Yes, we know Neil Young is Canadian)
7. Creedence Clearwater Revival
8. The Velvet Underground
9. The Allman Brothers Band
10. The Ramones
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Bulldog: The Case for Signing Shane Doan
Most Sabres fans, I believe, feel the team could use a player like Shane Doan. Respected, veteran leader type who can show the young guys how to be a pro and still hold his own enough production wise so as to not make the signing look like a joke.
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Bulldog: Sabres are Better Today
Derek Roy is gone and if I'm sure of one thing it's that the Sabres will be better without him.
Post 2007 what has been the book on the Sabres? Small, skilled, not so tough to play against, lack heart. Seem to be capable enough when the going is pretty easy but turn it up to eleven and they disappear.
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Bulldog: Let's Go!
That's me last night during our show. At about a quarter to six, let's go, moves. Come out come out wherever you are. This is what happens when you start to expect your team to be aggressive during the off season. Impatience becomes the order of the day.
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Bulldog: Final Wrap
The season that sometimes feels as though it will never end finally did last night with the Kings winning their first Stanley Cup. I'll take this opportunity to kind of clean out my own locker with some final thoughts on the series and what is on the horizon for the Sabres.
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Bulldog: Can't Wait X 2
I woke up this morning looking forward to two things in sports. One is the basketball game tonight in Boston. The other is the end of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It couldn't matter less to me at this point who wins, although I suppose it's possible that the inevitability of a Kings win plays some part in my apathy.
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A Nice, Easy Sunday Run
What a difference a year can make. Last spring, in my first attempt at running the half marathon in Buffalo, I did not have a good experience. By not good, I mean I almost passed out, had to stop running a few times and wondered why I ever thought I was capable of running 13.1 miles on demand. The lesson I learned that day is that running 15 miles some morning before
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