Highest point in your Sabre life?

[IKnowPhysics]

Playoff victories are always great. And there's been some really, really outstanding games. But there's a few games I hold very dear. Here's one.

 

But I specifically remember going to game six of the first round of the 2001 playoffs. This was the squad that was headlined by Satan, Barnes, Dumont, Gratton, GIlmour, Zhitnik. The Flyers had eliminated us the year before in the first round, and it was payback time. We were up 3-2 in the series, after two OT victories for us, but we had let the Flyers grab the previous game. It was a Saturday afternoon matinee game. Nobody was prepared for the complete ass whooping that the Flyers were about to receive in game six.

 

We score first, about 2:30 into the first period, and that gets the party rocking. Then Cechmanek seems to lose all motor function and we score three more goals in the last seven minutes of the of the first period, going up 4-0. By the third goal, the crowd is completely off its rocker and going bananas. There's no stopping it now. This pain train had no brakes, and Dumont's breakaway goal early in the 2nd period to put us up 5-0 was the evidence. The Sabres would finish off the decrepit Flyers by bludgeoning them with a rock, final score 8-0. Eight goals on 26 shots. The home crowd just ate it up, and we partied all night long all over town. It was glorious.

 

Every Flyers fan in attendance was eternally shamed- there were several Flyers jerseys found in trash cans around the arena. A year later, the Flyers would be eliminated in the first round again (by the Sens), scoring the fewest goals in a five game series ever. This resulted in head coach Bill Barber's prompt firing.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX4R2DWVhs8

 

Box Score: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/boxscores/2001/04/21/buf_phi/

 

Article: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/hockey/cup01/games/2001-04-21-bufphi.htm

 

BUFFALO, N.Y. — It was a collapse so complete that the shudders won't stop and the smoke won't clear until this summer.

The Philadelphia Flyers' season didn't just end Saturday afternoon. It imploded like one of those old buildings that are rigged with explosives and brought down in a billowing heap.

Outhit, outhustled, outskated and out-and-out embarrassed, the Flyers suffered the most lopsided playoff loss in franchise history at the gleeful hands of the Buffalo Sabres in Game 6 of the NHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.

The astounding 8-0 setback, before a chanting, pompom-waving crowd of 18,690 at HSBC Arena, sent the Flyers staggering into an offseason that almost certainly will include significant changes to the makeup and direction of the organization.

[SwampD]

Hasn't happened yet,… and it looks like it's going to be a while.

[LGR4GM]

Chris Drury versus the NYR: I will always remember this moment.

 

[dEnnis the Menace]

The last game in the 06-07 series against the Islanders. It was my first playoff game ever (as a freshman in college...I know), my dad took me, so it was the first Sabres game I went to with my dad in a LONG time (my parents divorced when I was young, and my dad moved back to b-lo and my mom and my sister and I moved to the Ithaca area), and it was absolutely awesome.

 

Sharing that moment with my dad was the high point in my Sabres fandom.

[shrader]

Playoff victories are always great. And there's been some really, really outstanding games. But there's a few games I hold very dear. Here's one.

 

But I specifically remember going to game six of the first round of the 2001 playoffs. This was the squad that was headlined by Satan, Barnes, Dumont, Gratton, GIlmour, Zhitnik. The Flyers had eliminated us the year before in the first round, and it was payback time. We were up 3-2 in the series, after two OT victories for us, but we had let the Flyers grab the previous game. It was a Saturday afternoon matinee game. Nobody was prepared for the complete ass whooping that the Flyers were about to receive in game six.

 

We score first, about 2:30 into the first period, and that gets the party rocking. Then Cechmanek seems to lose all motor function and we score three more goals in the last seven minutes of the of the first period, going up 4-0. By the third goal, the crowd is completely off its rocker and going bananas. There's no stopping it now. This pain train had no brakes, and Dumont's breakaway goal early in the 2nd period to put us up 5-0 was the evidence. The Sabres would finish off the decrepit Flyers by bludgeoning them with a rock, final score 8-0. Eight goals on 26 shots. The home crowd just ate it up, and we partied all night long all over town. It was glorious.

 

Every Flyers fan in attendance was eternally shamed- there were several Flyers jerseys found in trash cans around the arena. A year later, the Flyers would be eliminated in the first round again (by the Sens), scoring the fewest goals in a five game series ever. This resulted in head coach Bill Barber's prompt firing.

 

And then there was the follow up to that series. You want to talk about moments that sting? That one is way up there.

 

edit: And I lost track of which thread I was in. But anyway, the two threads go together really well.

Edited May 15, 2014 by shrader

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Watching the French Connection. Poetry in motion.

 

Gilbert scoring his 500th.

 

This goal ...

 

 

And, this goal ...

 

[nfreeman]

The highest point for me was beating Ottawa in the 2006 playoffs, with 7-6 being the highest of the highest. Ottawa had an incredible team that year. I don't think anyone outside of the Sabres' locker room thought the Sabres could win that series. But Lindy did, and Drury, Briere, Grier and McKee weren't afraid of anyone.

 

Beating them as an underdog, especially in the context of the franchise's then-recent history (i.e. team rising from the ashes of bankruptcy, felonious owner, near-departure of franchise, no playoffs for 5 years), was fantastic, thrilling and unforgettable.

 

Those were the days.

[shrader]

That 2006-07 season really was a blast. Forget for a second all that talk about how people knew they weren't built for the playoffs. We got to watch 6 months straight of high scoring hockey with plenty of last second heart attack inducing comebacks. I would gladly take another extended period of fun hockey like that at any point.

[Hoss]

[Brawndo]

May Day Goal. I was in the Aud Standing Room Only behind the Oranges. I actually missed seeing the goal because the entire section in front of me stood up once May made his move and blocked my view.

 

Pommer's OT Goal is a close second.

Edited May 15, 2014 by BRAWNDO

[CallawaySabres]

In person, I would have to say Drury's goal against the Rangers and Stanley Cup game 3 against the Stars - walking into the building.

[Weave]

06-07 is up there. May Day was incredible. A single day high point for me was the day they announced Mogilny had defected. In the context of the Cold War in full swing, all of the intrigue that went with it, it was an amazing event in Sabres history.

[Trettioåtta]

Ottawa 2006 - The first game we won like 7-6 and Pommers OT winner (still my favourite goal of all time). I honestly didn't think they would do it, as Ottawa had been their achilles heal all season, and they just handed it to them.

 

Rangers 2007 - Drury tying it late and Afinoganov winning it in OT 10 minutes later

[Randall Flagg]

The entire 05-07 years. Most specifically, Game Six, Carolina, when Briere potted the OT goal. I was forced to go to bed but had the radio under the covers with headphones in, and he scored, and I threw the covers up in the air, forgot I was supposed to be asleep, and ran around the house. Those moments, I was positive we were going to bring home the cup. I could feel it. Sigh

[BetweenThePipes00]

The Drury-Max game vs NYR may be it, but it's hard to pick one moment. The Drury goal was more a relief because the Sabres dominated that game, but when they actually won it I allowed myself to think maybe they really had a shot even though that whole season felt like there was something missing compared to 05-06.

 

 

Coming at it from another direction: I may have told this story before, but going to the Sabres-Nordiques 1-1 tie in 1984 with my Grandfather ... Sunday night, second half of an old Adams Division home&home ... I was 13 and for the first time wasn't treated like a little kid at the game ... first row of the Oranges, section 25 or 27 on the corner ... debating whether they should have played "the kid" in goal even though he played the night before (they didn't, Sauve played) ... Dale Hunter knocked Mike Ramsey's teeth out with his stick .. Michel Bergeron got doused with beer as he argued the penalty despite the teeth scattered on the ice ... Marion Stastny scored shorthanded in the second and Cyr tied it on the PP in the 3rd ... I'd choose to re-live that game over any other ... and we didn't need a shootout. Imagine that.

[X. Benedict]

The entire 05-07 years. Most specifically, Game Six, Carolina, when Briere potted the OT goal. I was forced to go to bed but had the radio under the covers with headphones in, and he scored, and I threw the covers up in the air, forgot I was supposed to be asleep, and ran around the house. Those moments, I was positive we were going to bring home the cup. I could feel it. Sigh

 

That was a fun series. Ahhh, raping, pillaging, plunder, path of destruction. Good times.

[Jerry Jabber]

Sweeping the Bruins in the first round of the 1992-93 playoffs.

[X. Benedict]

The Drury-Max game vs NYR may be it, but it's hard to pick one moment. The Drury goal was more a relief because the Sabres dominated that game, but when they actually won it I allowed myself to think maybe they really had a shot even though that whole season felt like there was something missing compared to 05-06.

 

 

Coming at it from another direction: I may have told this story before, but going to the Sabres-Nordiques 1-1 tie in 1984 with my Grandfather ... Sunday night, second half of an old Adams Division home&home ... I was 13 and for the first time wasn't treated like a little kid at the game ... first row of the Oranges, section 25 or 27 on the corner ... debating whether they should have played "the kid" in goal even though he played the night before (they didn't, Sauve played) ... Dale Hunter knocked Mike Ramsey's teeth out with his stick .. Michel Bergeron got doused with beer as he argued the penalty despite the teeth scattered on the ice ... Marion Stastny scored shorthanded in the second and Cyr tied it on the PP in the 3rd ... I'd choose to re-live that game over any other ... and we didn't need a shootout. Imagine that.

 

I loved the old Nords-Sabres games most of all. Quebec was such a talented and feisty team with huge defensive lapses that made for wide open and combative hockey.

Edited May 15, 2014 by X. Benedict

[Hoss]

I'm surprised nobody has went with "the day they fired Rolston/Darcy."

[nfreeman]

The Drury-Max game vs NYR may be it, but it's hard to pick one moment. The Drury goal was more a relief because the Sabres dominated that game, but when they actually won it I allowed myself to think maybe they really had a shot even though that whole season felt like there was something missing compared to 05-06.

 

 

Coming at it from another direction: I may have told this story before, but going to the Sabres-Nordiques 1-1 tie in 1984 with my Grandfather ... Sunday night, second half of an old Adams Division home&home ... I was 13 and for the first time wasn't treated like a little kid at the game ... first row of the Oranges, section 25 or 27 on the corner ... debating whether they should have played "the kid" in goal even though he played the night before (they didn't, Sauve played) ... Dale Hunter knocked Mike Ramsey's teeth out with his stick .. Michel Bergeron got doused with beer as he argued the penalty despite the teeth scattered on the ice ... Marion Stastny scored shorthanded in the second and Cyr tied it on the PP in the 3rd ... I'd choose to re-live that game over any other ... and we didn't need a shootout. Imagine that.

I loved the old Nords-Sabres games most of all. Quebec was such a talented and feisty team with huge defensive lapses that made for wide open and combative hockey.

 

I fully appreciate the financial realities, but still: the NHL lost a bit of its soul when the Nordiques left town. The Stastnys. Dale Hunter. Michel Goulet. Goose Gosselin. As XB noted, they were a highly entertaining team. And when they played Montreal -- holy mackerel. It was ON.

Edited May 15, 2014 by nfreeman

[KD in CT]

Getting a beer between periods 2 and 3 during the ECF in Raleigh. They were only 20 minutes away.....

[X. Benedict]

I fully appreciate the financial realities, but still: the NHL lost a bit of its soul when the Nordiques left town. The Stastnys. Dale Hunter. Michel Goulet. Goose Gosselin. As XB noted, they were a highly entertaining team. And when they played Montreal -- holy mackerel. It was ON.

 

Some of those Habs-Nords games were absolute bloodbaths. Bench-clearing brawls that lasted days.

[WildCard]

http://youtu.be/hEpr8moQBPs

This, and the Briere goal from the first game of the Flyers-Sabres series in 2006. Drove all night from South Carolina in my mom's mini-van with that little headphone jack above the middle seats searching frantically for the station. My mom let us stop at my great-grandma's to let me finish watching the game and we got there just in time to see Briere's winner.

Edited May 15, 2014 by WildCard

[Weave]

I loved the Adams Division era. Boston, Buffalo, Quebec, Montreal, Hartford. Man, there was some ill will in alot of those games.

[tom webster]

A lot of the same moments already mentioned but I was never prouder then when the team got a standing ovation when they played at the Montreal Forum a couple of days after they beat the Russians 12 to 6. I just got goose bumps typing this.

Edited May 15, 2014 by tom webster