The Sabres are Special

And by "Special" I mean pigeon-toting, ridiculous question-answering, "special."

As many bloggers have already pointed out, the Sabres have apparently decided the perfect incentive for good play is a stuffed pigeon bought for a whopping $9.99 on eBay.

This is why I love this team. They are pretty gosh darn unique.

Supposedly this all began with who else but Jaro Spacek, who refers to his teammates as pigeons and has earned the nickname for himself as well. I really would love to hear him call these big, tough hockey players pigeons in his incomprehensible accent. I'm sure that would strike fear in the hearts of our opponents...

Now, don't think this bird is treated lightly. According to Adam Mair, he gets carried around in his coop on road trips, which I find a hilarious image. All this pigeon needs is a name and his own jersey and he could really be part of the team.

I suppose this makes some sense; if this team really is the family that they say it is, it's only logical for them to get a pet.

However, if and when Goose gets awarded the "Pigeon of the game" won't it be confusing to mix aviary critters?

In other news, they've finally uploaded the "Stupid Questions" segment from Saturday's game to sabres.com. I highly advise everyone to watch this again, paying close attention to the two Patties, Lalime and Kaleta, and their hilarious answers:

My favorite portions of this video:

*Pat Kaleta saying that he wants an athletic girl but has to be hot, too. Sometimes I forget he could be a college boy, and then he says things like this...

*Patrick Lalime not knowing Gilligan's Island and looking so adorable when he's embarrassed by his lack of pop culture knowledge.

*Pat Kaleta pretty much saying he can only count to 21. That's ok, Patty; you don't get paid to count the number of penalties you draw.

*Kaleta and Adam Mair discussing that going out is contingent on many things, especially on whether or not they won the night before. These two laugh like little kids trying to hide something from their parents, which they still are in a lot of ways.

As you all know, I am a huge fan of anything that shows these boys acting like kids, so today was a great day for such findings. As Andrew Peters so eloquently said:

"We’re a bunch of 25 goofballs that just love to play hockey.”

And we wouldn't want it any other way.

I don't think a more accurate statement has ever been said about this team. From pigeons to catwalks to nap buddies, this is a team that is unusually close and down-to-earth. I can only hope that this little, dysfunctional hockey family will get to celebrate their ultimate goal together, and there will be a picture of the pigeon of the game sitting in Lord Stanley's Cup.