Sabres’ Refusal to “Salute” Fans Confirmed

[Pimlach]

3 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Promo would let the year finish out but would have a meeting with the coach and GM, separately, maybe a player or two, to get an assessment as to what went wrong. I'd want to know in detail what was different this year from last. Injuries? Coaching failures? Opponents learning how to play us (and why no counterpunch from coaching?)  Mind you I'm no hockey mind. My experience stops at beer league.

I know the potential for affecting your GM is there when an owner sits in on things, but if Terry is just trying to understand hockey a bit more, I applaud him. As long as he sits in the corner quietly and saves the questions for after. I'd be tempted to do the same.

And I would probably find an outside voice on the QT to give an assessment from the outside as well.

 

You are talking an end of the year assessment, which I suspect they do as a matter of normal practice.  

I was asking about this salute thing, which was popping up in threads and finally covered by Harrington in the BN. 

I sure hope the decision to finally salute the fans after a home win was a direct order from TP  immediately upon being aware of it.  DG and Adams had to know this was going on, they are there very night.  

Incidentally, since the "Fire Donny Chant" the Sabres are have won 10 of their last 21 games and actually lost ground on the playoffs.  

They were 7-6 at home in that stretch, for this team that is pretty good, for a playoff team that is very poor.   

 

[DarthEbriate]

This is fun!

 

So if they win at home Monday morning and salute the fans after the game, are we happy that they grew up and acknowledged fans’ financial and applauding contributions again? Or are we angry that they capitulated and didn’t stick to their message? 

[Pimlach]

9 minutes ago, shrader said:

They’re lame because they’re done all the time. They’re the old choreographed fights of the Andrew Peters era. They’re participation trophies. 

So game over, just skate off the ice, go home everybody, move along?  Beat the traffic and get home.  

To me lame describes the entire hockey experience at HSBC anyway, with the exception of the players salute after one of their rare home wins.  

[SwampD]

1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

Well the salute, which has become hockey tradition, and is directly related to their performance on the ice.  I would prefer that the players see it as part of the tradition and a bond with fans and the community.   Fans cheer, the team salutes.  This is just like saying "thank you" and "your welcome".   One of the courtesies in our society that apparently you don't care about.    Good for you.  

From my perspective, you are perched upon some morale high ground with apparently no view of what is happening.  Your not caring does not make you enlightened, but it puts you with the players, the coach, the GM, and the absentee Owner. 

 

But it was a false, manufactured bond using someone else’s tradition.

1 hour ago, That Aud Smell said:

It frustrates me that the point here is getting lost.

I don’t think anyone here gives a sh1t whether the team salutes or doesn’t.

What’s causing concern is that an unnamed Sabre veteran - read: Okposo - confirmed that, after a handful of leather lungs bellowed “fire Donny” amidst a 9 goal shellacking, the team decided to stop making a customary gesture of fan appreciation.

It doesn’t matter what the gesture was. It doesn’t matter if it was good or bad. It doesn’t matter if you value it or don’t.

What matters is what the team and its leadership elected to do in response to frustration being voiced by some fans in the arena. And what they elected to do was effectively say “ well then fu*k them - Donny’s our guy.”

Awful.

Yep

59 minutes ago, JohnC said:

The fans understandably expressed some frustration with the team and staff. And then some players wanted to express their aggravations with the same fans. So what! Some of the players are doing the same things that some of the fans are doing i.e. expressing their back-and-forth frustrations. What's so surprising about each faction expressing their frustrations in what is such a disappointing season. This manufactured issue has two sides to it. A faction of the fans are expressing their frustration with the team and staff, and some of the players are in their way expressing their support for their coach. That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. 

As I said in my posts, the overuse of the "stick salute" has rendered it meaningless. That is how I see it. 

Still missing the point.

3 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

So game over, just skate off the ice, go home everybody, move along?  Beat the traffic and get home.  

To me lame describes the entire hockey experience at HSBC anyway, with the exception of the players salute after one of their rare home wins.  

I have news for you, their away wins are just as rare.

[That Aud Smell]

9 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

So if they win at home Monday morning and salute the fans after the game, are we happy that they grew up and acknowledged fans’ financial and applauding contributions again? Or are we angry that they capitulated and didn’t stick to their message? 

There’s no putting this toothpaste back in the tube, unfortunately.

[Stoner]

Mike's description of the Kings' postgame scene leaves the door open a crack as to whether someone laid down the law.

"The crowd was fully giving it up to the team after a 7-0 rout and, lo and behold, the players started to head directly off the ice after checking in with goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. But then something was said – couldn’t tell by whom – and the Goatheads reversed course, stopped and raised their sticks before leaving. It wasn’t a full gathering around the circle but at least it was something."

https://buffalonews.com/sports/professional/nhl/sabres/buffalo-sabres-nhl-don-granato-columbus-blue-jackets-toronto-maple-leafs/article_97abb70c-cc5a-11ee-8ab4-1f71e58cc14c.html

[shrader]

7 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

So game over, just skate off the ice, go home everybody, move along?  Beat the traffic and get home.  

To me lame describes the entire hockey experience at HSBC anyway, with the exception of the players salute after one of their rare home wins.  

I suppose the masses do eat up that stuff. Hell, look at every building when the noise meter video pops up with the most blatantly obvious loop you’ve ever seen. Me? I don’t want a script. I want spontaneity. 

[Flashsabre]

It’s painfully obvious that the Sabres leadership is failing the young players and there needs to be some major changes this summer

[That Aud Smell]

3 minutes ago, shrader said:

I suppose the masses do eat up that stuff. Hell, look at every building when the noise meter video pops up with the most blatantly obvious loop you’ve ever seen. Me? I don’t want a script. I want spontaneity. 

Arena experience snobbery! Lol.

There’s nothing so ear splitting as the sound from a noise meter graphic during a kid-heavy, sold-out matinee.

[Pimlach]

6 minutes ago, SwampD said:

.

I have news for you, their away wins are just as rare.

2022-23

Home  17 - 20 - 4   0.463

Away  25 - 13 - 3    0.644

2023-24

Home  12 - 15 - 1   0.446

Away   12 - 11 - 3   0.519

 

[PromoTheRobot]

22 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

You are talking an end of the year assessment, which I suspect they do as a matter of normal practice.  

I was asking about this salute thing, which was popping up in threads and finally covered by Harrington in the BN. 

I sure hope the decision to finally salute the fans after a home win was a direct order from TP  immediately upon being aware of it.  DG and Adams had to know this was going on, they are there very night.  

Incidentally, since the "Fire Donny Chant" the Sabres are have won 10 of their last 21 games and actually lost ground on the playoffs.  

They were 7-6 at home in that stretch, for this team that is pretty good, for a playoff team that is very poor.   

As the owner I assume you'd want me to NOT get involved in team matters, especially during the season. I can't see how me or Terry can say anything mid-season without meddling.

 

22 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

 

[SwampD]

5 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

2022-23

Home  17 - 20 - 4   0.463

Away  25 - 13 - 3    0.644

2023-24

Home  12 - 15 - 1   0.446

Away   12 - 11 - 3   0.519

 

It was a joke, but you just showed that this year, they have the same number of wins at home as they do on the road, and thus, just as rare.

😂

[Pimlach]

3 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

It’s painfully obvious that the Sabres leadership is failing the young players and there needs to be some major changes this summer

Whoever came up with the idea of not saluting the fans should have been told no.  

It went on for 13 home games, since they win so infrequently their little protest was hardly noticed. 

Their play has done nothing to help Granato's cause as they fell further down the standings.  

Yes, real leadership is lacking to say the least.   

 

[mjd1001]

Its not that the Fan salue is a big deal, its not that its needed in anyway. BUT, once you start doing it, it becomes noticable by its absense.

[Buffalonill]

9 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

It’s painfully obvious that the Sabres leadership is failing the young players and there needs to be some major changes this summer

They should have traded the "captain" when they had a chance to send a meassge and wake them up .

Oh well 

[Doohicksie]

3 hours ago, SwampD said:

I have always hated the stick solute. 

As was stated up thread, I never see it anyway as an expat who watches the games on ESPN+.  This is such a non-issue to me.  I think most fans also don't notice because they're already on their way to the exits.

[Indabuff]

3 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

 

It went on for 13 home games, since they win so infrequently their little protest was hardly noticed. 

 

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, SwampD said:

It was a joke, but you just showed that this year, they have the same number of wins at home as they do on the road, and thus, just as rare.

😂

It shows they are still better on the road this year, but only marginally, and that they dropped significantly in the year of their big dedicated playoff push.    

Additionally, even this year, if they had just an equal home winning percentage as they do their road winning percentage, they would be over .500 and would at least be in the running instead of long shot pretenders.  

Edited February 18 by Pimlach

[Porous Five Hole]

The fans dislike the team. The team dislikes the fans. Not winning anytime soon. Just a sad money pit. 

[Pimlach]

12 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

As the owner I assume you'd want me to NOT get involved in team matters, especially during the season. I can't see how me or Terry can say anything mid-season without meddling.

 

Meddling is telling the GM to trade a player, or draft a player,  etc.  

Meddling is not putting a stop to the players' fu@king with our fan base in a childish tit for tat snit.  

I expect him to know the difference.  

[SwampD]

5 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

As was stated up thread, I never see it anyway as an expat who watches the games on ESPN+.  This is such a non-issue to me.  I think most fans also don't notice because they're already on their way to the exits.

Again, still not the point of this thread.

I, too, don’t care about it or even see it, but, for the team to intentionally spite the fans because they themselves suck is ridiculous. Does anybody remember a players only post game meeting? It might be stupid, but at least it shows that they care and take some responsibility themselves. What they did basically says, “look, we know we suck. We don’t care, and shut up about it. We don’t want to hear it.”

[Doohicksie]

Whatev.

No one is innocent here, but everyone is justified.  It's just a ***** situation all around.

[Porous Five Hole]

This has happened before elsewhere. Nov 2014 in Toronto:

A day after neglecting to salute the crowd following a win on home ice, Toronto Maple Leafs players said the non-gesture was not intended as a shot at their fans.

Some speculated that the players were angry with their fans, a small number of whom have thrown team merchandise onto the ice during losses this season, and a larger number of whom  expressed their displeasure as the struggling team lost recent back-to-back games to Buffalo and Nashville by a combined score of 15-4.

This by no means was an attack on our fans or anything personal,” Phaneuf said. “This was about our team and changing up our routine.”

Forward James van Riemsdyk agreed.

“We have great respect for our fans…this by no means was an attack on our fans or anything personal.” 

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.2844931

 

Credit to the veteran Sabres player who at least was honest, I guess? Obligatory F the Leafs

 

And then there is a look back on salute-gate three years later:

https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/caught-toronto-maple-leafs-act-salute-gate/?sn-amp
 

 

[TageMVP]

First of all, the salute was stupid. They need validation that badly? You get paid a bazillion dollars to win. It makes more sense if it was a playoff game or cup clinching win, still stupid though. 

Second of all, who cares what Okposo says. Guy got elected captain only because he was here for a long time. Lame 

Make the playoffs and quit whining bums. Seriously 

[SwampD]

13 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Whatev.

No one is innocent here, but everyone is justified.  It's just a ***** situation all around.

Not really sure what that means, but, I’m innocent. I don’t play for the team and I certainly don’t go to games.