BUFFALO, N.Y. — RJ Night on Friday was one of the best nights I’ve spent in the arena. Just to see the rare sellout crowd come in to honor the Sabres legend Rick Jeanneret was special.
The Sabres have done a much better job representing itself this season, and Friday night for RJ was no different.
The fans helped make it as special as it was. They were charged up from the time the lights went down at 6:40 p.m. until the horn sounded, with the Sabres winning 4-3.
There were many people in that crowd that, because of the failures of the last 11 years, had given up on this team. The season ticket base has fallen by over 10,000 seats. Many longtime season ticket holders just declared they weren’t going to spend their money on bad hockey played by entitled guys.
For me, the best part of the evening was after the team went to center ice to acknowledge the screaming fans, Alex Tuch saw Jeanneret standing next to the bench waiting to be announced as the first star of the game. He and Cody Eakin helped RJ onto the ice as the full house went wild.
As the scene unfolded, Kyle Okposo organized an impromptu team picture with RJ. As it was being set up, the coaches ran onto the ice, soon to follow were the injured players like Malcolm Subban, then came the trainers and staff followed by the doctors. EVERYBODY wanted to be a part of it, and the noise of appreciation in the building was deafening. On Saturday, Kyle Okposo said that he hopes that will be the official team picture for this season.
A funny thing happened on Friday. Hardly anybody left early. The building was still energetic and strong as the Sabres tried to close out their win. The fans were screaming encouragement with every faceoff and erupted as the clock struck zero. It just shows me that this fanbase wants to believe in its hockey team. It wants to believe in these good, young players and believe in the improvement of the last 15 games where the team went 9-3-3.
The Nashville Predators are a good team and Buffalo outplayed them and figured out a way to win the game, not give it away. Did the fan that is in “show me” mode come to the game and want to see more of this young core? In the first 14 minutes alone, the youngsters were great. Dylan Cozens assisted on Peyton Krebs' goal just 2 minutes, 14 minutes in, and Alex Tuch did the same on both Tage Thompson goals.
Thompson has 30 goals and he still has all of April ahead of him. The Twitter coaches made their judgments on Thompson when he was 21 or younger and declared him a bust. The same thing with Rasmus Dahlin. The Twitter coaches were 100% sure he was a bust at 19 and 20 years old.
Some players will be busts, but you have to let the growing process take place. Part of that process was Friday night. Krebs, Cozens, Dahlin, Henri Jokiharju, Mattias Samuelsson, Jacob Bryson all got to see what things can be like in that building. How much of an effect did the fans that had their backs have on those players?
The team seems to be passing every test right now, but another huge one shows up here Sunday afternoon. The Florida Panthers were down to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday 6-2 in the third period. As they always do, the Panthers came roaring back and won 7-6 in overtime.
The last time the Panthers were in Buffalo they embarrassed the Sabres. They started running pond hockey plays because they could. All the Sabres did was stand around and watch. The Florida players were openly laughing at the Sabres and they still just stood and watched. Buffalo did respond very well in the next game beating the Vegas Golden Knights, but I’d like to see this team make a statement on Sunday that yes, Florida is the better team, but they’re not going to come to Buffalo and laugh the Sabres right out of their own building.