As previously mentioned, I’m a hockey fan. Specifically, I bleed blue and gold. Lately, I’ve been bleeding a LOT of blue and gold, as has most of SabreNation cuz the team, as a general whole, sucks. There’s no heart. There’s no grit. There’s no scoring. There’s no defense. There’s no good goaltending. And it’s getting really, really old. So old that talk show hosts are actually excited to see them lose tonight in Winnipeg JUST to see if change will actually happen.

Lots want to blame Darcy Regier, the GM. And that’s fine. I get wanting to pin this on him. He’s the one who assembled this team; he should be held accountable for the on-ice performance. Right?

Except here’s what pisses me off the most. This same team, from Februrary 22, 2011, until the end of the season, were THE BEST team in the NHL. They went on a rampage and got themselves into the playoffs as a 7th place seed, then took Philly to 7 games in the first round.

Off season brought in some great acquisitions in Ville Leino, Christian Ehrhoff, and Robyn Regehr. Our defense AND offense was supposed to be upgraded. And it seemed like everything was going great.

Until November 11th.

Since November 11th, the Sabres have lost 22 games, 4of which were in OT/SO. They now sit in 11th place, 9 points out of 8th, and 3 points from the bottom of the conference. If they had won even half of those games instead of losing, they’d be vying for the top of the conference. Even if they had won just 5 more games, they’d at least be in 6th or 7th. But no … they haven’t. They’ve just about hit rock bottom, and if they lose tonight in Winnipeg, there very well might be some major shake-ups, from the front office down to the janitor (cuz he’s obviously not taking out ALL of the trash). \

So we of SabreNation watch nightly as the team collapses. I’m kind of on the side of WGR’s early morning hosts. There is nothing about this team worth watching right now, OTHER than to see what happens if they end up losing again.

I will wear my jersey with pride, and I will continue to hope that they’ll win and start climbing out of this funk. I don’t expect a miracle, but it starts with one game. Might tonight be that game? Could be. The optimist in me hopes that it is. The realist in me wonders if they can win another game before the All-Star break.