Don Granato and Kevyn Adams said all the right things as the Sabres' season wound down.Â
Even if the outlook was bleak for the Rochester Amerks to make the playoffs, they said the players were getting that type of experience because of all the win-or-go homes in the final weeks of the schedule.Â
Not a theory this corner wholly subscribed to, but it was all the coach and GM could say. The math worked against the Amerks. To their credit, the minor-league affiliate won games it needed to get to be in position – and then got the help from Toronto's final week collapse to sneak into the playoffs.
Then the Amerks won a series for the first time since 2005, going overtime in both games in beating Belleville. And now they're in a series against Utica, the best team in their division, and might be playing in front of 10,000 maniacs in Blue Cross Arena in Game 3 on Sunday.
People are also reading…
It's an easy bottom line here: This would have been a major disappointment for the Amerks to not make the postseason given the key Buffalo prospects on their roster. And it's a big deal for Rochester to get there and experience it, no matter the result.
"It's important for development. I'm a big believer in that," Amerks coach Seth Appert said prior to the series opener in Utica. "Kevyn and I talked about this during the hiring process, that winning is part of development. There's not been enough winning organizationally over the last decade or so."
That's for sure. The Sabres' NHL record playoff drought stretches to 2011. They haven't won a playoff series since 2007. Until wiping out a 3-0, third-period deficit and winning Game 1 against Belleville in overtime last week, the Amerks had not won a postseason game since 2014. Forget about a series.
The Amerks drew 6,100 on a Wednesday night for that game. The atmosphere was supercharged for Game 2 in Belleville and was wild for the games in Utica, which will lead to a Sunday in Rochester that hasn't been seen there maybe since Ryan Miller & Co. were in the playoffs in 2005.
Think there's some value in that for the likes of Jack Quinn, JJ Peterka, Peyton Krebs, Mattias Samuelsson, Casey Fitzgerald and others? Think it's a shame the injured Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is missing out? You bet.
"Kevyn and Donnie have done a great job flipping the culture up there and I think that we've done a really good job building a culture here that is around passion and competitiveness and chasing daily excellence," Appert said. "But you also want to win, you want to be in big games, and it was really valuable over the last four to six weeks, with the pressure that our guys were under."
Peterka agreed with the notion the pressure was higher at the end of the season and it was important for the Amerks to respond.
"We were just so happy we made it. The last maybe three weeks in the regular season were always games we had to win to get ourselves a chance to go into playoffs," he said. "As soon as we like finally got in there we like realized how important those games are now. And I think we did a great job in that last series."
Peterka scored a first-period goal in Game 1 at Utica and was one of Rochester's more dangerous forwards in the game. Utica veteran and former Sabre Brian Flynn said Peterka might be the fastest skater in the league, and Peterka said he was relishing the attention the Comets were sure to give him.
"It's a privilege if the opponent tries to keep you down," Peterka said. "We just have to play our game and try to get a couple goals."
Utica barn's place in movie lore
Utica's Adirondack Bank Center, a renovated 1960s era barn, was quite the scene for Games 1 and 2 of the Amerks' series. While the 4,000-seat arena could use lots more lighting – seeing players' shadows on the ice was a tell-tale sign – the fans created a fabulous atmosphere and social media was also quick to point out its place in hockey lore.
The arena, also called "the Aud" by folks in Utica, was the filming site of one of the iconic scenes in the 1977 Paul Newman hockey comedy "Slap Shot." In the movie, it stands in for an arena set in Peterborough, Ont., where a pregame brawl erupted prior to a game for Newman's "Charlestown Chiefs." The scene was based on a real brawl that raged between the Buffalo Norsemen and the Johnstown (Pa.) Jets prior to the decisive game of a 1976 North American Hockey League playoff series.
The Norsemen refused to come out of their locker room after the brawl and forfeited the game, and thus the series. In the movie, Steve Hanson, of the legendary Hanson brothers, famously admonishes a referee that he's "listening to the (expletive) song" after the striped shirt warns him through the singing of the national anthem about further shenanigans during the game.
Around the boards
• The draft lottery made certain we're in for a wild week in Montreal come July, with the Canadiens getting the No. 1 pick in a year they're hosting the draft. It also gave lots of clarity on the top three picks.
While it's all but a sure bet the Habs go with Kingston center Shane Wright, New Jersey's ascension to No. 2 likely means US National Development Team Program center Logan Cooley will drop to Arizona at No. 3. After getting Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes at No. 1 in recent drafts, the Devils are much more likely to go on the wing to Slovakian Olympic star Juraj Slafkovsky.
The Sabres stayed at No. 9 with their own pick, will have No. 16 from Vegas for Jack Eichel and somewhere from No. 28-32 from Florida for Sam Reinhart based on the Panthers' playoff finish. The pick will be No. 28 if the Panthers lose their second-round series, and from 29-32 if they make the Eastern Conference final.
• Gary Bettman isn't going to want to touch the NHL playoff format based on five Game 7s this weekend, including three Saturday on a day for the first time since April 30, 2014. Still, it's terrible that Toronto and Tampa Bay had to play in the first round and the same for St. Louis and Minnesota. Not much rewards for their seasons.
• For those who have asked, the Sabres' per-game tickets sold figure this year in KeyBank Center landed at 9,997 per game, ahead of only the 1970 expansion season in a un-expanded Memorial Auditorium. And remember, the figure is actually less because it includes the 26,119 that filled Tim Horton's Field in Hamilton for the Heritage Classic in a game counted in Buffalo's totals.
Take that game out and the average would have been 9,595, which would have been the lowest in franchise history. The Sabres hope it's a one-year blip and the team's play the last two months should attract new customers and bring back ones, especially from Canada, that put their tickets on hold this season. But the team needs to get back to the playoffs to get back to the days of 16,000-plus season tickets.
Any way you count it, the Sabres finished 31st in the league. Ottawa was last at 9,155, but the Senators had several games with limited or no fans because of Ontario restrictions.
