I have to acknowledge to Sabres fans everywhere that I take full responsibility for the Sabres recent playoffs failures. On July 1, 2007 (a day that shall forever live in infamy) I issued a Pox on the House of the Buffalo Sabres. A curse, if you will. I made a very public announcement that the Sabres would never win another playoff series again, unless and until management figures out a way to pay back the fans for completely giving up on their team and their city on that fateful day. And as they were eliminated from playoff contention last weekend, the curse has now continued into it’s fifth season.
A little background: Coming out of the NHL lockout that forced the cancelation of an entire season, The Buffalo Sabres had assembled a rag-tag team of mostly nobodies that became the model of the “new NHL.” A team built on speed and four rotating lines that came at you from every direction. There were no superstars. Just hard-working, blue-collar grinders that played with heart and captured the imagination of the Western New York community. Buffalonians have always loved their Sabres, but during the 2005-’06 and ’06-’07 seasons, the love affair reached heights never before seen in Buffalo. The town was completely Sabres-crazed, and the Sabres returned the favor with excellent seasons making it to within 1 win away from the Stanley Cup finals in ’06 and nearly as close again in ’07 before finally running out of gas against an Ottawa team that was hellbent on making up for past playoffs losses to the Sabres. It sucked to lose, but man that was a great run. And the team was still young and was set up for what appeared to be a continuous stream of great hockey for years to come, like the Detroit Red Wings have enjoyed for nearly two decades now.
Then July 1, 2007 happened.
The Sabres played the “small-market victim” card when contract negotiations began with three of their emerging stars: Chris Drury, Daniel Briere, and Brian Campbell. And instead of doing everything the Sabres could to ensure the team captain (Drury) and the rest of the nucleus of the team stayed together, management crossed their fingers and hoped these players would agree to stay in Buffalo for less money – because they were part of something special. In today’s sports world, you know how this story ended. When the window for free agent signing opened on July 1, both Drury and Briere were gone in a heart-beat, with Campbell following their cues and leaving soon after. Management just shrugged their shoulders and said “we did everything we could” to keep them. Bullshit.
So, five years later and the Sabres have yet to win a playoff series – just as I’ve prophesied. This by no means makes me happy. I don’t say this to gloat. It just is what it is. So here is my idea for what management can do right now to turn the worm and win back the hardened skeptics…
Offer the Chicago Blackhawks whatever they want for Buffalo’s hometown hockey hero and Stanley Cup winning goal scorer Patrick Kane. No player or amount of players is off limits. Trade the whole damn team if you have to. And once this trade has been pulled off, build the team around him with local players from Western New York and Southern Ontario. Make it truly – our hometown team. There is a ton of great young hockey talent being bred in and around Buffalo.
For much of the history of the Montreal Canadiens (The NHL’s all-time winningest team), they did just this. They stocked their locker room with local French Canadian hockey players from all around Montreal and Quebec. The fans knew the players were one of them. Don’t underestimate how powerful this emotional connection can be between a team and its fans.
Imagine how great it would be for families in Western New York and Southern Ontario to have their sons grow up to play hockey for their hometown team? Whenever you’d attend a game at the arena, you’d bump into friends and family of the players all over the place. And if (dare I say when?) the Sabres win the Stanley Cup with this model, the fan reaction and outpouring of emotion would be nothing short of magical.
For a city that seemingly has had nothing going for it since the 1950′s, Buffalo needs this. More than any other sports town around. Anybody not from Buffalo who knows or is friends with somebody from Buffalo knows that we bleeeeeeed our teams. We take losses very personally. They hurt. Bad. We shrug it off, put on a brave face, and crack jokes… but we’re all hurting. Baaaaad.
This is just one jilted fans’ two cents, but could there be anything better than pulling this off for the long suffering fans of the Buffalo Sabres and their surrounding communities?
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