Sorry, but all you’re getting today is the open thread.  I have a jammed day today with a 5K, Hertel Holiday’s with the family and friends, and a party at a friend’s house after.  So feel free to update anything new in comments.

First, I’m sure you’re wondering how the heck I came to dub this the “Pat Hughes open thread.”  It’s a simple story, really.  Hughes played briefly (50 games) for the Sabres during the 1985-86 season, but that didn’t stop him from becoming a favorite with my buddies and me.  I had two good friends who were as crazy into sports as I was back then, and unfortunately for us the Sabres weren’t very good that year.  We spent a lot of our times mocking the shit out of some of the Sabres, and we even created the “all-sausage” team where only the worst players were allowed on.

The “sausages” included Norm Lacombe, Bo Mikael Anderson, Bob Halkidis, Adam Creighton, Joe Reekie, Richard Hajdu, and Jim Hofford.  And their captain was the one and only Pat Hughes.

So this one is for you, Patty.

As for the game tonight, I’ve been trying to figure out exactly why I dislike the Rangers so much.  I don’t recall them ever beating the Sabres in a big playoff series I cared about, nor do I remember them ever playing particularly well against Buffalo for long stretches.  Maybe it’s just my natural dislike for all teams originating in the NYC area, or maybe it’s because of the way they wacked out the salary structure in the NHL for so long.  Yeah, probably that.

So it’s great to see how screwed the Rangers are.  After finding a team dumb enought to absolve them of their salary-cap problems by dumping Scott Gomez onto the Canadiens, they went right back out and spent to the cap again.  In fact, with Wade Redden out for tonight’s game the Rangers called up inexperienced defenseman Ilkka Heikkinen because his contract is cheaper than Bobby Sanguinetti’s.  They’re so tight against the cap they can’t even call up players to help them out; it’s truly laughable at how crappy a job Glen Sather has done.

They don’t have a backup goalie, or technically they do in Chad Johnson, so Henrik Lundqvist has played an insane amount of games and he hasn’t fared well.  Rangers fans are complaining that Kotalik doesn’t go to the net (duh), Drury is a huge bust, and they’re probably better off with Redden out of the lineup than in it because he flat-out can’t play D.  Where would they be without Marian Gaborik?

The Rangers are 3-7-0 in their last ten, and are 9-12-1 in their last 20.  In other words, this team is hurting and the Sabres have to step on them tonight.

7:00 start from HSBC.