Sports Then and Now

What’s gotten into the Buffalo Sabres? Last year’s NHL doormats have suddenly sprung to life as the league’s hottest team heading into the second quarter of the season by riding an eight-game winning streak, including several come-from-behind victories. This is something the team’s youngest fans have never experienced before as the last time the club ran off eight consecutive victories was at the beginning of the 2006/07 campaign when they reeled off 10 straight. So why the turnaround? Well, there are a couple of major reasons the Sabres flying so high in the standings.

The club can be thankful for winning the NHL Entry Draft lottery last year as the Edmonton Oilers didn’t pick first for a change. Sabres’ GM Jason Botterill didn’t have to think twice by taking 18-year-old Swedish defenseman Rasmus Dahlin to kick off the proceedings. And owning the first-overall draft pick can do wonders for a struggling team. Just look at the Toronto Maple Leafs and Auston Matthews. But as well as selecting the top pick this summer let’s not forget the Sabres also had the second-overall selection three years earlier.

As expected, Connor McDavid went to Edmonton first in 2015 and Buffalo got an excellent franchise player themselves as the consolation prize when they took Jack Eichel. The 22-year-old definitely hasn’t disappointed anybody as the 6-foot-2, 206 lb center entered this season with 73 goals, 104 assists and 177 points under his belt in 209 games (NHL statistics by Pucky). Eichel has even picked up the pace this year by scoring over a point per game in the first quarter of the campaign and has boosted the power-play with 71 career points with the man advantage. The Sabres also have some peace of mind regarding Eichel as he recently inked an eight-year deal for a cool $80 million. Read the rest of this entry →

On an incredibly EMOTIONAL night at TD Garden, Bostonians, Americans & Bruins fans sang their hearts out during the national anthem. Whether you were in the building or at home watching on television, you could not help but feel overwhelmed with sorrow, happiness and patriotism.

Blue & Yellow…

Red White & Blue….

Black & Gold….

#BostonStrong

The Buffalo Sabres are still searching for their first Stanley Cup Championship.

It’s an interesting time to be in Buffalo. For so long, we’ve depended on our sports teams to give us some shred of validation, since we’ve been known to the world for blight, blizzards and chicken wings, whose hot sauce is curiously the same shade as the rust on the infamous Rust Belt, by which we have often been defined.

More recently there have been some signs of life in Buffalo. Some say a renaissance is beginning to break out.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation recently concluded their most successful and best attended convention, here in Buffalo. The draw was the fact that Buffalo has more turn of the century architecture preserved than any major city in North America. Further, other than Chicago, Buffalo is the only city to have signature buildings designed by all four of the first generation of great American architects: Frank Lloyd Wright, Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan and H. H. Richardson.

At least two major architectural landmarks downtown—Hotel Statler, and Hotel Lafayette–  have been saved from the wrecking ball by visionary developers, and are being restored to their original opulence.

Buffalo is beginning to garner great reviews in travel sections of such cosmopolitan papers as the New York Times and the Toronto Star. Suddenly the rest of the world is beginning to discover and appreciate Buffalo’s cultural environment which is, in size, scope, diversity and quality, comparable to places like Chicago or Boston. And by “cultural environment,” I mean more than 20 professional theater companies, a world renowned symphony, two world class art museums, a plethora of notable restaurants, extraordinary boutique shopping, distinctive galleries, as well as more than 20 colleges and universities.

Buffalo has been a relative refuge from the global economic downturn. Housing values have continued modest appreciation. Unemployment remains at least a point below the national average’ and private sector employment remains strong.

Unfortunately, the one thing Buffalonians have depended on for a sense of purpose and validation, the Buffalo Sabres and Bills—especially the Bills– have been in decline. And despite all the other signs of regeneration in Buffalo, that still hurts, because the true religion in Buffalo is its sports teams.

While there was little hope for the Bills in the near term, the community was abuzz about the advent of a new owner for the Sabres with deep pockets, a fan’s passion, and a blatant commitment to win the Stanley Cup. Read the rest of this entry →

The Buffalo Sabres need a spark to help them stop getting squeezed by the rest of the NHL.

I’ve come to enjoy tweeting with my social media peeps while watching Buffalo Sabres games. Whether I’m at HSBC Arena or watching on TV, it is the next best thing to sitting with a group of friends while watching the action.

As the Sabres slowly let the air out of a 2-0 first period lead on Philadelphia, eventually losing 5-2, last night, more than one of my friends tweeted, “Save us Pegula!” Pegula being billionaire Terry Pegula, rumored to be on the verge of purchasing the Sabres from Paychex mogul, Tom Golisano, for a reported $175 million.

We’ve been hearing that a deal is imminent for a while now, while minority owner and managing partner, Larry Quinn continues to repeat catty non-denial denials, but reports persist. Yesterday Sabres officials confirmed that Mr. Pegula was in Buffalo, in “informal talks” at the Sabres front office, “kicking the tires,” as one report put it, on his putative acquisition, and rumors of Pegula sightings were rampant on Twitter during last night’s game.

Originally from the Buffalo suburbs, Pegula, who now lives in Pennsylvania, is known as a true hockey fanatic, as well as a rabid Sabres fan. Equally important, he has the means as well as the sentiment to end the frustration of Sabres fans everywhere. Read the rest of this entry →

The Sabres began this past week with an overtime win against Toronto. The Maple Leafs continue to struggle against the Buffalo Sabres, losing the last nine matchups. Toronto did have a 2-1 lead in the 3rd, but the Sabres tied it up and eventually won the game in overtime.

Buffalo was without Thomas Vanek and Patrick Kaleta, who were both recovering from injuries. About midway through the third period, Jochen Hecht tipped in a rebound pass Jonas Gustavsson to tie the game at two.

Toronto played very well, and deserved the win, but they were unable to stop the Sabres. Derek Roy took a pass from Hecht, and backhanded it into the net for the overtime win.

On Wednesday, the Sabres ran into the Washington Capitals and found out how good they really are. The Sabres have held the Capitals to just two goals in as many games prior to Wednesday. Buffalo stayed with Washington for most of the game, but then collapsed midway through the third.
In the third, Washington would take advantage of a 5 on 3 power play, scoring twice. Backstrom scored his second of the night, followed by an Ovechkin goal to break the game wide open. The Sabres stayed in the game up until the two man advantage for Washington. The Capitals have led in 35 of 37 games this season.

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Since the 2005-2006 season, the Senators have dominated the Sabres, winning 21 of 31.

Sabres beat again by Sens.

On Wednesday night, it remained that way.

After the first period the Senators were only up 1-0. I say ONLY because of Ryan Miller. The game could have easily been out of reach for Buffalo.

Alexandre Picard was the one to finally get the puck past Miller in the first. Buffalo had trouble getting things going and could not generate any scoring chances. Shots were 11-5 in favor of Ottawa after the opening period.

The second period involved much more physical play. Both teams started to throw around their bodies. Then, Jarkko Ruutu deliverd a head shot to Patrick Kaleta, earning a five minute boarding penalty. However, Ruutu was not ejected from the game, only a five minute penalty.

I thought the NHL was trying to crack down on head shots. In my view, Ruutu should have been ejected along with the penalty. I’m sure the NHL will look into a possible suspension because it was a clean and deliberate shot to the head. This is not the first time Ruutu has aggrevated the Sabres. Last season, he bit Andrew Peters while they were in a scrum.

Kaleta left the game and did not return. I was disappointed to see that nobody went after Ruutu. Buffalo needs to start protecting their players. The Sabres did keep up with the physical play as Adam Mair, Matt Ellis, Steve Montador, and Mike Grier finished their checks.

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