Lowest point in your Sabre life?

[Stoner]

For me, if this isn't it, I don't know what was.

 

I was very bummed by 78-79. For a youngen it just felt like the Cup dream was fading pretty fast. The OT loss to the Pens at the Aud is the last time I cried after the Sabres were eliminated. I was almost 13. I've wanted to bawl several times since, but I couldn't let loose.

 

Missing the playoffs in 86 and 87 was disturbing for a franchise that had not missed in many years, but I was in college and my time and attention were drawn from the team pretty significantly to start with.

 

I don't know that the Rigas scandal and ensuing on-ice struggles had me this down either. I had some inkling (hi, ink) that it was just a blip in the big picture. And it was. For awhile.

 

This? This is just ######. I wish I could buy into the inevitability of success (read: Cup) based on a ton of draft picks. I can't.

 

This is rock bottom. (And, not for nothing, it coincides with life changes like losing people you watched games with, getting older, losing testosterone, maybe putting sports in a more sensible perspective, and so on.) What I worry about is not getting out of this hole. I am one step into Bills territory, and that scares me.

 

You?

[darksabre]

Playoff elimination in 2007. That was the bottom. Because everything that happened afterwards was really no surprise. They were who we thought they were.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

There have been some highs, but many more lows.

 

For me ... April 24, 1983.

[dudacek]

The Clark Gillies/Wilf Paiement/Mark Napier waiver-wire-powered disaster that was 1986/87.

Perreault retiring and the realization that the "Scotty is a genius, Cyr and Tucker will be stars" blind faith of my high school years was a lie.

 

This season was similar, but at least it was expected, calculated even.

[darksabre]

The Clark Gillies/Wilf Paiement/Mark Napier waiver-wire-powered disaster that was 1986/87.

Perreault retiring and the realization that the "Scotty is a genius, Cyr and Tucker will be stars" blind faith of my high school years was a lie.

 

This season was similar, but at least it was expected, calculated even.

 

Some are really bemoaning the current state of the team. I've never been more excited for the future. I wasn't really conscious of the rebuild before the 2004 lockout but I'm invested in this one and I like where it's going.

[LastPommerFan]

7/1/07

 

Had the same effect on the team as if the best two players had been killed in a plane crash.

[biodork]

Playoff elimination in 2007. That was the bottom. Because everything that happened afterwards was really no surprise. They were who we thought they were.

 

Agreed, although this season was pretty close because it's the first time since I started following the team that I didn't want to watch them play most nights.

[dudacek]

 

 

Some are really bemoaning the current state of the team. I've never been more excited for the future. I wasn't really conscious of the rebuild before the 2004 lockout but I'm invested in this one and I like where it's going.

 

Me too, but I think Scotty had nine or ten first and second rounders in 82/83' - when we had a good team - and we finished dead last in the league four years later.

And for the record, it's the future of this team that looks exciting. This past season was awful.

Edited May 15, 2014 by dudacek

[Weave]

This season is right down there with the worst of them.

 

And I cringed when Dudacek reminded us of all the 1st and 2nd rd picks Scotty had and we got nuthin from it. Just goes to point out that you can give even a hockey management legend a fist full of picks and success still isn't guaranteed.

[SwampD]

It's rebounded a little bit, but during this season was absolutely the lowest point for me and it's not even close. When a team's own fans are cheering every loss,... just, well,... just awful.

 

Did I mention that a guy who's number is hanging in the rafters quit on this team?

[IKnowPhysics]

I wasn't an every-single-day fan back in '89, but I could see being affected by Malarchuk's injury. Watching a man's life ruined by a game. As a player, I both sympathize and empathize.

 

I was pissed after No Goal. We all were. It felt like the league would never let us win. Bettman was public enemy number one. When Hasek requested a trade and that no good players be returned to Buffalo, we knew it'd be a long while before we competed like that again. We knew.

 

Elimination in '06 was a punch in the gut, partly because we deserved to win that series and we could've gone on to beat a weak Edmonton team for all the cookies and partly because Carolina fans had wrongly thought they accomplished something special by beating a team with an AHL defense in game seven and we had to have our injury-ridden faces rubbed in it. Not the lowest point, though, because we still had a sick team that we knew would get healthy.

 

Until a year later. We knew on D-Day, July 1, '07, that we'd lost something special, again. The history of releasing quality free agents continued to repeat itself for the nth time, despite our hopes being built up with the prospects of having a billionaire owner. It was for ######. We realized he saved the franchise from moving but doomed it to mediocrity.

 

People might point to Regier saying we needed to endure suffering while he blew up the team, but 20 years from now, I think that won't be considered a low point. That could be heralded as the turning point. The conscious decision to do what needed to be done to shape the next 15 years of the on ice product. Betting what would be the next five years to save the following 15 from mediocrity is one hell of a gamble, and whatever the outcome, it'll be a scenario studied by general managers across all leagues.

[Cereal]

Playoff elimination in 2007. That was the bottom. Because everything that happened afterwards was really no surprise. They were who we thought they were.

I might agree with you here. Perhaps even before they were even eliminated, I'd say. During the Rangers series, it was clear that the Sabres were not playing great hockey, and seemed like such a long shot that they would survive Ottawa AND THEN whoever came out of the West.

 

It was like the best of times, those two runs in '06 and '07. But with the expectations and the way they were playing in '07, it felt like we were fooling ourselves as fans. Like deep down there was a huge knot in my stomach while watchign all of those games. I had also been PO'ed about losing Dumont after seeing how much he meant to them in the playoffs in '06.

[darksabre]

I might agree with you here. Perhaps even before they were even eliminated, I'd say. During the Rangers series, it was clear that the Sabres were not playing great hockey, and seemed like such a long shot that they would survive Ottawa AND THEN whoever came out of the West.

 

It was like the best of times, those two runs in '06 and '07. But with the expectations and the way they were playing in '07, it felt like we were fooling ourselves as fans. Like deep down there was a huge knot in my stomach while watchign all of those games. I had also been PO'ed about losing Dumont after seeing how much he meant to them in the playoffs in '06.

 

Wow. This is exactly how I felt then. They jumped out to such a lead early in that season that they just coasted into the playoffs. I didn't want to admit it but I didn't feel too good about their chances due to how they finished the season. Then they lost and the whole team never recovered, front office included.

 

I never want to win another Presidents Trophy btw.

[dEnnis the Menace]

My lowest point was the series loss to Ottawa, as others have stated. To experience those two straight years of awesome hockey, and then watch the team systematically dismantled, and a GM try to pull the wool over the fans eyes re: the players (i.e. Connolly and Roy 2 top 20 centers?)

 

That was terrible

[darksabre]

My lowest point was the series loss to Ottawa, as others have stated. To experience those two straight years of awesome hockey, and then watch the team systematically dismantled, and a GM try to pull the wool over the fans eyes re: the players (i.e. Connolly and Roy 2 top 20 centers?)

 

That was terrible

 

Chris Drury walking away broke my heart. That guy was blood n guts. I never hated Darcy until that day.

[CallawaySabres]

Right now and I have no doubt about it. With devastating losses come emotion and I would take that any day of the week. It doesn't even seem as though Buffalo is in the NHL right now and the thought of our arena jumping like crowds have been in this year's playoffs? I can't even comprehend it.....

[respk]

Finals 1975 and Finals 1999 were far worse than this past year. To be that close and not win is a very rare opportunity lost. I actually find this past season the start of an extremely interesting time in the history of the Sabres. What will they do with the 2nd pick in the draft this year, what will they do with the #1 or #2 pick next year, who will they draft with all of the 1st and 2nd rounders in general, who will they sign as FAs after next year, what players move up from Rochester after next season, what can Nolan do with limited resources next year and what can he do after next season, etc. This has the potential of watching a unique time in Sabres history. Outside of when the franchise started, this might be the most interesting time in Sabres history. To watch them be rebuilt from the last place team to a cup contender I find very interesting.

[Claude_Verret]

Brad Park's game 7 OT goal devastated me as an 11 year old.

 

No Goal of course.

 

Losing to the Canes and having to live among all the band-wagoners down here as they went on to win our Cup really sucked too.

 

You could see that the 2007 squad just didn't have it early on in the playoffs so that wasn't as big of a disappointment as the previous year.

 

Oh and this year was awesome. I'm hoping for a repeat. :thumbsup:

Edited May 15, 2014 by Claude_Verret

[Sabres Fan in NS]

This season is right down there with the worst of them.

 

And I cringed when Dudacek reminded us of all the 1st and 2nd rd picks Scotty had and we got nuthin from it. Just goes to point out that you can give even a hockey management legend a fist full of picks and success still isn't guaranteed.

 

No offence, weave, but Scotty was a coaching legend. This was his first kick at the GM can and he failed. I don't think he has been a GM since.

[Kristian]

This is going to sound ridiculous, but I think my *lowest* point as a Sabres fan, was when Timmy was resigned to his final contract here.

 

The guy was handed a 50% raise for being injured and lazy, on a team starved for depth down the middle. Darcy then went to the press, and told them that he looked around the league for a center, and then realised he had the best center available, already on the roster. I was ready to have a heart attack right there and then.

 

The final shred of doubt in my mind that this franchise was going nowhere until Darcy was gone, finally disappeared.

 

I cannot describe how empty I felt during that time. Darcy getting the can wasn't exactly in the cards.

[SwampD]

While devastating, losing finals cannot be considered a low point.

[Claude_Verret]

 

This? This is just ######. I wish I could buy into the inevitability of success (read: Cup) based on a ton of draft picks. I can't.

 

 

I feel compelled to respond every time this comes up. No one, here at least, has ever argued that this approach is guaranteed to work.

[dEnnis the Menace]

While devastating, losing finals cannot be considered a low point.

 

losing the finals wasn't the devastating low point. It was the realization afterwards that the team was not built or being rebuilt in the right direction, and watching the proverbially ship sink without being able to warn everyone of the iceberg ahead...

[X. Benedict]

Losing to Boston in 83.

The Northstars series in 81 sticks out too. 81 was a great team that lost in a 5 game series in three straight...if I remember correctly.

[26CornerBlitz]

The period when the team was run by the league after the Rigas family debacle.