I must've been out of town when that happened.
Squishy non scientific evidence of improvement: when you can say, wow, NHL hockey has returned to Buffalo!
I'm not sure it's far off, but we're still a few minutes from Normal.
On ice:
Dom's 70 saves... Plante's OT goal... winning the Border War in Tronno... beating the Habs in Montreal to make first final... losing to Pittsburgh in opening round in 79.
Plante>May bc the former really kicked off a glorious era whereas May turned out to be of singular importance (esp for his banking account). Pens bc it was a distinct end of an era and brought Scotty and massive change.
HM: Malarchuk (but not significant enough for a list like this); LaLa trade (but ultimately not "on ice").
I have to cop out and do two lists... off ice and on ice moments.
I think we're looking for fairly objective moments here, not favorites. A top 5 moment can't be that time you took a girl to a game and she got so excited by a shirtless Rob Ray that she became amorous in the postgame show.
Off ice:
No particular order.
Rick's banner night... Rigas perp walk... Spin of the Wheel... Pegula Presser... Closing the Aud
Would have included the decision to tank but that probably wasn't a discrete moment.
HM: Landing Bowman?
Is there another fanbase in the NHL where this would be a topic?
Poorly worded. Among non-winning franchises of course. Even some of the successful ones...
What's crazier, having the discussion now or the very idea of 20 years of anyone?
A little spare for me. The comparison to Rick is apt in general, but I can think of only big moment where he sounded like that. Are you ready... His second year on TV and I think he was trying to let the picture speak for itself. I remember the pause as awkward or even worrisome. It won't live on in the pantheon.