Buffalo Sabres: Ticketnest - By: Sara

The Buffalo Sabres-a professional ice hockey team located in Buffalo, New York. They play in the National Hockey League (NHL). The Buffalo Sabres, along with the Vancouver Canucks, joined the NHL in the 1970-71 seasons. The Sabres’ first owners were Seymour and Northrop Knox, scions of a family long prominent in Western New York. They choose the team’s nickname as a sabre had long been thought a weapon held by a leader. The owners had tried two times before to get an NHL team; first time in 1967 when the NHL expanded, and secondly unproductively trying to buy the Oakland Seals with the purpose of moving them to Buffalo.

An article in “The Buffalo News” stated that the Sabres are going to have a new logo in the 2006-07 seasons. This new logo would be the mixture of the first and second logos in a form of a charging buffalo. The sabres tried hard and closelyly missed the playoffs the season that saw the debuts and/or development of important young players like Daniel Brière and Derek Roy. One unforgetful moment in 2003-04 was on December 31, 2003, when Maxim Afinogenov and Miroslav Satan both scored hat tricks against the Washington Capitals at home.

On March 7, 2005, The Sabres lost their main cable television broadcaster, because the Empire Sports Network ended operations due to the Adelphia scandal (Empire, like the Sabres, had been owned by Adelphia). As a result, for the 2005-06 campaign, the Madison Square Garden Network (MSG), a New York City-located channel that usually broadcasts New York Rangers games, approved to broadcast Sabres games to television viewers in western New York.

The Sabres ran to a hot start and remained close the top of the standings all season long, completing with their best season in over twenty years in 2005-06. On April 3, they earned their first Eastern Conference playoff spot since the 2000-01 seasons. The team ended the regular season with 52 wins, outstanding the 50-win mark for the first time in franchise history. This win makes the Sabres stand fourth over all in scoring. In addition the team also finished with 110 points, their first 100-point season in 23 years and tied the 1979-80 clubs for the second-best point total in franchise history. This doesn’t end here, the Sabres also ended with 25 road wins that was another franchise record.

Buffalo stood victorious against the Philadelphia Flyers (http://www.ticketnest.com/sports-tickets/Philadelphia-Flyers/index.php) in the first-round of the 2006 Playoffs in six games. The Sabres scored seven or more goals in the series two times. The Sabres defeated the top-seeded Senators in five games in the very second round of the playoffs. Three victories came in overtime, also counting the series-gripping game five that was won on a shorthanded goal by Jason Pominville to send Buffalo to the Eastern Conference Final against the Hurricanes.

Irrelevant of the fact that some or all of their four top defensemen for much of the series, the Sabres bravely fought back from a three-games-to-two deficit to force a seventh game by way of a 2-1 OT win in game six. In the concluding game, the Sabres led the Hurricanes 2-1 leading into the final period, though blew the lead early in the third and gave up two more late goals for a 4-2 final score. The decisive goal was scored on the power play by Hurricanes captain Rod Brind’Amour after Brian Campbell was penalized for shooting the puck into the crowd.

The Sabres’ unexpectedly fascinating season was acknowledged on June 22, 2006 at the NHL Awards ceremony, when Lindy Ruff edged Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette 155 votes to 154 to win the Jack Adams Award as Coach of the Year. In the award’s history of awards it was the closest vote. Whereas Ruff is the second Sabres coach to win the award.

The team confirmed that New jerseys will be introduced sometime during the week of September 24. They also declared that they will be dressed in the old blue and gold jerseys, involving the original logo, for fifteen home games this season as the team’s third jersey. Larry Quinn stated that the old Buffalo home jerseys are not accessible for purchase till the week of September 24. Quinn also announced that the logo that has been circulating on the Internet would be Sabres’ new logo. However, that would not be the completed logo, but only a port of it.

For more information about Buffalo-Sabres visit: http://www.ticketnest.com/sports-tickets/Buffalo-Sabres/index.php

About the Author

Sara grew up in Kansas and after moving to Carlsbad, CA, relates to Dorothy of the "Wizard of Oz" fame. No surprise that she loves theater including "Wicked". Sara is a staff writer for Ticket Nest ( www.ticketnest.com ) and enjoys writing about her travel, theater and concert experiences. She can be reached at sara@ticketnest.com

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