Stoner Posted May 16, 2022 Report Posted May 16, 2022 (edited) Poets, historians, futurists and dreamers — gather 'round. This one's a doozy. Rick's retirement is a distinct historical marker in franchise history. I've been thinking of it as, in his words, "halfway through the second period!" How would you thematically sum up the first 50-ish years of Sabres hockey? What will the next 50 bring? I might not get there with ya (I'd be 104), but certainly many of the young ones here will make it to 2070. What will they say about The Second Act? And how will the game and the experience of being a fan of the game have changed? You can use use the other side of your paper. Edited May 16, 2022 by PASabreFan Quote
Radar Posted May 16, 2022 Report Posted May 16, 2022 At age 79 I'm not planning on being active but my prophetic take is professional sports on a whole may be on a decline such as baseball since the "golden age". 1 Quote
That Aud Smell Posted May 16, 2022 Report Posted May 16, 2022 (Huge lift. I'll try to come back to this one.) Quote
Sabres Fan in NS Posted May 16, 2022 Report Posted May 16, 2022 Lets see ... The first 50 years ... Fiesty, but bad. Better and Connection is born. PLAYOFFS!! FINALS!! Avenge Parent!! Still good, but not lucky. BOWMAN!! We got this ... 1980 playoff ... maybe best team to date. Damn you Islanders!! Sabre vets in tears. What has Bowman done!! Too many first rounders to count. Many very good. Somethings not right with these new fangled Sabres. AVENGE PARK!! Vast wasteland. Buffalo Sators. 1st overall ... oh, la, la ... Defection and spy novel stuff. Smilin' Ger goes the Island and turns Pierre into LaLa. MAY DAY!! Muckler is a dumb ass, but loyal. or is it the other way around ... Hardest working team in the NHL. Dominator in ... Nolan out ... FINALS PART 2!! Damn you Hull ... Croocks in the house. Crooks in the jail house. BANKRUPT!! Sabres run by the NHL. OSP !! Hero. Now do you believe!! Who else !! PT ... who cares ... Not too bad, but cheap ***** ruin it for everybody ... TP from OSP !! Where's Perreault (you think he would recodnize his boyhood hero ?? No ??) Lets go for it one last time ... nothing doing ... Suffering ... Dummies in charge ... See ya' Lindy (oh, boy ...) See ya' DR ... Revolving door in front office ... New fangled GMs are generally terrible ... Shinny new toys are all dented ... Lets try to waste a whole pile of dough on one big name in FA ... See ya new toy #1 ... See ya new toy #2 ... The kids may be alright ... The kids really are starting to look alright ... Good effort and good coach ... The kids are looking good ... And here we are ... Here is to the next 50, which may look a lot like the first 50. Hopefully a cup in there, but it's hard to get one. 2 1 1 Quote
tom webster Posted May 16, 2022 Report Posted May 16, 2022 5 minutes ago, Sabres Fan in NS said: Lets see ... The first 50 years ... Fiesty, but bad. Better and Connection is born. PLAYOFFS!! FINALS!! Avenge Parent!! Still good, but not lucky. BOWMAN!! We got this ... 1980 playoff ... maybe best team to date. Damn you Islanders!! Sabre vets in tears. What has Bowman done!! Too many first rounders to count. Many very good. Somethings not right with these new fangled Sabres. AVENGE PARK!! Vast wasteland. Buffalo Sators. 1st overall ... oh, la, la ... Defection and spy novel stuff. Smilin' Ger goes the Island and turns Pierre into LaLa. MAY DAY!! Muckler is a dumb ass, but loyal. or is it the other way around ... Hardest working team in the NHL. Dominator in ... Nolan out ... FINALS PART 2!! Damn you Hull ... Croocks in the house. Crooks in the jail house. BANKRUPT!! Sabres run by the NHL. OSP !! Hero. Now do you believe!! Who else !! PT ... who cares ... Not too bad, but cheap ***** ruin it for everybody ... TP from OSP !! Where's Perreault (you think he would recodnize his boyhood hero ?? No ??) Lets go for it one last time ... nothing doing ... Suffering ... Dummies in charge ... See ya' Lindy (oh, boy ...) See ya' DR ... Revolving door in front office ... New fangled GMs are generally terrible ... Shinny new toys are all dented ... Lets try to waste a whole pile of dough on one big name in FA ... See ya new toy #1 ... See ya new toy #2 ... The kids may be alright ... The kids really are starting to look alright ... Good effort and good coach ... The kids are looking good ... And here we are ... Here is to the next 50, which may look a lot like the first 50. Hopefully a cup in there, but it's hard to get one. That 1980 team. The real one that got away. 4 Quote
tom webster Posted May 16, 2022 Report Posted May 16, 2022 23 minutes ago, tom webster said: That 1980 team. The real one that got away. Also, the end of Rick Martin. Rightly or not, Scotty never forgave Rico for that islander series and placed a lot of blame on him. 1 1 Quote
Mustache of God Posted May 16, 2022 Report Posted May 16, 2022 5 hours ago, PASabreFan said: Poets, historians, futurists and dreamers — gather 'round. This one's a doozy. Rick's retirement is a distinct historical marker in franchise history. I've been thinking of it as, in his words, "halfway through the second period!" How would you thematically sum up the first 50-ish years of Sabres hockey? What will the next 50 bring? I might not get there with ya (I'd be 104), but certainly many of the young ones here will make it to 2070. What will they say about The Second Act? And how will the game and the experience of being a fan of the game have changed? You can use use the other side of your paper. 45 stanley cups. 1 Quote
Stoner Posted May 16, 2022 Author Report Posted May 16, 2022 1 minute ago, Mustache of God said: 45 stanley cups. But how many Norri? Quote
Taro T Posted May 16, 2022 Report Posted May 16, 2022 (edited) For the 1st 42 or so years of it, would say The Blues East. (From the colors, to being consistently good though not quite good enough, to having top notch goaltending, to iconic play-by-play men, to threats to franchise stability; they were what St. Louis had been.) For the last 11 years, Celebrate the Tradition, Not. (And had they stayed the course rather than tearing everything down to the studs, maybe they'd finally have 1 championship as well. It's a good model to follow & for long stretches they actually followed it better than the original. Depending on the year, they & the Habs might be joined by the Aisles or Eulers or somebody else, but they were always near the top of the list for winningest franchises in the regular season. Even going so far as to tie for the lead in 2 separate seasons which help to keep the overall franchise winning percentage high.) As to the future & the next 48 years or so, no idea, so will simply keep it at Hopeful. Edited May 16, 2022 by Taro T 2 Quote
Pimlach Posted May 17, 2022 Report Posted May 17, 2022 On 5/16/2022 at 12:17 PM, tom webster said: That 1980 team. The real one that got away. Hard to say this is the one that got away when they didn't make the finals. They lost to the Isles in 6 games despite having home ice advantage. I can say this was one of the best Sabres teams ever. The two times the Sabres went to the finals were the ones that got away. Quote
tom webster Posted May 17, 2022 Report Posted May 17, 2022 23 minutes ago, Pimlach said: Hard to say this is the one that got away when they didn't make the finals. They lost to the Isles in 6 games despite having home ice advantage. I can say this was one of the best Sabres teams ever. The two times the Sabres went to the finals were the ones that got away. Number 3 in goals, number 1 in goals against, second in points. Bowman really thought they were the best team. I understand your opinion but disagree. 2 Quote
dudacek Posted May 17, 2022 Report Posted May 17, 2022 1 hour ago, tom webster said: Number 3 in goals, number 1 in goals against, second in points. Bowman really thought they were the best team. I understand your opinion but disagree. Yeah, it's right there with '75 and '06 in my book. Better-coached team than either. Perreault was at the top of his game. Quote
Pimlach Posted May 18, 2022 Report Posted May 18, 2022 (edited) 4 hours ago, tom webster said: Number 3 in goals, number 1 in goals against, second in points. Bowman really thought they were the best team. I understand your opinion but disagree. They may have been the best team. I remember being an intern for a company in Clarence during that playoff run. I got a few of my workmates interested in the Sabres because of that team. But that was not the year one got away. They failed to even make the finals despite having the home ice advantage in the semis. They were almost swept by the Islanders. It was good to see some comeback 2 hours ago, dudacek said: Yeah, it's right there with '75 and '06 in my book. Better-coached team than either. Perreault was at the top of his game. Bowman drafted Dudacek. Clever. 🙂 Edited May 18, 2022 by Pimlach 1 Quote
tom webster Posted May 18, 2022 Report Posted May 18, 2022 (edited) 9 hours ago, Pimlach said: They may have been the best team. I remember being an intern for a company in Clarence during that playoff run. I got a few of my workmates interested in the Sabres because of that team. But that was not the year one got away. They failed to even make the finals despite having the home ice advantage in the semis. They were almost swept by the Islanders. It was good to see some comeback Bowman drafted Dudacek. Clever. 🙂 Bowman was a great coach. As a GM, not so much, but if you look at that draft, there wasn’t much to choose from after the top few. Edited May 18, 2022 by tom webster Quote
Sabres Fan in NS Posted May 18, 2022 Report Posted May 18, 2022 13 hours ago, thewookie1 said: Was 1980 better than 05-06? Yes. Quote
mphs mike Posted May 19, 2022 Report Posted May 19, 2022 On 5/18/2022 at 9:47 AM, Sabres Fan in NS said: Yes. I agree about 1980, but there was also the 75-76 team. They should have beaten the Isles then, but giving up the GWG with seconds left in game5 was a killer. 1 Quote
French Collection Posted May 19, 2022 Report Posted May 19, 2022 May we have someone close to RJs abilities to be our guide, punctuate the highlights and keep us engaged. Quote
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