Thursday was just another day in Sabreland. There was no game and the team practiced in KeyBank Center. It was Dec. 9. Probably didn't mean much to you. Allow a personal interlude here because it meant a whole lot to me.
It was 50 years ago Thursday – Dec. 9, 1971 vs. the Chicago Black Hawks, as they spelled it back then – that I attended my first Sabres game in Memorial Auditorium. And I have pretty good memories of it, considering it was 6-year-old me you're talking about.
I have no idea how my father got a hold of a couple of tickets – remember they were impossible to get back then – and they were corner Reds. I don't remember the section and I don't have the ticket stub (a lifelong source of disappointment), but they were at the far end from where the teams and Zamboni entered the ice.
The Sabres were not good at that time, entering the game 6-16-5. The Hawks were 17-7-3 and coming off a 107-point season that helped them get to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final at home against Montreal just seven months earlier. They were heading for another 107-point campaign.
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What do I remember about the game? You can look up the box score on Hockey-Reference.com and NHL.com and I had the score right (3-1 for Chicago). Also remembered that Rick Martin scored the Sabres' only goal, unassisted early in the third period. I did not recall Stan Mikita scoring two of the goals for the Hawks but it's right there in the box score. I'm big on numbers and I can tell you to this day when I attend a game that ends 3-1 it reminds me of that first night. Just an odd tick I have I guess.
About four years ago, I was attending a memorabilia show in the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center and stumbled upon a dealer with a treasure trove of Sabres memorabilia. I have lots of old Sabres programs from the '70s, notably from the 1976 game against the Soviet Wings and the 1978 NHL All-Star Game in the Aud, but didn't have one from that first Chicago game. I noticed this dealer had lots of programs from the '80s and '90s on his table but nothing from the '70s.
Then I saw a box labeled "70s programs" on a table behind him, out of reach for potential customers to peruse. The conversation went like this:
"Any chance you have a Chicago program, Dec. 9 '71?"
"You a Chicago fan?"
"No, just a game I want to add to my collection." (I wasn't telling him the significance, lest he pump the price.)
"Hold on. Let me flip through. (10-second pause). Here it is, Chicago Dec. 9, 1971. It's 10 bucks."
"Sold."
Sabres "Hockey Magazine" from Dec. 9, 1971.
It's neatly wrapped and even came with an old Sabres business envelope with color logo and Memorial Auditorium listed as the address. I didn't have the heart to tell the poor guy I would have probably paid him at least $50 for this particular program. I got a deal.
Flipping through the program is like a Buffalo time capsule. Both when you're talking about hockey and life. I was drawn to the ads in particular.
Channel 7 trumpeted the fact it was showing 15 games – all live and in color! Remember Ziebart Rustproofing? Or Twin Fair and AM&As? The Plaza Suite restaurant atop 1 M&T Plaza or the Park Lane on Delaware? They're all in there.
Channel 7's broadcast schedule for the 1971-72 season is listed in an ad.
There was a mail-order souvenir list – be sure to include 35 cents postage and handling for each item – and the list was hilarious to read. It was 50 cents for player pictures, 75 cents for a key chain, $2 for a T-shirt, $3 for a sweatshirt, $9.50 for a nylon windbreaker. There were team logos on cigarette lighters ($5.75), ties ($6.50), earrings ($19.50), pewter mugs ($19.50) all the way up to a "Genuine Wilkinson Sabre" at $40.
The Courier-Express sponsored the centerspread with the two teams' rosters. The Buffalo Evening News (the name back then) had a big corner ad on the Sabres' two-page roster spread, trumpeting "pro hockey from every angle." Every Buffalo player that night was from Canada except defenseman Tracy Pratt, who was born in New York City. The game had not yet gone international.
A Buffalo Evening News ad featured in the Sabres program of Dec. 9, 1971.
There were articles by Hall of Fame writers Dick Johnston of The News, Charley Barton of the Courier and Bob Verdi of the Chicago Tribune, back in the day when beat writers regularly wrote for team publications.
Hockey Hall of Famers on the ice that night included Gilbert Perreault, Bobby Hull (Robert Hull in the program, for some reason), Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito, who died on Aug. 10. There were six future members of the Sabres Hall of Fame in the game although one (Jerry Korab) was playing for Chicago. The others were Roger Crozier, Gilbert Perreault, Rick Martin, Don Luce and Craig Ramsay.
I was fascinated to watch Hull, and the differences between the red hair of Chicago defensemen Keith Magnuson and Pat Stapleton as well as the mostly bald head of fellow blueliner Bill White. What kind of name was Pit Martin? That's all I kept asking after he scored the first NHL goal I ever saw live. I wanted to see Esposito in goal but, for some reason in those early years, he almost never played in Buffalo and we saw veteran backup Gary Smith that night.
Rosters for the Sabres-Chicago game of Dec. 9, 1971.
The Sabres had a second-year Perreault and rookie Martin on their roster as well as rookie Ramsay wearing No. 25 – didn't remember that – and a young Luce. They had veterans like Crozier, Al Hamilton, Phil Goyette and "Ed" Shack (why it wasn't Eddie in the program, I have no idea). This was a few months before Shack was sent to Pittsburgh for Rene Robert, the final piece of the French Connection.
To a child, the Aud seemed massive. The noise was deafening to me when Martin scored the team's lone goal to cut into a 3-0 deficit. I was startled by the popping of popcorn boxes on the arena's old ramps and baffled by all the smoke in the concourses between periods. No idea how we survived those times.
The fans were thrilled to see a goal against a top opponent. It was the second year of the team, one people knew would get better. Kind of like this year's club. Still, I worry that the Sabres' long playoff drought is taking away these kind of moments from future generations of fans. What if some little kid's first night in the building was that awful shutout loss to Calgary last month or any of the other terrible games we've seen, mostly since Lindy Ruff was fired as coach in 2013?
By now, of course, I've been to more than 1,000 Sabres games, home and away, in 46 arenas and three countries (counting Sweden). Sometimes, I can barely remember much past a score from a game played last week. Other times, you remember intricate details from a classic playoff showdown in the '70s. There's a statue of Mikita outside the media entrance at the United Center in the Windy City. Every time I see it, there's no forgetting Chicago 3, Buffalo 1.
'Michigan' is talk of ESPN
Luukkonen stopped 21 of 23 shots, but his teammates could not break through offensively in his season debut for the Buffalo Sabres as they fell to the Anaheim Ducks 2-0.
The "Michigan" pass from Trevor Zegras to Sonny Milano here Tuesday night for the Anaheim Ducks became the talk of the hockey world and it shows the power of having ESPN as your rightsholder. The game was an ESPN Plus telecast so John Buccigross' call was at the top of "SportsCenter" on Tuesday night. It was talked about the next day on "The Point," ESPN's new afternoon hockey show, and Buccigross interviewed Adam Beamer, a Philadelphia man in town to watch the game whose reaction to the goal while sitting behind the glass went viral in still pictures.
Until this season, there's zero chance ESPN leads SportsCenter with any goal from an Anaheim-Buffalo game in December. There's no talking about it at length the next day either. Still wish there were more games on ESPN or ESPN2 and not all these exclusives streamed on Plus, but that's the trend in the industry these days.
HOW DID TREVOR ZEGRAS DO THAT!? 😱 pic.twitter.com/CqbZPLCJVx
— ESPN (@espn) December 8, 2021
As for the play itself, the Sabres' lax defense was obviously a major part of the issue but Milano's quick thinking played a huge role as well. Zegras revealed after the game that Milano was yelling "Michigan, Michigan" at Zegras from in front of the net. Zegras improvised after curling the puck up on to his stick, instead sending it in front rather than trying to jam it into the net.
(It's called "the Michigan", by the way, in honor of Michigan forward Mike Legg, who first pulled off the play during a 1996 NCAA Tournament game).
Brutal OT adds to Isles' woes
The overtime between the Islanders and Blackhawks on Sunday night had to be the worst display of 3-on-3 I've ever seen, with the Isles in the throes of a 10-game losing streak and just circling the puck back to center ice and even their own zone to try to get to a shootout. The NHL needs to have an "over-and-back" rule like basketball: Take the puck back over the center red line in 3-on-3 and you get docked a faceoff in your defensive zone.
Memories and experiences from all that occurred behind the scenes during the Carolina Hurricanes’ championship run have molded the way Adams is trying to build a winner in his hometown.
New York had just one shot attempt in the five minutes and Chicago had three. The Blackhawks had the only two shots on goal, and both came in the final minute. Justice prevailed as Chicago won in the shootout, but this was not entertainment.
Speaking of the Islanders, they entered the weekend 0-5-2 at UBS Arena – an NHL record for most games without a win to open a new venue (the Sabres are there Dec. 30). Thursday's 4-3 loss to Nashville came on a goal by Eeli Tolvanen with 11.5 seconds left, the latest game-winning goal against at home in franchise history.
Since starting the season 5-2-2, the Isles have gone 1-9-3 to completely fall out of the playoff race. After making two straight conference finals, they entered the weekend 12 points out of the final wild-card spot and already 20 points back of the No. 3 slot in the Metropolitan Division.
Around the boards
• Have to wonder if new Vancouver president Jim Rutherford will inquire with old friend Jason Botterill about coming from Seattle and rejoining him to work with the Canucks. Botterill, remember, won three Stanley Cups in Pittsburgh as one of Rutherford's top lieutenants before flaming out as Sabres GM.
• The Arizona Coyotes paid their $1.3 million in multiple back taxes owed on Thursday so they wouldn't get locked out of Gila River Arena and team offices later this month. Golf claps to them. At this point, Gary Bettman & Co. are just being stubborn about a market that doesn't care and an arena that no longer wants its franchise. It will be absolutely baffling if this franchise isn't in Houston or Quebec City next season.
Did you have any idea the Sabres entered the game on pace to average more goals this year than any season since 2010-11?
• Ontario Reign coach John Wroblewski has taken a personal leave of absence and Los Angeles' AHL team will be run for the time being by two assistant coaches with Sabres connections: Chris Hajt is a former Buffalo assistant under Phil Housley and the son of Sabres Hall of Fame defenseman Bill Hajt, while Craig Johnson is the father of 2019 first-round draft pick and University of Minnesota defenseman Ryan Johnson.
• The pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season and the division-only 2021 season has left crazy long gaps in the all-time series between many teams. To wit, the Sabres play Tuesday night in Winnipeg for the first time since March 3, 2020, and visit Minnesota's XCel Energy Center on Thursday for the first time since Nov. 17, 2018 – the longest absence they have from any road arena as a result of the pandemic.
The 2020 Winnipeg game, a 3-1 loss, was the last road game I attended before the season was stopped the next week and, in fact, the last road trip I made for 11 months. It was a snowy 25-degree midnight when I arrived in Winnipeg, after an 80-degree afternoon attending a Dodgers spring training game in Glendale, Ariz., in front of more than 10,000 fans. Those were the last two games I saw with folks in the stands in any sport for more than a year. Crazy times.
