Rising From The Dead With a Six Pack

March 20, 2008   ·   Brian Sanborn   ·   Jump to comments

 

  

Picture the moment:  I am sitting in traffic on the 1-405 Freeway in Southern California and the frustration is mounting.  The traffic is not moving very much (even in the Diamond Lane, which is the West Coast version of the HOV Lane) and there is no end in sight.  And to top things off, I am tuned into XM Radio as the Buffalo Sabres are playing the Tampa Bay Lightning in a critical game for the Sabres playoff chances.

Bad traffic, a 4-1 lead for the Lightning, and a chorus of boos raining down from the Sabres crowd caused my blood to boil over.  I pick up the cell phone to call my best buddy, Derek (AKA kovy274hart here), and of course before I call, I check the Rangers/Devils score to make sure it is in between periods.  Voicemail it was to be, and I sang a message on the voicemail that the Sabres season was over.  Then I called my other good friend Frank, another Rangers fan, and provided a f-word tirade for the ages! You can say I hit the breaking point (no shock to those who know me that I declare the season to be over!)

The 3rd period begins, and I am half listening to the game, already starting to think about the off-season.  Five minutes into the period, Jason Pominville scores right off the face-off that even took Sabres play-by-play man Rick Jeanneret by surprise.  4-2 Tampa Bay, and even before I can think “Man, if we can just get one more goal”, Jochen Hecht scores his 20th to pull the Sabres within 1 goal.  Now as a long time Buffalo sports fan, I now have learned to calm myself for such moments, taking the ‘cautiously pessimistic’ approach with the Sabres, which almost seems to be the Jerry Maguire’esque ‘Mission Statement’ for Buffalo Sports fans like myself.

Then, the traffic moves a bit, and as I roll down the window a bit more to get some 72 degree air,  and Thomas Vanek scores his 29th to tie the game at 4.  This got me pumped up, but even more then that was the next Thomas Vanek moment, as he scored his 30th goal to take a 5-4 lead.  At this point I am going nuts, and I almost swerved over into another lane and hit someone else!  So I called my friend John because I was all fired up, and listened to Jeanneret call ANOTHER goal for the Sabres, yet ANOTHER Thomas Vanek goal to give the Sabres a 6-4 lead.  So Sabres fans, what do you think of the Vanek contract now??

After Jochen Hecht sealed the deal with an empty netter to give the Sabres a 7-4 lead, it all became clear to me.  Jeanneret pointed out that the Sabres now lead the NHL with 234 goals and I said “wow, I cannot believe that!” And think that this team loses Chris Drury and Daniel Briere, and had injuries to guys like Connolly and Afinogenov, and it makes me realize how lucky Sabres fans are to have Lindy Ruff behind the bench and….yes…I will finally admit it…GM Darcy Regier in the front office.  Despite losing the co-captains and Brian Campbell, the offense is still there for this team.

Another thing that Sabres fans should never question is this team’s desire to win and effort.  This all stems from Ruff, who wears his heart on his sleeve and relates to players in a way that few coaches can.

So what inspired the Sabres to rise from the dead and score 6 unanswered goals to stun the Lightning and stay in the playoff race for the 8th seed?  Perhaps it was the announcement that 39 year old defenseman Teppo Numminen will rejoin the team today.  Talk about heart, Teppo is 6 months removed from open heart surgery.  Most would never question if Numinen hung up the skates.  But Teppo pushed on, and is definitely an inspiration given the circumstances.

Soon after the game was over on XM Radio, the traffic cleared away and I got to my destination.  Perhaps if the Sabres can close the season strong, they can clear the traffic jam for the 8th spot and arrive at their desired destination instead of the golf course.

NOTES: Thomas Vanek scored a natural hat trick in the 3rd period. Amazingly enough, this is the 2nd natural hat trick against the same Tampa Bay Lightning this season.  I do not have a stat for this, but I wonder if this is a 1st in NHL history for a player to have 2 Natural Hat Tricks in one season against the same team. An amazing performance by Thomas when the Sabres needed it most.  Buffalo currently sits in 9th place in the Eastern Conference with 81 points, one point behind the 8th seeded Philadelphia Flyers. The Sabres host the Toronto Maple Leafs at HSBC arena Friday night.