The comeback that brought the Buffalo Sabres back to life
Photo courtesy of Sandro Halank/Wikimedia Commons
It has been 14 years since the city of Buffalo experienced playoff hockey. After earning the honor of the longest playoff drought in National Hockey League (NHL) history, the Buffalo Sabres finally got a taste of that postseason glory, and man, was it electric.
The Sabres pulled off a 4-3 comeback win against the Boston Bruins this past Sunday, Apr. 19 in the Eastern Conference first round. Coming out of the gate, Boston was in control of the scoring. Right-wing David Pastrnak and center Morgan Geekie each notched a goal and two assists for the Bruins to put them up by two. Pastrnak later scored a power-play goal late in the game with eight seconds left, but it just was not enough to come back from the Sabres' late comeback.
Despite the Sabres generating early offensive chances, Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman repeatedly shut the door, recording 34 saves. Just when Buffalo fans and players thought it was over, center Tage Thompson scored a wrap-around goal at 12:02 minutes into the third period. Once the fire was lit, the Sabres were unstoppable. Thompson tied the game just three minutes later.
Thompson spoke about his time in Buffalo and how the win felt, saying, “I think eight years of adversity is enough experience to get you ready for stuff like this…Anytime you go eight years without making the playoffs and it's finally here, the last thing you want is regret. There's just a heightened feeling of hunger. You just don't want to let this opportunity slip.”
As if the comeback could not get any better, just 52 seconds after Thompson’s tying goal, defenseman Mattias Samuelsson beat Swayman high to put the Sabres ahead by one. Just to make sure the Sabres truly had it in the bag, forward Alex Tuch scored an empty-net goal to make the score 4-2.
The question on everyone’s mind before the game was whether Buffalo was a football or hockey town, and game one of the NHL playoffs proved that it might be hockey that takes the win. Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen spoke on the atmosphere of the game, saying, “It’s probably the loudest I’ve ever heard in my life… You know that it’s going to be loud, you know it’s going to be electric, but you never can imagine how loud it’s going to get here. The fans are the reason we get to do what we do, and they’re the ones who have waited the longest, so I’m really happy that we grinded out a win tonight.”
To put just how loud it was inside the KeyBank Center, Sportsnet posted a video on Instagram using a decibel meter to record how loud the arena got after a goal. It peaked at 107.3 decibels—now that is loud!
The crazy atmosphere did not confine itself to just inside the arena; there was also a watch party set up at Canalside. Despite the mid-April snowfall, typical of Western New York, fans were tearing up downtown Buffalo before and after the win.
Head coach Lindy Ruff commented on the Buffalo fans, saying, “It just puts a smile on my face, for sure… It tells you what a great hockey town it is. It’s been a long time – way too long – and our city’s been begging for something like this. If there was a chance of bringing the building down, they were going to try – and probably wreck Canalside, I heard.”
After 14 years of disappointment, the city of Buffalo finally has a hockey team to rally behind, and not be embarrassed about. As the playoffs continue, let us all hope the Sabres can keep the fire lit beneath them.