On the Sheet: Martin Biron on the Sabres Ending Their 14-Year Playoff Drought

One of the good news stories coming out of the weekend was the 14-year droid is over

the Buffalo Sabers officially qualifying for the postseason.

It is, folks, the best story in hockey this season, period.

And tonight they'll face off against a Tampa Bay Lightning.

Can't think of any stories there.

Here to break down all of this, a long time NHL netminder and a Buffalo Sabers analyst,

the one and only Marta and Bjorn, who joins me here on the sheet.

First of all, thanks so much for stopping by and boy, you want to talk about like an entire

city, an entire organization, finally exhaling, okay, we're in.

We don't have to hear the number 14 anymore.

A wonderful weekend for the Buffalo Sabers, even though things have been mixed right now,

but a great weekend for the Swords.

Yeah, a great weekend for the fans, the organization.

Look, we've gotten videos from young fans that are so excited to see the Sabers

and the playoffs.

And I'm thinking you're only seven years old, like how about the fans that were 10 when

the drought started and now are 25, right?

And you're like all these teenage years where you're supposed to watch games with your

buddies and enjoy it.

They didn't get to see it.

So there is a generation of fans that are going to be just so excited for that first

playoff game.

And then the fans that were there when I was playing in Buffalo that experienced the

dreary, the pre-years, the back-to-back conference finals, the Dominic Ashek years, like now

it's going to pull back those emotions.

The Sabers put a great video out when the Sabers clenched.

It was called Dear Greatly.

Dear Greatly, basically it was a rigged-generate voiceover from a few years before he passed

that they did, just hoping that the Sabers were going to get in the playoffs.

If you haven't seen it, go and watch it.

It is a tear-jerker, and it's awesome.

It really is.

For me, I grew up in South Western Ontario, so Wednesday nights and Saturday nights I'd

watch the Toronto Maple Leafs, and then the other nights I would watch the Buffalo Sabers.

And this was the French connection.

And I grew up with all respect to Rick Generett, whom I love.

And Danda Levy is such a good job of the call too.

I grew up with Ted Darling.

I still hear that name.

That name still resonates with me.

And Marty, I was there a couple of weeks ago for the San Jose game and getting out of

my Uber and walking to Keybank and seeing, you know, there's the Taj Thompson jerseys,

obviously, and a lot of that lean.

But like the old ones, like, Perot and Gear, and there's like some Corabs mixed in.

I'm just like, I mean, I'm not there every night, but it must feel really cool loose.

There must be some like really cool vibe right now where all the older Sabers fans are

starting to come back to that it's not just to your point like the young kids that are

in love.

Hey, this team's awesome.

Let's go.

Yeah.

Like some of the older, older Sabers fans, Marty.

Well, obviously, Gilbert made a couple of appearances this year, and it's funny because

it's a Perot that clinched the Sabers getting in, like Gabe's right.

Yes, that's right.

It's going a hat trick.

So it's a Jeep Aro that got the Sabers back in the playoffs.

But Gilbert's been back and now, you know, Lindy Ruff mentioned River Hockey and Pon Hockey

and, you know, basically watching the games outside on Canal side in the playoffs.

And so the last couple of wins at home, they've played a Gilbert Perot clip of them on

the ice singing, Proud Mary, and it's so good and Danny Garrett dancing.

And so tickets has obviously been at the games a lot and a lot of alumni.

So you mentioned the connection, you know, that is, that is what is

so fun because everybody now is digging into the history of the game.

The connections between, you know, the Perot French connection, to the Peca Hashek, to

the Dury Brier, to now, like, yes, we skipped over many years, but that connection is all

back now.

And obviously for the Pagulis, to be able to say, hey, you know what, you know, they waited

a long time for the bills to get back in the playoffs.

And now it's one of those great NFL franchise, hopefully the Sabres can follow lead because

it's been a lot of fun.

I want to get to the Tampa game here, but I want to bring up one point that I've been

talking about as we've seen the Buffalo Sabres rise this year.

I've always looked at Buffalo and said to myself, this is the quintessential NHL team for

one very specific reason.

This is a, this is a league that has teams from United States of America and Canada.

And Buffalo is the one city, well, first of all, I love it when I go to Buffalo Sabres

game, like I mentioned, like I was there for sharks and, and sabres.

And not that I'm a huge anthem guy, but they played the Canadian national anthem because

this is the, the, this market is the coming together of American fans and Canadian fans

from that Hamilton St. Catharines corridor, buying season tickets, not just one offs.

Like to me, Buffalo is the NHL team that has fans from both sides of the board, not equal

in majority of American fans, but there's a sizable amount of Canadian fans that have adopted

the Buffalo Sabres as their team.

Do you have a thought on that?

Well, I do feel that playing here in Buffalo for all these years, it did feel like playing

in Canada, right?

And I think that Buffalo people find a sense of pride of saying like we're almost Canadian

in that sense of, we love hockey, our youth hockey, minor hockey is strong in Buffalo.

Everybody loves to flood the backyard and have that outdoor rake experience.

So that is a big part of it.

Yes, I mean, it's an American city, football is huge, baseball is big, lacrosse, there's

a lot of different sports.

But hockey is number one.

Joined recent from the Buffalo Bills was on our set earlier this year and he grew up

in Buffalo and yes, the Bills have been the number one sports team in Buffalo, but he

said with something funny, he says Buffalo is a hockey town.

Yes, they've been supporting the bills, but when the Sabres are good, the Sabres are

number one.

Yeah, the NFL is a big business, but the amount of fans that are going to be on, you know,

the party on the plaza, the canal side viewing and the playoffs that, you know, it's spring

time that suns out.

It feels like it's a new year when the Sabres are good late in the season.

It's a hockey town and even the Bills players, the Jim Kelly and the Thurmond Thomas and

the Steve Tasker, they come to the games because they're like, Buffalo is a hockey town.

So yeah, there's that, that Canadian connection in Buffalo, tonight against the Tampa Bay

Lightning.

Technically, this is game 78.

Marty, this does not feel like game 78 tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Yeah, and obviously the last time they played on March 8, it was an 8-7 Sabres win where

there was time to fight.

It was the game of the year.

They put an Hagle and Hagle is the villain and he went after Dalline and he's not going

to play tonight.

It's going to be a different feel.

Now, for me, yes, you have to have the emotions of that last game, but you have to be able

to manage them because you don't want to be consumed by, oh, we're going to have fight

nights in Buffalo again, like that shouldn't be the number one priority.

But if Dave Thompson gets it from behind like he did in the last game, well, all hell is

going to break loose and that's normal.

But even more important than that, like my two biggest fear for the Buffalo Sabres is

the fact that they could play either the lightning or the Canadians in the first round.

I think both of those teams would be really, really tough opponent for the Sabres.

So if you can finish first in the Atlantic and this game tonight is going to have a long

way to go for the Sabres to get first.

If they can be Tampa, Tampa's got Ottawa tomorrow, Tampa's got Montreal on Thursday.

This is a tough week for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

You could finish first in the Atlantic and then all of a sudden, maybe you play Ottawa,

maybe you play, maybe you play Boston, maybe you play a wildcard team.

Like that is the number one thing on my mind anyway, as an analyst for tonight's game.

The fans, they've been buying their tickets to this game since early, like that game in

March.

I had my brother-in-law was like, I want to get a sweet, I want to get 15.

It's dingus day in Buffalo.

And if you don't know what dingus day is, it's a Polish celebration.

A lot of Polish people here.

It's the day after Easter.

People are going to be drunk all afternoon, coming up to that game tonight.

So the atmosphere is going to be crazy.

So yeah, it's going to, but I think that it's going to be a hockey game first and foremost

because there's so much at stake.

But let me rewind really quickly here because I know you're right, like the 8-7 game,

this is ripped right out of the pages of 1987 and all the fights.

But the thing about the game itself, and I remember the day after, the Monday after here

on the show, the one thing that I was talking about is something that Anthony Stewart, former

NHL, or his father would always talk about.

And his dad would always say, are you a team or are you a club?

Are you a team or are you a club?

And I look at that game against Tampa.

And it's like a year before that, everybody was cutting their skate laces when Tage Thompson

got hit by Steph Nason.

And then a year later, I'm looking how, you know, the first person, you know, rushing

at Hagel is the gold tender.

And like every, everybody's, like, has a pack mentality.

And I'm like, and I don't know if it was that one game specifically, but, man, it sure

felt like it like that was the day that the Sabers officially went from being a club to

being a team.

Did it feel that way?

Oh, it felt that way.

Most fans that remember 20 years ago, the Ottawa Brawl were comparing the Ottawa Brawl

and this game with Ottawa.

And you felt like the team was a team, a together group when Chris Zuri got hit by Chris

Neil.

And obviously, I was foolish enough to want to fight Ray Emery in that game, but it felt

like that, right?

And Luke and then going after Hagel and Lindy Ruff after the game was like, he didn't

stay in his nut, right?

He came right out after Hagel and it was, and it was the newcomers.

It was Logan Stanley and it was like, he was actually wasn't even playing.

We had him on the broadcast with Dan Dunlavy in the press box and everything was happening.

And Logan said, I want to be on the ice.

Get me in the uniform.

And it was like, right after the trade deadline, because the trade deadline was on Friday,

it was just a team that was coming together.

And you're right.

Like, I go back to when Dalline got drafted in his first couple of years, you know, other

teams were taking liberties on Dalline and Tampa and Eric Surnak definitely took liberties

on Dalline and Brett Martian was taking liberties on wrestlers Dalline and all of a sudden

now, you don't have those teams taking liberties.

And that's, that's important because you have to be a club that, that, that moves into

a team in a family and Dalline and Thompson and talking to those guys.

I've talked about how they are tight this year and it showed on the ice.

Okay, a couple of things that we'll let you get on with today.

It's a busy one facing off against Tampa Bay Lightning tonight.

How did this happen?

Like, I know the winning streak started before, before there was the general manager swap

and Yarmul Broughton, as you mentioned, Logan's Dan Lee, Luke Shen, Sam Carrick comes in as

well.

But I think a lot of us are sort of scratching our heads all season long.

Like, where did this come from?

How did all of this happen?

Beginning the year, it was like, holy smokes and here we go again with the Buffalo Sabers.

And now they're the best story in the NHL.

Okay.

He came with health.

I guess he's fast.

We may see it came with health.

Josh Norris gets served the first game of the year against the New York Rangers taking

the face back in December and that team now at that when Josh Norris came back.

So the difference, you've gotten Zach Benson who was injured as well.

He plays a big role on this team.

I mean, he doesn't have the numbers that you would say, hey, he's got to be a player.

He's a big time player, but he plays a big emotional part of the team.

He was banged up a lot too.

Matthias Samrelson, he was healthy this year.

The last few years, Matthias Samrelson's always banged up how good is Samrelson been this

year with wrestlers down lane and makes a big difference.

So those are those are the reason I think health was a big fan of all of this.

And then, well, because you were banged up, you got to call up no Oslin.

Well, Oslin is look good.

You got to call up Consell Heleneuse.

He's look good.

He's not just a Manchester now, but you had, you, you've seen also what this team could

be in the next few years.

So I think health was a big, a big reasoning by and all of this.

Okay.

And last one for you, the other player that I keep coming back to all season long.

I know he's not Rasmus Daly, and he's not Tage Thompson.

He's not Alex Talk, but Josh Donne.

Every single game that goes by, and listen, like Buffalo gave up a really good player.

I'm happy for Utah.

He got G.J. Patrick and 25 goals, 25 goals.

But Josh Donne, to me, has been one of the big stories for me with the Buffalo Sabers

this year.

And what a revelation.

And they've got him already under a contract.

They people are looking at and saying, what a bargain for the swords.

Do you have a thought on Josh Donne?

Well, I can just say for Josh Donne, right, and he's found a good partner in Josh Norris

and the Joshes are playing together.

It's been great.

The biggest thing for me when I look at Josh Donne is when he goes to the front and

that he's a big body.

He doesn't play, well, he has part of the game that's like his dad's chain and a very thick

guy on the wall, winning one-on-one battles.

But when he goes to the front and that, he's very, very effective.

He slowed down a little bit of late here, but obviously, you know, he's still a young guy.

So everybody loves number 91 and Michael Kesslering was a big part of the trade for J.J.

Paturka.

Kesslering's not been healthy this year.

And when he's had a chance to play, he hasn't gotten to top form.

People are forgetting about Paturka really quickly because of Josh Donne.

He's been amazing.

You're right to point him out because he is added to the depth of the Sabers now.

They've got top, you know, their three lines are great because of guys like Josh Donne

factoring into the lineup.

How are we?

Listen, thank you so much for this, have a wonderful afternoon, should be a fascinating

game tonight.

Thanks so much for doing this.

Merci, Montchum.

Merci, Montchum.

I have a great end to the season and great playoffs as well.