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It appears that Buffalo fans still have some unresolved business with Patrick Kane.
In a surprising development, Kane was showered with an obviously loud chorus of boos when he transported the puck up ice on his first shift of the game.
Kane, the Buffalo native, drew the ire of his hometown fans who would normally marinade him with gratitude and lusty cheers.
Kane left Buffalo a villain on Saturday night after he and his Blackhawks defeated the Sabres in a shootout on Saturday afternoon. Kane scored the game tying goal then potted the shootout winner against Chad Johnson to give his team the walk off win.
After the game Kane was asked to react to the crowd booing him inside the arena where he said he grew up cheering for the Sabres.
"I remember them booing Eric Lindros when he was on Philly,… Kane said. “He got thrown out of the game with 10 minutes left, and it wasn’t fun anymore to watch the game because no one was booing him.…
Kane said he heard the boos early on and his teammates joked with him on the bench telling him that his home town team fans were booing him . Kane blocked out all the noise and played on.
In his nine-year NHL career Kane has played against his hometown Sabres five times. He did not play against Buffalo last April in Buffalo due to his injury.
Kane was rebranded on Saturday from protagonist to antagonist.
The local fans we're not all about cheering for number 88 rather than curing number 88.
Saturday was something different. A new phenomena for Buffalo fans of Pat Kane.
They were talking junk and shouting expletives at their hometown hero, one of the greatest athletes ever to come from Western New York.
Kane was booed lustily whenever he touched the puck in his first game back in Buffalo since he was the subject of a three-month police investigation that yielded no charges against him.
Kane let all of the vitriol role off his back and stayed on the attack.
Kane and the Blackhawks stole a 3-2 shootout win under questionable circumstances.
The Sabres played a clean game through 58 minuets then were called for two penalties in the late going.
Kane scored off an Artemi Panarin pass in the final second of a two-minute, 6-on-3 power play as Corey Crawford was pulled for an extra attacker. Ryan O'Reilly could have ended the game with a shorthanded, empty net goal that would have sealed the deal and two points for Buffalo. ROR's shot somehow traveled wide when it appeared from my vantage point to be headed to the back of Crawford's net.
Talk about a punch in the gut.
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Were it not for Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathon Toews' heroics last April 4, the Buffalo Sabres may not have drafted Jack Eichel second overall in the 2015 NHL Draft.
The Sabres had scored three unanswered goals to take a 3-2 lead with 7:18 remaining.
Then, Captain Serious took matters into his own mitts.
The Chicago captain scored twice in the final 1:43 to lead the Blackhawks to a 4-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres. Toews helped the Sabres to snatch tanking defeat from the jaws of defeat.
Buffalo lost both points just when the they needed to the most. They eventually finished 30th overall in the NHL standings.
Thus, Eichel.
Toews' two goals came 47 seconds apart. With Blackhawks goalie Scott Darling pulled for the extra attacker, Toews put a rebound of Duncan Keith's point shot past Sabres goalie Anders Lindback with 1:43 left to tie the game 3-3.
Contrary to internet rumors, there will be no banner raising ceremony for Toews in Buffalo this afternoon.
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Sabres fans will get their first look at Russian rookie phenom Atem Panarin, 24, who joined the Hawks this season after a sizzling run in the KHL, including 46 goals and 102 points in 105 games with SKA St. Petersburg during the past two seasons.
He has slotted in seamlessly in his first season with the Blackhawks, playing on a line with Patrick Kane and scoring 29 points in 32 games to put an early claim in for the Calder Memorial Trophy as the League's best rookie.
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Toews (2G, 2A) and Andrew Shaw (1G, 3A) led the team over those two contests. Buffalo enters Saturday's matinee with three wins in their last four games, including a 3-0 blanking of Anaheim on Thursday, while Chicago finished a four-game homestand with a 4-0 win over Edmonton; they allowed just two goals in those four games, thanks to several outstanding efforts by Corey Crawford, who now leads the league with five shutouts.
Speaking of Toews, his clone Ryan O'Reilly is a key contributing factor in Buffalo's metamosrphosis this season. O'Reilly lead the team with 28 points (11G, 17A) in 33 games this season, he paces league forwards with 21:50 of ice time per game and ranks third with a 59.0 faceoff win %. ROR's 13 points on the PP are a big reason Buffalo has cracked the top five in that category this season, after ranking dead last in the NHL in 2014-15.
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Pat Kane is back in Buffalo.
He leads the NHL in points (47), is tied for the league lead in assists (28, with Erik Karlsson) and is one shy of the league lead in goals (19), shared by Jamie Benn and Vladimir Tarasenko (20). His 26-game point streak, a new franchise record, ended against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday
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Today’s game is the fourth of 11 afternoon games for the Sabres this season; the next will be on Saturday, Jan. 2 against Detroit at 1 p.m. at First Niagara Center.
The Sabres will look to avoid losing four straight home games (and eight straight total games) against the Blackhawks for the first time in franchise history.
Buffalo’s last win against Chicago came on Dec. 11, 2009 in Buffalo.Tyler Ennis has three points (1+2) in his last three games against the Blackhawks.
Ryan O’Reilly has 15 points (5+10) in his last 16 games against Chicago, including eight (4+4) in his last eight.
The Sabres are 8-for-32 (25%) on the power play in their last 10 games and 24-for-28 (85.7%) on the penalty kill in their last 13 games.
Rasmus Ristolainen has 19 points (6+13) in his last 20 games. He is the first Sabres defenseman with at least 19 points in a 20-game stretch since Garry Galley (19, Feb. 21, 1996 to April 3, 1996).
Entering play Friday, Ryan O’Reilly (21:50) led all NHL forwards in average ice time per game. Evander Kane is teheNHL's third highest forward in terms of TOI with 21:06 average per game.
** Chad Johnson has appeared in 12 games since the beginning of November, logging a 6-3-1 record with a .943 save percentage and a 1.70 goals-against average during that stretch. Johnson stopped a career-high 44 shots on Thursday vs. Anaheim to earn his fourth career shutout, setting the Sabres’ franchise record for most saves in a regular-season shutout.
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Ryan O’Reilly has 12 points (4+8) in his last 12 games, a stretch that included an eight-game point streak from Nov. 28 to Dec. 14. The point streak tied the longest streak of O’Reilly’s career and is also tied for the fifth-longest streak in the league this season.Entering play Friday, O’Reilly (59.0%) ranked third in the league in faceoff percentage. O’Reilly also ranked first in the league with 813 faceoffs taken, accounting for 41.2% of Buffalo’s total faceoffs.
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Entering play Friday, Rasmus Ristolainen ranked in the top 10 among NHL defensemen in goals (T-6th, 7), assists (T-6th, 17), points (T-5th, 24), shots (T-6th, 84) and multi-point games (T-5th, 6).Ristolainen is the first Sabres defenseman to record five or more multi-point games in a season since Christian Ehrhoff had six in 2011-12. Jordan Leopold (2010-11) was the last Sabres defenseman to record seven multi-point games.His four power-play goals are the most by a Sabres defenseman since 2010-11 (Jordan Leopold, 5).With 24 points (7+17) in 33 games, Ristolainen is on pace for 60 points this seasonIf he reaches the 50-point mark, Ristolainen would be the first Sabres defenseman with 50 points in a season since Garry Galley (1995-96) and the youngest to reach that mark since Phil Housley.If he reaches the 60-point mark, he would be the first Sabres defenseman to do so since Phil Housley recorded 81 in the 1989-90 season.
Source: Buffalo Sabres