Hockey around the world

With the Buffalo Sabres in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, I have been inexorably drawn to hockey like moth to a flame. Much to Erin´s confusion (¨He never really cares about sports at other times...¨), I find myself compelled to stay connected to the boys in blue and gold (at least in my mind they still wear the classic jerseys) at all hours of the day.

Luckily, in these days of high-speed connections around the globe, this is no longer an impossible task. So as game five approached against the Rangers, I dove into the latest technology to identify my options. Sure WGR55 would be streaming Rick Jeanneret live, so I could get the best in audio coverage.

But what about video? I do like to watch as well as listen. This is where things got a bit trickier. Sadly, NBC Sports doesn´t stream sports, unlike Versus.com which provides a live feed on its website. With game five on NBC, I had to explore other options.

Enter SopCast.com. Learning on the fly, I discovered SopCast allows anyone to stream TV live over the internet. After a bit of digging, I discovered there were at least a dozen channels ostensibly devoted to the Sabres/Rangers game.

Downloading and installing the software onto the computer at the internet cafe, I quickly brought myself up to speed on the new technology. And at game time, I was able to find a channel that was in fact showing the fast-paced action.

The trouble was they were streaming RDS, a Canadian channel which in turn was showing the NBC feed with one significant alteration. The commentary was in French.

Turning the volume on RDS down and on Jeanneret up, I was able to both see and hear the game, albeit with a 30-second delay between Jeanneret and the play on the screen.

Nonetheless, I felt quite lucky to be able to stay so tuned in while sitting at 11,000 feet in Cusco, Peru. After hours sitting in front of the computer, scaring other customers around me with seemingly inexplicable outbursts and vulgarity, I emerged with a big smile on my face. The Sabres won.

Now it´s on to Ottawa for another tough series. And through it all, I will be dazzling Erin by wearing my new Sabres cap. As newlyweds, she is still learning about the connection we Buffalonians feel to our sports teams. You can take the boy out of Buffalo, but you will never take Buffalo out of the boy.

Go Sabres!