Ty

London, ON • Canada • 29 Years Old • Male

Earth to Buffalo

Can someone please notify the Buffalo Sabres and their respected media that they have only won one round so far in the playoffs. Buffalo is a great team and looks destined to continue their current success for many years. Heck, they might even win this year’s Stanley Cup and lay the begining piece of the “New NHL’s” first dynasty. However, heading into game one of their series with the Rangers, the Sabres are neither a current champion nor a dynasty. They haven’t even won a Stanley Cup in their history. That is not a dig at the Sabres, but is merely a fact. So why is it that because they won the Presidents’ Trophy as the team with the league’s best record that they feel they deserve to be treated like the second coming of the 80’s Oilers? The fact that the media and a few of the Sabres players have ran with Rangers coach Tom Renney’s “their not the cream of the crop” comments has me dumb founded. What did they want Renney to say? That the almighty Buffalo Sabres are unbeatable and that his team was just happy to share the ice with them and that it would be a privilege to be knocked out by such great champions? Earth to Buffalo, the regular season is used to decide playoff seeding, but the playoffs are used to decide who the champion is. Are the Buffalo Sabres a good team? Yes, they are a very good team and should not be taken lightly. They have four great lines, a great young goalie and a defensive group that plays steady team defense. But was Renney wrong to not suck up to this team and psyche his own team out? I don’t think so. In fact I think he handled the question with class. He recognized the Sabres as a good team, but he wasn’t about to hand the series over to them either. And why should he? Renney is the coach of a very good team as well. Could you imagine if last year’s Red Wings team had demanded to be treated like gods? That team had a better record than this year’s Sabres team, but they were bounced from the post season in the first round. How ridiculous would they have looked if they had waltzed into Edmonton last year and demanded the red carpet treatment, only to lose? Now I don’t think this year’s Sabres team is the equivalent of last year’s Red Wings team, and I’m not saying that their over confidence will get them defeated by the Rangers or anyone else. All I’m saying is that they have a long way to go to before they are recognized as a champion, a dynasty, or deserving of the respect they are so adamantly demanding.

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