Who Do I Think I Am??

Is this supposed to make me feel better?

Good evening....before I get to the crux of my wallowing tonight, I want to share this piece of information that Sabres Nation is probably already aware of by now, and has little-to-no bearing on my emotional well-being at the moment:

http://wgr550.com/Miller-did-have-a-concussion-during-the-regular-se/9723489

Really?? Thanks for the update. Oh hey, by the way, the Sabres lost in game 7 to the Flyers. After six tight games, maybe "lost" isn't appropriate enough. "Blown out", anyone? Maybe a term isn't good enough. Let's go with they ran out of gas against a more talented team that played like they wanted it a lot more.

Look, I'm not gonna beat up on anyone here. Let's look at the truth: on Jan. 1st, this team was dead in the water and hovering in or around dead last in the league. When you're 30th out of 30 going into the new year, you don't deserve a sniff of springtime-fresh Playoff hockey air. You're lucky you get a seat at the kids' table at the neighbors' Easter buffet, let alone play hockey on Easter. Yet, the hockey gods maxed out their credit cards trying to gift us a spot in the second season. Oh, and the Sabres also played pretty much playoff-style hockey from the start of the new year til, well, ten minutes left in game 6, and forgot about the memo that said they were supposed to show up at 7:30pm EST for game 7 and not 7:30pm CST.

And here's where I get weepy....

Every year we believe. "This is OUR year!"

We kinda laze our way through the first half of the season, riding the ups and down to see how things shake out. We're either buyers or sellers.

And then it sinks in. IT. All of that believing leads to one realization....once they become buyers, we buy in... "This is OUR year!"

We hang off of every period. We hang off every game. This is Buffalo...our next day is determined by how the Sabres played the night before.

This is typical of every season...but this one.

Enter new ownership, new hope, and a new attitude. Add to that the play of the best team in the league since the middle of January, and you can feel it. "This is OUR year!"

We fight, scratch and claw to make the playoffs, and everyone's excited...we don't measure the end of winter in Buffalo by the growth of foliage and warmer weather. We measure it by mini Sabres flags going up on cars and the growth of playoff beards.

We're in! We can do this!

But this is Buffalo. We're there...we're just about there. Biiiiiiiiig difference. We get the invite. We show up. We make you think that this is gonna be OUR year...and all of that hope that gestated over the last few months is replaced in the course of a few short days...when they take that heart you've invested in them and treated it as if it's the same heart they're playing with...empty and drained.

This is pretty much what it's been like for at least as long as I've been alive. Probably longer.

Well, I guess there's one constant (usually). There's always next year. Hats off to the Flyers. Julie D - PUBLISHED! , collect your items (if anyone's wondering, we made a wager of local items that the loser sends to the winner...any suggestions, Buffalonians?).

I'm not even gonna get into all the scenarios and what-if's about what the off-season will bring, save for the fact that this will probably be one of the most exciting off-seasons in team history (if the new owndership is indeed as committed to bringing the Stanley Cup to Buffalo as he proclaimed when he took control of the team). That's something to look forward to. Maybe I'll talk about what I think they should do in a few weeks or so...the bodies aren't even cold yet and the sting still smarts a little.

Before I head off to read what Julie has to say, I'll leave you with this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv9O0EQZvuY

It still gets me a little misty in the sockets. Goodnight y'all.