i like that the sabres call themselves a “blue collar team” bc, like yeah, that’s exactly who they are and how they play. they’re a hardworking hockey team in a blue collar city filled with blue collar people and there’s something so special about how the sabres have integrated themselves back into buffalo society over these passed months.
a couple of weeks ago, tage said something along the lines of, “people don’t like you because you’re a sabre, they like you bc you’re proud to be from buffalo, and it’s not a flashy thing to say you’re from buffalo”. this season, we’ve seen so many players refer to themselves as buffalonians, call this place home, “this is the place to be”, etc, and that’s not something we saw a lot this past decade.
there are so many popular players from flashy young teams who are always “on the brink of greatness”, teams and players who aren’t questioned about their authenticity even when they fail, but i feel like the sabres aren’t viewed the same. yeah, we have the stars of our team that us as sabres fans view as stars. we have dahlin, tommer, tuchy, even benny at this point, but people don’t look at the sabres as if we have a mcdavid, a mackinnon, a celebrini, and i think that has to do with people viewing buffalo as the laughingstock of the league for a long time.
it reminds me of how many times i’ve thought to myself, “i wish i loved a more stable team, someone with a gm that cares and loves the sport more than the money”, but this team is family to me and so many others and has created something beautiful in western new york that has brought hockey fans from all generations together for the same desire as the one created in 1970, and this team has worked so hard for it, even though it still goes unnoticed in the hockey world because of their past.
before game one of round one, dan dunleavy said (roughly quoted) “the sabres have invited themselves to this party. no one else opened the door to let them in, they kicked it down themselves…”, and i think it’s a great representation of this point.
i guess i’m just feeling a lot of things before game seven, and i wanted to express how happy i am to see this team be successful, fill up their barn, be cup contenders. whatever happens tomorrow night, i’m just so grateful for the 25-26 buffalo sabres and how they’ve revived a special culture in this hockey heaven.
they need to bring little league chants to the mlb like imagine struggling so bad on the mound and you hear “g double o d e y e good eye good eye” coming from the other dugout
i saw someone on the sabres reddit being like “i don’t remember it being this painful to watch the playoffs” and someone replying with “it’s crazy how getting a taste of something can change how you view it” like actually just put me out of my misery now
