andydrmm

Canandaigua, NY • United States • 29 Years Old • Male

Definitive Sabres Moments

It’s tough being a Sabres fan these days. There’s not a lot of hope or optimism surrounding the team. The Sabres website did a great job the other day playing up the NHL.com article on Rick Jeanneret’s infamous “May Day” call. I started thinking about some of my favorite memories watching the Buffalo Sabres.

Now I have to emphasize this, these are 2 of my favorite memories. I encourage everyone to throw in their own favorite moments in Sabres history.

“May Day”

I know, I know, but I joined the rush the other day of sharing memories from April 24, 1993. Unfortunately, there’s not enough space on Twitter to share the full story. Here, I’ve got the space.

Buffalo was up 3 games to 0 on Boston. My mom was headed off for an overnight conference, the next day being her birthday, and game 4. My dad and I were dropping her off for the conference. Dad had waited for the right mood to strike to do her shopping, last minute panic, so that wasn’t done yet. However, as we dropped her off, she said, “All I want for my birthday, is to watch game 4 tomorrow night”.

The problem being, my parents were remodeling their house, and it was a little difficult to get the TV/cable set up in order to watch the game. There was a delayed start in getting it hooked up due to having to shop for her. It took all the time in the world to set up the TV, but we finally accomplished it, just before we had to pick her up from the conference. We grabbed a pizza on the way home and we were set for the game. We spent the night sitting on plywood flooring, eating pizza, and watching what would eventually become a immortal moment of Buffalo Sabres history.

Now, I don’t remember a lot from the game (I was 8), but I do remember that goal. Personally, the first thing I remember is the pass from Pat Lafontaine. He had been taken down, and was literally sitting on the ice. He was able to make the pass to May, who quickly got around Hall of Fame defensemen, Ray Bourque, and beat Bruins goalie Andy Moog to seal the sweep Buffalo. In the background, you could hear the “May Day! May Day!” call, but no one at home cared. The celebration was already taking place, looking forward to the next series.

Buffalo @ Ottawa, May 13, 2006- Game 5

Buffalo was up 3 games to 1 over the Senators, and Buffalo fans could already taste a trip to the Eastern Conference finals. Now, this happened to be the day that I graduated from college. I went to school south of Buffalo, so there were a lot of Sabres fans there. After the graduating class had walked into the field house, and the Star Spangled Banner had been performed, the chant of “Let’s Go BUFFALO!” started to come from the graduating the class. After a few minutes, it died down, and graduation continued. As soon as graduation was done, I went back to my dorm, got rid of my mortarboard, put on my Sabres hat, and headed to the reception. Several of my professors blamed me for starting that chant, but to this day, I will deny starting it. I’ll take credit for trying to keep it going as long as possible.

Following graduation, we loaded up all my gear, and went to my uncle’s house to see him and my grandmother. We had dinner before going home. We saw only a few minutes of the game, but listened all the way home.

Upon getting home, the priority was trying to unload the U-Haul and get all my stuff put away so the U-Haul could be returned the next day. However, playoffs... that was my priority. I ran into the house, only 7-8 minutes left in the 3rd period, and I discover that Time Warner Cable hadn’t put the game on. Panicking, I turned on the radio to listen to the game. The period ended, I started to unload. Overtime started, I stopped unloading. I didn’t have to wait long because Jay McKee took a penalty in OT. I wish I had been able to watch this overtime, but I had to settle with just listening, as I heard Pominville take the puck down the ice, skate past Alfredsson, and around Ray Emery and score to send Buffalo to the Eastern Conference Finals.

I barely heard “Now do you believe? These guys are good! Scary good!” because I was too busy screaming that they had won, running for a TV to be able to see what had really happened, and start the celebration oBuffalo advancing in the playoffs.

These are just 2 of my favorite memories from Sabres history. Why write about this stuff? Simple, when things are their bleakest (cough cough, right now), one needs to remember the good times. Feel free to share your favorite moments in Sabres history under comments.

Follow me on Twitter- @SabresBTB

As always, thanks for reading!

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