OT-This was 10 years ago

[Brawndo]

10 years ago tonight Chris Drury scores with less than 10 seconds to tie the game against the Rangers.

 

https://youtu.be/zvNy7pVCDLA

[GoPre]

:cry: Where does time go?  I'll never forget that moment.  Never forget where I was at, who I was watching the game with and even what type of beer practically flew out of my hand when Drury tied it up.  Easily one of my favorite Sabres memories.  Still watch the replay every now and then.  And yes, I still get goosebumps. Soon enough we'll get back to that.  Soon enough....

Edited May 4, 2017 by GoPre

[inkman]

Chris Drury

[Jerry Jabber]

Hard to believe it's been ten years since a Buffalo sports team was any good.

[North Buffalo]

Hard to believe it's been ten years since a Buffalo sports team was any good.

Thanks for the reminder... not

[darksabre]

This might have been my favorite moment as a Sabres fan. I can't recall being more excited. 

It's a shame everything had to end the way it did. This moment could have been all-time great. 

[Jerry Jabber]

This might have been my favorite moment as a Sabres fan. I can't recall being more excited. 

 

It's a shame everything had to end the way it did. This moment could have been all-time great. 

 

Those two years were a fun time to be a Sabres fan! Too bad our whole defense was injured the year before against Carolina as we were 20 minutes from the Stanley Cup.

[SwampD]

Wait, a 2-1 overtime game was exciting? I thought we hated those.

 

 

 

 

 

:devil:

[MattPie]

I have a tough time placing this one, strangely. Pommer's OT on Emery I remember exactly, Max's goal against the Rangers, yes, but this one I can't remember.

[PromoTheRobot]

Ever notice our best moments came when we wore "ugly" unis?

[nfreeman]

Who else?

 

Who else?

[JohnRobertEichel]

Hard to believe, but once upon a time the playoffs were more exciting than the draft.

[Taro T]

Ever notice our best moments came when we wore "ugly" unis?

"Thank you Sabres" was in ugly unis?

 

12-6 over the Ruskies was in ugly unis?

 

The "fog game" was in ugly unis?

 

Mogilny's magic season was in ugly unis?

 

May Day was in ugly unis?

 

70 save shutout was in ugly unis?

 

Reinhart's hatty was in ugly unis?

 

Really?

[Thorny]

This was an amazing goal. It felt so unlikely at the time, to score so late.

 

My favourite might be the Pominville OT goal. It FELT like we were on the way to a Cup. Hard to match that feeling.

[Doohickie]

This might have been my favorite moment as a Sabres fan. I can't recall being more excited.

 

The thing is, the fans had extreme confidence in Drury.  He had that "Don't worry, we got this" vibe.  He wasn't called Captain Clutch for nothing.  It's been so, so long since we've had players like that on either Buffalo sports team.  We hope Jack is that guy, and maybe with the right system and supporting cast, he will be.  But we had Mature Chris Drury at the top of his game.  Jack's a very good player, but I think he's still learning his craft.

[PASabreFan]

Why OT?

 

I always loved that Drury the robot finally created a moment that Drury the human being had to celebrate.

[ubkev]

Reinhart's hatty was in ugly unis?

 

Cute...

[Weave]

Edit- wrong thread.......

 

 

move along.

Edited May 4, 2017 by We've

[Thorny]

Cute...

I was at that game, in Winnipeg. It was awesome.

[PASabreFan]

I found something I about wrote about this game...

 

HAPPY ENDING
Feel-good hit writes Buffalo sports history a better day

BUFFALO — Henry Ian Cusick as Ryan Miller. Ryan Phillipe as Maxim Afinogenov. Kim Basinger as The Sign Lady. And the incomparable Chris Drury, of course, as himself.

In our version of "Miracle," Miller allows a freaky goal that looks like it's going to cost his team its season and its dream, The Sign Lady leads the faithful when all hope seems to be lost and Drury rescues Buffalo with a seeing-eye shot for the ages. Afinogenov then goes from the press box to the middle of one of the wildest celebrations in franchise history, redeemed, but not until Drury almost goes from superhero to slug, his rescuer — Miller.

We might have to make this one ourselves. Even Hollywood might find this plot too implausible.

The first scene is a slow-motion shot of Miller, dramatic music low in the background, lifting up his mask, the camera tight to his pained face, letting out a sigh, taking a wistful look behind him.

Cut.

The final scene revisits the first, this time at real speed, and we pull back to see that Miller is skating away from a joyous scene along the glass, the sigh is one of relief and the look is merely a double take to make sure what he thinks just happened really just happened. The soundtrack, well you know what the soundtrack is.

What happens in between is a story of how Buffalo sports history gets rewritten on the fly, how heartbreak and disappointment didn't have to happen to us again. How one of those days turned into a better day.

The first draft, funded by Manhattan money and favored by Hollywood, had Miller the scapegoat and Henrik Lundqvist the toast of New York. The fans believing in a curse again after Martin Straka wristed a shot from too far out through the legs of Brian Campbell and past the blocker of Miller with a couple minutes left. The realization of everyone's worst fears, the nagging feeling you got as the clock ticked past 10 minutes to go in the third period, the score unbelievably still tied at nothing nothing.

You almost had to applaud the Hockey Gods. A fluky goal to break a scoreless tie after 57 minutes of a game where overtime seemed to commence off the opening faceoff was a nice touch, and sending it off the in-net camera brilliant. Silencing that growing chant of Let's Go Buffalo? Harsh, but effective.

It didn't have the finality of No Goal, the shock of Homerun Throwback, the cruelty of No Goal II or the utter heartbreak of Wide Right, but this moment was going to be right up there.

Sure, it had all been done before — Bob Kelly's wraparound early in a scoreless third period at the Aud in Game 6 of the 75 finals came to mind; Daniel Briere off the post in the second period would become this team's James Patrick Moment. And tell me if you've seen this one before: the Sabres need a goal to save their season, and as the minutes drain off the clock like the blood from your face, you just know it's not going to happen.

But these Sabres decided to direct a different version.

With 16.7 seconds left in the third period and the faceoff in the New York zone after the Rangers iced the puck, something almost unprecedented in our sports memory. Not that some lose faith, good parts of the club level emptying out, people forgetting Ottawa in Game 1 and every other unthinkable comeback this team has pulled off, but that most do not, standing as one and willing their team to survive.

Cue the Monkees song "I'm a Believer." At the words "then I saw her face," we see her face on the MSG broadcast, the woman with the platinum blonde hair and the soulful blue eyes and the old school Foligno sweater who couldn't leave them if she tried. They call her The Sign Lady, but on this night she's been holding up a homemade Stanley Cup. And those eyes are pleading, bleeding, believing. With others around her looking dejected, she sings out loud, starts a chant of Let's Go Buffalo that begins to spread, hope having been firmly planted. And then she starts to pray.

In a moment that's only true in fairy tales, her wish is granted.

With the director calling for super-quick cuts and photographers' flash bulbs between them, Zubrus spills two Rangers in the corner and Drury finds Tim Connolly with a pass that goes through legs and Drury skates to a pre-destined spot to Lundqvist's right and Drury locates the rebound of Connolly's wrister and Drury ties the game on shot that has no business going through Thomas Vanek's splaying legs and inside the far post.

Zoom. Scoreboard. 7.7 seconds. Hold. Blur.

Of course, for Buffalo sports fans, there always has to be that hand emerging from the freshly-dug grave. This time, it's Drury taking a terrible penalty in the first minute of the ensuing overtime. The tension grows and the Rangers press, but Miller denies a deflection and a wicked point shot, the flaring left glove displayed to the world this production's money shot.

Suddenly, the Sabres are on the power play. The music brightens. You can feel the ending coming fast. In a flash. With very little backswing behind it, but a reservoir of fury, Afinogenov unloads from inside the blue line, Vanek again spreading his legs and hoping for the best, the puck finding its way, somehow, some way, through the impenetrable pads of the red and blue force field in net, 18,690 fans (minus a few non-believers) and thousands of extras on the studio lot delivered into pandemonium.

And Afinogenov onto the ice, sliding toward the big logo at center in one of the great goal celebrations in Sabres history.

The moral of the story: everyone is forgiven now. The fans who ran back to their seats upon hearing the deafening horn echoing around the corridor. Ryan Miller. Max Afinogenov. Even Chris Drury, who didn't really need forgiveness.

Two thumbs up for "Better Day," a heartwarming tale of faith and redemption, continuing its run at your local arena soon.

Enjoy the show, please turn off your cell phones and, for the love of God, stay in your seats.

The world begins again in 10, 9, 8…

[PASabreFan]

Edit thanks to chz: "deafening horn" to "deafening sound."