This morning I woke up and finally had a chance to watch The Flyers 40th Anniversary DVD. And believe it or not, it gave me the inspiration to finish a story on the 2006-2007 Buffalo Sabres.

But let’s start at the beginning. Tuesday morning…

It is not just a hard ticket if you are a fan going to the HSBC arena in these playoffs. It is a tough one if you are press as well. The press box is completely swamped. Kevin Snow and Mike Gilbert have their work cut out for them. Adding extra seats to extra seats…they are swamped.

But let’s back up. I immediately knew I had to see Game 1 of this series when the matchup was set, but my little girl had her kindergarten testing to see where she would place on Tuesday morning at 10 am. When she looked up to me on Monday morning and said nervously, “Daddy you are going to go with me, right? To my new school? You’re going right?” Well my plan had been to drive to Buffalo in the early morning Tuesday…If I left after her evaluation, I would MAYBE arrive by game time. I couldn’t let my little girl down on this huge day, and even though my wife was already going, I HAD to be there. My little girl is like me (no, she doesn’t have an anonymous Dora blog) she is quiet in new situations, hates crowds, but comes to life one on one. She is the funniest person I know one on one.


I love Southwest Airlines. They aren’t an advertiser here, so this is completely real when I say they are the best. Less than 24 hours before flying, I found a round trip ticket to Buffalo, out of Baltimore for less than 2 bills. The flight left at 2 and arrived shortly after 3. I barely made the flight, but I made it.

As I waited in the B-line for my flight I saw a woman wearing a Ryan Miller jersey nearby. I got the window seat in the last row and they let on the stand-by riders. One of them sat next to me. He saw my NHL bag, and he said, “Thank God I got on the early flight, I need to be back for the game.”

“You are going to the game?” I asked…(not one to talk on airplanes…I love my ipod. Airplanes are like meditation to me. I love the concept that the phone doesn’t work on planes.)

“No,” The guy said energetically, “ I just need to be in town for it. The town is insane. About to explode.”

“I agree,” the guy in the aisle on our row added, “You can be in your neighborhood working on your yard and know the score from the screams coming from people’s homes.”

He was a transplant from Atlanta who told me that when he came to Buffalo after he got married he had to learn to be “nicer.”

“Everyone say the South is kinder.” He said with a laugh. “Buffalonians are the best people I have ever met.”

Well-dressed middle seat guy agreed, “Absolutely,” he added emphatically..I notice that “absolutely" is a really common word used by Buffalonians. It goes well with their very nature, “I travel the world for a living, but when it comes to living you can’t beat the Buffalo area. It is a huge hockey market in a small town.”

The businessmen in the row in front heard us talking and at one point chimed in, “Let’s GO BUFF-A-LO.”

The whole back of the plane started laughing. It turns out that my neighbor wasn’t the only one who was flying stand-by to get back for the game.

We talked the whole flight, I told him that I had wimped out and said that either team cold win.

“You really think that we could win it all.”

“Absolutely.” I said.

“Wow. That would be something. This town would explode. They would light the city up. I mean it. Light it up.”

When we landed the attendant said, “Let me be the first to welcome you to Sabres Country.”

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Walking through the airport every gate sign flashed alternated between “Flight Number and Time” and “Go Sabres.”

I talked to a season ticket holder while waiting for the hotel shuttle who said, “I am crawling out of my skin. Everything I have done today has been , ‘well that will take up one hour and get me closer to gametime.’ We are all kind of sick around here huh?”

Then in my three minute trip to the hotel I counted 26 Sabres flags on cars, and the hotel had a visible elevator from the street with a giant Sabres banner with the team slogan, “One Team, One Goal.” As the elevator went up and down, so did the banner.

I had the front desk call a cab, and I quickly ran to my room, emptied my bag of all but game essentials, and next thing I knew I was greeted by a great older, jocular cabby named Jerry.

“Can you take me to HSBC arena?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” he said, “I can’t take you anywhere else.”

I had planned on pulling out my laptop and doing my ek factors, but I quickly realized this was a guy I should be talking to.

“Professional-Athlete,” he said, “The two words. They are an oxymoron. If I am paying you to play for me, you better damn well do well. If you make a mistake, get another guy in there. This isn’t about you. It is about, “Wide Right” and “No Goal.” I don’t care if you throw ten good passes. If you can’t throw the next two get off the field. It’s your job, and in this town you better do it like it’s your job.”

“Tell me a cabby’s view of this sports town.”

“It is an amazing sports town. We only have two sports, so this Sabres run is pretty damn important. The Bills won’t be here in a few years. That ship has sailed. When he croaks, his kids can’t wait to sell it off to LA or someone else. They want their shares, and he has one foot on a cliff and the other on a banana peel. And even when we lost the four bowls we knew that wasn’t just losing, it was about the fact that we will never see a Super Bowl win in Buffalo. And that is just fine, because here’s what will happen. Buffalo will become a great college football town. This is a hockey town and a college football town.”

“That’s pretty rough.” I laughed.

“No, OK you want the whole story. We are all optimists around here. But when we feel things aren’t going well, we are tough,” he says and laughs a really kind laugh. If there is one thing I have noticed about Sabres fans, it is they are hard on everyone, but hardest on themselves. He continued, “If you live in NY City, you know that eventually one of your teams will give you a party. Here we don’t know that. Our teams may not be here for our kids. Hell we almost lost the damn Sabres a few years ago. That is why we live for now. WE KNOW WE HAVE F*****G NOW, AND NOTHING MUCH ELSE,” he burst out laughing again, “You can write that if you want.”

“So how are you optimists?” I asked as we turned onto Washington. The HSBC was now straight in front of me. And the traffic would have easily doubled the meter. I saw people walking all around me towards the arena in their jerseys…”You know what? Why don’t you just let me out here. I would like to walk and take it all in.”

“Hey son, I’ll turn the meter off and let you out, but you need to hear one more story to understand how we work here…”

“Deal.”

“Remember that big comeback game…the biggest in NFL history?”

“yeh, sure.”

“Well I was out at the airport that day. Waiting for a fare and listening to the carnage. Raining like p***s.

A religious father, a Baptist father guy, comes up to my cab and says, ‘my flight was delayed, I need to get to the Bill’s stadium.’

I laughed and said, ‘You don’t want to go there father, they are down by like 35 or something at half. Not unless you have some miracles in that there bag.’

‘I don’t know about that, but I promised my son I would meet him a the game and my flight was late coming in.’

So when I heard that, of course I had to take him. I dropped him off near the beginning of the second half and said, ‘sure hope you have some Miracles.’

‘We’ll see what I can do,’ he said and thanks me handing me my fare.

‘Keep the money. Just work on the Miracle.’ I said, I really liked the guy, you know?

He was so appreciative he said, ‘Bless you son. I will put in a good word.’ And he ran up the ramp.

Almost instantly a guy jumped in the cab all ticked off.

‘Where to?’

‘Anywhere that I don’t have to watch this. I paid a guy two hundred bucks to be humiliated and I am furious and soaking wet. I live in the city. Don’t know if I can pay my rent next month, but I live in the city. Oh, and turn that bleeping game off on the radio, or I’ll walk.’

‘You’re the boss,’ I said turning it off.

We started driving. It was a dreary day. I started to notice calls coming over the CB. saying things like, ‘Bills scored. Damn Bills scored again.’

Every time he heard a touchdown in the back seat he would say the F-word and laugh.

‘Alright, might as well turn it on the radio I guess.’

We both started to get into the game.

‘I have to see the end of this, take me to a Bar where I can see it.’

Well the only bar nearby was a pay bar. The guy had paid me my fare and came running back out saying, ‘just take me home. I gotta pay here and I am tapped out.’
I gave him his fare back and said, ‘Take this money, just as long as you believe in Miracles.’

‘Really?’ he said.

I said to him, ‘hell, I was the guy who drove the Reverend to the game who turned this around, it’s the least I can do.’”

“GREAT STORY.” I said.

I gave him a really great tip and thanked him for helping me "get" the Buffalo sports fan.

He laughed, “If I knew you were gonna tip for stories, I would have told you the really good ones about Barnaby and Peca.”

“No, that would get me thrown in jail.”

“Absolutely!” he said closing the door.

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I started walking down Washington St. towards the arena and I could feel the excitement. You could almost breathe it in. A town ready to explode. To light the city up I thought. I walked under the highway and past the Buffalo News to my left, the Aud to my right. I got in line for a grilled hot dog at the corner of Scott St, and was standing in line behind a guy in a Derek Plante jersey. (Garth later pointed out how good he would have been on this team in this era) The hot dog guy was cooking them fast, throwing fresh ones on the grill and splitting them opened with his fork.

“How long do they take to cook?” asked Plante.

“When you split them they cook real fast, they do it like it’s their job.” Hot Dog guy exclaimed taking great pride in his dogs.

“Sounds good to me,” said Plante.

“Where had I heard that expression before,” I thought. I guess in Buffalo it doesn’t matter if you are a All-Star QB or an All-Beef Hot Dog, you ‘do it like it’s your job’ and you’ll be OK.

I kept walking, and I could start to see the crowd that had gathered in front of the HSBC. Thousands already, many who were just there for the atmosphere. Hundreds holding up cardboard signs saying, “I NEED TICKETS.” One actually added, “-TO LIVE, SERIOUSLY” after “I NEED TICKETS.”
It was still two hours before game time, and I always arrive early to shoot the breeze with friends in the press box. It is a great place to get leads on rumors and such…

But I didn’t want to go inside. In the street, a Hockey Night in Canada cameraman was filming some screaming fans that had painted their bodies and assembled for the purpose. I asked one painted supporter if he was going to the game and he said, “I wish! No, but the party out here is even better sometimes. When Drury scored that goal with seconds to go it was the most fun I ever had outside. We were all so close. Everyone was screaming and hugging each other. I may have kissed a man. A MAN DUDE!”

His other buddy “beer’d him” and I continued to just want to take in the pulse. I have been to Cup finals, and major games, and I never have felt such a strong longing to win as was rushing through this crowd.

I went in to get my rumors and “do it like it’s my job…As I entered I realized, that just on the other side of the wall that separated the screaming mob from the event level of the arena ten Sens players were playing soccer in a big circle. Almost all teams do this now to get their minds off the game and loosen up. The Sens players were having a good old time, laughing and dancing to the music the band was playing a few feet from them on the other side of the wall.

In the press box I was lucky enough to sit with Garth to my right, Boomer and Rossi behind me, and next to them current Preds Announcer, one time Sabres Announcer, and friend of the site, Pete Weber. One of the nicest people in the sport.

The arena was pumping, even through warm-ups and then came the famous Goo-Goo Dolls Video they play to get everyone going…it is awesome…see below..



The words to that song and the images on that video put everything I have been TRYING to say about Buffalo together. If there has ever been a sports music video that nailed it, it is this one…This video gives you goose bumps when you watch it alone on your computer. Now imagine it in a pitch dark arena minutes before a playoff game with screaming Sabres fans. It almost makes you cry, even if you aren’t a Sabres fan.

So the bottom line is this. If you are one of those people who rooted for teams like the Cubs or Red Sox to win because you know what it would mean to a city, than this is your team to root for.

Quite simply, the impact that the Sabres winning a Stanley Cup would have on this city reminds me very much of the Flyers video I just watched. Over 30 years ago the Flyers were playing in a city where the sports scene had imploded. When the Flyers opened their doors in 1967 a few thousand people sat in the lower bowl to watch them play. They had a noontime parade where they drove those Canadian kids from City Hall to the Spectrum down Broad Street to the Spectrum…No one came. A mere 7 years later, OVER 2 million people lined Broad Street for a parade that is still my earliest memory of hockey. A Stanley Cup in the back of a convertible, orange paper flying through the air. If that hadn’t happened, I honestly can’t say I would be here now.

Watching the 40th anniversary video I am amazed at how many of those players are still in the city, still Gods to hockey fans 30 years later. The two Cup wins transformed a city, and within the next ten years the 76ers and Phillies won championships and the Eagles went to a Super Bowl. There were other parades, but every sports person in Philly will tell you, nothing touches the two Flyers parades...

That could be Buffalo this year. It will be very hard, but is always is. The Flyers had to score with under a minute left, and then again in OT in BOSTON GARDENS, where they had been destroyed for years, to win that Cup.

The Sens are a great team, and that city I will visit on Monday for games 3 and 4. The Western teams are ridiculously great as well.

And yet do I believe that Buffalo has a serious shot to raise the Cup? That 30 years from now some kid who is 6 years-old today will get up early with his two kids and watch a video where Chris Drury talks about the Rangers Goal in the 06-07 playoffs? A video where Briere and Miller will talk about how the city embraced them and does still to this day?

ABSOLUTELY.

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