Would you rather have won the SC in 2005 or 2006?

[WildCard]

So I was thinking about this today: If you could give up one championship from one of our teams for another, which would it be? Immediately I'd give up a Yankees WS for...then I had to think about it. Do I take the 2006-2007 SC, or the 2005-2006 one?

2006 was our year. We were by far and away the best team in the league. We had brand new jerseys (sure they sucked but whatever), we started off the season chasing the Montreal record for wins to start a year...we were just so dominate. This was the year of the Senators line brawl, this was the year we brought back the royal blues for the 3rd jersey, this was the year Drury ties it against the Rangers in the dying seconds, and Afinogenov slides his way across center ice after the game winner. We should have won the Cup that year, that was our year.

But, 2005...I mean, what can you say? Team comes out of nowhere after the lockout with a rag tag group of young guns and goes on a cinderella story ride? That was the year of 'Danny Brier! Danny Brier!', of 'Campbell stepped into his man at the blue line, and now they're all chasing after Campbell!', and of course of 'Now do you believe?! Now do you believe?! These guys are good, scary good!'. We beat our rivals in the playoffs in their house, and then got absolutely screwed against a relocation team by a staph infection. Cinderella went home and and lived the rest of her years in a shed

Personally, for me, I'll take that 2005 Cup any day.

Edited August 22, 2018 by WildCard

[GASabresIUFAN]

No question.  Just one less D injury and we win the Conference finals and the Cup. We were the best team in the NHL by the time the playoffs started.  We also should have won the 1999 Cup.  Hull even admitted that had he not scored, his team was done.

Edited August 22, 2018 by GASabresIUFAN

[nfreeman]

2005-06 (i.e. the 2006 Cup).  No question about it.  That season was magical.

[WildCard]

And 2005-2006 had the best game I've ever seen

 

[In The Buff]

17 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

No question.  Just one less D injury and we win the Conference finals and the Cup. We were the best team in the NHL by the time the playoffs started.  We also should have won the 1999 Cup.  Hull even admitted that had he not scored, his team was done.

For years I've personally blamed myself for that '99 loss. Me & my friends were at the bar watching the game, but at the same time as the game we were having a huge house party too, leaving only 1 of our roommates behind to control it. We stayed at the bar for hours, up thru the start of the 3rd overtime & then we made the walk home to finish watching the game at home. In less than the few minutes it took to walk the distance, when we walked in we saw the mood of everyone & immediately knew what we had done.

I know what people will say about their superstitions but I've never been able to forgive myself for leaving. If we just wouldve stayed at the bar we  wouldve won... It was that kind of run for us that year, something magical & its all my fault!

On behalf of this board & to Sabres fans everywhere.... I'm sorry

Edited August 22, 2018 by MillerVaive

[In The Buff]

For the 2006 Eastern Conference Finals with Carolina, a group of 6 friends of mine traveled down to Carolina to watch game 6. We were pumped, thinking this was our time to revenge the 1999 loss & we thought we had it in the bag. We brought down a life sized home made Stanley Cup we made. Needless to say when we lost 3-2 we were crushed & somewhere outside the arena by a row of trees we buried our Cup as if we were attending a funeral. We buried our dreams that night.

I've often wondered if that Cup we buried is still there lol.

But for me, that 1999 Cup was the one that got away. And if we had won that Cup I could've lived with 2005-2006. It also works vice versa though, if we won in 2005, 2006 it wouldve helped me forget that 99 loss.  I think the most important thing here is that WE NEED TO WIN A CUP!

[darksabre]

05-06 without any doubt in my mind. 

[North Buffalo]

05 but I would take a cup win either way.

[DarthEbriate]

Better uniforms, the up-and-coming team, the absolute fun of the run... 2005-06 for sure.

However, I wonder if we'd feel differently had those seasons ended differently. If 05-06 ended in the ECC with 1-2 injuries instead of the absolute gut punch of everyone being hurt, and then if we'd have gone further in 06-07, where we had a bitter heartbreaking OT game 7 in the ECC or SCF.... Mostly my choice is 05-06 without question; unless we had been seen to progress in the playoffs from 05-06 to 06-07.

[bob_sauve28]

I wouldn't of cared, either one would be nice, both would be way better than '99. I thought the hockey of the late nineties was so boring! Hasek was great, but a lot of those games were snoozers if you ask me. We went from the fun of LaFontaine-Mogilney to 223 straight minutes of scoreless hockey every other week. 

 

1993 would have been great if if if if LaFontain Mogilney and Hasek had all been healthy together. 

[sabills]

06/07 team was not half as likeable. We didn't score a power-play goal for like 10 games straight at the end. They started fast, and then were incredibly boring and mediocre the rest of the season.

Only reason to say 06/07 is that maybe, MAYBE Drury or Briere would have stayed if they'd won. I think Drury had decided to leave by November either way, though.

[Taro T]

'05-'06 was truly magical, until the magic ran out.  How do you lose a defenseman after EVERY SINGLE WIN in the semi-finals?  That is beyond bad luck.

'06-'07 wasn't nearly as fun once the calendar flipped to '07.  But even in the summer & fall of that year we dealt w/ losing McKee, the arbitration hearing for Briere, & walking away from Dumont, & Golisano sitting on the Drury contract until it was too late.  Having a team w/ the best record in the league should have been more enjoyable.

Slightly different subject, IMHO the Sabres teams that came closest to winning the SC were (in order):

'98-'99 - we just need 1 goal & a win in Dallas whenever they finally drop the puck at the blueline to Hasek's left.

'05-'06 - find a way to make Hecht's goal stand up & I really don't believe the Eulers could win more than 2 even w/ the depleted D.

'00-'01 - yes, this choice is "off the board" but win either game 6 or 7 & they'd get a Joisey team that could not score on Dom & had been swept in the regular season & then an Avs squad that the Sabres beat in OT in Denver w/ Biron between the pipes.  Probably would've taken 7, but Buffalo should've won.  After the late season deals brought in guys like Heinze, Audette, & Andreychuk the Sabres had the best team IMHO.  Plus add in either Peca or Iginla & that march to the cup would've been a sprint.

'74-'75 - Needed at least 1 win in the Spectrum heading in & w/ the loss in game 6 would've needed 2 W's.  No chance unless somehow Parent could've caught a staph infection from a dirty leg pad.  They'd NEVER won IN Filly heading into that series & they'd need several more cracks at it to finally break that bugaboo later that decade.

'92-'93 - Were it not for the protests that would've rung out, probably truthfully place this one above '75.  Yes, they lost in 4 straight to eventual champion Moe-ray-all in round 2.  But they lost all 4 4-3 with 3 games going to OT and all 4 w/ an injured Fuhr between the pipes rather than the best goalie to ever play who was watching from the bench.  Stupid, stupid Muckler.  Not even looking at what could've been on the roster had they not dumped Puppa, Andreychuk, & a #1 for what they already had - a world class starting goalie.  Stupid, stupid Muckler.  Who knows, maybe if they'd've started Dom against the B's the games aren't close enough for it to be worth the effort to break LaFontaine.

Honorable mentions (chronological order)

'79-'80 - They blamed the loss to the Aisles on the long wait to play the semis.  Yes, they had to wait more than a week to start the series, but NY was waiting a full week themselves.  Minny upsetting Moe-ray-all was the killer as they'd've gotten the Habs w/ Herron in net (who managed to literally get an assist for the No Stars in game 7 to turn that one against them) rather than, at best, back to back teams that held playoff kryptonite for the Sabres - the Aisles & Filly.  One of their best squads ever, but the dice didn't tumble their way.

'97-'98 - They were on their way until Frasier woke Bondra up by refusing to review his clearly illegal goal in game 2 & the linesmen blew an obvious offsides in OT.  Minus the Bondra goal, the Caps might literally not have scored the entire series.  They'd gone nearly 5 full periods scoreless & Dom had Bondra under wraps.  As Bondra went, so did the Caps.  Had the Sabres swept the Caps, they'd've still lost at best in 6 to the Soviets, er the Wings.  That '98 squad was a juggernaut.

'06-'07 - When Kalinen passed it to Alfie, the tone was set.  But they'd seemed off all playoffs.  Home ice might have helped had they snuck past the Otters, but dunking the Ducks was not guaranteed.

Edited August 22, 2018 by Taro T

[LTS]

You only torture yourself by living in the past.  ?

It would appear Taro is very, very tortured.

[Sabel79]

00-01 is the one that burns me the most.  As stated, put Peca or the trade return for Peca in that team and look out. 

Also, and I can not ever state this often or loudly enough, but #### Doug Glimour.  With a cactus.  

[That Aud Smell]

I was confused for a while by the reference to a 2005 Stanley Cup.

Anyway: It's 05-06, for sure, for me. That was the team's year. It just didn't happen because of bad luck.

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, LTS said:

You only torture yourself by living in the past.  ?

It would appear Taro is very, very tortured.

Can't be that bad.  Haven't commited hara-kiki yet.  (Much to the Liger's chagrin.  :p)

[Eleven]

I loved the Presidents' Trophy team (at least they wore the right freaking colors), but I loved the team the year before even more.  

[Thorny]

9 hours ago, WildCard said:

So I was thinking about this today: If you could give up one championship from one of our teams for another, which would it be? Immediately I'd give up a Yankees WS for...then I had to think about it. Do I take the 2006-2007 SC, or the 2005-2006 one?

2006 was our year. We were by far and away the best team in the league. We had brand new jerseys (sure they sucked but whatever), we started off the season chasing the Montreal record for wins to start a year...we were just so dominate. This was the year of the Senators line brawl, this was the year we brought back the royal blues for the 3rd jersey, this was the year Drury ties it against the Rangers in the dying seconds, and Afinogenov slides his way across center ice after the game winner. We should have won the Cup that year, that was our year.

But, 2005...I mean, what can you say? Team comes out of nowhere after the lockout with a rag tag group of young guns and goes on a cinderella story ride? That was the year of 'Danny Brier! Danny Brier!', of 'Campbell stepped into his man at the blue line, and now they're all chasing after Campbell!', and of course of 'Now do you believe?! Now do you believe?! These guys are good, scary good!'. We beat our rivals in the playoffs in their house, and then got absolutely screwed against a relocation team by a staph infection. Cinderella went home and and lived the rest of her years in a shed

Personally, for me, I'll take that 2005 Cup any day.

I don't think the Sabres were the best team in the league in 06-07, and the playoffs bore that out.

The Buffalo Sabres were revealed to be the best team in the National Hockey League in 05-06 and they should have won the Cup. The injury situation that arose was either a ridiculously fluky turn of events or a swift kick in the ass from god. 

So, I choose 05-06, because I like to pretend we won that year anyways. 

Edited August 23, 2018 by Thorny

[Drunkard]

2005-2006 was a better team with much better uniforms than that fugly slug. Plus I live in NC so that would also mean that the handful of Canes fans I know wouldn't be able to hold a Stanley Cup victory over my head since us winning it means they didn't.

 

 

Edited August 23, 2018 by Alkoholist

[Hawerchuk]

Definitely 05-06 was Buffalo's Year. Canes barely beat us as we we're playing a AHL defense that last game (and almost won I might add). There were several players that I absolutely hated on that Carolina team and thats why it hurt even more. Rod Brind'Amour, Erik Cole, Mark Recchi and Glen Wesley - friggin hated those guys. the 06 ECF Senators team was better than the Sabres (tough to admit). The most hated guys on that team for me was Daniel Alfredson, Chris Neil and Ray Emery. 

And in '99 you had to admit that if Buffalo would have won game 6, they would have had a very tough time trying win game 7 in Dallas. Although we sure would have liked the chance. 

Still waiting for our Cup.........

 

 

 

[Huckleberry]

But oh boy that 2018-2019 team will come out of nowhere  ?

[Eleven]

1 hour ago, Alkoholist said:

2005-2006 was a better team with much better uniforms than that fugly slug. Plus I live in NC so that would also mean that the handful of Canes fans I know wouldn't be able to hold a Stanley Cup victory over my head since us winning it means they didn't.

 

 

You really know every single Canes fan?

[Drunkard]

On ‎8‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 1:15 PM, Eleven said:

You really know every single Canes fan?

Indeed. All 3 of them. Using the term handful was being overly generous.

Edited August 27, 2018 by Alkoholist

[PASabreFan]

Yes.