The Rookies

For a diehard Buffalo Sabres fan, the reasons I started following them had all the makings of a typical bandwagon fan. Other than attending a couple River Rats games and a vague interest in the Gretzky-era Rangers, I’d never really

followed hockey and the Sabres just as well might not have existed as far I was concerned up until the first season after the lockout. Frankly, I wasn’t all that fond of Buffalo or any of the economic and self-image problems that have driven

so many people away from it in the past few decades. I only really started following the Sabres because by the end of the 2005-2006 season, everyone else was. The thing is, not only was everybody following them, they were following them hard. When, during the Sabres’ first playoff series since Domenik Hasek left town, all-around nice guy Brian Campbell flattened RJ Umberger of the Flyers with

a rare (for him, anyhow) hit, everyone cheered. When Ken Hitchcock, already infamous around here for the No Goal affair, publicly told Lindy Ruff, whose young daughter had just had a brain tumor removed, to “go f– yourself”, fans were

furious. When Jason Pominville scored the series clinching goal against Ottawa, the beloved announcer, Rick Jeanneret’s exclamation “NOW DO YOU BELIEVE? NOW DO YOU BELIEVE? THESE GUYS ARE GOOD! SCAAAAAAARY

GOOD!!!” found its way onto the t-shirts of every man, woman, and child in Western New York and stayed there. Even though the team lost in Game 7 of the conference finals, every single win was greeted as though Buffalo had just won the

Stanley Cup. Winning the Presidents’ Cup the following season just reinforced that feeling and if I had to list my two favorite sports memories, they would have to be the Giants’ win in Super Bowl 42 and Chris Drury’s game-tying goal with 7

seconds left in Game 5 of the Sabres’ 2nd round series against the Rangers. Hell, I even tricked myself into liking the Goo Goo Dolls song the team used as their theme song during that year’s playoffs.

Theoretically, this newfound fascination with the Sabres should have died down after their season ended with a thud in the Conference Finals that summer. In the span of a year, the team’s 3 best players, Daniel Briere, Chris Drury, and my

own blogging namesake, Brian Campbell, all left in free agency or trades, the result of a pathetic inability to give those players the contracts they deserved. I got used to watching the Sabres get obliterated by Ottawa 6 times a year, draft

picks always just a little too low to yield NHL-ready players (though Tim Kennedy and Tyler Myers look ready, low profile free agent signings and trades (yay Steve Montador!), and Sunday newspaper letters acting as if the Sabres were

worse than the Islanders, the Lions, the Pirates, and the Clippers combined.

If I had given up given up following hockey altogether, I wouldn’t have been doing anything that countless other fans haven’t done before in the past 15-20 years or so as various NHL teams have moved or slipped into mediocrity and as the

league has found its way into arguably more punchlines at itself than any of the other leagues in the Big Four. Certainly, I would have saved myself the time exhausted watching almost all of the 82 games each year, complete with the same

set of commercials over and over again (I’ve come to accept that not only does MSG run ads for Radio City Music Hall shows in upstate NY over and over, it starts playing them 4 months before the concerts).

The thing is, the exhilaration that came from watching those 06 and 07 Sabres teams was so addictive that I found I couldn’t stop caring about it. I started watching other sports, writing about them, blogging about them, listening to

preseason games for crying out loud.

For all the neverending court cases and TV deals gone bad that are taking up so many of the NHL’s headlines right now, I still think ice hockey is one of the coolest, most exciting, drama-packed sports in existence. And when the season

starts back up in October, I’ll still be watching Thomas Vanek, Ryan Miller, Patrick Kaleta, Chris Butler, and co., still yelling at the top of my lungs every time they score a goal (at least I’ve never used any face paint). I may have started out

on the bandwagon but I’m pretty much stuck as a Sabres fan at this point. Of course, it could be worse. I could be an Ottawa Senators fan.