Numbers to Remember After Buffalo Sabres Win 8-7
If that was your first Sabres game, they’re all like that. Every contest featuring the team has included 15 goals and over 100 penalty minutes if you’re bracing for what to expect. A historical event that everyone’s still talking about featured everything Gary Bettman’s tried to remove from hockey. The commissioner wasn’t the only one defeated.
A team can give up a touchdown as long as they make the two-point conversion. Buffalo fans will always know what “8-7” means. You just know someone already got the score tattooed.
Do you remember the most awesome Sunday result? We’re all sitting here trying to not overreact to the greatest game that’s ever happened or could happen. Typical classifications of a most atypical game only sound like hyperbole.
It’s as tough to exaggerate either the implications or the game’s specific occurrences. Being in position to play such a meaningful regular season game is as rare for the Sabres as a Ralph Krueger coaching interview.
Fans who are trying to maintain levelheadedness in defiance of instincts to hoot downplay one game’s outcome by noting the team still would’ve maintained decent playoff hopes no matter the result. But performing like that after creating the opportunity for significant hockey deserves random cheering throughout the day. Nobody else in Buffalo will notice, as they’re all doing the same.
Senses become more acute when conditions are pleasant. Food tastes more scrumptious and sunshine seems brighter. Also, the league appears even sillier. My team winning lead to me finally hating the NHL’s daft divisional setup and preposterous seeding as more than a concept.
So, this is what it’s like to care. I can vaguely recall worrying about the NHL’s typically screwy seeding and preposterous divisions where Detroit and Miami are in the same region. Noticing the baffling groupings is a novel experience for one fanbase that’s had no reason to be aware of the daft alignment. There’s finally a season that involves more than getting through it.
Patient backers waited forever for a shift in fortune that arrived in an instant. There’s your inspiration example. An overnight success story that began half a dozen presidential elections ago offers hope for life and all the stupid things about it.
The monumental change happened rather suddenly. I attended the dreadful November 6 uncompetitive contest one million years ago where the Blues shut out the then-typically listless Sabres. It wasn’t a hot goalie sort of night: they played like they didn’t deserve to score. That was a typical result. But it now feels like it’s from an alternate timeline. It’s real and from this very same season. We not only experienced the worst drought in league history: it’s technically still occurring.
Fire Kevyn Adams again just to make sure. A sliver of stubborn fans insist on crediting him for the current roster as it were tricky to draft someone so highly every year. But the biggest change hasn’t been in personnel but rather accountability. The first-time general manager wasn’t just a human cursed tiki idol: the team started improving as soon as rumors began swirling of his unconditional release. Jarmo Kekäläinen won’t stand for anything less.
Hating teams is the natural result of increased stakes. Tampa makes it easy. Watch out for a fist if any of them are behind you. Fans of other teams also naturally resent success. The Sabres are finally worth being despised.
It’s challenging adjusting to the odd feeling when they still hold the lead as time expires. There are worse transitions. The Sabres were renowned not long ago for not just losing but spectacularly blowing leads. It’s as if William Shakespeare had been from Cheektowaga. But anticipation finally met outcome.
Overcoming such a deficit seemed impossible back around Thanksgiving. But this season has included numerous unbelievable moments. The latest is a comeback so remarkable that it could’ve been against the Oilers. I don’t mean the Edmonton one. We’ve all been around Buffalo sports long enough that bracing for folding came reflexively. Trained pessimists get a nice surprise.
Life is finally balanced if a few good months make up for years and year. There’s been far more agony, which makes appreciating happy times easier. So, be grateful for extra suffering. It’s time to revel after a reverse hangover where we feel awful for about a decade and a half before finally getting to enjoy festivities.
The party attendance list is easy to remember: there aren’t many names. Foolishly devoted Sabres fans know who was here the whole time. There was a chance to practice while the Bills self-exiled from the postseason. I wish we didn’t have precedent of agonizing exclusion.
I’m still not presuming anything. I’ll wait to see if the chances of advancing are 100 percent. And even then I’d remain suspicious. Those who’ve grown understandably wary during the Pegula years would still feel unsure if they played two or three postseason games.
We have perhaps not waited a long time in geological terms. But maybe we have. It’s possible to check the date of just how long we’ve been patient. I know the correct scientific characterization is very long. Getting first place like that feels like part of a different era. The best way to have a stirring victory is to be losing first just like rising to first place is most cherished after a record playoff absence.
