A global pandemic putting a season on pause and eventually leaving the Sabres out of an expanded playoff tournament by one win? That's a pretty bizarre entry for the club's 50th anniversary season.
But even for a franchise that enjoyed a lot of success over its first 40 years – albeit no Stanley Cups – that's a good one. There's been weirdness aplenty at times over the course of this club's five decades. So, in honor of franchise icon Gilbert Perreault, we present our list of 11 Strange But Trues from Sabres history:
1. The Spin of the Wheel: Most fans know the Sabres drafted Perreault with the first draft pick in their history in 1970. Many know they got the right to take Perreault by winning a spin of a county fair-style number wheel. But not many folks remember the NHL nearly made a franchise-altering mistake in that Montreal hotel conference room.
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The Sabres had all of the Nos. 8-13 spots on the wheel, while Vancouver had all the Nos. 1-6 spots. The No. 7 spot was considered neutral and would trigger a re-spin. NHL president Clarence Campbell spun and cheers came up from the Vancouver table when the commissioner announced the wheel had stopped at No. 1 and the Canucks had earned the top pick.
But Sabres General Manager Punch Imlach calmly got Campebell's attention and pointed out the wheel had, in fact, stopped at No. 11. Campbell corrected himself, announced the Sabres had won and cheers went up from the Buffalo table. Perreault wore No. 11 in Buffalo for the next 17 seasons en route to the Hockey Hall of Fame. The Canucks? They drafted defenseman and current Florida General Manager Dale Tallon at No. 2. He was traded to Chicago after three seasons.
2. Taro Tsujimoto. He's right there in the 11th round of the 1974 draft, the Sabres' choice at No. 183 overall from the Tokyo Katanas. But he wasn't real. Imlach was getting bored with the long draft and decided to do something to spice things up as a tweak at Campbell. Long before the Internet or social media, plenty of fans and media thought the pick was legitimate until Imlach came clean at training camp that fall and admitted that the player didn't exist.
The NHL invalidated the pick and Imlach looked worse as the years went on because of two players taken after Tsujimoto. Winger Dave Lumley (199) won two Stanley Cups with Edmonton and Islanders defenseman Stefan Persson (214) won four Cups. Still, "Taro Says" sayings appeared on signs in Memorial Auditorum and bumper stickers for many years after the prank pick.
3. "Jumbletron." That was the banner headline of The News on Nov. 17, 1996, one day after a bizarre postponement. Everything was normal at first the day before, just over a month after the opening of then-Marine Midland Arena. The Sabres and Boston Bruins took morning paces preparing for a Saturday night game. Early in the afternoon, disaster struck during some routine scoreboard maintenance as the giant jumbotron hanging over the rink got off balance and crashed to center ice.
The high pile of twisted metal forced the postponement of that night's game and the team was very fortunate that no one was injured in the collapse. A couple screens were salvaged and placed at the ends of the arena, but it was months before a new board could be hung from the ceiling.
4. Most Memorable Fight: It didn't even take place on the ice. You can find it on YouTube. On Dec. 13, 1972, Jim Schoenfeld fought seemingly everyone in the Boston lineup. In the first period, he went into the boards with Bruins tough guy Wayne Cashman – and they burst through the corner entrance to the Aud rink where the Zamboni would come out on to the ice.
Cashman and Schoenfeld immediately challenged each other and fought on the rubber mats and concrete of the hallway just behind the glass. Other players piled into the corner as well before the fight was broken up.
5. Ken Dryden's pads. With 29 seconds left in regulation of Game 5 of the 1973 quarterfinals, the Sabres and Canadiens were tied at 2-2 as Buffalo's playoff life was on the line in the Montreal Forum. Coach Joe Crozier then stunned the fans with an expert piece of gamesmanship, requesting a measurement of the width of the pads of Habs goalie Ken Dryden. The pads were found to be too wide and the Sabres got a power play as Dryden was nailed for illegal equipment. The man-advantage carried over into overtime and nearly produced a game-winning goal, but Jim Lorentz fired a shot off the crossbar. The Sabres kept their momentum, however, and won the first playoff OT in their history on Rene Robert's goal at 9:18.
As it turned out, the tip on Dryden's pads came on a hunch from public relations director and former goalie Paul Wieland, whose annual April Fool's jokes were legendary around the Sabres' offices. But this was no joke. Imlach filed the tip away and then had Wieland make a clandestine mission into the Aud locker room on the day of Game 3 to measure the pads. He found them over the maximum width of 10 inches and reported back to Imlach and Crozier, who waited for just the right time to use the information.
6. The Fog Game. Some games in the Stanley Cup final are memorable for their significance in determining a champion. Others stand out for great performances or overtime clinchers. Maybe it's the atmosphere, like the wild scenes in recent years in Nashville and Vegas or the power failure in old Boston Garden that wiped out Game 4 in 1988 between the Bruins and Edmonton. Game 3 of the '75 final between the Sabres and Philadelphia pretty much had all of that.
In what was a remarkable way for the city to host its first game in hockey's ultimate series, the Sabres posted a 5-4 overtime win over the Flyers in the Aud on Rene Robert's goal 18:29 into the extra period. But the numbers aren't what anybody remembers. This one is known as "The Fog Game" because an 80-degree day combined with a building that was not air-conditioned at the time produced a thick layer of fog around the ice. Play was stopped on numerous occasions so the players could skate off the fog, only to see it form around the ice again. Views of the action from the orange balcony and press box were limited at times and the overtime plus all the delays took the game to nearly 12:30 in the morning before the Sabres finally won it.
7. "See Ya, Seymour." Long before Patrick Roy's infamous angry exit from the Montreal Forum in 1995, that was the salute that veteran backup goalie Al Smith gave owner Seymour Knox as he walked out on the Sabres just before their game against Minnesota in the Aud on Feb. 13, 1977.
Regular Gerry Desjardins was injured and Smith thought he was inheriting the starting job. Not so fast. Imlach told coach Floyd Smith he wanted rookie callup Don Edwards to get the nod.
An infuriated Smith stewed during the pregame warmup and the national anthems, hopped over the boards when the music stopped, yelled his three words at Knox and skated off the ice. He never played for the Sabres again. Edwards, meanwhile, posted a 6-2 win that night in his NHL debut and went on to post 156 victories in six seasons in Buffalo. Turned out to be a good "trade" for the Sabres.
8. The Turd Burger. The Sabres' mustard yellow alternate jerseys were roundly panned as soon as they were unveiled during a staged Twitter gag with captain Steve Ott in 2013. Fans and players hated them and the feeling might have been mutual inside the club's offices, as revealed when team president Ted Black made one of his weekly appearances on WGR Radio. Asked about the wide social media disdain for the jersey, Black dropped a line that the new look could never live down.
"If you come into the store and you look at it and say I don't want to buy it or you do buy it, in terms of moving the needles on revenues, it won't do anything," Black said. "If it doesn't sell, it won't really mean anything to our bottom line. It's a third jersey. If it's a turd burger, I'll have to put it on a bun and eat it. It's the way it is."
Like the Goathead and the Slug, the name stuck. Thus, the jersey the team wore off and on for two seasons that is widely viewed as the worst in franchise history will forever be called the Turd Burger.
9. The Butt Goal. An overtime goal two nights before Christmas in 2013 during a game between the Sabres and Arizona Coyotes should not have gone viral but that's exactly what happened when defenseman Mark Pysyk got credit for the goal that produced a 2-1 Buffalo victory. Pysyk, however, did very little but watch the puck jump into the air – and plop directly in the rear of the pants of goaltender Mike Smith. Unable to find the puck, a confused Smith tried to freeze in place and back his skates to the goal line. Instead, that pushed the puck, firmly lodged in his pants and jersey, over the line to give the Sabres a bizarre victory. Joked Rick Jeanneret: "It's Christmas for one team. It's 'Bah, humbug' for the other one."
10. Four seconds away. The Philadelphia Flyers won the Stanley Cup in both 1974 and 1975 and, like most other teams, needed to get through some disappointment along the way before they finally got atop the league. The rivalry with the Sabres that really accelerated from the '75 final and eight subsequent playoff series got its kickstart in the Aud on the final night of the 1971-72 season.
The Sabres were 15-43-19 and going nowhere. The Flyers were 26-37-14 and needed just one point to finish fourth in the West Division and qualify for the playoffs for the fourth time in their first five seasons in the league. The score was tied at 2-2 in the final seconds and Philly's berth seemed secure. But Buffalo captain Gerry Meehan, who was selected from the Flyers in the expansion draft and would go on to serve as Sabres GM, got the puck into the Philly zone and stunned goalie Doug Favell with a wrist shot that hit the net with just four seconds to play. The 3-2 Buffalo win eliminated the stunned Flyers from the postseason. But Philly made the playoffs the next 17 seasons, not missing out again until 1990.
11. Blizzard broadcast. The Sabres' 3-3 tie in Montreal on Jan. 29, 1977 came at the height of the Blizzard of '77 and was one of the most heroic games in franchise history. Only 15 players could get through the snow and make the trip to the airport for the game but Buffalo rallied to salvage a point. Play-by-play man Ted Darling was stuck in Lockport and did the radio broadcast from his home while watching the game off his television. His son, Joel, monitored the TV broadcast in another room and fed him information such as penalties and game times on cue cards.
For a bonus, here's some fun with Sabres numbers:
* The Sabres have scored 14 goals twice in their history and both games were in the Aud – a 14-2 win over Washington on Dec. 21, 1975 and a 14-4 win over Toronto on March 19, 1981. The Sabres set an NHL record that still stands in the Toronto with a nine-goal second period, and the teams' 12 goals in that middle frame also remains a league high nearly 40 years later.
* The most consecutive goals the Sabres have allowed in a game is 10, and that meltdown came at Calgary on March 12, 1988. The Sabres, incredibly enough, built a 4-0 lead after one period on two goals by Mark Napier and singles by John Tucker and Mike Foligno – and lost, 10-4. It's the last time the Sabres have been beaten in a game they led by as many as four goals.
The Flames got five goals in the second period and five more in the third. Hakan Loob was involved in five straight goals over the two periods, finishing the game with a hat trick and six-point night. Tom Barrasso was pulled from the Buffalo net after giving up the first seven goals.
* The Sabres have never allowed an opponent to have a five-goal game. They have one, by Dave Andreychuk at Boston on Feb. 6, 1986. The Sabres have never led a game by five goals and lost. They befuddled the Bruins again in that category, posting the only five-goal comeback in their history in a 7-6 win at the Aud on Feb. 25, 1983 (trailed 6-1 and scored six straight goals).
* The Sabres did not get a win in their first 20 visits to the Spectrum in Philadelphia, going 0-18-2 from their inception – including three losses in the '75 Cup final – until finally breaking the drought with a 3-2 win on Nov. 10, 1977.
* The Sabres were utterly dominant against the expansion-era Washington Capitals. The Sabres went 12-0-1 in their first 13 meetings until the Caps pulled a 4-2 upset at the Aud on Jan. 19, 1977, but the dominance continued long after that defeat. The Sabres, in fact, were 34-2-6 in their first 42 meetings against Washington from 1974-1984.
* The Sabres once went more than 7 1/2 years without scoring a goal in Los Angeles' Staples Center – losing four straight visits by 2-0 scores. They suffered a 4-3 overtime loss there on Jan. 21, 2010 and didn't play in the building again until a 2013 shutout defeat due to a "road" game against the Kings in Berlin, Germany, in 2011. They then got blanked in Los Angeles in 2014, 2016 and 2017.
The goal drought ended at 279 minutes, 38 seconds when Zemgus Girgensons scored in the first period of a 4-2 loss on Oct. 14, 2017. And an 0-6-1 run in Los Angeles that lasted nearly 15 years ended with a 5-1 victory on Oct. 20, 2018.
* When the Sabres played their two games in November against Tampa Bay at the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden, the world's largest spherical building became the 77th facility to host a Buffalo regular season game. The most road games the Sabres have played in one place are the 92 they've played in New York's Madison Square Garden. Most wins are 34, in both the Garden and Long Island's Nassau Coliseum. Most regulation losses are 48 in Boston Garden and the Montreal Forum. Best perfect record is 5-0 at the Thunderdome in St. Petersburg, Fla., the second home of the Tampa Bay Lightning before it was converted to Tropicana Field for baseball.
