I am all for honoring greatness, but I feel like we Buffalonians spend so much time holding on to old glory when we really need to focus on the only goal in sports. Championship caliber teams.

Are we content with mediocrity? Do actions like this sate our appetite for glory by living days of glory past?

/duck
/cover

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I'm all for honoring too but let's face facts. I am 32 years old and the French Connection, beyond being a part of the Sabres history, has absolutely no impact on me. So we once had a great line? They stopped playing in Buffalo the year I was born? Um.....did they win a Cup? Um...will we ever win a Cup? Bueller? Bueller?

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Well when you've never won a cup you have to honor your history somehow. They obviously deserve it, cup or no cup.

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

The greatest player ever play fr Buffalo was on that line. They were also one of the most dominant lines in the NHL. I guess you can't honor players who played for the team. Might as well fold the team now and stop honoring past players too.

With that logic, players who never won a cup shouldn't be in the Hockey Hall of Fame then too. They don't deserve honor then.

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There's no doubt they deserve the recognition; I just feel like Buffalonians are stuck in the past more often than not. It's like the call to save the old Bethlehem steel building.

"Oh, it's historical...save it."

IMO, it's a reminder that we got left in the dust and shafted by our nation's leaders.

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I think there's a significant difference.

Pissing and moaning to save old buildings just because something marginally important might have happened there 100 years ago is silly.

Putting up a couple of new monuments to embrace the past, while at the same time continuing to look towards the future, is not.

I'm not trying to start an argument, just off-season discussion. I'm not exactly sure how this monument "looks to the future"...unless the two parts of your second statement are mutually exclusive.

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hasek didnt play on the french connection.

and no, its not up for debate.

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No, there's no debate. Because you're dead wrong.

Gilbert Perreault is the best player to ever play for this franchise. Hands down. End of story.

I'd say the franchise in general is moving forward, but doing so while paying homage to it's past. That's something I like.

I agree with you that Buffalo in general has a huge boner over preservationism, which is sometimes stupid, but I don't think this Alumni Plaza idea is the same thing at all.

hasek was the best player in the league when he played. by a large margin. for multiple seasons. greatest to play his position. perreault wasnt.

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Perrault was also our first draft pick, and our best forward ever. I'd say he has more prestige than Hasek.

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

there is a romance to perrault. he played for the sabres his whole career. he was a model athlete and was classy (apparently)

hasek played for 4 teams. hasek held the sabres ransom and got out, and set the sabres back. hasek was moody, and quit on the team.

i get the romance. hasek is still fresh in everyones mind. to the point where ryan miller is always criticized.. simply for NOT being hasek. but hasek isnt looked back on as fondly because of his moodiness and him leaving.

if we are talking about the best player in sabres history, what happened on the ice and not about all the extra shit, hasek was better. hands down. best goalie to ever play. and his buffalo years? he was leaps and bounds above everyone. 6 veznias. 2 hart trophies.... going by statistics, perrault wasnt the best player in the league at that time. that alone sets hasek apart.

not saying perrault doesnt deserve it. but hes not the best player to throw on a sabres sweater. hasek, and by a longshot.

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Not gonna argue because I agree with that also.

I would say this. The best skater and the best goalie. Perrault was by far our best skater and Hasek was by far the best goalie, and arguably the best player. The unfortunate thing is, since he was a goalie they don't get the credit for what they do enough.

TSN did rate Gilbert Perrault number 5 on the most skilled players of all time though. Not always the best, but skilled.

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I honestly don't even know what kinda player Perrault was. It's all good to honor past Sabres but a whole statue? I think Hasek IMO rings up better memories for us younger fans. Hopefully Pegula can start focussing on the now instead of the decades past.

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"If you want to know what I've been doing lately, I've been driving around from Tim Horton's to Tim Horton's, rolling up the rim. Haven't won anything yet. Thanks." - Lindy Ruff

Jammerz, I think that's kind of ignorant. When it comes to choosing who you glamorize, you pick the player(s) that embodied everything it meant to be a player, an icon, a testament to what it meant to be an athlete and competitor. That's not Hasek; he wears the Scumbag Steve hat more often than not.

Maybe I was just in a sour mood when I made this thread.

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While I think it is wicked awesome to stay in tune with days gone by, both Hasek and the French Connection are of days gone by. I don't see this as ownership living in the past, but yet, I also wouldn't consider Dom as being living in the present. I mean, if we're going to debate great Sabres, why not build a statue of Myers? Or Rayzor? It's easy to say we live in the past by honoring the greatest line in team history, but the same could be said of any more recent player that doesn't currently play that made their mark on the Buffalo sport scene. By that thought process, let's erect a life like statue of Drury... Not going to happen any time soon, IMO.

This could go back and forth for days on end. Was Perreault the best Sabre player of his time? Likely. Was Dom the best of his? Hell yeah. Have I been consuming beverages of the non sober type while writing this post? Damn Skippy. I guess what I'm trying to drive home is that it is wicked awesome to honor a team's past, while focusing on the current and future. Which I think T-Pegs has done a kick ass job of.

Titty Sprinkles.

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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

Squanto, I have to disagree with you here. I am old enough to have watched them both play and Hasek was a more dominant player than Perreault. Perreault is a really, really close second but what Hasek did when he was here is more impressive than what Perreault...especially considering the talent around them.
I just back and watched the below video...I had actually forgotten how special Perreault was. I am retracting my statement about Hasek being better than Perreault--it was a momentary lapse in reason.

That being said, anyone who thinks the French Connection doesn't deserve a statue is out of their damn mind. As far as I'm concerned FNC should be called the French Connection Arena. Not only are they the best line to EVER play for the Sabres, they are one of the best lines the NHL has ever seen. Hockey is the last major sport that has held on to its rich traditions and that is something I never want to see gone. It's the same reason players won't touch the Cup until they've won it and don't shave once the playoffs start. Besides all of this, if Terry Pegula wants to spend money to build a winning franchise here while not caring about making a profit, then he can do whatever the hell he wants--there are worse things to spend money on.

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"Every time I think you say the dumbest thing ever...you keep on talkin' " - Hank Hill
"Starting today, the Buffalo Sabres' reason for existence will be to win a Stanley Cup" - Terry Pegula

Perreault and Hasek were each special players during their respective time with the Sabres, but let's be honest. If it's not for Perreault, do we have a Buffalo Sabres today? It's hard to believe that the Sabres made the Cup Final only five years after they first played in the league, and there's not a single way they do that without Perreault.

In my opinion, if there's no Perreault, there's no NHL team in Buffalo today. They'd have been gone faster than the Buffalo Braves. There's no question in my mind that Perreault is the greatest Sabres to ever play, simply because of how important he was for the survival of the game in Buffalo. Not only that, he's the most recognizable figure on the Sabres after so many years.

Maybe Hasek was the greatest player ever to play as a Sabre. You can certainly make that argument, but you can also argue that there's no Hasek in Buffalo without Perreault.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550