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An epilogue to a dark time in Sabres history |
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The Columbus Blue Jackets have one of the coolest goal celebrations in the NHL. When the home team lights the lamp, the horn sounds and AC/DC's cued up.
For those about to rock!!!
FIRE!!!
And off goes the cannon. POW!!!
For those who've never been there, it'll scare you. Even if you've been there on numerous occasions, like Sabres analyst Rob Ray, and you know it's coming, the firing of the cannon might still send shockwaves through you. "I'm gonna go up there an destroy that cannon," said Ray after Matt Calvert potted his 13th goal of the season to put the Jackets up 2-1 last night. "It scares me every time it goes off, and you know it's happening."
If you're a Sabres fan this season, the firing of that cannon was a beautiful sound and when Boone Jenner scored into an empty Sabres net with 9.7 second remaining in the third period for the 4-2 victory, it might just as well have been a 21-gun salute to lay the 2014-15 season to rest. Although Buffalo still has one more game tonight against a struggling Pittsburgh Penguins club embroiled in a playoff battle, the season is done, 30th place is secure and all that's left is for the fans at First Niagara Center to give this team a rousing ovation for making it through the most difficult and divisive season in Sabres history.
It's been said often by Sabres beat writer Paul Hamilton that Buffalo GM Tim Murray was looking at this rebuild as constituting two drafts--2014 and 2015. Those are Murray's drafts as general manager, but as Sabres fans we know that in the grand scheme of things there are actually four drafts that constitute the future of the Buffalo Sabres as 2012 and 2013 should be a large part of the equation. The 2015 prize is obvious at the top of the draft, and the consolation prize for having the lottery balls go another way is officially there as well. But there's much more to the future of the Sabres than simply stepping to the podium in June with a top-two pick in hand.
Buffalo's 2015 first round pick, however, will be instrumental to the club moving forward and said player will occupy a spot on the Sabres roster as a bonafide #1 center, something that we haven't had wearing the blue and gold since 2006. Chances are very strong that the player selected there will trend towards being a superstar the likes of which we haven't seen since Pat LaFontaine in the early 90's. Beyond that, we'll see, but for now, visions of a full-fledged NHL top-line are dancing in my head. And we can thank the folks in Ohio's capital for finalizing that.
I have a soft spot for the Blue Jackets. As a fledgling franchise founded in 2000, the NHL put them right in the heart of Ohio, smack-dab in the middle of Buckeye country. The Scarlet and Gray rule as The Ohio State University consumes the entire state from Cleveland to Cincinnati, and most all points east and west.
The Blue Jackets are a real good team and the only reason they're not in a playoff spot is because of the rash of injuries they sustained early in the season. But this team, as shown last night, has size, speed, skill and a tenacious work ethic that can take it far. Last season it proved to be a combination that put a cannon-like scare into the Pittsburgh Penguins during the 2014 playoffs.
The Jackets squad that GM Jarmo Kekelainen has put together is the type of team the Sabres are building towards regardless of them landing a generational talent in this year's draft. Take that Columbus team and put a Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews or Mike Modano at the top, which is the type of player we're looking at, and the last two seasons of "suffering" will be well worth it.
Tonight at First Niagara Center, there should be a playoff atmosphere as Sabres fans have been dying to go all-in and cheer for their team after two painful seasons. Former GM Darcy Regier said there would be suffering as the team was headed to the bottom for their rebuild. And he was right. Nobody said it would be easy and yet no one had any idea just how difficult this whole thing would be.
Back in October, 2013 with the Sabres off to a grueling 1-7-1 start and fans relentlessly moaning about how awful the team was, there was really nothing they could do except "Suck it up." The Sabres entered that season bereft of talent save for Thomas Vanek, and they went into the season with Regier throwing a boat-load of rookies into the mix. It also featured Ron Rolston as head coach and unfortunately for him, he endured relentless booing from the fans.
Regier and Buffalo Sabres Team President Ted Black, hit the airwaves on WGR to do some damage control after that start.
Black, who was on with the morning crew, was intent upon keeping things in perspective and the long-term goal in sight. "We have to stay the course," he said at the time. "We can't panic. I understand and acknowledge the frustration. Everybody wants to talk about the rebuild and getting a lot of picks and drafting high.
"If you end up drafting high, it's wonderful. But the pain of getting there is great."
He talked of a "four-year plan" that started with the 2012 Draft and he emphasized not being distracted by the day-to-day occurrences of the season. The focus should be on the big picture "of where we are and where we want to go and not getting too bogged down in wins and losses," he said. "It's gonna be a long season. It could be a long process."
Tell us about it.
Regier was on with the afternoon boys on GR. The embattled GM knew that the boos raining down on the home team were essentially directed at him, and even though he'd prepared himself and the fan-base for some pretty down times, he had no idea just how bad it would be. "I fully expect that, myself included, we're going to go 'Oh my God! This is harder than then I thought. This is more difficult than I thought it was going to be,'" he said at the time.
"I thought that when we started," he continued, "and I probably have as much or more experience than anyone in this area."
What he went through on a personal and professional level last season was nothing compared to the difficulties of this season. The roster Sabres GM Murray iced this season may have had trouble winning the Calder Cup and with every game an array of emotions erupted from the fan-base. It was bad. It became personal. And a lot of ugliness was thrown around at various times during the season. Plus in this social media world, it was out there for everyone to see.
When the Pittsburgh Penguins tanked for Mario Lemieux, the year was 1984 (hello, George Orwell.) Betamax and VHS were rivals in the recorded video market; Namco, Nintendo and Atari were the choices for gamers with Nintendo releasing Donkey Kong 3 that year; IBM was leading the PC market with Apple releasing it's first MacIntosh PC that year and Microsoft still a year away from releasing Windows. Cable TV was just getting it's legs under it ushering an era where our world would no longer be confined to an area within reach of an air-transmitted broadcast signal.
In this rather "primitive" world came the most obvious tank in sports history, the breadth of which was confined to it's times.
This season was different for the Sabres, the NHL, and the sportsworld in general. It was a season dissected by terabytes running 24/7. Anything outside the spoken word delivered in an intimate setting could be sent worldwide in a matter of seconds and all involved should be commended for enduring the weight of this season in it's totality.
From Murray to head coach Ted Nolan and his staff, to the players and the entire organization, tonight should mark a special occasion for the Sabres family. The rebuild is done and the build can officially commence in earnest.
Revelry will engulf the First Niagara Center tonight as all Sabres fans can put their full support behind the team once again. It's weird to say that, but it's true. The finality of last night's 50th loss of the season represents the end of a little "hockey civil war" that engulfed Sabreland throughout much of the season. It's water under the bridge now, a fact that should be joyously celebrated tonight. And if that wasn't enough to bring fans together, the game tonight vs. Pittsburgh has playoff implications.
The Sabres have the opportunity to knock the Pens out of a playoff spot with a regulation win pending the outcome of the Boston Bruins/Tampa Bay Lightning game which starts a half-hour later.
There's a bit irony to all of this as well should it happen.
The Pens went through four seasons of bottoming out highlighted by the drafting of a "once in a generation" player in Crosby. In the Pittsburgh front-office guiding their rebuild was Black and Sabres adviser, Ken Sawyer, both of whom were a part of owner Terry Pegula's inner circle when he bought the team. The Pens Executive VP/General Manager at that time was Craig Patrick who joined the Sabres as an adviser when Murray was hired in January, 2014.
Pittsburgh has been in the playoffs every season since drafting Crosby except for his 2005-06 rookie campaign. They made the finals in 2007-08 and won the Cup in 2009. They've been declining a bit and the Sabres have the opportunity to have an impact on the Sidney Crosby-era in Pittsburgh tonight.
It's fan appreciation night in Buffalo, but methinks it might be player appreciation night as well (or at least it should be.) There's a party in the plaza at 4:30pm, Sabres alumni will be on hand and there will be giveaways. No word yet on whether Howard Simon and Bucky Gleason will do a US Grant/Robert E. Lee Appomattox handshake, or if fans will chant "Weber, Weber, Weber!" but overall it should be fun, celebratory atmosphere.
This is the epilogue to a dark time in Sabres history. Time for a new book to be written.
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