Category: Sports
Two minutes for organized crime
5 Ways the Sabres Can Win Me Back
Right now, I’m disgusted, as is a large portion of the hockey fan base in Western New York. I’m sure I’ll slowly begin to get over it once the season starts and a sure-to-be-good team takes the ice. But, this team’s management isn’t going anywhere, and after the series of blunders they’ve made, their presence doesn’t bode well for the future. In any event, they can go a long way toward sating my unquenchable thirst for vengeance (which would be in the form of egging Larry Quinn’s car and letting wild chimps loose in his house) with the following five steps:
Empty Words
Today’s contentious press conference at HSBC Arena with GM Darcy Regier and president Larry “I’m an Assface” Quinn.
[audio:press_conference.mp3]
(click here if the audio above isn’t working)
Buffalo News writer Bucky Gleason speaks for most of us, I think.
Black Sunday
The Sabres’ 2006-07 campaign ended on May 19th, losing in overtime to the Ottawa Senators, and losing in 5 games after a lackluster effort by a team that was favored to win it all. That was a dark, dark day for Sabre fans, one of the worst in Buffalo sports history. This town’s had a few in its past. Well, add July 1st, 2007 to that infamous list of Buffalo sports tragedy. Chris Drury and Daniel Briere, the team’s two captains–the two players that served as the faces of the franchise for the last several years–were both lost in free agency to teams looking to make a splash and take advantage of the newly-raised, $50.3 million salary cap.
I will now crawl into a spider-hole and die.
The Buffalo Sabres went into Game 7 of the 2005-06 Eastern Conference finals down four starting defensemen and hanging onto the prospects of reaching the Cup Finals by the skin of their teeth. They entered the 3rd period up a goal despite seemingly insurmountable odds, before ultimately losing in a valiant effort against the Carolina Hurricanes. Since the moment the final horn sounded in that game, the team has had an intense, singular goal of reaching the Finals and finally claiming the championship that this city has desperately sought after for so very long. Wide Right, No Goal, Music City Miracle, No Goal II; the list goes on in the annals of Buffalo sports misery. This was the year Buffalo would shed the burdensome label of all-time “loser” and finally winning it all for the city that’s lived and died with its’ sports teams.
Continue reading “I will now crawl into a spider-hole and die.”
They could do worse…
I’ll have plenty to say about the Sabres performance against Ottawa after the series is over (it ain’t over yet). Until then, enjoy.
thanks to Cal Varnsen of Vandelay Industries
Did that really happen?
I’ve held off writing about the Sabres thus far in the playoffs because the team really hasn’t done anything yet–there’s a long way still to go if they want to raise the Cup in Buffalo. But I have no choice but to write something after last night’s hyper-dramatic Game 5 overtime victory in HSBC Arena. As I said in my previous alcohol-fueled rant, the Sabres needed to lift the puck up when shooting on Lundqvist, as the Swedish goaltender has stoned everything that comes in lower than a foot off the ice. He’s just too good down low to repeatedly fire shots into his pads.
Unfortunately, the Sabres still hadn’t figured this out until it was almost too late. They peppered Lundqvist with 30+ shots in regulation, nearly all of them slapping harmlessly into his goal pads. Wouldn’t you know it, when all looked lost, Chris Drury (who shall henceforth be known as “Chris Freaking Drury!”) fires a rising wrist shot that sailed through Thomas Vanek’s legs and into the net to send it to overtime. All Drury does is make gigantic plays at the most important moments. He’s done it since he was a kid. (Here’s a great story on him from Sports Illustrated.)
After successfully killing a penalty in the OT, Buffalo got a call of their own and converted with the extra man–the goal scored by none other than Maxim Afinogenov, who had stunk up the joint thus far in the playoffs, having been a healthy scratch from Game 4. This is what makes sports great; the Russian goes from goat to toast of the town with a single shot.
Pandemonium in the arena, pandemonium outside on the plaza, pandemonium all along Chippewa Avenue. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Sabres fans in such a euphoric, delirious frenzy after a goal–and if you were out in Buffalo last night, you were a part of something special. And hey–they’re not done yet!
*5/5/07 7:28pm*
1 down, 15 to go…
Hail to the Chiefs
Six 20-goal scorers. Four 30-goal scorers. One 40-goal scorer. A 40-win goaltender. An NHL record-tying 10 straight wins to start the season. 308 goals. 53 wins. A President’s Trophy. All this, despite 260+ man-games lost to injury. All this…is meaningless, my friends. The Sabres finished one of the most memorable regular seasons in Buffalo sports history with a 4-3 loss to the hated Philadelphia Flyers. Fitting that the season ended against a team the Sabres all but destroyed on October 17th, crushing the Flyers 9-1. That loss led the Flyers to fire their coach and GM and started them on a spiral descending into the dregs of the NHL. I rather enjoyed that. However, the “real” season starts wed/thurs night, against the Leafs/Islanders. All the countless hours of work in the offseason, all the dazzling offensive displays, all the gritty work in the corners by defensemen, all the spectacular highlight-reel saves from Ryan Miller, they all mean nothing if the Sabres don’t end up winning the last game of the 2006-07 NHL season.
