#JK I am mad about Wicked I think it looks terrible

[frances-baby-houseman]

I have already bought my tickets and am seated for Galadiator (the real ones get it.)

[phanchester]

For the positive asks!! ❤️😊📖📺💕😍🎶🎙️(That's a lot sorry you can ignore some of them if you want akksksk hah)

don’t worry, i love answering asks. if i missed any please tell me i am very careless and probably forgot to answer lol)

😊: what are some things you do to cheer yourself up when you’re having a rough day?

well, i guess it depends on what i’m feeling like. a lot of the time i watch dan and phil and sanders sides while curled up in bed wearing two hoodies. sometimes i get myself a plate of biscuits, because i am kind of addicted to those things. i try to do things which involve very little brain power so i can just sit and relax and calm my nerves. that also means i try to not go on any social media so i can just relax. i also sometimes sit and reread a book while listening to some calming music or i watch a musical bootleg on youtube.

 📖: what’s a book/series you could read over and over again?

this is super cliche, but i could reread harry potter over and over again and i would never get bored of it. yes, i may hate jk rowling’s guts and yes, i may have read books with much better writing techniques and a much better story, but i have to give it to her. the world she creates with harry potter? marvelous. beautiful. a classic i could reread a thousand times and never get bored of it. i also love rereading a series of unfortunate events because it honestly is such a brilliant series with a such a unique vibe. i am also guilty of rereading friday barnes wayy too many times. friday barnes is basically a book aimed to a demographic who is a lot younger than me but it’s still so funny and it flows together in a wonderful manner. 

 📺: what’s your comfort TV show/movie that you watch to feel happy?

look, okay. i hate voltron. i absolutely despise voltron because of how they dealt with klance and how season eight turned out but the earlier seasons? so so good and so so rewatchable. i also love doctor who to an unhealthy degree. i think i’ve rewatch season two of new who about a thousand times - and yes, i cry every single time i watch those last two episodes. 

 💕: what’s something you love about yourself?

idk man i like singing i guess lol

 😍: what’s a trait you admire in other people?

ngl, i envy other people’s happiness and strong will to live. i also admire people’s obliviousness to the terrible things happening in the world around them. sure, they may be hit with the harsh and cruel reality when they grow older and they may internally collapse with grief, but as dancing through life from wicked says - “life’s more painless for the brainless”.

 🎶: name a song that reminds you of a happy time, or of someone you love.

for this, i’m just going to list a bunch of songs without context and see what people think.

history maker - dean fujioka

bohemian rhapsody - queen

the schuyler sisters - hamilton: an american musical

biggest blame fool - seussical the musical

doctor who theme tune - murray gold

hedwig’s theme - john williams

what is this feeling - wicked

circle of life - carmen twillie and lebo m.

take me home, country roads - john denver

naughty - matilda the musical

 🎙️: what’s your favourite song to sing along to?

again, going to list a bunch of songs.

the entirety of the death of a bachelor (especially emperor’s new clothes, death of a bachelor, crazy = genius, the good, the bad and the dirty and house of memories)

okay fine basically anything by beebo (especially say amen (saturday night), hey look ma i made it, high hopes, this is gospel, girls/girls/boys, i write sins not tragedies, lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off, northern downpour, nine in the afternoon and the ballad of mona lisa but like any of them)

any heathers song (especially beautiful, candy store, the me inside of me, seventeen, lifeboat, shine a light (reprise) and meant to be yours)

any hamilton song (especially alexander hamilton, aaron burr, sir, my shot, the schuyler sisters, you’ll be back, helpless, satisfied, wait for it, guns and ships and washington on your side)

sincerely, me - dear evan hansen

any mcr song (especially helena, i’m not okay, welcome to the black parade, i don’t love you, cancer, mama and na na na)

any fob song (especially centuries, immortals, my songs know what you did in the dark, sugar, we’re going down, the phoenix, thnks fr th mmrs, this ain’t a scene, it’s an arm race, the kids aren’t alright, just one yesterday, uma thurman, what a catch, donnie, golden and the last of the real ones)

any dodie song (especially would you be so kind, human, sick of losing soulmates, she, in the middle, an awkward duet, dear happy and secret for the mad)

any jon cozart song (especially youtube culture, harry potter in 99 seconds, tourist and after ever after 1, 2 and 3)

sweet dreams (are made of this) - eurythmics 

take on me - a-ha

toxic - britney spears

bohemian rhapsody - queen

sorry that was a lot i just like a lot of songs and have a lot of feelings. thank you @uwillneverknowwho for asking these questions, it was a lot of fun and i really enjoyed it.

positive asks

ask me more asks!

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: GM 79 - CBJ - New Revolt

Three games left. It’s almost over, everyone. No Sabres season, certainly none since I’ve been a hockey fan, has ever been this crazy a ride. There have been so many ups and downs… well mostly down, and now that we’re here it feels like we’ve come full circle: back in the Draft lottery conversation. This is our Stanley Cup. Well Edmonton is still is trash like us it was the Arizona Coyotes game tonight, yes the Arizona Coyotes game, that made me think about how much we’re missing – how much we’ve missed for eight years now. Arizona, the albatross of this league, just won a big game in March with playoff implications. Do I need to look up at Arizona now too? I was really close to naming tonight’s postgame #LoseForHughes but sweet, hockey gods, I’m so tired of accepting losing as a plus for my team. Losing can only be good for so long before you start cannibalizing your fanbase! Seven straight losses in March? Three games left everyone, then we can at least look forward without another ugly loss blocking our vision. Luckily there is something to read into these games now too; yes, even games that end in 4-0 shutouts to goalies who don’t even want to be on the team their net-minding for. That new context is the New Revolt. I am kind of grateful I didn’t have this blog during the Old Revolt, that time frame was a little bit more uncertain. When I say the Old Revolt, I’m referring to the 2016-2017 season or the second half of it at least. Dan Blysma was the Buffalo Sabres Head Coach and there were rumblings. By rumblings I mean unnamed sources by radio hosts and the Buffalo News (this was before the Athletic Buffalo so the reporting was a little better there); well those sources and the games we were watching. You could tell players were confused by Disco Dan’s system and the rumblings were that the players were trying to get rid of him. This criticism evidently found its way all the way up to ownership and on 4/20/2017 General Manager Tim Murray and Dan Blysma were fired. For extremely recent fans, this was the genesis of the meme about Jack Eichel being GM and Coach. Now we maybe seeing a New Revolt. It’s a little different than the old one. This game tonight against Columbus was completely unwatchable so we’re going to have a little talk about this New Revolt unfolding on this current Sabres team.

Talking about a New Revolt forces me to do one of the things I hate the most: agree with Mike Harrington. When I drag the Buffalo News Sports section its usually aimed at this guy. I don’t want to go into much more depth about that, but this guy is saying this same thing right now and I don’t think he’s wrong unfortunately. Look at these seven straight losses: six of them have been lost by more than one goal and all of those were over well before regulation concluded. If you look back past the St. Patrick’s Day victory over the Blues the same is still mostly true: big losses and if we’re being frank, losses where the Sabres more or less gave up at a certain point. March has been exceptionally bad. There was a time in February I thought the Sabres could still make the playoffs, but that month wasn’t great either. It’s not crazy to say this team has given up on Phil Housley. You could make an argument he lost the room after some poorly worded comments in January, you could say it was over for him in December if you want to. A lot of the same criticisms of Dan Blysma are now falling on Phil Housley: roster deployment choices, getting the team to start on time, getting the guys to play well in their own end and the list goes on and on. Granted, the revolt against Blysma had a very visible player-oriented streak originating in a locker room that sometimes made thinly-veiled postgame critiques. There is also the key difference that there was a growing will among Sabres fans at the time of the old revolt to can Tim Murray over poor trades and roster building that simply yielded no results. Today there doesn’t seem to be a consensus that Jason Botterill needs to go; in fact, I think there is a certain confidence in Botterill that is holding up good will for him. That good will is liable to evaporate overnight if Jeff Skinner leaves in Free Agency but we’ll cross that bridge if it comes, God forbid it comes. Moreover, that turnover in 2017 was a philosophy shift, certainly at the management level, that begged the question of what the Sabres would be long term. Regime change felt right then, and it gave us optimism for a while. Even after the abject nightmare that was the 2017-2018 season, this regime was still trusted going into last offseason and it delivered big time. I even made the joke that the Sabres won the offseason going into this season. If its going to be a New Revolt, if we’re going to chase Phil Housley out of town like Blysma, we ought to ask some questions about it.

For one, are we ruining this core by giving into another revolt? This question has no good answers but there are examples of teams being forced to stomach their coach and it pays off. The Detroit Red Wings of the late 2000s stand out. The Chicago Blackhawks of 2012 are a more recent example, but they had already won a Cup with that group. It isn’t a really sexy option but it’s worth noting because the current Sabres GM gave the current Coach a vote of confidence on February 20th. It’s fully possible the outlook has changed but you can’t forget that. There is an even scarier sub-question here: What if one of the core players is the problem… dare I say one of THE core players? Sorry I pulled that one out from under the bed, I’m putting it away now. The second big question with this New Revolt is a little easier to answer: What are we looking for with a coaching change? Ok, so the players, fans and hordes of bloggers and sports writers are right: the Housley system is not working, and he needs to go for the good of the team. The calls for Joel Quenneville from the rooftops come with big ifs but the deeper question is what kind of coach you’re going for. Housley was supposed to be the old fashion defensive-minded coach and that hasn’t worked out for us. Mind you, Coach Q and Housley sit on polar opposite ends of the proven/experience spectrum as head coaches but do we need more old fashion? There is an argument a guy like Q is good for a team that’s built and that’s a whole separate debate; that is, if this roster is more or less to a point to compete regularly. A March that saw no regulation wins suggests not but it’s a little more complex than that. Do you want to bring in a new approach because there are European coaches and AHL coaches and College coaches who all have a rainbow of different ideas of how to coach a winning hockey team? There are a lot of answers to that question and Housley isn’t fired yet so its kind of null to even ask. It is my opinion that Phil Housley will not Coach a Sabres game again after April 6th, so I have one perspective on this. I think a guy like Jason Botterill, always preaching building from the bottom up, sees the Rochester Americans go on a wicked Calder Cup run this Spring and he elevates Chris Taylor to Coach of the big club after it’s over. It’s a lot cleaner than any other option and I think it’s the option ownership wants after the madness of the 2017 regime change. That’s just one man’s opinion.

No matter what happens it’s a game like this and its aftermath… and oh by the way this loss ties the streak of terrible that the Sabres managed at the depth of the tank back in 2014-2015, that shows something has to give. It seems like there is no accountability right now, but it only seems that way until there is a whole lot of accountability if you know what I mean. With the Pegulas as owners of both Buffalo’s professional sports teams we’ve seen their willingness to drop the ax. We’ll see what that entails this time after these next three God-forsaken games are over. I am just too hopeful to not think change is coming. It has to. It just has to. On that cheerful note: like, share and comment on this blog. We’re wrapping up the season, but the offseason can create some of my best work in my humble opinion. I shared a lot of opinions in this New Look Sabres: agree or not, share yours with us! I’ll be driving out to Detroit for the Sabres last game on Saturday and no, I don’t regret buying those tickets… because that’s a new arena! JK, I look forward to it because its my first away Sabres game and that’s an original experience I’m dying to have. In the meantime, Let’s Go Buffalo!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. If you are an old enough Sabres fan to remember the old old revolt in the late 1990s against Ted Nolan than please comment. I want to get to know you.