Former Buffalo Sabres Have Fun at Current Fans’ Expense
I’ve been told the Stanley Cup has been awarded. Exile prompts vastly different whims. My lengthy postseasons have oscillated between focusing on thriving teams as a distraction and skating away for the summer as a mental health break from a distraction that’s itself supposed to be just that. I went with the latter this year. Either way, I’m another Buffalo Sabres fan trying to keep the perennially disappointing team we’re cursed to follow from ruining enjoyment of the sport. That’s Terry Pegula’s legacy.
The Stanley Cup will remain in its home country of the United States of America. This nation includes the state of Florida, which has a more legitimate claim to hockey supremacy than Canada’s Tijuana. Buffalo’s team helps Gary Bettman by showing that traditional hockey cities aren’t the only place for success and may not in fact experience it at all.
Inflicting disappointment gradually shields against shock. Imagine explaining to the Buffalo sports fan unfrozen after 35 years trapped in a West Seneca glacier that Miami finally has a Stanley Cup to go along with Tampa Bay’s three. Add how the Buccaneers won two Super Bowls to get the poor thawing dude to refreeze himself.
The tradition of leaving Buffalo to win a championship extends beyond even the record-setting Sabres absence. The universe wants to make sure you know exactly how cruel it is by flaunting erstwhile heroes celebrating with different employers. I refuse to list the countless names that come to mind for sanity’s sake.
Samson Reinhart found his dream partner after he left you. But don’t take it personally. Who knew he could stop underachieving to become a worthwhile partner? Well, the Panthers did. Rejected Sabres fans try to determine if he was unspectacular as a player or underutilized by a franchise that specializes in such. A champion who scores at will shows that failure is not a curse when you’re doing it to yourself.
Who’s your favorite player who escaped drought conditions? Brandon Montour scored 11 points this postseason, which is a reminder that the Sabres could sure use a puck-moving defenseman like him. Oops! Buffalo fans may not miss Evan Rodrigues as much even though he can put Stanley Cup winner on his business card no matter how his personal career’s gone.
The Panthers are so good that they overcame having Kyle Okposo. The least inspirational captain possible found a way to avoid pouting about fans who noticed how he played, namely by joining a solid act. The drought’s embodiment matched his futility with the Sabres personally as a passenger by not scoring in 17 playoff games. It matched his total in Buffalo.
The responsible party is anything but. Okposo led his previous team through the playoff absence he helped cause. He’s Hot Dog Guy without anyone laughing. Masochistic Sabres fans show how much abuse they’ll tolerate by cheering for a conman who stole from their team in every way. Getting someone else to pay him to not produce is the closest this franchise gets to a win.
The runner-up provokes thoughts about what could’ve been if you thought there was relief. Connor McDavid winning a Conn Smythe despite not being able to singlehandedly do the same with the Cup offers a reminder that even lottery ping pong balls are against us. Then again, the Sabres might have wasted an all-time player’s potential as their most egregious example yet. Try to remember the downside of seeming blessings to appreciate not receiving them.
At least one of the two teams I wanted to lose lost. I was one more Buffalo fan cheering against Edmonton because their coach chose to start a lame feud with a fanbase that treats slights as offenses against made men. Cup-pursuing failure Kris Knoblauch could’ve coached the Bills because he’s won the same number of titles. I’m teasing. He surely appreciates the precedent.
Acting as a farm team is not the most fulfilling way to be linked to championships. The Sabres can’t use the excuse of big market teams raiding poor little towns. You don’t even have to ask why Buffalo remains a small market. It’s tough to grow when the multibillionaire owner drains taxpayers so he doesn’t have to pay his own business expenses. Blaming lack of talent gets tricky when latent abilities emerge upon leaving town. Previous Sabres coaches kept kryptonite in their pockets.
This is the latest season in a long series. We’re beyond tired of watching those for whom we once cheered nab championships. Seeing lost assets celebrate in different jerseys is particularly painful for fans of a team that will go at least four presidential elections between advancing. The Sabres South win doesn’t count as a moral Cup for Buffalo in any way. In fact, the only team that lost more than Buffalo was Edmonton.
A secondary defeat is common for the primary star-crossed sports city. Just this year we’ve also endured a damned Boston team winning another freaking championship; even worse, it’s the one sort-of wrested from Buffalo. That’s on top of yet one more Super Bowl win for a nemesis that can’t be classified as a rival for as long as it prevails in every postseason matchup. And whoever wins the World Series will have a major league team unlike the city that thought Pilot Field was built as the home for that precise purpose.
I feel terrible for poor fans of playoff teams. They’re adjusting to the offseason when Sabres fans are beyond accustomed to it. It would feel uncomfortable to still follow hockey in summer. You can’t skate on sand. Letting all those Dolphins fans attend a parade where the Stanley Cup is the grand marshal seems far more preferable. Particular absurd justifications change every year as results remain constant.
