Tomorrow, the Sabres are playing in their home opener against the Carolina Hurricanes. While they’ve already opened the season over in Europe last week, this is the time when the home crowd can finally see this team in person after an offseason we’re going to remember for a long time. It seems like the wait for this season to come upon us took forever – and lord knows that’s how I am every single offseason. By the time it gets to August I start trying to scrap any sort of hockey news to get my fix. It doesn’t help that I normally don’t watch any other sports so those two and a half months in the summer are brutal for me. Even with beginning to watch football every week; that did nothing. I need my ice and pucks and huge hits.
The Sabres exited the playoffs with a lot of questions over their heads. Who was going to become captain? Who would stay and who would go? How was Darcy going to handle Free Agency Day without Larry Quinn having a studded collar around his neck to yank at when he tried to make a move at a big name? All of the questions were answered for us sooner or later, the captaincy being the latest one with a solution. ‘The Rochester Five’ as I have decided to dub them have grown up together through the system, and I think that Lindy made an excellent decision with who he has chosen to wear letters. Each player brings a different element to the team. They’re our leaders now and it’s their time to finally step up and show the rest of this league what the Sabres are made of.
Patrick Lalime retired. Tim Connolly, Mike Grier, Chris Butler, Rob Niedermayer, Steve Montador, Paul Byron and Mark Mancari are gone. Robyn Regehr, Christian Ehrhoff and Ville Leino are in. I can’t even begin to tell you how shocked I had been reading that we had gotten Ehrhoff’s negotiating rights. Being a Vancouver fan second to Buffalo I had watched him in the past two years that he had been a Canuck. I was ecstatic about the signing and obviously we have seen that he fits in well on the team already. Regehr and Leino were also great pickups. Seeing this all go down made Sabres fans yearn for the season even more so. The wait was even worse than before the 2006-07 season I think.
The hockey offseason to me has always been a routine. I will frequently check up on news articles about what the Sabres are doing in their respective summer homes. Some of them do charity work or participate in the world championships. I mean, I continue to watch hockey even when the Sabres are out of the playoffs because it’s hockey. The Sabres are my hometown team but I love the sport in general. I will watch until the final buzzer sounds and they hand out the Stanley Cup. I even watch the NHL Awards for the hell of it because sometimes they can be amusing. Sometimes.
For the past two seasons I’ve been going to the home opener for the Sabres and this year won’t be any different. I’ll wake up in the morning and head out to the morning skate to see them prepare for the home crowd. I’ll come to the realization that I am going to be watching live hockey in a few short hours; knowing that this game actually counts towards something. Again, with them starting in Europe it won’t be as if they’re beginning their journey but for us it feels like it. I still thought the Europe games were preseason. Watching the games at one and two o’clock didn’t help that feeling go away, either.
The wait has ended now. The puck will drop tomorrow night at 7:30 and Sabres fans will be introduced to the new ‘Pegula Era’ team coming in from the offseason. I have a feeling this year is going to be a rollercoaster and I can’t wait to stick around for the ride.
Go Sabres.
Follow Shelby on Twitter: @shelbygriswold.
(Author’s Note: I will be taking photos at tomorrow’s practice and probably writing another post on how ‘ready’ the team looks. It should be interesting to see if the Europe trip will have any sort of affect on their bodies.)
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