Sabres winning over a tough crowd
In hard-luck Buffalo, it’s bold to be ‘sold’ on a team with potential
Dave Hassett owns the T-shirt company Born in Buffalo and one of his leading sellers is a shirt that reads “1 B4 I Die.”
“Because every Buffalo person has thought, ‘Just one — give me one championship before I die,’ ” Hassett said. “We’ve sold that shirt to people in every country in the world.”
The Sabres (17-6-2) were tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs (18-8-0) for first overall and took a 10-game winning streak into tonight’s road game against the Tampa Bay Lightning (177-1).
Fans truly don’t know what to make of this success.
“I think we are at ‘Prove that you can keep it up,’ ” said Buffalo fan Tom O’Connor, 28. “I think we are sold on the talent.”
The sports misery index for Buffalo fans has long been off the charts. The Sabres have never won a Stanley Cup and the Bills have never won a Super Bowl.
The Bills, who are on the road to missing the playoffs for the 18th time in 19 seasons, lost four consecutive Super Bowls under coach Marv Levy from 1990-93.
The Sabres last reached the Stanley Cup final in 1999 and lost to the Dallas Stars on a controversial goal by Brett Hull, whose foot was in the crease. There’s a T-shirt for that event as well: It shows a skate in a crease, with the words “Brett Hull is a cheater.”
“Hull is the No. 1 purchaser of that shirt,” Hassett said. “When you win a Stanley Cup, everything is hilarious. He has probably bought 75 of those shirts over the years to give as gifts.”
It has been difficult for Buffalo fans to keep the faith. O’Connor, 28, owned tickets for12 seasons and gave them up after last season. He sat in the arena’s highest row, in the least expensive seat, and estimates he spent $20,000 (U.S.) to watch a team that has missed the playoffs for seven consecutive seasons.
“To see it fail time and time again led to the ultimate frustration,” O’Connor said. “I felt like my hand was forced and I couldn’t continue to spend that kind of money to watch that product on the ice.”
This team has potential. Centre Jack Eichel was selected No. 2 in the 2015 NHL draft and defenceman Rasmus Dahlin was taken No. 1 last June. But few expected this team to come together this quickly. “We knew we had more depth and we addressed our speed element,” Buffalo coach Phil Housley told USA Today Sports. “Give our leadership group full credit for having hard conversations in the summer and getting things out of the table. We realized we had to change. There were tough con- versations.”
Although the Sabres’ younger players — Eichel, Dahlin, Casey Mittelstadt, Tage Thompson and Sam Reinhart — are fuelling hope for long-term consistency, the additions of established players such as Jeff Skinner, Carter Hutton and Jason Pominville have played a significant role in the turnaround. This team has not had a winning record since 2010-11.
Sabres general manager Jason Botterill changed 10 defencemen and forwards entering this season, and added Hutton to play in net.
“When you look at Buffalo the last two years, even strength scoring hasn’t been good enough,” Botterill said. “We looked at different options, but we thought that was one of his (Skinner’s) strengths.”
The Sabres love Skinner’s practice habits. “We are a young team and we need guys to come in and teach guys how to be professional,” Botterill said.
The Sabres’ offence ranks 16th (3.04 goals per game), but it’s their defensive play and 2.72 goals-against average that is making a difference.
Nashville Predators broadcaster Pete Weber lived 20 years in Buffalo and understands what a title would mean to the city.
“This is the Sabres team they’ve been waiting for, and painfully so,” Weber said.
He recalls seeing bumper stickers in Buffalo that read: “Go Sabres and take the Bills with you.”
Hassett is 48, meaning he’s been alive as long as the Sabres franchise. He remembers a time when he didn’t have a car or job, but had Sabres season tickets.
When the Sabres marched to the Stanley Cup final in 1999, he almost cleaned out a wedding fund he built with his fiancée to purchase tickets. “With her blessing,” he said.
Hassett said the last five or six years of games was like attending a funeral. “You wouldn’t even hear boos. You wouldn’t hear anything,” Hassett said. “At the end of the last year, I said it again: ‘I can’t keep coming down here and sitting like a pallbearer for this team.”
It’s different now. There’s a buzz about these Sabres, who have come from behind six times during this streak.
“If you watched the last five games, you could see that the fans have really been craving this,” said Housley, who also played for the Sabres from 1982-90. “I give them credit because they have stuck with us through thick and thin, especially last year. It’s great to see excitement back in Buffalo.”
But some will hold back out of fear their heart will once again be broken.
“There’s always going to be that guy or woman,” Hassett said. “They aren’t going to put their heart all the way in. Because how much more can their heart take?”