Sabre Dance

John Pizzarelli at Buff State in May and Brian Wilson at UB in September... So far, that is all.

Indeed - I am a South Buffalo boy meself (well, technically I lived about 40 yards south of the Buffalo, Lackawanna border...but many of my friends lived in South Buffalo).

I was an NHL fan for five years before the Sabres even existed. Those were the days of the "Original Six" (which isn't technically true, but that's another story). Chicago was my team because they had awesome jerseys AND they had a player who had the same first name as my dad, Stan (Stan Mikita, of course). I still remember the names of many players on that team: Bill White, Pat Stapleton, Bobby Hull (and brother Dennis), and Tony Esposito, still one of the best goalies ever. When I found out that Buffalo was going to get it's own NHL team, I nearly turned handsprings. I was going to be able to see Bobby Hull and Bobby Orr and the Montreal freakin' CANADIENS! Live, in person! Well, of course, every game was a sellout for several years. I finally got to go see a game in person when one of my dad's co-workers who had season tickets coudn't go and gave the tickets to us. The seats were first row orange, directly behind the net down at the Zamboni end of the Aud. The tickets were $5.00 each. That's right, FIVE BUCKS. If it was a thrill to watch Gilbert Perrault on TV, it was stupifying to see him in person. He just seemed to have an extra gear when he wound up behind his own net. It's still strange after a game (or other event) at the FNC not to hear upside-down soft drink cups being popped. Watching the Canadiens play at the Forum (even if it was on TV) was like watching the Pope celebrate mass at St. Peter's. It was like the Mecca of Hockey. I nearly wept when the league lost the Forum, Chicago Stadium and the Olympia. As crummy an arena as Boston Garden was at the end of its life, it was way cooler watching a game there than nearly any game at TD Bank Garden, or whatever its name is this week... Boston Garden and the Aud were the two smallest ice surfaces in the NHL for quite a while...that's why games against the Bruins were always a good matchup. Both teams were geared for playing in tight corners. There were some real characters back then - a prime example was the Entertainer, Eddie Shack. Yes, he could play hockey pretty well, but he was more than just a player. You never quite knew what he would try next. How about Johnny McKenzie of the Bruins? He was the late '60's version of Brad Marchand. Or Gump Worsley - Gump is still the best nickname for an NHL player...ever. Well, I could go on. Somehow, the "mystery", the "romance" if you will is sadly missing from the modern game. Everything, from the arenas to the style of play, is homogenized. I still watch, but it isn't the same and (of course) never will be. But, I still have the memories ;)

Even though nearly all of the road games are on TV.... ;) In the NBA and MLB, white (or light) jerseys are worn by the home team. It's the NFL and NHL that confound the issue. For the record, white jerseys at home , please.....

I haven't gone out on New Year's Eve for many years, but still have a couple of traditions - I usually get some shrimp, cheese, chips, pepperoni, chip dip, etc. and "Eat the old year out" and then "eat the new year in". (Yeah, minds out of the gutter, please...) It's supposed to make it so you won't go hungry in the new year or some such. The other tradition is to eat pork on New Year's Day. The reasoning is that you don't want to eat meat from an animal like a chicken that scratches backwards to find its food (i.e., looking backwards to the old year). You want to have meat from an animal that roots forward for its food, like a pig (i.e., moving forward in the new year). Hence, tomorrow will be stuffed pork chops and sauerkraut. That's just about my favorite home-cooked meal, anyway. Happy 2016 to all SabreSpace cadets, the Sabres, the Pegulas and the City of Buffalo!! Let's look forward to an awesome year! :thumbsup:

1) It has been said before (by me, among others): Buffalo is an extraordinarily tough entertainment market. It takes a lot more to get a Buffalo audience (for any type of entertainment) excited than those in other cities. 2) Team performance and expectations have been awful for the last two seasons plus. 3) Ticket prices are high enough that more of those who buy season tickets don't go to all 41 games and sell some off to the secondary market. Many of those who buy tix on StubHub, etc. are either fans of the other team (read "Toronto") or don't have a vested interest in the Sabres. For them it's a night out - nothing more. (Fixing #2 will help this). 4) Yes, NHL hockey IS boring. I rarely watch non-Sabres games on TV any more because games just aren't exciting. AND, thanks to the tank action of the last two years, I don't watch many Sabres games any more, either. There are simply too many other demands on my time and/or more fun things to do. 5) There is some validity to the white -collar, cell phone lovin', younger, less involved fans theory(ies). Add them up and you have an atmosphere in the FNC as fun and exciting as a Sweden - Finland curling final in Orlando.

Hey...you never know. Some years back, there was a ref (now retired) who always seemed to favor whatever team the Sabres were playing. In one of the game programs that year, there was a list of refs and the Sabres' record when they were officiating (now this is when there was just one ref). The Sabres record was pretty close to .500 for each ref...except one. Yep, you guessed it. When the ref everyone loved to hate was in charge, the Sabres lost every game except one. So.... ;)

That, my friend, is probably the best description of The Donald I've heard yet - he is a giant fart. He makes a lot of noise, he stinks and we can't wait for him to be gone with the wind.... :thumbsup:

Hosting the World Junoirs once was very cool. When you've done well enough to have them come back a second time (and hopefully more after that), you're really doing well. Hats off to Buffalo and the Pegulas - Center of the Hockey Universe!

Welll....my idea of a better fan experience is to see an exciting team that wins more than loses. In that, he has not been successful. I do agree that had he cleaned house at the end of the season he took over the team, we'd be two years closer to a competitive team.

A key to a Buffalo win is to get to Brady early in the game. He may complete a bunch of passes at first, but if you blitz him and knock him around a little, he gets rattled. That usually means he gets "happy feet" and/or takes an extra second to throw the ball. That can make a difference. Even if it doesn't, Brady still gets knocked around, and that can be almost as satisfying as a Bills' win. Almost.

Y'all do realize that cell phones can be turned off...right? ;)

The color the Jets wore last night was "Kelly green"; that used to be their color back in the past, but recently they've been using a darker shade (the exact name I do not know.) I thought the Bills' uniforms were too red. One of the two teams should have been wearing white jerseys. The red and green together were just too much. (Note to the NFL - check some of the major colleges' uniforms. There are some sharp combinations out there.)

Just starting "The Witches: Salem 1692". To me this has always been one of the most fascinating/disturbing episodes of American history.

My condolences to those who have lost loved ones (both human and animal). Saying goodbye is very difficult. Sizzle, in regard to your job search, a close friend was searching for a new job most of last year. He sent resumes to several places in response to ads and never heard back. He just happened to meet up with a hiring manager (at a training seminar) for one of the positions he applied for. She told him she never saw his resume. Many places are contracting out the applicant screening process - those companies are using algorithms to filter out resumes that don't fit the particulars of a job well enough. The problem is, my friend was more than experienced enough but that experience was not in the EXACT field the companies were looking for and they never forwarded his resume/application on to the hiring manager. If you see a job you are really interested in, definitely submit your resusme/application through normal channels BUT, check into the company and see if you can also get a resume directly to an individual who has direct contact with the position you are looking at (a supervisor, recruiter, etc.) These days, it sometimes takes direct networking to land a job...

These actually go WAY back - I remember seeing them in the late sixties. Then they went away for a few years and eventually made a comeback. So, they are still around, eh?

I believe it was the first commercial station with a regular broadcast schedule and that it began those broadcasts in 1920.

I'm so sorry to hear this, Bio...it makes it hard to reconcile a situation like this with actors, athletes, CEOs, etc. making millions. Sometimes capitalism just sucks. :cry:

Man, I hate to be a buzzkill, but here's where I'm at: Events in my life and in the Buffalo sports scene in the last few years have shown me that there is way more to life than worrying about the Bills and Sabres. The Bills were on the verge four times and the Sabres twice - I don't know if I have the heart or the interest any more to keep getting my hopes up. I really want both teams to do well, but....I have more important things to consider at this point in my life. I'll keep my eye on the sports page and hope for the best.... :thumbsup:

I used to carry a Swiss Army knife with me at all times (and it came in handy very often). However, the campus where I work does not allow weapons (and they consider anything with a blade a weapon), so I had to stop carrying it. Must've been that dangerous corkscrew.... :rolleyes:

Because it would cut into profits. We've even "demoted" certain holidays (like Columbus Day earlier this week) so that many businesses do not give their workers these "minor" holidays off anymore. If they can't even give employees a few extra paid days off every year, how are they going to give the parents of a newborn many weeks of paid time off?

I'm making my second trip to the A**le Store to have them look at the $1600 laptop I bought two months ago that keeps crashing. I've reinstalled the operating system twice (the second time after reformatting the hard drive). Hardware diagnostics have not revealed an issue and running a disk check on the hard drive has found nothing wrong. There are only two third-party programs loaded on the machine; a drawing program and an anti-virus. The other day, the OS went belly up just playing a music file (with the music player built into the OS). I thought perhaps the music file was corrupt, but after rebooting the same file played just fine. All my friends and co-workers swear that they have never, ever run into any problems like the one I am having with their (fruit name) computers. I should have just invested the $1600 in the stock market.... :wallbash:

It is my considered opinion that there is no completely selfless act. Pegula's real reasons for purchasing the Sabres and Bills and revamping the foot of Main Street may never truly be known. His motives may be no more nefarious than just wanting to do a nice thing for a city that had been down on it's luck for years. It may be that he is doing all this to cleanse his conscience from all of the horrible side effects his fracking business may have caused. All I know is that his stated intention up front when buying the Sabres was to bring a Stanley Cup to Buffalo. Admittedly, there is a learning curve, but so far his efforts have not borne out...yet. It's kind of like a drunk walking to his car - he'll get there eventually, but not in a straight line. So far, there's been a whole lot of lurching going on. If Pegula had to pick a city to bestow his "blessings" on, I am glad it was Buffalo and not Columbus (or Altoona). Time will tell what his true purpose was/is. I just wish he had started his "rebuild" of the Sabres a couple years sooner; we might be a contender by now.... :thumbsup:

Nobody reads anything anymore....(well, except on this board). And no one takes any initiative to find out things on their own. Someone sent me a two paragraph email the other day to ask me for a web site address. They could have found a link to the same site by typing three words into a web search.