Over the years, the Buffalo Sabres have had plenty of villains, from Brett Hull to Jack Eichel. However, one of those villains was Milan Lucic, who surprisingly is now part of the Buffalo Sabres after joining the front office this offseason.
Even though Lucic is now part of the Buffalo Sabres, it is probably hard for some fans to look past all those years that he caused so much angst for the franchise. There is no bigger example of that than in 2011, when Lucic would take a cheap shot at Ryan Miller.
Milan Lucic will always be a villain for the Buffalo Sabres after his hit on Ryan Miller
Early in the 2011-12 season, the Sabres and Bruins were playing in Boston, and Milan Lucic would have a breakaway, but he played the puck too far ahead of him. Miller came out of the crease to push the puck away, and successfully did that, but Lucic would hit the Sabres' goalie up high in the head.
After the game, Miller made some comments that fans still know to this day:
"“I just stuck around because I wanted to say what a piece of [feces] I think Lucic is,” Miller said. “Fifty pounds on me, and he runs me like that? It’s unbelievable. Everyone in this city sees him as a big, tough, solid player. I respected him for how hard he plays. That was gutless. Gutless. Piece of [feces].”"
As bad as the hit was, the lack of response from the Sabres was even more disheartening to see. After the game, players like Paul Gaustad described his response as 'embarrassing'. What made matters even worse was that Miller would go on to miss a few weeks after that game due to a neck injury from that hit.
Milan Lucic would go on to have a 17-season career and just retired this offseason, with his last NHL game being during the 2023-24 season with the Bruins. He will now step into a pro scout role for the Buffalo Sabres front office. Even though he is now with the team, it will be tough for fans to overlook that play, and he will probably remain one of the organization's biggest villains.
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