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A while back, Microsoft announced their Silverlight software. I didn’t think much of it, but now that they have announced the Azure platform, I realized that they have developed a Forgotten Realms theme in their products.

Let’s look at this, while we’re in the beginning of the trend, to see how this relates to the the SSI “gold box” Forgotten Realms games:

Based on this flimsy evidence, I suspect the next major product platform from Microsoft to be related, somehow, to “radiance.” (As in Pool of Radiance, of course.)

We might also expect a future initiative centered around “darkness,” but I consider that less likely — or, it may already have happened, given the reverse chronology that seems to be at work. (See Pools of Darkness.)

The Toronto Star, at TheStar.com, shows how the Sabres display draft savvy — or at least used to, before everyone that brought players into the organization left.

Sigh.

Still, I guess I can’t say this is bad, at least not yet. Other teams win without drafting and developing players in-house. The Sabres were losing $15 million each season a few years ago and were under league management. Something had to give. They are having a rough time with their Rochester Americans affiliate, and the Amerks themselves are in financial trouble. Perhaps being the development house for the rest of the league wasn’t really a winning strategy, while another one might produce better results (or at least a different cost structure)?

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.

Barefeats weighs in with its performance review of the Intel GMA X3100 integrated video controller in the revised MacBooks:

“Not only is the new MacBook with the GMA X3100 a bummer for high rez gamers, it's going to disappoint pro users when running serious graphics intensive apps.

On the other hand, if you are running purely CPU intensive tasks (Compressor, Photoshop, After Effects), the new MacBook should compare very well with similarly clocked MacBook Pros. We'll publish those results next.”

They also have pages of results for lower-res, lower quality gaming and for non-gaming applications benchmarks.

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.

As happy as I am that the Buffalo Sabres pulled off an overtime victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning yesterday, I'm a bit befuddled. It looked to me as if Paetsch was offsides on the final breakaway. I replayed it over and over on our Tivo, trying to sort it out. I guess that's another example of why I wouldn't make a good referee in any sport — I can't make the call even in Super Slo-Mo.

During that breakaway, Vanek got a weird deflection on his pass that ended up in the back of the Tampa Bay net to win the game.

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.