1. One of my biggest regrets in life is not learning how to skate
2. Growing up, my best friend and I used to play street hockey all of the time. I was playing goal one afternoon when he wound up for a slapshot. I stopped the shot with my blocker, but the ball went off the crossbar and through our neighbor's window across the street
3. I went to the last game in the Aud as a 16 year-old; it's still one of my best hockey memories to date. The game had been sold out for weeks, but my best friends sister called the box office every day and begged for tickets. We ended up getting a pair of standing room tickets (if you've been to the Aud, you know what I am talking about) and watched the game from a staircase in the oranges.
4. As mentioned above, I went to the last game in the Aud. We arrived as the anthems were being sung and bumped into Matt Barnaby in the hallway. He was out for the season with a knee injury. We stopped and snapped photos with him before making our ways to the oranges.
5. I was working a temp job in downtown Buffalo about 6 years ago. I went across the street to a sushi place on my lunch break. The place was pretty dead. As I was waiting for my order, Max Afinogenov walked in behind me and ordered lunch. I ended up sitting next to him the entire time (just the two of us in the restaurant), but was too afraid to ask him for his autograph. I remember he ordered his sushi with "extra salmon".
6. I became a Sabres season ticket when Golisano bought the team. It was the season before the lockout. I had the seats for 4 seasons before this year. I work nights now and couldn't justify shelling out the cash when I only attended about 10 games out of 41 last year.
7. Growing up, we were pretty poor. We didn't have cable, so I could never watch the Sabres on TV. I used to sit in my room and listen to them on the radio, so I pretty much grew up with Rick Jeanneret. I remember listening to the "May Day" call on the radio in my room.
8. I sat next to Todd Marchant's parents during the Ducks -Sabres game a couple of weeks ago. He had a goal and an assist and they were pretty happy.
9. I own an Andrew Peters jersey. I have a picture of him celebrating his first NHL goal on my desk.
10. I've seen the Sabres play at the Air Canada Center in Toronto twice.
11. My most hated team is the Leafs, followed closely by Philly, Montreal and Ottawa.
12. My most hated players growing up were Tie Domi, Eric Lindros and Jagr.
13. My mom let me stay home from school after the Dave Hannan OT goal in the 4th overtime against NJ in 94. I had been up all night listening to the game and was too tired to go to school.
14. During the 99 cup finals against Dallas, I ended up going camping during game 6 (don't ask, we already had the trip planned). Out of the entire group of us, which was about 20 people, only two of us were hockey fans. My friend and I hovered around a crappy radio and listened to game 6. When Brett Hull scored, we were just devastated, but didn't even realize that there was a controversy until I got back into town a few days later. ESPN radio didn't even mention that the goal was controversial.
15. When the Rigas family bought the team, I went to the open practice in which the team released the new logo and black, red and white colors. I can honestly say that I was never a fan of the cow head...the "slug" is a million times better.
16. I started following hockey seriously during Mogilny's 76 goal season, which included "May Day" and the Sabres losing to Montreal in the 2nd round by four straight 4-3 games, 3 of which came in OT.
17. One of my favorite Sabres seasons was during Ted Nolan's first year with the team. The Sabres sucked, but guys like May, Ray, Barnaby, Boughner, Hughes and Pearson terrorized the league that season.
18. My wife's favorite player growing up was Patrick Roy and she was a Habs fan when we met. We've had many heated debates over Roy vs. Hasek.
19. I put up a sign in section 327 that read "Heart and Desire" during the Sabres-Canes playoff series in 05-06. It was in the Buffalo News the next day.
20. These days, I wear my old school blue & gold Sabres jersey to each home game. I bought the thing in high school. Thankfully it still fits
