Buffalo Sabres super-fan and author of the book On the Road Again . . . shares with us his Sabres Christmas wish list!
Dear Santa…
With Christmas just a few weeks away, I am extremely late with getting my Christmas list to Santa. Id din’t always used to be this way – as a kid, I had a rough draft of my wish list completed mid-summer. By fall, I had tweaked it and whittled it down to a Top 10 of things I wanted.
The first Saturday after Thanksgiving was always memorable. My parents would take my two sisters and me to Chestnut Ridge. The main lodge had a nice, large fire burning away. From there, we would take a hay ride up to the North Pole. We got to see the elves working away in Santa’s workshop. The building next to the workshop was where the ole fat man himself was! I remembered waiting in line for what felt like hours, just to see Santa!
Eventually it was time to see Ole Saint Nick! It was the early 1990s and life was great; the Buffalo Bills were going to Super Bowls, Kurt Cobain and grunge were alive and well, and EA Sports NHL94 was one of the hottest games on Sega Genesis. Every year, I would ask Kris Kringle for a Buffalo Bills Super Bowl victory! Santa would always say, “I would like that too, but I’ll see what I can do…”
Well, that was over 25 years ago and I have since given up on that dream. Instead, I have revised my Christmas wish list…
As a kid, mom said that Santa would bring three Christmas gifts for each of us kids because Jesus got three gifts from the Three Wise Men. With that being said, Santa, here are my three wishes for Christmas 2016:
1-A new head coach- For the record, I was not a fan when the Sabres hired Dan Bylsmas as Head Coach. I know a lot of fans were excited because Dan brought playoff experience with him and he had a Stanley Cup victory under his belt…but let’s face it, any idiot could have coached the 2008-09 Pittsburgh Penguins to a Cup win! How hard is it when you have power forwards like Cindy Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Miro Satan and a rock solid goaltender like Marc-Andre Fleury? Need I say more? No, because me with my stellar NHL94 experience and mad skills could have coached a team like that to a championship.
2-A goalie/good goaltending- As a kid, I was spoiled; I got to grow up watching Dominik Hasek. After the Dominator, there was Ryan Miller! Look at what we have now: Robin Lehner. When GMTM brought in his boy from Ottawa, I decided to give the new kid a chance, but after what I have seen, I think the Tim Murray/Robin Lehner love affair needs to come to an end…remember this past summer when Chad Johnson wanted to come back? I do, but GMTM didn’t ask me for my input; he had his man crush and it wasn’t Chad. By the way, Chad already has a better record this season compared to Robin. I’m not a fan of the “Revolving Door of Goaltenders” at 1 Seymour H. Knox III Plaza. The Buffalo Bills have been playing the “Revolving Door” game with the QB position since Jim Kelly retired, and I don’t need the Sabres following suit. I grew up watching great goaltending, and I hope my kids have the same experience.
Long story short, the Sabres should start Anders Nilsson more!
3-Someone who can throw a body check- I want some on the Sabres (besides Marcus Foligno, Zach Bogosian, and Josh Gorges) to throw a body check! It seems like the rest of the team is too weak or fragile to throw their bodies around. I have watched other teams that check or hit anything that moves and most times, they get rewarded with a turnover. Plus the fans at KeyBank Center love seeing a nice open ice collision or hearing the thunder of the boards when the opponent gets drilled into them. It’s poetry hearing Rick Jeanneret enthusiastically painting the picture of a Sabre player “lowering the boom!” on a Bruin or Maple Leaf player.