The Buffalo Sabres, arguably the best team in the NHL this season, are 1 point away from clinching their 5th Division championship and 3rd regular season Conference title in their Franchise history.
What a ride it's been. The Sabres, if they clinch tonight, with a win, tie or overtime loss vs a desperate Montreal club will have accomplished something truly rare. While the Sabres haven't pulled a dramatic "worst to first" turnaround, they have accomplished perhaps the more difficult and improbable feat of leading their division and conference from game 1 through game 82. From the regular season opener in Carolina on October 4th, a game the Sabres won in a dramatic shootout, to tonight's game in Montreal, no team in the Eastern Conference has ever had more points than the Sabres. October, November, December, January, February, March and now on the eve of April, the Sabres are primed to wrap up the Conference.
I have absolutely no idea how many teams have accomplished this. I suppose in the NFL it's been achieved a few times, but in such a short season, it feels a little less impressive. It's more rare in baseball, where a team can have a wonderful initial 15-20 games then suddenly falter and be playing .400 ball by the trade deadline.
In the long run, experiencing a franchise lead their division and league the entire season doesn't truly mean anything other than bragging rights. If the Sabres bow out in the 2nd round of the postseason, no one in Buffalo is really going to care that they went 82 games leading the conference. BUT, if the Sabres are able to pull out 16 magical victories this spring, once the city has stopped collapsing into Lake Erie and once Hades has crystallized into frozen fountains of fire and the river Styxx can be skated upon Buffalo Sabres fans across North America will be able to unequivocally claim that they were the best team in the NHL for 2006-2007.
To watch the city come alive last season during the playoff run was so exhilarating that the feeling is almost intoxicating. Anyone that has experienced a championship or deep playoff run in any sport understands the feeling of a city wrapping its entire consciousness around a sports team for a period of 2 months or so. I witnessed it occur in Chicago with the Cubs 2003 run to the NLCS, and experienced it to a lesser degree when the Bills made the playoffs for 7 consecutive years in the late 80's and early 90's.
Waiting, anticipating that feeling return to Western New York is like being in 5th grade and waiting for summer vacation to finally get here. You know it's coming, you know when it's coming and you just hope when it gets here everything is as much as fun as last year.
Tonight the Sabres can take yet another step in their journey to bring the 1st major sports championship to the city of Buffalo since the Bills triumphed in the 1964 AFL title game (ironically the last year before the AFL and NFL agreed to play a game called the Super Bowl). To be honest, the two AFL championships the Bills won in the 1960's don't really count. It'd be like the Cincinnati Red's claiming they won a baseball Wold Championship back in 1889.
The snow is gone, it's staying light out longer and longer each day and is now possible to do a bar crawl along Allentown or the Elmwood Strip without catching hypothermia. The Sabres just were named the best franchise in pro sports (thanks ESPN) and came off a dominating performance vs the Islanders last night, in which the team scored 5 goals in the first 15 minutes of the 1st period. Bass Pro has finally inked a deal for a downtown waterfront store, the Aud is getting razed and there couldn't be a better time to live here in the Nickel City.
To borrow a quote from some other Buffalo sports figure...
"Where else would you rather be, than right here...right now?"
Nowhere Marv...nowhere.
What a ride it's been. The Sabres, if they clinch tonight, with a win, tie or overtime loss vs a desperate Montreal club will have accomplished something truly rare. While the Sabres haven't pulled a dramatic "worst to first" turnaround, they have accomplished perhaps the more difficult and improbable feat of leading their division and conference from game 1 through game 82. From the regular season opener in Carolina on October 4th, a game the Sabres won in a dramatic shootout, to tonight's game in Montreal, no team in the Eastern Conference has ever had more points than the Sabres. October, November, December, January, February, March and now on the eve of April, the Sabres are primed to wrap up the Conference.
I have absolutely no idea how many teams have accomplished this. I suppose in the NFL it's been achieved a few times, but in such a short season, it feels a little less impressive. It's more rare in baseball, where a team can have a wonderful initial 15-20 games then suddenly falter and be playing .400 ball by the trade deadline.
In the long run, experiencing a franchise lead their division and league the entire season doesn't truly mean anything other than bragging rights. If the Sabres bow out in the 2nd round of the postseason, no one in Buffalo is really going to care that they went 82 games leading the conference. BUT, if the Sabres are able to pull out 16 magical victories this spring, once the city has stopped collapsing into Lake Erie and once Hades has crystallized into frozen fountains of fire and the river Styxx can be skated upon Buffalo Sabres fans across North America will be able to unequivocally claim that they were the best team in the NHL for 2006-2007.
To watch the city come alive last season during the playoff run was so exhilarating that the feeling is almost intoxicating. Anyone that has experienced a championship or deep playoff run in any sport understands the feeling of a city wrapping its entire consciousness around a sports team for a period of 2 months or so. I witnessed it occur in Chicago with the Cubs 2003 run to the NLCS, and experienced it to a lesser degree when the Bills made the playoffs for 7 consecutive years in the late 80's and early 90's.
Waiting, anticipating that feeling return to Western New York is like being in 5th grade and waiting for summer vacation to finally get here. You know it's coming, you know when it's coming and you just hope when it gets here everything is as much as fun as last year.
Tonight the Sabres can take yet another step in their journey to bring the 1st major sports championship to the city of Buffalo since the Bills triumphed in the 1964 AFL title game (ironically the last year before the AFL and NFL agreed to play a game called the Super Bowl). To be honest, the two AFL championships the Bills won in the 1960's don't really count. It'd be like the Cincinnati Red's claiming they won a baseball Wold Championship back in 1889.
The snow is gone, it's staying light out longer and longer each day and is now possible to do a bar crawl along Allentown or the Elmwood Strip without catching hypothermia. The Sabres just were named the best franchise in pro sports (thanks ESPN) and came off a dominating performance vs the Islanders last night, in which the team scored 5 goals in the first 15 minutes of the 1st period. Bass Pro has finally inked a deal for a downtown waterfront store, the Aud is getting razed and there couldn't be a better time to live here in the Nickel City.
To borrow a quote from some other Buffalo sports figure...
"Where else would you rather be, than right here...right now?"
Nowhere Marv...nowhere.
