The Sabres fell in the conference finals just like they did last year, but I see this season as more of a success. The city of Buffalo forced playoff pressure on this team for all 82 games of the regular season, and then an exponential amount of pressure for the postseason once they finsished the regular season with the Presidents trophy. For Lindy and his boys to live up to the unrealistic expectations of a championship starved community for 100 games is a testament to the drive and leadership of this great organization.
The Sabres are almost sure to lose both Mr. I can do Everything (Drury) and also the regular season leader in even strength points (Briere), but through great drafting, player development, and coaching, will undoubtably field another championship threatening team next season. I can only hope that the people of Buffalo see this "failure" of a season as another building block of a dynasty rather than a failed shot at glory. There is too much talent, class, and winning attitude in the communtiy for the window to be closed on a championship for the Buffalo Sabres.
Thank you Chris, Danny, Ryan, Jason, Jochen, Thomas, Derek, Maxim, Brian, Henrik, Toni, Teppo, Ales, Adam, Paul, Jaroslav, Andrew, Dainius, Drew, Tim, Dmitri, Nathan, and Daniel for an unforgettable season.
3 comments:
I highly doubt Ottawa wasn't under as much pressure as the Sabres. Ottawa has never been to the finals and have failed in the postseason many times, several at the hands of the Sabres. Not to mention they're Canada's only remaining playoff team.
To expect a team to win a championship when they're the best in the NHL isn't unrealistic. It's unfair.
What's unrealistic is Yankee fans and George Steinbrenner expecting their team to win the championship every year despite their record, chemistry, talent, etc. The New York Collection-of-Individuals are enduring these expectations now, as they stand 10 1/2 back of the BoSox.
Let's not associate the Evil Empire with our beloved Sabres, please.
Real fans don't see this season as a failure. "Fans" who think that don't really know much about hockey. I prefer to call those people casual fans, bandwagoners, or n00bs.
Good Night Nowwww!
and Thank You Sabres.
I do not think Drury is going any where, but I guess we will have to wait and see. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself during the week with no more games to watch...
As someone who knows absolutely nothing about hockey (who's this Drury fellow everyone keeps talking about? He sounds like a nice young man...), I echo the comments against any comparison between the championship expectations heaped yearly on the Yankees and those faced by Le Sabres this year. Simply put, you will never see any Ney York media outlet release a "the Yankees did a good job even though they didn't win a World Series this year" column, but I am certain that there are plenty being written like that right now in Western New York (including this one), from Buffalo to the village of Wilson (which are the only two places I know of in Western New York). The Buffalo media is hardly as omnipresent or caustic as that in the Big Apple, and I find them to be far more supportive than any media outlet in NYC, where a surplus of voices in the marketplace leads to a race for reader attention that can only be reached by making baseless accusations and absurd predictions (see: ESPN).
So, in conclusion, I don't think the "championship pressure" placed on the Sabres by the media or the fans (who, I can personally say, are some of the most delusionally supportive and loyal fans in all of sports) is what caused them to lose. It's the mere fact that in a seven-game series, anything can happen. If these two teams played 82 times, there is little doubt that the Sabres would win - but that's the difference between regular season champs and playoff champs. It's the curse of a small sample size. It happens. And life goes on...plus, I think the NFL season starts in a couple months. Thank God.
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