A City and its Team
The biggest sporting event of New Year's Day 2008 may not be a bowl game. Sure there are some pretty intriguing matchups amongst the various college football games that will be played on Tuesday, but for the most part the only one that matters is a week from Monday. Since everybody beat up on everybody this year, there are WAY too many bowl games, and there are few compelling stories in these New Year's Day games, it's pretty easy to dismiss most of the games. No, the biggest sporting event of the day will be played in a football stadium in Buffalo, only they won't be playing football.
They'll be playing hockey.
Yes, here I go again trying to get you to like hockey, only this time I'm not alone. The NHL and NBC have put a lot on the table with the Amp Winter Classic; NBC dumped its traditional bowl game broadcasts to televise this game. They're sending Bob Costas to Buffalo and hoping that couch potatoes get bored with the Michigan-Florida game and while flipping around, they land on the hockey game and are intrigued enough to keep watching. As NBC's coordinating producer for sports put it, "Part of it is the, 'What the heck are we looking at here?"'
Quite simply, what you'll be looking at is the best player in hockey (Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins) and his teammates taking on what may be the most beloved team in pro hockey in front of 73,000 screaming fans. Outdoors. And as it's Buffalo, odds are good that it will be snowing. The players are excited to be playing in this game, since most of them first learned to smack a puck around the ice outdoors. They played outdoors as kids on frozen ponds in Canada, Europe, and the Northern U.S. Basically, it's the hockey equivalent of a sandlot game of baseball or a playground game of basketball.
Apart from the obvious, the main draw to this game for NBC is Crosby, but for the people of Buffalo, the main draw is their Sabres. The 73,000 tickets for this game went faster than any non-"Hannah Montana" event in recent memory. This is because for most of these ticketholders, it's the only way to see a Sabres game this season. The team has sold every ticket for the 19,000-seat HSBC Arena this season and has a waiting list 6,000 deep for season tickets. During last season's playoffs, thousands watched the games on big screens in the plaza outside the arena, just to be there! Simply put, this city LOVES its team. I would say that only Detroit ("Hockey Town") compares for how devoted a U.S. city is to its NHL club.
To understand this love affair, you have to know some background info. For one thing, it wasn't that long ago that the future of the Sabres franchise was in doubt. The former owner, John Rigas (then-CEO of Adelphia Communications) was going to jail, Adelphia was going bankrupt, so the Sabres franchise was going bankrupt. Enter Tom Golisano. The business maven bought the team in 2003 and did something unthinkable: he CUT ticket prices and made going to a game more affordable. Then, he sunk money into the team and its farm system, and during the 2004-05 lockout, the Sabres may have been the only team to benefit from the work stoppage, as its top young stars played the whole season in the minors at Rochester while the other top teams sat.
As a result, once play resumed two years ago, Buffalo shot out of the gate and reestablished itself as one of the top teams in hockey, and the fans came back in droves. Last season, 6 of the top 7 NHL jerseys bought by fans were Buffalo Sabres jerseys, and they aren't just bought by people in Buffalo. Every road game, no matter where they play (even California), you'll see a sizable number of fans in Sabres gear. While I haven't been to Buffalo lately, people who have been tell me that the city shuts down when the Sabres play. Sabres playoff games beat "American Idol" in the TV ratings in Buffalo. For last year's playoff run, the village of Hamburg unofficially changed its name to "Pominville", after Buffalo forward Jason Pominville.
If that's not clear enough for you, I'll point out some other reasons why Buffalo is so in love with its hockey team. Buffalo's a blue collar city that has seen better days; the Sabres are a blue collar team that does whatever it takes to win. Buffalo loves a fighter... need proof? Well, the Sabres "tough guy" back in the 1980s, Lindy Ruff, is now in his 10th season as Buffalo's head coach. Rob Ray, the Sabres' enforcer in the 1990s, was one of the most popular players on the team and today serves as a TV analyst for them.
Then there's the Cubs/Red Sox pre-2004 mentality. The city of Buffalo hasn't won a major pro sports championship since 1965, and the Bills' 2 AFL championships have been overshadowed by the 4 straight Super Bowl losses in the 90s. The city blew its shot at Major League Baseball, not once but twice. The NBA Braves were so hapless that they are now the LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS. The Bills have not made the playoffs this millennium and Ralph Wilson has practically written it into his will that when he dies, the team will move to Toronto. The Sabres have made it to just 6 conference finals and 2 Stanley Cup Finals (1975 and 1999) in their 37 years. Bring up 1999 to a Sabres fan and he will likely scream something along the lines of, "IT WASN'T A GOAL! HULL'S SKATE WAS IN THE CREASE!!!" Sabres fans watching "Bruce Almighty" wonder which part of the movie is harder to believe: Jim Carrey having the power of God or the Sabres winning the Cup.
But they do know the good times. An older Sabres fan will tell you about the Fog Game in the '75 Cup finals, when a May heat wave caused the ice at the old Aud to turn to fog (Buffalo won the game when Rene Robert slapped one past a helpless Philadelphia goalie in OT). They'll tell you about the "French Connection" line of Robert, Gil Perrault, and Rick Martin, about Danny Gare and Don Edwards and Mike Ramsey. Younger fans will tell you about how a 1994 playoff duel between Dominik Hasek and New Jersey's Martin Brodeur was ended in the 4th overtime by a Sabres 4th-liner named Dave Hannan. Go on YouTube and look up "Buffalo Sabres". You'll spend hours reliving all the great moments fans have posted online.
And they'll tell you about Rick Jeanneret. His voice is identified with the Sabres as much as the booming fog horn that goes off when Buffalo scores a goal in home games. Don't call him the "Voice of the Sabres"; that honor goes to the late Ted Darling, who called the games on TV for the team's first 22 years. RJ started doing radio for the team in its second season, has done both TV and radio for the last decade or so, and his voice is on most of the great moments in teams history, each with its indelible stamp. He turned Pierre Turgeon into "Ooh-la-la-Pierre!", Pat LaFontaine into "LalalalalalaLaFontaine!", Bob Boughner into "The Boogie Man". When a Sabres player drills the puck into the top of the goal, Rick will remind you that the "top shelf" is "where Momma hides the cookies!" When Brad May beat the Boston Bruins in OT to win their 1993 playoff series, Rick proclaimed the event to be "MAY DAY! MAY DAY! MAY DAY!" And that's what Sabres fans call it today. And when the Sabres officially returned to prominence by trouncing Ottawa in the 2006 Eastern Conference semis, Rick asked delirious Buffalonians, "Now do you believe? These guys are good... SCARY GOOD!"
So on Tuesday, join 73,000 Sabres fans (and thousands more who will watch the game at HSBC Arena via big screen TV) in watching Pominville, Ryan Miller, Tim Connolly, Brian Campbell and the rest in the first NHL game to be played outdoors in the United States. Take in an afternoon of exciting hockey and you'll be changed forever.
Now do you believe?
They'll be playing hockey.
Yes, here I go again trying to get you to like hockey, only this time I'm not alone. The NHL and NBC have put a lot on the table with the Amp Winter Classic; NBC dumped its traditional bowl game broadcasts to televise this game. They're sending Bob Costas to Buffalo and hoping that couch potatoes get bored with the Michigan-Florida game and while flipping around, they land on the hockey game and are intrigued enough to keep watching. As NBC's coordinating producer for sports put it, "Part of it is the, 'What the heck are we looking at here?"'
Quite simply, what you'll be looking at is the best player in hockey (Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins) and his teammates taking on what may be the most beloved team in pro hockey in front of 73,000 screaming fans. Outdoors. And as it's Buffalo, odds are good that it will be snowing. The players are excited to be playing in this game, since most of them first learned to smack a puck around the ice outdoors. They played outdoors as kids on frozen ponds in Canada, Europe, and the Northern U.S. Basically, it's the hockey equivalent of a sandlot game of baseball or a playground game of basketball.
Apart from the obvious, the main draw to this game for NBC is Crosby, but for the people of Buffalo, the main draw is their Sabres. The 73,000 tickets for this game went faster than any non-"Hannah Montana" event in recent memory. This is because for most of these ticketholders, it's the only way to see a Sabres game this season. The team has sold every ticket for the 19,000-seat HSBC Arena this season and has a waiting list 6,000 deep for season tickets. During last season's playoffs, thousands watched the games on big screens in the plaza outside the arena, just to be there! Simply put, this city LOVES its team. I would say that only Detroit ("Hockey Town") compares for how devoted a U.S. city is to its NHL club.
To understand this love affair, you have to know some background info. For one thing, it wasn't that long ago that the future of the Sabres franchise was in doubt. The former owner, John Rigas (then-CEO of Adelphia Communications) was going to jail, Adelphia was going bankrupt, so the Sabres franchise was going bankrupt. Enter Tom Golisano. The business maven bought the team in 2003 and did something unthinkable: he CUT ticket prices and made going to a game more affordable. Then, he sunk money into the team and its farm system, and during the 2004-05 lockout, the Sabres may have been the only team to benefit from the work stoppage, as its top young stars played the whole season in the minors at Rochester while the other top teams sat.
As a result, once play resumed two years ago, Buffalo shot out of the gate and reestablished itself as one of the top teams in hockey, and the fans came back in droves. Last season, 6 of the top 7 NHL jerseys bought by fans were Buffalo Sabres jerseys, and they aren't just bought by people in Buffalo. Every road game, no matter where they play (even California), you'll see a sizable number of fans in Sabres gear. While I haven't been to Buffalo lately, people who have been tell me that the city shuts down when the Sabres play. Sabres playoff games beat "American Idol" in the TV ratings in Buffalo. For last year's playoff run, the village of Hamburg unofficially changed its name to "Pominville", after Buffalo forward Jason Pominville.
If that's not clear enough for you, I'll point out some other reasons why Buffalo is so in love with its hockey team. Buffalo's a blue collar city that has seen better days; the Sabres are a blue collar team that does whatever it takes to win. Buffalo loves a fighter... need proof? Well, the Sabres "tough guy" back in the 1980s, Lindy Ruff, is now in his 10th season as Buffalo's head coach. Rob Ray, the Sabres' enforcer in the 1990s, was one of the most popular players on the team and today serves as a TV analyst for them.
Then there's the Cubs/Red Sox pre-2004 mentality. The city of Buffalo hasn't won a major pro sports championship since 1965, and the Bills' 2 AFL championships have been overshadowed by the 4 straight Super Bowl losses in the 90s. The city blew its shot at Major League Baseball, not once but twice. The NBA Braves were so hapless that they are now the LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS. The Bills have not made the playoffs this millennium and Ralph Wilson has practically written it into his will that when he dies, the team will move to Toronto. The Sabres have made it to just 6 conference finals and 2 Stanley Cup Finals (1975 and 1999) in their 37 years. Bring up 1999 to a Sabres fan and he will likely scream something along the lines of, "IT WASN'T A GOAL! HULL'S SKATE WAS IN THE CREASE!!!" Sabres fans watching "Bruce Almighty" wonder which part of the movie is harder to believe: Jim Carrey having the power of God or the Sabres winning the Cup.
But they do know the good times. An older Sabres fan will tell you about the Fog Game in the '75 Cup finals, when a May heat wave caused the ice at the old Aud to turn to fog (Buffalo won the game when Rene Robert slapped one past a helpless Philadelphia goalie in OT). They'll tell you about the "French Connection" line of Robert, Gil Perrault, and Rick Martin, about Danny Gare and Don Edwards and Mike Ramsey. Younger fans will tell you about how a 1994 playoff duel between Dominik Hasek and New Jersey's Martin Brodeur was ended in the 4th overtime by a Sabres 4th-liner named Dave Hannan. Go on YouTube and look up "Buffalo Sabres". You'll spend hours reliving all the great moments fans have posted online.
And they'll tell you about Rick Jeanneret. His voice is identified with the Sabres as much as the booming fog horn that goes off when Buffalo scores a goal in home games. Don't call him the "Voice of the Sabres"; that honor goes to the late Ted Darling, who called the games on TV for the team's first 22 years. RJ started doing radio for the team in its second season, has done both TV and radio for the last decade or so, and his voice is on most of the great moments in teams history, each with its indelible stamp. He turned Pierre Turgeon into "Ooh-la-la-Pierre!", Pat LaFontaine into "LalalalalalaLaFontaine!", Bob Boughner into "The Boogie Man". When a Sabres player drills the puck into the top of the goal, Rick will remind you that the "top shelf" is "where Momma hides the cookies!" When Brad May beat the Boston Bruins in OT to win their 1993 playoff series, Rick proclaimed the event to be "MAY DAY! MAY DAY! MAY DAY!" And that's what Sabres fans call it today. And when the Sabres officially returned to prominence by trouncing Ottawa in the 2006 Eastern Conference semis, Rick asked delirious Buffalonians, "Now do you believe? These guys are good... SCARY GOOD!"
So on Tuesday, join 73,000 Sabres fans (and thousands more who will watch the game at HSBC Arena via big screen TV) in watching Pominville, Ryan Miller, Tim Connolly, Brian Campbell and the rest in the first NHL game to be played outdoors in the United States. Take in an afternoon of exciting hockey and you'll be changed forever.
Now do you believe?
posted by Dave | 3:25 PM
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