Posters who became fans during the drought—why?

[Doohickie]

Y'all got sucked in.

14 hours ago, Kr632 said:

My favorite part about sports is the rebuild. I love the draft, developing players, finding the right pieces. Once teams are good I kind of lose interest until they need to be fixed. 

Well then, the Sabres are your team.

[Doohickie]

10 hours ago, Demoted said:

B.c I always listen to WGR550 for my Bills news and I picked up the Sabres from that.

Welcome to the forum!

[Doohickie]

2 hours ago, Thorny said:

I wish I could do that. But for me, my first love wasn’t hockey. My first love was the Buffalo Sabres. They introduced me to the game, not the other way around. I’ve been a fan literally longer than I can remember because of my dad: there was no choice. I don’t really give a sh*t about hockey, truly, beyond the Buffalo Sabres. And that’s me being candid 

I've been around here longer than the drought, but a few thoughts on my fandom.  The old-timers already know this but recent posters may not be aware.

I grew up in Buffalo, watched the Sabres passionately through their first 10 years.  Then I went away to college (got to see Daren Puppa and Adam Oates play their college games).  But in the early 1980s, 300 miles from home, without the benefit of Center Ice or the internet, I lost touch with the Sabres (and Bills).  My first job after college was in Los Angeles and frankly I was too involved with living in L.A., not making ends meet and being newly married to really pay too much attention to sports.

We moved to Fort Worth, but the Stars were still the North Stars then.  A few later years we moved again, to Detroit.  My only realistic choice to follow the NHL was to follow the Red Wings, and the Wings brought me back to hockey fandom.  We left Detroit in 1997, weeks after they won their first Cup in over 40 years; by then my wife and I were big fans.

Returning to Fort Worth, we were finally doing well enough that we could get Center Ice and we did it to stay in touch with the Red Wings.  I knew the team inside out and they were my team.  But.... the Sabres were also available and I watched a game there now and again.  Then the Sabres were suddenly in the Cup finals in 1999 and I returned to the Sabres as a bandwagon fan.  But my wife isn't from Buffalo and I was alone in my Sabres fandom.

I found this forum in 2006 and it's become my lifeline to the Sabres.  We had some good teams back then... and then the drought.

This forum is both a blessing and a curse:  I used to just watch the games and enjoyed the wins and shrugged at the losses.  I didn't understand how a team is built, how the AHL plays into it, how salaries and trades affect the cap, let alone all the analytics.  So I blissfully rooted for them, always hoping that they would win, make the playoffs, etc.  This forum as made me more realistic and I know we don't really have a good chance to get to the playoffs again this year.  All the knowledge and wisdom of the boards has tamped my optimism.

But I think it's worth it because I can see why they're not doing well.  I will continue to post here and continue to watch the team... at this point because of FOMO.  I actually missed the Cup finals in 1999 because I was on vacation.  I don't want that to happen again.

Do I have secondary teams?  Yeah.  I'm 95% Sabres fan, 4.9% Red Wings, and 0.1% Stars.  I feel the like Stars are my "friends with benefits team" in that I'll spend an evening with them once in a while but really there's no emotional attachment.

[OverPowerYou]

15 hours ago, Kr632 said:

My favorite part about sports is the rebuild. I love the draft, developing players, finding the right pieces. Once teams are good I kind of lose interest until they need to be fixed. 

Looks like we have you for a long time

[Thorny]

4 minutes ago, OverPowerYou said:

Looks like we have you for a long time

 

all of us 

[MattPie]

13 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Which is why I need 2nd, 3rd, even 4th teams to root for. 

I cannot imagine what it must be like for someone who only likes the Sabres over this last decade. That has to be absolutely brutal. 

In my case, you start falling away. First, it was cancelling NHL tv (it being kinda terrible helped), then I took a long break from this site. I got sucked back to visiting here in the last year or so, but I'm really questioning that now too. You just find other things to do.

(My avatar dates from the tail end my fandom before the break)

13 hours ago, Thorny said:

I wish I could do that. But for me, my first love wasn’t hockey. My first love was the Buffalo Sabres. They introduced me to the game, not the other way around. I’ve been a fan literally longer than I can remember because of my dad: there was no choice. I don’t really give a sh*t about hockey, truly, beyond the Buffalo Sabres. And that’s me being candid 

Same, at best when I was really into it in the mid-2000s, I'd watch a game on TV on mute while listening to the Sabres stream (before I had Center Ice). I'd sometimes watch other playoff games, but not really. If it isn't the Sabres I'm not *that* interested.

Edited December 7, 2023 by MattPie

[Thorny]

7 hours ago, MattPie said:

In my case, you start falling away. First, it was cancelling NHL tv (it being kinda terrible helped), then I took a long break from this site. I got sucked back to visiting here in the last year or so, but I'm really questioning that now too. You just find other things to do.

(My avatar dates from the tail end my fandom before the break)

Same, at best when I was really into it in the mid-2000s, I'd watch a game on TV on mute while listening to the Sabres stream (before I had Center Ice). I'd sometimes watch other playoff games, but not really. If it isn't the Sabres I'm not *that* interested.

Ya we used to sync up the radio broadcast so we could listen to Rick instead, or else turn the online radio up after seeing the goals on tv, as the radio was slightly delayed, so we could hear Rick’s call after the fact 

Was great