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Rick Falkvinge responds to the European Commission about the inadvisability of mixing DRM and law (in English, despite the preamble in Swedish, even though he is the “founder and leader of the Pirate Party movement and leader of the Swedish Pirate Party”).

[Via Waffle.]

The Sabres won 5-3 over the the Florida Panthers, but rightly overshadowing that was the Panthers’ Zednik, who suffered a cut to his neck. The serious injury and its aftermath stopped play for about twenty minutes until it was decided to continue the game to its conclusion.

I was only listening to the telecast in catches from the kitchen at that point, but a call from my parents at the game brought us back to the Tivo to see what was happening. The replays were unnerving — as another Florida player's right skate came up into Zednik's neck as he skated into the corner to Miller's left — but thankfully we didn't see much of the blood on the ice. I think my mom said, "It was more blood than I've ever seen." The down-the-ice angle we saw of it on television certainly made it look like a profuse amount.

Richard Zednik skated quickly off the ice holding his neck, looking very, very pale, and was practically caught by trainers at the bench; he looked as if he was on the verge of collapse. I don't know how he made it. They got him out of the bench area and later we were told he had been stabilized and taken to a Buffalo hospital. As of this writing, the postgame show indicated he was in surgery.

The Buffalo fans held a standing ovation when it was announced that Zednik was stable and on the way to the hospital, but up until that, there appeared to be little news in the arena itself. I had tried to let mom know what was going on from the telecast, but I probably called her during this ovation because I had to scrub through video on the Tivo and was still a little behind realtime. I haven't heard from Aaron and Missy yet; they were in the seventh row for today's game, but I don't know what section.

Anyway, the injury was extremely scary and we pray for Zednik's continued safety and recovery.

The Buffalo Sabres are in a serious situation now; they have fallen to eleventh place in the Eastern Conference as of this afternoon's 5-2 loss against the Atlanta Thrashers. This means the blue and gold would be out of the playoffs if they started today — which they don't, since we haven't even reached to the All-Star break yet. However, it's going to be awfully hard for the Sabres to get out of this slump and get into the playoffs with about half the season left.

Meanwhile, both the Flyers and the Rangers are now sitting in the last two playoff spots. The Sabres — who were the top team in the league during last year's regular season and lost one their co-captains each to those two teams since then — are possibly on their way out. As a fan, this is depressing, so I have to wonder if this is, as many say, because of the loss of Briere and Drury? Or, is it a self-fulfilling prophecy coming true because everyone has talked about it so much? Hard to say.

One thing I can say: the Sabres gave up a lot of their offensive firepower in the off season, didn't get any in return, and are in their six game losing streak largely because they can't score goals. This, even when the opposing goaltender has a blinding snowstorm driving at him and seventy thousand fans cheering for their home team.

On a somewhat lighter note, the comments on the Game Thirty-Eight Open Thread: Sabres at Thrashers post at BfloBlog.com are amusing. For example, "I think someone mentioned that Roy has a pulled purse arm muscle," referring to Derek Roy's injury, and, "That game stunk worse than the guy’s foot in the smoking commercial," for which you'd just need to see certain public-service announcements that air on MSG during the games.

Well, the AMP Energy NHL Winter Classic game between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins is over. The Penguins won their second straight against the Sabres with a 2-1 shootout victory.

Rewinding a bit, the Sabres were doing really well before Christmas, with two really exciting games against Philadelphia and a nice win streak. The icing on the cake was the shootout win when Miller stuffed Briere. As much as I like Danny, hey, I’ll still root for the home team so it was great to see Miller stop that shot.

Now, the up-and-down Sabres have dropped several games straight, including the home-and-home series against Pittsburgh which culminated today in the Winter Classic. They also lost against the New Jersey Devils during this current streak.

The Winter Classic lived up to the billing in at least one sense: the wintry weather. While we’ve had some mild weather in Western New York of late, it did turn cold with some snowfall today. That was sort-of ideal if you want to televise the first outdoor NHL game in the United States, and have an obvious topic for your telecast. It resulted in some interesting camera views of the game, and a lot — I might say too much — of Zamboni work and ice repair. It certainly didn’t help the flow of the game on television.

On the plus side, the game was carried by NBC in high definition. We went over to Aaron and Missy’s house to watch it on their big set and it really does make a difference. (I’m sure it would have been much harder to figure out which was a puck and which was a snowflake here at home. Although my answer that is that the pucks are all the same and the snowflakes are all unique.) I call it ridiculous that Time Warner Rochester doesn’t carry the HD feed of the Sabres games, given that the team is all of an hour away and has been so popular of late.

Also rating up there on the ridiculousity scale:

• The maddening frequency that the NBC crew started questions to players and coaches with some variation of: “I know you spent a lot of time playing on frozen ponds, so …”
• The sheer number of references to how great Sidney Crosby is. Guys — whether you’re at NBC or the NHL — please get off this. There are lots of other players on the ice who are interesting and at least as deserving of air time. I’d hate your national broadcasts less if you brought out the character of the league and the game. Plus, the Penguins will play the West Coast teams what, maybe once every seven years? Most of the North American continent, even if they have an NHL franchise, will never see this guy again. Maybe you should prop up all of your players, coaches, teams, and cities. Oh, I forgot, no one but hockey fans are even watching these games anyway because the NHL is so broken, so it doesn’t really matter.
• The stoppages of play when the Zambonis rolled out. Can we go ten minutes without them, pleasethankyoubye?

All in all, it would have been more satisfying if the Sabres had just won. Sigh.

The Sabres won 2-1 in overtime against the Boston Bruins last night. Perhaps just as remarkable as the win — after a really poor showing over the past few games — was the commentary.

I always love the Sabres' broadcast crew, and at least for oddities, the new addition of Harry Neale is able to roll along with the rest. For example:

Mike Robitaille: [During a replay of Ales Kotalik's four shots during the second intermission.] Watch the first one here. That's a big lazy can of corn. … That's nothing to stop that shot from back there. [Second shot replay.] Watch the next one. Different. Down low, on the opposite corner.

Christen and I had to keep replaying this. We still don't know what "a big lazy can of corn" is supposed to mean, but we laughed.

Rob Ray: I think they just did this to try to give him [Gaustad] a few extra minutes here, a few extra seconds, to catch his breath, because he was supposed to be there.
Harry Neale: Not a bad idea, though, Rob.
Ray: Yes, it is, very smart.
RJ: Yeah, that'll be a penalty next year.

The Washington Capitals started the scoring tonight, but they didn’t finish it. Spacek evened up the score, and Afinogenov put the Buffalo Sabres in front.

The Sabres then jumped ahead to a 4-1 lead before the Capitals notched two. Reducing their deficit to two points was as close as the Caps got, even though their last one was Ovechkin’s 101st goal. Final score: 7-3.

Both Spacek and Campbell have four goals on the season, making the two Buffalo defensemen offensive leaders on the team.

In contrast to years ago when the Sabres could barely must 15 shots, they took 53 tonight.

I was able to follow this game and yet the Sabres still won; I’d been wondering if my on-again, off-again jinx was in effect this year. After all, I’d watched the two losses to the Islanders that started the season, then missed the 6-0 shutout victory against Atlanta the other night. I watched most of the games last year and they wont the President’s Trophy. So, I’m either superstitious or I haven’t figured out the “magic trigger.” Grin.

Tonight was the first Buffalo Bills game to air on Monday Night Football since September 26, 1994. (You would be forgiven for not knowing this, even if you watched the game, since the announcers only mentioned it about fifty billion times.) It was not their first Monday night win, alas, despite the excitement of the game — which ended with a last-second field goal by Dallas.

Final score: 25-24 — the only time the Cowboys led in the game.

The two interceptions run back for touchdowns and McGee’s punt return were just fun to watch. I was generally happy with the aggressive, let’s-actually-try-to-win-this-one playcalling by the coaching staff, despite the dismal results on offense — yards but no points, and too many stifled drives. The electric feeling of the game was great and the fans were both loud and ever-present. While I’m sure the in-stadium home crowd was dejected, they did get to see a heck of a show. It’s just too bad that the Bills couldn’t pull a victory out along the way.

Oh, and while I agree that Edwards looked poised at quarterback — the television announcers wouldn't stop talking about it — let’s not forget that the offense was still responsible for only three points this week. The lack of offensive production when it counted also appeared to lead to a worn-down Bills defense — the unit was simply on the field for too long in the second half. I wouldn't be surprised if fatigue contributed to giving up 9 points in the last 20 seconds.

The weather to the east of Ralph Wilson Stadium was off-and-on heavy rain punctuated by thunder and lightning. I was wondering if Orchard Park had the same weather, and if they'd be able to even play. They did, and lightning didn't strike for the Bills. (Sorry, I couldn't help it.)

The Sabres lost both games in their season-opening home and home series with the N.Y. Islanders.

I really only caught snatches of each game, between putting the boy to bed on Friday and having family over on Saturday. In what I heard and saw, the Sabres did not look good and this is not an uplifting way to start the season.

They did draw lots of pom-pom waving fans outside the arena during the home opener, though. I wonder if that will kind of enthusiasm keep up, given this new miserable situation. Sigh. Maybe everybody is still on hung over from the loss of the captains … yet, so I’m sick of talking about that. Let’s move on.

I’d been hoping on Saturday they’d lose only their first game and go on a tear with ten straight wins, but that hope was obviously dashed.

The Buffalo Bills just beat the New York Jets 17-14 at home, securing the Bills' first victory of the season. It always feels good to win against the Jets; the only win I've personally experienced in Orchard Park was against them.

At 1-3, the Bills' record is nothing to start a tickertape parade about. Still, given the adversity of so many injuries (including the well-publicized spinal injury to Kevin Everett, which dominated the regional news for days after it happened) on what already seemed to be a rebuilding team, it's heartening to see enough stubbornness from this team to hold on until the end of a game. (This, in contrast, to the loss in week 1 to the Denver Broncos, where they held the lead for virtually the entire game but still lost with a second remaining.)

I think one contrast I noticed today compared to earlier games was how much the tight ends were involved. This resulted in the first passing touchdown to a TE, as well as several catches. I also saw at least one formation where a TE was lined up as a split back. I was really frustrated because I didn't see tight end involvement in the play calling in past weeks. Overall, the Bills did a much better job of spreading the offense around.

Beyond that, the defense did a decent job. I believe they are pretty good in the first half but get worn down with each successive quarter. They've followed this pattern every week.

Although I'm happy to see a win, I'm not looking forward to the inevitable calls for Trent Edwards to replace J.P. Losman at quarterback. It's already starting on the postgame show. Jauron himself says, in his understated way, words to the effect of, "No one's job on the entire football team is secure. We'll play who we want."

Personally, I think the lackluster coaching was at fault for the lack of offense, and J.P. Losman had a point in his post-game comments several weeks ago. (Didn't Lee Evans also echo these same sentiments?) I don't think he's the most accurate passer or the most well-rounded quarterback, but I'm not out for his head or for him to be benched when he's healthy. Off the field, I also think he's made a lot of good moves to become part of the Buffalo community.

Anyway, we'll see what happens.

The Buffalo Sabres are swinging through Florida on a road trip with about a dozen games left in the season. Several teams in the east are pressuring them for the top playoff spot — a spot which, if you look at Ottawa last year, could be as much blessing as curse.

Last night, the Sabres defeated the Florida Panthers on the first game of this road trip, 5-3 in regulation. This win snapped a four-game winless streak (0-3-1), which appears to be their longest such stretch this season.

I got to watch much of periods two and three after putting Lije to bed. I think the team looked better than the mere snippets I’ve seen recently, but things immediately looked bad when Florida scored as I entered the room with the TV. One of Florida’s lines looked hot — and the rest were doing enough to stymie Buffalo. Luckily, Buffalo was able to keep it tied 3-3 leading into the third.

I saw a nice play where Stafford bounced a pass up to Vanek, who took it into the zone, passed it Campbell. Campbell skirted the left side of the goal, noticed Stafford in front on the right side at the right moment, dished it to him, and the result was the puck in the net behind Belfour. I believe this score gave Buffalo the lead.

I felt that Conklin did a good job in net, which was his first start for the Sabres since he was acquired at the trade deadline. He ended with 42 saves. I was really nervous with all the action in front of him, but he definitely did his job — even when the defense wasn’t necessarily there for him.

I also thought that Zubrus did well; he picked up a goal but looked like he was instrumental on a couple of good plays.

Pomniville’s population went up to 29. Marring all of this may be another injury — I forget which defenseman left for the dressing room, and I haven’t heard anything more about that.