Howie's thread got me going.

So, what's your first memory as a Sabres fan? The furthest back that you can personally recall celebrating a goal, or relishing a fight or big hit?

For me, it was Stu Barnes' beautiful overtime slap shot goal just as he crossed the blue line against Pittsburgh in the 2001 ECSF.

I remember watching the game on ESPN and hearing Gary Thorne make the call.

_________________
Wheelhouse

mine was a commercial for nhl.com.

during the 1998 eastern conference finals, they had a guy on the computer, speaking some language with subtitles saying "sabres won? THE SABRES WON!" then him running down the street celebrating. it was for the global impact nhl.com can have on the game.

i remember hasek giving up a late goal, and the officials missing 2 calls in overtime in game 6.

_________________

Uhhh. I have no idea. Hahaha. I just sort of started following the team in 02-03. Any memories I have are indistinct, and I have no idea the order they're in.

I didn't spend my childhood in Buffalo, and my father is not a hockey fan, so... Hockey's always been my favorite sport, though.

_________________
Miles to go before I sleep

‎"Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation."
-Khalil Gibran

That was mine as well when I was 8.

_________________
just call me Brad

Twitter @BUrbanowicz13

It was 1997 or 1998, and after very, very casually following the team years prior, I finally went to a game. I think it was 1998. Anyway, the Sabres lost 2-1 and I remember having so much damn fun in the 300 level cuz it was my first time in an arena and my senses were overwhelmed.

I still get giddy when I walk through the aisle and the chill comes over me as I get close to the seats.

_________________
mechaphil

1992-3, watching Mogilny and LaFontaine throw up disgusting numbers on a little 13 inch black and white TV with about two miles of tin foil so I could get the games in.

I like you, really have very little memories from any earlier in 2000 from the Sabres. That is what you get when you grow up in a house that are mostly Bruins and Leafs fans , thank god for Center Ice today.

_________________
just call me Brad

Twitter @BUrbanowicz13

Cup Finals in 99.

_________________
Proud LGBTQQ Individual

i also remember the old sabres/leafs traditional home and home series around halloween. i remember watching the game on TV at the old gardens.

i also remember seeing this during the 98 playoffs:

_________________

First memory, age 6:

Playoffs, 1973, Sabres take the mighty Montreal Canadiens to 6 games in just their 3rd season of existence, and the Aud crowd chants to the team "Thank You Sabres" as the decisive defeat winds down. Awesome moment, tears in the eyes...I'll never forget it.

_________________
Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can.

OH MAN! I remember that commercial now that you've posted it.

_________________
Wheelhouse

may have been 1999 playoffs. i saw the revised crease in that ad once or twice. that happened in 98-99. but i also so the old half circle crease. i wish they would bring that back.

_________________

I remember going to the games when I was very young with my family, and it was always an exciting night out. I found my old diary about a month ago and I would write about the games hahahaha...they're so funny. Who would ever know what would come from that.

_________________
"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

I was in the first grade in '99. I remember having a gray Stanley Cup Finals shirt, and we had a dress day at school to wear our Sabres stuff.

I remember in about the fifth grade we had to do a gym project on an athlete. I did Marty Biron. I had a folder with his picture from the calendar (it was on a goldishy goldenrod yellow color) that I taped to the front, I had a written report on him, and I had an article from the Buffalo News about him and his brother. I found it in my closet after the lockout and I was surprised at how many names I didn't recognize from the lineup in the paper.

7th grade was the lockout. I didn't jump right back in in '05, but I went to a game after Christmas against the Isles and we came back from a decent deficit . . . the rest is history!!!

_________________
Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars?

ATTENTION SABRES: who are you people??!?



http://sabresbecause.tumblr.com

I looked it up, and the game I was at was a 3-3 tie.

_________________
mechaphil

BZZ 514. Yup. I still remember the license plate on the car he drove away in

Another of my early memories which I wish I didn't recall so vividly is when Tim Horton died

Look at how cute Schony is there.

My memories were basically just following the standings in the finals and the 02-03 years of bankruptcy and them missing the playoffs by a few points.

My first and only game at HSBC was a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the score was 5-4 with Pittsburgh winning it. I believe it was when I was in 7th grade since my 8th grade year would have the lockout.

I went with my youth Group, then I didn't really follow it too much until the playoffs, especially the ECF's since I could watch the games and from there on I tried to listen or watch every game.

_________________

My first memory was the Stanley cup against dallas, and my dad being pissed when Dallas won. I was like 6 or 7.

_________________
"Call a cop he robbed Delmore blind!!!"
Rick Jeanerette after Marty Biron's diving save back in 2000.

"I'm going to go to the spa and have a hot tub and massage and relax," Miller said. "That's it, and it's back to work tomorrow." Ryan Miller after clinching the North East division.

Looks like Aidan with a wig!!

I remember hearing about Horton's death; man was I crushed!

_________________
"I'll rap you with my cane; you pencil necked geek!!"

-Bowler, imitating Freddy Blassie, at the very first M & G.

I never thought about it that way. You're right! (Aidan is my youngest son who attended his very first concert last fall with Ice, MsRB, Howie, and I.)



I was devastated. My parents thought I was crazy - I couldn't stop sobbing nor did I go to school that day. In hindsight, I now realize it effected me so profoundly largely in part because I was at a young and impressionable age. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

On a lighter note, another one of my earliest memories was following (stalking) Rick Martin in the mall. I literally ran and hid inbetween one clothes rack to another as if he couldn't see me. Kids do the strangest things Him and I still laugh about it every time I see him.

ETA: If any of our photo guru's can clean that pic up for me, I'd be eternally grateful. Not only is it an old pixelized photo, but it's been laminated and I lost the negative.