Rick Jeanneret thought he was going to be in total control of his emotions on Banner Night.
Legendary Buffalo Sabres play-by-play announcer Rick Jeanneret is honored with a ceremony and a banner unveiled in the rafters before the game against the Nashville Predators April 1 at KeyBank Center.
He said he was “pretty cocky” before his banner was raised to the rafters of KeyBank Center on April 1.
“I had a handle on everything,” Jeanneret said over lunch recently at Chef’s restaurant.
The Buffalo Sabres honor longtime play-by-play announcer Rick Jeanneret before the game against the Nashville Predators.
The Buffalo Sabres play-by-play legend talked to owners Terry and Kim Pegula in the area where those involved in the celebration lined up before going out on the ice.
“As soon as I got there I was told, ‘RJ, you are last,’ ” he recalled. “Really? I’m standing there, all of a sudden (fans) started chanting. That was when it hit me.”
He didn’t think it would impact him as deeply as it did.
“I thought I was going to get through this admirably,” said Jeanneret. “It was pretty loud.”
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So he has learned his lesson for his “Last Call” on April 29 when the Sabres meet the Chicago Blackhawks. He knows it will be emotional.
“I had the cockiness knocked out of me,” said Jeanneret. “Twenty thousand people do that in a hurry.”
In a wide-ranging interview with serious and humorous moments, Jeanneret discussed his most memorable game, his favorite call, his relationships with players, autograph and photo seekers, and the Sabres' promising future.
The roar when Rick Jeanneret walked that blue carpet from the Zamboni entrance to take his place for Friday night's pregame ceremony was epic. And it didn't stop. We haven't heard any sort of ovation like that in KeyBank Center in ages.
He disagrees with a widespread premise that the sold-out Banner Night and the Sabres’ 4-3 victory over a strong Nashville team might go down in history as the start of the team’s revival.
“That’s a little too complimentary,” said Jeanneret. “The recovery already started during the season. I could see it coming. A lot of it came after Jack Eichel was traded and Peyton Krebs and Alex Tuch came here.”
After being traded here from Vegas and recovering from shoulder surgery, Tuch, a Syracuse native who grew up a Sabres fan, had a public relations member of the team set up a meeting with Jeanneret.
“It was a nice talk,” recalled Jeanneret. “He was so gung ho. He was trying to push the doctors to play. I told him, 'Don’t push them, there’s lots of time.' I said, 'I have the feeling the last few years because of the Sabres record, some of the guys probably aren’t too keen about being in Buffalo.'
“He said, ‘I realize that. And part of my job is to convince them otherwise.’ Right away, that positive attitude was going to be contagious and has been.”
Jeanneret always has had a positive attitude. During most of the 11-year playoff drought, he annually predicted in preseason interviews that the Sabres would be fighting for a playoff berth.
Due to Tuch, the improved play of Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin, Jeff Skinner and several teammates and the addition of first overall draft choice Owen Power, the expectation that the drought will soon end is as high as it has been for years.
The Buffalo Sabres honored longtime play-by-play announcer Rick Jeanneret in a pregame ceremony Friday in KeyBank Center. Jeanneret is retiring at the end of the month after 51 years with the Sabres.
So even before the question was fully asked if it will be sad walking away from the microphone as the Sabres appear poised to finally get in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Jeanneret let out a big smile.
“Looking on from afar, sure that enters my mind,” said Jeanneret. “How am I going to react to it when they get back in the playoff mode again and I’m not there?”
“I gave them 11 years to do it,” he cracked. “I think that is a fair number.”
None of Jeanneret’s iconic calls has come in the drought years.
He is constantly asked which call is his favorite and most recently declined to pick one when the Sabres held a contest.
“I can’t answer that question, I would sway the voting,” said Jeanneret “Frankly, I don’t have a favorite one.”
He does have a most memorable game.
It was the Sabres’ game seven 4-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference finals of the NHL playoffs in 2006 when Buffalo’s defense was depleted by injury and illness. After that loss, Jeanneret did something he never does – he went into the locker room.
“I went to the dressing room and shook hands with every player,” recalled Jeanneret. “I got to the end of the line and Ryan Miller was there. And I looked at him and he looked at me and we both started crying.”
He believes that was the year the Sabres could have earned the Stanley Cup.
“I think they would have beaten Edmonton,” said Jeanneret. “Carolina did.”
From all the players at Banner Night, you might think Jeanneret was pals with many of them.
“Not many,” said Jeanneret, who hasn’t worked road games in several years. “Even though I traveled on the same plane and stayed in same hotel, I never went out with them. I made a point of not doing that. We were more acquaintances when they were playing. It was more after they finished.”
Some Sabres fans might be surprised to learn that Eichel texted Jeanneret a complimentary note on Banner Night. Jeanneret has stayed in touch with Eichel and Sam Reinhart, former Sabres who have been vilified since leaving Buffalo. Eichel’s postgame comment after returning here with Vegas that, “it only took seven years and me leaving for them (fans) to get into the game” infuriated Sabres fans.
“Other than what Jack said when Vegas played here, I don’t think it was fair,” Jeanneret said of Eichel being vilified. “Jack probably shouldn’t have said that and I’m sure he knows it now. Sam Reinhart? Come on. He never hurt anybody.”
Jeanneret now knows how much Western New York loves him.
He was unaware of an online sports site’s contest that had him finishing second to Bills quarterback Josh Allen in a humorous online Best of Buffalo bracket vote about favorite things about Buffalo. He would have voted for Allen, too.
“Rick takes a very simple approach,” Pete Weber says. “He watches the game and describes what he sees. I can’t think of a better way to approach life.”
“He’s got a long career ahead of him, I’m cooked,” cracked Jeanneret.
He is still hot, at least judging by how long it took to exit Chef’s. Patrons congratulated him and asked him to pose for cell phone pictures. It’s a request he hears anywhere he goes.
A couple of months ago in Wegman’s, a 6-year-old went up to him and asked, “Mr. R.J., can I have a picture with you?”
“I said, 'Got any money?’ He turned around and screamed in a little boy’s voice you could hear eight miles away, ‘Ma, he wants money’ and people were looking at me.”
“He took the picture,” said Jeanneret, smiling. “He got me, the little bugger.”
A woman at Chef’s asking for a picture said she tried to see him at one of the Wegman’s recent meet and greets but the line and wait was too long. She told him things will never be the same without him at the microphone. He hears that a lot, too.
“People say it is never going to be the same. It won’t be the same. It is a different voice, that’s all. I was a different voice than Ted Darling.”
He said he gets along fine with his successor Dan Dunleavy.
“I know he’s anxious,” Jeanneret quipped. “He’s anxious for me to leave. He’s been sitting there for several years waiting.”
Jeanneret also knows his voice has changed over the 50 years.
“As I’ve often said, I can’t hit the high notes anymore. They are just not there. So I have to adjust accordingly. It doesn’t mean I can’t sound excited.”
He said he made the call that this would be his final season and he dismissed any suggestion that he is going to pull a Tom Brady and un-retire.
“No,” said Jeanneret “Would I come back and do a game if they were in the playoffs or something? If I was asked, I would probably do that.”
For now, he is thinking about his final words on his Last Call.
“People are asking me, what am I going to say at the end of the night? I gotta say something, I know that. I am thinking about it.”
He isn’t cocky about finding the right thing to say. But if Sabres history is a guide, “Mr. R.J.” will come up with the right combination of humorous and serious words.
