Best NHL City: Buffalo

Here's how good the hockey fans are in Buffalo: While TV ratings in the rest of the U.S. pushed to reach numbers posted by drunken drivers, the citizens of this mid-market media area were watching the Stanley Cup finals at five times the national rating.

And the Sabres weren't even in the finals.

Such is the passion for pucks in greater Buffalo. These fans even surpassed the Game 5 rating in the L.A. market, where the Ducks were winning the Cup.

There's no Disney Land in Buffalo; Niagara, Ontario, is nice but you can only see Ripley's so many time. There's no surf in Buffalo; the closest thing is where the Niagara River goes downhill real fast. Goat Island will never be confused with Long Beach.

So, OK, there aren't the distractions in Buffalo there are in Anaheim, where the Cup landed. Other than hockey, the only thing these cities have in common is James Cameron. The Titanic man is from an Ontario burg on the north shore of the Niagara.

And although both cities have hockey, Buffalo's passion for it is unsurpassed. Anywhere.

America's Best Sports City, NHL category, even loves its team when it loses. Example: Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, won by the Senators to eliminate the Sabres, drew a 28.4 rating for NBC. And games 1-4, all on Versus, drew ratings between 21.9 and 27.6.

Now chew on this: NBC's three games in the finals had a rating of ... 1.6. Repeat: 1.6.

Anomaly? Not considering Buffalo's rating for the All-Star Game was 7.1, while the next-best market number was Pittsburgh's 2.8.

If the NHL posted numbers one-tenth as good across the U.S. as it does in Buffalo it would be giddy. Gary Bettman would Riverdance from Erie to Ontario.

And these folks aren't staying home, either. Every Sabres home game last season was a sellout. That's 18,690 for 41 nights at HSBC Center. And of course, with Cup hopes sky-high, every playoff game was a sellout, too.

There was such demand for the playoffs, Time Warner Cable added Versus HD to its lineup.

'Nuff said. Buffalo, you rule.

The Sporting News

August 2, 2007

Beezer

Vanbiesbrouck To Enter U.S. Hockey Hall Of Fame

Florida Panthers

Aug 15, 2007, 5:04 PM EDT

By Dave Joseph for floridapanthers.com

Goalie John Vanbiesbrouck, who helped lead the Panthers to the 1996 Stanley Cup finals, was one of four players announced Wednesday who will be enshrined come October into the US Hockey Hall of Fame.

Vanbiesbrouck, a native of Detroit, Mich., will be inducted Oct. 12 along with Bobby Carpenter, Aaron Broten and the late John MacInnis as a member of the Class of 2007 during a dinner ceremony at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center in Grand Forks, ND.

“It’s a truly a humbling time,” Vanbiesbrouck said Wednesday during a conference call.

Vanbiesbrouck’s 20-year, NHL career (1982-2002) represents the longest tenure for an American-developed goaltender in NHL history. In total, he played in 882 games and recorded 374 wins, the most by any American-born goalie.

During his five seasons with the Panthers, Vanbiesbrouck, selected in the Expansion Draft, played in 268 games, winning 106. During the 1995-96 season, Vanbiesbrouck was 26-20-7 with a 2.68 goals against average. He was 12-10 in the playoffs with a 2.25 goals against average.

It was early during the 1995-96 season that Vanbiesbrouck used the term ‘Rat Trick’ to describe teammate Scott Mellanby scoring two goals in a game after killing a rat in the Panther dressing room. It officially kicked off the Panthers’ ‘Year of the Rat.’

>>OK, I've got to say that "the Beezer" is one of my all time favorites. Seems to be a "heck" of a nice guy and by far the best goaltender the Panthers have ever had. Wish we had a guy like this back in the net this season.

I'm still hoping for the best this season. At least we'll have "good eats" and a the club lifestyle as we enjoy the half season of games.

Go Panthers!!! (I hate the new "go cats")

-Tick2

Rat Reunion Game

Ok here's the info...

Vanbiesbrouck, Laus, Scott Mellanby, Billy Lindsay, Ray Sheppard, Gord Murphy, Ed Jovanovski, Terry Carkner and Geoff Smith are just some of the former Panthers who will attend the ’96 Panthers Reunion scheduled for July 26-29.Presented by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the reunion will include an Alumni Hockey Game July 28 at BankAtlantic Center. The game will be part of an Open House that will include family activities, games, autograph sessions, and a scrimmage between the ’96 Panthers and other Panther alumni from the past 13 seasons.

Can I BE any sicker that I am missing this game???? It's SO not fair!!! I guess I have to draw the hockey fanatic line somewhere, getting club seats, not changing jobs to support the club seats is one thing, but rescheduling or shortening my vacation for hockey is another!!!

I suppose as long as its taking Tick1 to get over black sunday, it'll take ME Tick2 to get over this game. I've been a fan a long time and I remember those glory days. Sure would be nice to see a season even close to that. I have no idea if our new goalie can even hold a candle to the Beezer, but sure would be nice to secure something like that. Of course we learned that having a decent goalie (like Luongo) isn't everything. If we can't play as a true TEAM, passing making plays rather than dumping it in the end zone, we don't really have a shot at the payoffs none the less, the cup.

Ah, but as a bloated tick I'll enjoy my favorite sport to the feast and festivities of the club, hopefully making the season a softer blow. It's gotta be a step up from the 5 yr old bouncing off me from last season.

Tick2 out!

Seven years, $50 million.

'We're not happy with Edmonton?' That's the best these nitwits can come up with? We let Chris Drury go to New York for $35.25 million for five years when we could have had him last fall for $21.5 million for four years? Now we're paying a guy two seasons out of Rochester $50 million dollars?

But really, what choice did Buffalo have? Let the entire offensive line walk and start rebuilding off of Edmonton's notoriously bad first-round picks? It will be interesting to see the Vanek-Roy-Afinogenov line against even one of the Rangers' lines: Drury or Gomez or Jagr. Shit. This kind of nonsense has Sabre fans saying things like, "let's just burn this mother f-er down" (a la Harold & Kumar) and "What's everybody worried about? Once Vanek and Roy bolt, we still have our #1 line in place: Peters-Ryan-Mair. They should be good for about a total of 5 goals, 6 assists, and 425 PIM next season. Oh, and when they fail to get back on defense, we'll have my grandpa Teppo back there to prevent a goal on my other grandpa Thibault."

I have to say that I'm really looking forward to the Panthers' cookout on Monday. Even Florida's Luongo debacle doesn't come close to Buffalo's Black Sunday.

:-(

If I could eat -- if I weren't so sad, along with the rest of Buffalo -- I might lose my lunch at this photo. I'd love to see Quinn and Regier's plan B. Really. What now, guys?

The players speak.

Buffalo ranks #1 on the list of teams players would like least to be traded to. Sixteen percent of the league would rather play somewhere, anywhere, else than Buffalo, according to The Hockey News' March 27 player poll results. But of 80,000 fans polled by ESPN, "the Buffalo Sabres rank No. 1 among 122 pro sports teams based on what they give back to fans who invest their time and money in the organization." So what we actually have is a beloved team that no one wants to play for?
Check out the poll, though. It's great insight into the psyches of our beloved hockey hooligans.

Tick, tick, tick...

We are fast approaching July 1st, and there's no news from Buffalo's management about the fates of unrestricted free agents, and co-captains, Chris Drury and Danny Briere. The Hockey News is reporting that "most people in and around hockey" think that one of them will be walking. And season ticket holders are commenting in the Buffalo News' Sabres Edge that they are disappointed at having these contracts still up in the air less than a week from one or both of the Sabres' captains heading to another club. Drury and Briere both expressed a lot of interest in staying in Buffalo, as they have made homes there and love the city. What is the holdup? Offer these guys something reasonable for all the hard work they did at getting Buffalo to the Eastern Conference Final. No, we didn't win the Cup this year; but we got close. Some will say that close only counts with the proverbial horseshoes and hand grenades, but I say keep the team together. These guys are, still, scary good.