All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.
- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
“Owen Power powers it home!”
Even on his last night broadcasting professionally, and even at 79-years-old, Rick Jeanneret can still turn a phrase. The above quote from RJ happened in the third period as Power tied things at two apiece against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night with under five minutes to play. That wasn’t his only memorable call of the night.
“Delia will deal with it,” RJ said in the first period as Collin Delia made a save on Jeff Skinner to keep the score at 0-0 during the early going. Both of these are classic RJ calls, the likes of which will be sorely missed by the Sabres faithful as Jeanneret calls it a career after 51 years in broadcasting. Fans were also treated to one final “Buffalo wins it in oooooooooooovertime!” call as Casey Mittelstadt scored the game winning goal to finish the Sabres season with a 3-2 win.
This final game of the season against Chicago was a bitter-sweet finale. Make no mistake: This is yet another disappointment of a season in a playoff drought that now spans 11 years. At the same time, this team has come alive in the waning months of the season, and they look to have really turned a corner.
Fans have responded to this late-season renaissance as they’ve increasingly filled the KeyBank Center to see the final games of the year, and why not? This a likeable group led by veterans Kyle Okposo and Jeff Skinner. Dylan Cozens, Owen Power, Rasmus Dahlin, Peyton Krebs and many other young players have given plenty of reason to be excited about the future. Those young guys are finally starting to see the kind of energy in the building that Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart saw every night coming out of the the tank year of 2014-15.
“When it’s a packed house out there, it gives us the energy,” Cozens said between periods.
If I may set an incredibly low bar, this Sabres team will draw plentiful crowds next year if they’re able to sustain a .500 pace throughout the entirety of next year. Again – and I understand this is a pitifully low bar – just be remotely in the playoff picture by Christmas and people will come to the games for the entire year.
In another highlight of the first period, Buffalo Bills 2022 first-round pick Kaiir Elam appeared on the jumbotron alongside Josh Allen. The 6’2” corner from Florida will likely feature prominently across from Goalie Academy founder Tre White, and he is already doing a terrific job to endear himself to fans in Western New York. Levi Wallace’s departure to Pittsburgh and the potential uncertainty with White’s ACL injury means that Elam and Dane Jackson could play a larger role in the secondary than anyone imagined, and for that reason, Elam’s selection has to be looked as a great pick based on positional need. Good luck to Elam in the coming season, and good job by Josh Allen to bring him to a Sabres game.
Back on the ice, the Sabres were in a scoreless game to start the second. Krebs found himself in an excellent position to dangle and make a move toward a scoring area but looked reticent to make a move to the slot from the blue line. The Calgary, Alberta native has incredible vision and an uncanny knack to make a pass a through traffic, but he needs to learn to take the net with more conviction to truly unlock his offensive potential. Opposing defensemen wont bite on Krebs as a decoy unless he proves that he’s willing to take the puck to high-danger spots and take a shot. Tim Connolly was able to keep defensemen honest by taking the puck to the net with some regularity. Krebs can’t hang around on the perimeter or at the blueline to establish that reputation; he has to take the puck hard to the net and get defensemen to bite in order to open up his linemates for the pass.
The tandem of Henri Jokiharju and Owen Power also had a rough go of it in the second period. They were victimized by Dominik Kubalik’s 15th goal of the season and Jokiharju later gave the ‘Hawks another grade-A scoring chance. I’m still not a-tall convinced (as Rob Ray would say) that Jokiharju is an actual top-four defenseman moving forward. He looks like a bottom-pairing guy, but time will tell, I suppose.
Elsewhere, dear god can this please be the last game we see Anders Bjork and John Hayden? There’s nothing left for these guys to show. They are placeholder forwards who – at best – will not cost you a game but who will do absolutely nothing to win you a game. It’s a black hole of possession that will get the Sabres nowhere. Bjork is under contract next year for $1.6m so we’ll see if ownership and/or management are willing to get him off the books in order to make room for a more useful player, or whether the Sabres are content to merely take the path of least resistance and bring him back on the roster next year.
Thankfully all of that was largely irrelevant because the Sabres are living in a timeline where Tage Thompson is a 38-goal scorer which is undoubtedly the best timeline to live in. We also live in a timeline where Owen Power is already scoring timely goals, like the one that tied things at two apiece late in the third. The coup de grace was Mittelstadt’s winning goal as the young center provided the perfect backdrop to RJ’s final words. It seemed impossible for a night like this to end on anything less than a win. The Sabres delivered on that in up-and-down fashion.
This isn't goodbye to RJ, though. Like Kurt Vonnegut said in the quote at the top of the article, Rick Jeanneret will never truly be gone because his calls are eternal. They live in each and every Sabres fan who has experienced the pure jubilation of a win expressed by the irreplaceable RJ.
"All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist." May Day, Legion of Doom, Now Do You Believe. These things aren't gone. They exist with us forever.
“It’s been a hell of a ride,” RJ said as he signed off one last time.
It sure has, Rick.
Thanks for the memories.
Buffalo Sabres Blogger • 
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