Everyone has a memory that made them pcik the Sabres as their team of choice. Whether that be a game on television, having a player that grew up in your area get drafted, prior family alliegences, or whatever circumstances surround you.

Just curious as to what everyones memory was.

Mine was visiting family up in Buffalo(Williamsville) and sitting out by a grille by my grandparents garage and watching games. My uncle would sit next to me in a lawn chair and watch the television they had set up in the garage. I did not know the rules so he explained them to me and we shot the shit. Always calming when we stepped outside and parked our asses in their man cave. One year we could not make it up and they bought me NHL Center Ice for that year. I have had it for close to 6 or 7 years now.

1998 eastern conference finals.

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I remember as a child I played a game of street hockey and after that started watching Sabres games cause everyone in my family loved hockey.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

What firmly supplanted my fandom was the '99 Stanley Cup finals. Game 6. Being there and experiencing the energy that town radiated was incredible.

The “May-Day” game is what did it for me.

Watching that game with my dad is what really started things, and it also helped bridge a major gap between us as we just never agreed on anything. Likely because we were so much alike.

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If it's a tight squeeze, spit on it! - NyI

He's a middling AHL player who had the good fortune of a drunk arbitrator. - The Squanto re: Tim Kennedy

vanek and the buffalonian fanbase

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HOCKEY IS BACK!

My family is from Buffalo so I always considered myself a fan, but we lived everywhere from Connecticut to North Carolina to Hawaii for most of my life, so I could only see the occasional nationally televised game here and there. We moved back to the Buffalo area during the 05-06 season so that completely solidified things.

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never had a choice but to be a fan.. my dads nickname for me as a baby was "puppa duppa" which was more or less nonsense, but im sure you can guess where it derived from. I dont even remember my first game, I was only 4.. I was just born into it.

I guess ive never even really thought about why I became a fan.. I just always was.

thats how i am with the tigers. and michigan football came just as naturally to me.

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I grew up in Buffalo.

Yeah... I'm a Sabres fan and a Bills fan by birth, not by choice.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

Same. It was in that year that I was first starting to play hockey and follow the NHL. I wanted to cheer for a NY team, and to be honest, I liked the Sabres logo.

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Wheelhouse

Who doesn't like the logo? That is the real question.

My family were original season ticket holders, as in 1970. I was six and it was the year after I started playing hockey. I was probably only allowed to go to the weekend games, but I think you can imagine how amazing going to NHL games would be for someone so young. Watching the likes of Perreault, Martin and Shack also helped, I'm sure.

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This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
--Emerson

Ever since the year...uh...I can't remember...I was staying up after bed time and watching the Sabres on a little black and white fuzzy tv. I THINK I fooled my parents having the sound all the way down. I grew up outside Buffalo until age 22 so being a hockey fan meant being a Sabres fan, sorta like Yankee and XC said. Perreault, Schoenfeld, and Bob Sauve were my early favorites, but it was Mike Ramsey and Mike Foligno that locked me in, despite those cold and dark years (uh...whole decade). To this day I hope for men among men like those two to become leaders on a Sabres team and earn a Cup with enough talent around them.

I was born in 1965 and grew up in Youngstown, NY. I remember going to the neighbor's house with Dad and watching the games with them. Trying to learn the rules from the neighbor, his son & Dad... Watching the French Connection, Shoenfeld, Korab, Hajt, Lorentz, Luce & Ramsey. My first goalie was Jerry Desjardans... I remember the neighbor's son trying to explain to me that Jerry probably wouldn't play any more because of his eye injury... I remember watching Shoney's red head and white turtleneck. I really loved him! I became a 'lapsed' fan when I married & left WNY. You really couldn't get any Sabres info once you left the state. Once the Internet became The Thing I picked them back up a bit more. Now that I can get GR55 on my laptop I'm good again.

Those late 90's and early 00's teams sparked my initial interestme in. My first real Sabres memory was the first preseason game in Marine Midland Arena. Granted, I was only 3 and don't remember a whole lot from the game but that's where it all started for me. I grew up being really into the physical aspect of the game, and the fighting. Rob Ray was my favorite player growing up, and also remember being amazed by the way Hasek played when I had the pleasure of watching him in a Sabres uniform.
I think it was really my cousin that finally hooked me and really got me into the sport. He and my uncle played and I watched a lot of games with them at their house, and also played street hockey with my cousin.
I recall asking for NHL 2002 for christmas for playstation, mainly for the fighting. I would always play Sabres vs. Stars and fight the other guys, and thats basically it.
Then, when they heated up in 05-06, that's when I was able to appreciate everything else about hockey (and began to really like Afinogenov and Drury). And I've been really into the sport and the team since then.

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Rest in Peace Nani. 10/3/10

Gerbacity



"Grier coming in over the line. He leaves it to Gaustad. The shot. THEY SCOOOREE!! RING UP ANOTHER ONE FOR THE GOOSE!!! HONK IF YA HEAR THE GOOSE!! 3-0 BUFFALO!"

My parents gave me Don Cherry's 10th Anniversary. It was the year after the Conference Finals run and Hasek was pretty much half of the highlights. Loved the Sabres from then on.

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I am, you know I am. I am Canadian.
#1 Hockey Nation.

Born and raised in Buffalo, my parents used to take me and my brothers to games. My older brother played hockey when he was a kid so he was a big hockey fan. We used to collect hockey cards and play street hockey with his friends and all that stuff.

Dominik Hasek was in his prime when I was a kid, and he was my absolute favorite! Loved Dom and I still do. Michael Peca was my first hockey crush...that beard. Rawr.

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo

that logo in the current colours is AWESOME. it was one of the first stylized modern logos and was outdated by 2002, but i still love it.

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