In the throes of a postgame scene unlike any seen at KeyBank Center in at least a decade, Alex Tuch acted quickly when someone suggested Rick Jeanneret join the Buffalo Sabres on the ice late Friday night.
Tuch and Sabres center Cody Eakin locked arms with Jeanneret and helped the beloved 79-year-old broadcaster walk slowly toward the players, coaches and staff, basking in the applause of the thousands of fans who remained at their seats long after the Nashville Predators retreated to the visitors’ dressing room.
After Jeanneret received a curtain call to cap the celebration of his 51-year broadcasting career, he posed with the Sabres for a photograph that illustrated the voice of the team’s connection to Buffalo and how everyone involved in the postgame pageantry, even those who haven’t known Jeanneret for long, understood the importance of the night.
“It was just an unbelievable moment,” said Tuch, whose passion for hockey began while listening to Jeanneret’s voice from his family’s home in Baldwinsville.
The Sabres weren’t done honoring Jeanneret when the 19,070 fans filed to the exits. Behind the closed doors of their dressing room, Kyle Okposo, the team’s emotional leader, declared Jeanneret as the player of the game for the 4-3 win and handed the man of the night a Sabre sword. Okposo beamed following practice Saturday when recalling the exchange and Jeanneret’s brief speech that followed.
Jeanneret’s retirement at the end of this season will mark the end of an era for the franchise but another is already underway on the ice. Fans who stayed away from the arena since before the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic learned Friday night that the Sabres’ young core is blossoming around veterans like Okposo. The scene after the win was the latest example of what the players have built off the ice since training camp in October and the connection they're rebuilding with the community in Buffalo.
“I was lucky enough to spend the beginning of my career in front of some sold-out crowds and you really can’t describe the energy that you get from crowds like that,” said Tuch. “Last night, it would have been really tough for us not to have some energy. … You feel unstoppable at times, and it goes to show how unbelievable of a fan base that we have. When they’re coming here and supporting us, I think it’s going to be that much better.”
When the audience members methodically raised their arms to form a wave that went around each section of seats in KeyBank Center during the third period, Okposo leaned over to Dylan Cozens, a second-year pro who had never witnessed such a raucous environment in the building, and said, “Welcome to the National League.”
Minus the Heritage Classic and the game Friday night, the Sabres have averaged 8,844 fans in 33 home contests this season, the second-lowest mark in the NHL behind Ottawa.
Tuch cracked a smile before the game Friday when he described his anticipation for the team’s first sold-out crowd in KeyBank Center since Feb. 16, 2020. Tuch played in front of larger audiences in Buffalo as a visitor with the Vegas Golden Knights and attended many spirited games as a childhood fan of the Sabres, but this was the first time many of his teammates experienced what the building is like in good times.
“The crowd tonight was unreal,” Tage Thompson said after he scored his 29th and 30th goals of the season Friday.
When training camp began in October, the Sabres knew they were going to have to win back their fans, even though the fractured relationship wasn’t their doing. Many didn’t return to the building after the Covid-19 pandemic suspended the season in March 2020. There were few games with fans last season, and there was frustration surrounding the club’s decision to rebuild again when Kevyn Adams, the Sabres’ general manager, shifted the franchise’s direction by trading Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart and Rasmus Ristolainen.
“We know Buffalo's had a great fan base for their whole existence,” said center Peyton Krebs. “Obviously, we haven't had more success here in the past, but you know, we're a young group and we're excited for the future. It starts with us and bringing them back, for sure.”
Slowly, the Sabres’ new young core, led by Tuch, Cozens, Krebs, Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin and Casey Mittelstadt, has won over a fan base that hasn’t experienced the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2011. Palpable frustration remained in February when the Sabres lost six consecutive games. The talent on the roster tantalized enough that die-hards wondered why they must continue to wait for development to translate into wins.
But the team’s return to full strength – most notably, the returns of Vinnie Hinostroza and Zemgus Girgensons – and continued improvement of young players led to a breakthrough March in which the Sabres went 8-3-3 with wins over Toronto, Minnesota, Vegas, Calgary, Vancouver and Pittsburgh.
When Eichel returned to Buffalo with the Golden Knights on March 10, most of the 12,437 fans in attendance, then a season-high, were there to boo the former Sabres captain. Three days later, a sold-out, Toronto-friendly crowd at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ont., watched the Sabres outplay the Maple Leafs. And the large gathering Friday night was mostly for Jeanneret, not the upstart hockey team he’s enjoyed following during his final season.
But each time, the Sabres delivered in a big way. They will miss the playoffs for an NHL-record 11th season, but their point streak is at eight games entering a Sunday matchup against the Florida Panthers.
“I said it from the first day of the year that this whole thing needs to happen the way it’s supposed to and organically,” said Okposo, an alternate captain. “We’re just going to continue to build. I think the last number of weeks, we play the Vegas game, then we play the outdoor game, we’ve played some emotional games, and last night was one of them. … Hopefully it’s going to want to push them a little harder, so our team becomes better and the building’s going to be more like that.”
Many qualities of these Sabres are like those of the franchise’s great teams. The players have a blue-collar, worker-bee-like determination that resonates with people in Buffalo, a willingness to stick up for one another on the ice, immense talent that plays an exciting style of hockey and a passion for bringing a winner to Western New York.
Behind the scenes, players like Cozens and Thompson talk about the dream of hoisting the Stanley Cup in Buffalo. They know this won’t be accomplished soon. The first step is a playoff push and qualifying for the postseason. But their openness with that goal resonates with fans who have suffered through heartbreaking Sabres and Bills losses.
And this group is willing to show its various personalities. The Sabres got off the bus at the Heritage Classic wearing 1970s-style basketball uniforms from the movie, “Semi-Pro,” and in honor of Jeanneret, players wore suspenders to the arena Friday night. In the buttoned-up world of professional hockey, the Sabres are giving fans a peak behind the curtain to see the bond that’s been formed off the ice.
To the team’s credit, it’s using social media and multimedia to connect the fans with the team. They’ve shown Okposo’s son, Odin, announce the starting lineup in the dressing room ahead of the game on Kids Day, Krebs’ spirited pregame lineup announcement during the recent point streak and Okposo handing the sword to Jeanneret. This was never done when Jason Botterill and Tim Murray were running hockey operations. Over time, the Sabres lost the connection with the fans that was developed in the 1970s with open practices and community events under the ownership of the Knox family.
Rebuilding that relationship was part of Adams’ plan when he took over as general manager in June 2020.
“Yeah, the locker room’s a sacred place in what we do, and, you know, obviously, this is a new age, a new world with cameras kind of everywhere,” said Okposo. “It's nice that people get to kind of see a little bit of what goes on in there.”
The emotional game against Nashville was the first in a difficult April slate that includes matchups against Florida, Carolina, Tampa Bay, Toronto, St. Louis and Boston. The rapid development of the young core has some fans dreaming of playoff hockey, but coach Don Granato doesn’t want to look too far into the future.
Much can be accomplished during the season’s final month. Owen Power, the Sabres’ first overall draft choice in July, is expected to join the club when his postseason ends with the University of Michigan. Other young players will be tested with immense responsibility against top teams fighting for playoff position.
Changes will occur this summer, albeit minor compared to previous offseasons. Some veteran players likely will be gone, but the franchise’s new foundation, the young core, will be here for seasons to come. The emotional night celebrating Jeanneret’s career was their introduction to what’s in store for the Sabres with more success.
“Obviously, we're not quite where we want to be,” Cozens said recently. “We want to be in the playoffs. That’s the first step to our goal. We’re not there yet. But we see that we've started to build something here that we know we're going to get there. Whether it's next year or the year after that, we know we're going to get there. Everyone else believes that and feels that in this room, too. We’re all just super excited to do this and build this the right way. We have a lot of great things ahead for this group.”
