Frustrations Of A Long-Time Sabres Fan

Clay brought it up this morning and he really fired me up.  He asked how can a team in Nashville, TN still be in the Stanley Cup playoffs and a team from a hockey hotbed like Buffalo, NY not even make the playoffs?  Boy that's pretty sad, but it's the truth.

Think about the other teams that are still in the running for the Cup - Phoenix?  Los Angeles?  How about the Florida Panthers based in Miami.  Miami, Florida - now there's a huge hockey town.  Every time I see the Sabres play a game there there are empty seats. 

There's not even one Canadian team still in the playoffs - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver - nope.  I think the CBC has even lost interest. 

What would it mean to me for the Sabres to win a Stanley Cup?  It wouldn't make me rich.  It wouldn't improve my lot in life.  It would just give me some satisfaction that the team I've been following all my life has finally won a championship.  The pinnacle of their sport.  No team is better.  I'd like to know what that feels like.  I can imagine.

I'll never forget when the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup.  I remember one fan saying they deserve it because they've been waiting 12 long years to win the Cup.  12 years???   I've been waiting....what, 42, 43 years for the Sabres to win the cup?   I've lost track. 

Teams from some other hockey hot spots like Anaheim, Carolina and Dallas have won the Cup, but here we are in Buffalo still waiting.  Thank God the team in Atlanta moved to Winnipeg.  I was beginning to think Atlanta would be added to the list of Cup winners before the Sabres were.