BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo doesn’t need palm trees after all.
The Sabres played an exhilarating Game 1 against the Boston Bruins on Sunday night, ripping off four goals in the final eight minutes of the game to win 4-3 and take a 1-0 series lead. In the process, the Sabres took the energy from their rabid fans and helped create a memorable scene that was the talk of the hockey world Sunday night and into Monday morning.
“It just puts a smile on your face for sure,” said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff, who has lived in Buffalo since 1979. “It tells you what a great hockey town it is … It’s been a long time. Way too long. Our city has been begging for something like this.”
It’s just one game, and the Sabres have already begun the process of decompressing from the most emotional game many of them have ever played in. But regardless of how long this Sabres run lasts, it’s clear they’ve already gotten people’s attention. For the last decade, Buffalo has been a punchline in NHL circles. Sabres fans have heard about no-trade clauses and the various reasons this is not a destination market for top NHL talent.
On Sunday night, though? This looked like a pretty fun place to play. Players were still wrapping their heads around what exactly they saw, heard and felt from that crowd a day later. Jack Quinn and Alex Tuch both mentioned what it felt like to take the ice for warmups and see the building already close to full. Quinn loved hearing the crowd chant along to AC/DC’s “TNT” as it blared through the arena speakers following Thompson’s first goal. And the eruption from the crowd after Mattias Samuelsson scored the go-ahead goal is the loudest any of these players, and maybe a lot of the fans, have ever heard at KeyBank Center.
“If there was a chance at bringing the building down, they were going to try,” Ruff said. “And probably wrecked Canalside, I heard, too.”
Bruins forward Casey Mittelstadt, who started his career in Buffalo, said he was expecting bedlam in Game 1, and Sabres fans delivered. The building was filled with a mixture of angst, nostalgia and 15 years of pent-up passion for this sport and this team. That all got released as the Sabres put the finishing touches on the 4-3 win. If the Sabres are going to change the perception of this franchise, it’s going to start with winning. But it’s also the atmosphere that winning creates.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Tuch said. “Fourteen long years of heartbreak. I’m just glad to be a part of the group that’s helped them find some success and get us back into the playoffs. But like I said before, that’s not the end goal. We’re just focused on next-game mentality. It’s been incredible. The people and the fans in Buffalo here deserve it, deserve all the recognition and credit because they’re unbelievable. I think they’re the best fans in the world.”
Mattias Samuelsson’s go-ahead goal in the third period ignited a raucous celebration in Buffalo’s KeyBank Center. Timothy T. Ludwig / Imagn Images)
Bills quarterback Josh Allen, one of the biggest superstar athletes this city has ever seen, has been getting swept up in it. He was flying from California to Buffalo last night for Buffalo’s voluntary workouts and couldn’t watch the game. But he caught the highlights when he landed and said everyone on his plane was celebrating the win. At his news conference on Monday, Allen was wearing a blue Sabres hoodie and a blue Sabres hat to match.
Allen knows better than most what it means to play for Buffalo fans. He’s talked a lot about what it would mean to bring a championship to this community. And he lit up Monday talking about the way the city is buzzing over the Sabres.
“Just for the City of Buffalo, I think it’s a better place when the Sabres are playing well,” Allen said. “It being the first playoff game in, what’s it been, 15 years? And to go in there and win the way that they did showed a lot of grit, a lot of heart. It’s a team that people kind of wrote off the beginning part of the season. They’ve come together rather quickly. They’re playing for each other, and you can see that. You can feel that. I think the buzz in the city right now is electric.”
Allen smirked when asked if he’d be at Game 2. He said he’s planning on it. Maybe we’ll see him bang the drum for the pregame introduction to get the crowd going on Tuesday night.
Notes
1. Tuch is clearly built for playoff hockey. He came into the game as one of Buffalo’s most experienced postseason players and backed that up with a huge performance in Game 1. He led the Sabres with 10 hits, and Buffalo also out-chanced Boston 8-3 during Tuch’s five-on-five minutes. The play he made on Thompson’s second goal is exactly what can make him such a handful to deal with on the forecheck. His speed, reach and physicality aren’t a fun combination for opposing defensemen. The Sabres out-hit the Bruins 53-38, but that’s not a stat Tuch is too focused on.
“We just wanted to go in and be physical and be hard to play against and make it miserable out there, try not to give them an inch of ice,” Tuch said. “That’s what the best teams in the league do. That’s one of the reasons why Florida won back-to-back Cups. And, I mean, you can take it watching those games the last couple of years, you see they don’t give anybody an inch of ice. That’s a good example to follow.”
2. Buffalo’s third pair was a big topic of conversation heading into the playoffs. The Sabres went with Logan Stanley and Conor Timmins, and the Sabres had a 5-0 advantage in scoring chances when those two were on the ice. Ruff shouldn’t feel compelled to change anything after Game 1.
3. During the second intermission of the ESPN broadcast Sunday night, Steve Levy asked panelists Mark Messier and P.K. Subban if either of them wanted to try to actually pronounce the name of Buffalo’s goalie instead of just referring to him by his initials. Neither was able to complete the task, and both laughed about it.
That’s a pretty embarrassing moment for a national broadcast covering a playoff series. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s name isn’t particularly complicated to pronounce, and he didn’t just arrive in the NHL. He’s 27 and has played 190 games in the league. He started 35 games for the Sabres and was a major reason why the team got to the playoffs. A few minutes of research would have uncovered those facts along with the straightforward pronunciation of his name.