In bitter cold, Sabres fans party outside all day long for playoffs
“As I’ve grown up, I’ve never given up,” said a Sabres fan. “We’re finally like, ‘It’s happening.’ ”
Sabres fan Josh Mooney likes the way sports imitate life.
Sometimes you’re up. Sometimes you’re down. For example, when Mooney joined hundreds – maybe thousands – of fans for the Buffalo Sabres’ daylong outdoor playoff party on Sunday, it was 40 degrees, windy, and snowing. The previous afternoon was 78 degrees and sunny.
But people waited 15 years for a party like this. The Sabres’ Pregame in the Plaza was back for the first playoff game since 2011. It was like the wedding of a beloved couple who endured years of rough patches. No one was missing this party because of some mid-April snow, no matter how pesky. (“What the hell is this [expletive]?” said a woman walking through the party as she flipped her palms over to catch the heavy flakes.)
Fans gather outside KeyBank Center before the Sabres' playoff opener against the Bruins on Sunday night.
Joed Viera, Buffalo News
This was the party of a fan base that is used to being cold. Buffalo is not a fair-weather city. These are people who are familiar with discomfort and disappointment. People in Buffalo make do with what they have. When what they have suddenly improves, they savor it.
Three hours before game time, the Pregame in the Plaza already looked like the old days. Liam Conroe, a 21-year-old fan from Jamestown, said he had seen footage online of what the playoff parties used to be like. Those YouTube videos show screaming fans. Booming music. A sea of Sabres jerseys. Makeshift Stanley Cups.
The magic was back. Snippets of overheard party conversation sounded hopeful: “I think we have as good a shot as anybody else this year.”
As workers struggled to anchor their pop-up tents in the wind, those tents developed long, snaking lines. Fans wanted airbrushed Sabres tattoos. They wanted to score a goal at a blow-up goalie. (“I’m a fan, not a player!” said one fan after missing a few attempts.) They figured they’d spin a wheel to see if they could win free things.
Fans like Courtney Alvarez and her family posed in front of a “ROUND GAME 1” sign flanked by balloons.
Alvarez started going to Sabres games with her season ticket-holding parents. Now, she brings her 6-year-old daughter, Alana, and 4-year-old son, Sam. Alana made a sign for her favorite player, whose name she proudly and correctly pronounces (Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen), and Sam’s sign informed the crowd that Sunday also happened to be his fourth birthday.
Fans hold up their versions of the Stanley Cup before the Sabres took the ice for their first playoff game since 2011 on Sunday night at KeyBank Center.
Joshua Bessex, Buffalo News
“We’ve been waiting so long. Last time we were in the playoffs, I was in middle school and high school,” Alvarez said. “It’s going to be incredible inside that building today.”
Mooney moved through the Pregame in the Plaza with his eyes on the crowd. He was euphoric. He was about to spend the evening in the KeyBank Center with 19,000 of his “favorite people in the world.” He thinks this Sabres run could be “one of the greatest stories in sports.” (A similar sentiment was overheard earlier in the day in the Buffalo AKG lobby, when a woman said: “There are going to be movies about this, I bet.”
“I’m excited for everybody, as a group, to experience this together,” Mooney said. “I love being around all the people in Buffalo. We all have a shared life. Getting to come be around a group and rally behind a team means so much to me.”
Mooney, 28, “fell in love” with the Sabres as a kid. That was a team that made the playoffs often. But as an adult, Mooney chooses to spend his free time and money with the Sabres. He has season tickets and frequently makes the hour-long drive after work from his Rochester home to Buffalo for the games. He listens to Sabres podcasts. It’s something he does with his boyfriend and brother.
“It’s the easiest way to connect with people out in public,” Mooney said. “If you know what’s going on with the team and what’s happening in life here, people want to talk to you about it.”
Janine Hebeler became a Sabres fan at 6 years old. It was 1970, and the team’s first year. She chose her jersey – Gilbert Perreault – based on the player’s “exotic” sounding name. “Never mind that he was the first overall draft pick,” she said.
Nearly all of Hebeler’s life has unfolded since becoming a Sabres fan, but her fandom never wavered. She left North Tonawanda for Sarasota, Fla., 40 years ago and has endured “abuse” from her Tampa-supporting community. She has spent the last few years on a mission to see the Sabres play at every arena in the league. (She even went to Prague.)
“I’m not on the wagon. I’ve never been on the wagon. I won’t be on the wagon. I’ve been here through it all,” Hebeler said. “I support through the good times and the bad times. You can’t take the good and appreciate the good without the bad.”
The visual difference in team pride between now and January, when Hebeler was last up for a Sabres game, is “impressive.”
“You couldn’t buy Sabres merch anywhere,” Hebeler said. “All you heard was, ‘Go Bills.’ And it’s like, 'What about the Sabres? We got the Sabres, too.' ”
Tara Withey sports some appropriately colored face paint ahead of the opener.
Joed Viera, Buffalo News
The sun came out while Aaron Ruggiero, a 26-year-old fan from Tonawanda, gushed about the Sabres’ importance to his family.
Ruggiero was at the last playoff Party in the Plaza. He was 10.
“As I’ve grown up, I’ve never given up,” Ruggiero said. “My entire adult life, (I’ve been) rooting for this team and waiting for this moment. That’s why I say it just feels surreal. It’s happiness. It’s really just happiness. We’re finally like, ‘It’s happening.’”
The party migrated to Canalside by game time. A sea of fans – hundreds, maybe thousands – watched the Sabres play on two concert screens. They wore jerseys over puffy jackets. Rain ponchos rustled in a cold wind. As Tage Thompson took a shot, a wave of “oh!” rippled through the crowd. Moments later, during an on-ice spat, the Canalside crowd yelled and jumped like they were at an MMA fight.
Pete Grandits holds up 3-year-old Sean ahead of the big game.
Joshua Bessex, Buffalo News
They drank $9 beers – around half of the arena’s prices – at a free party. The arena may be electric, but Canalside treats hockey like a concert. The crowd suggested a beautiful Buffalo summer night, but the 38-degree temperature and bitter wind suggested otherwise.
The emcee wanted to make sure Buffalo looked excited enough on TV. He scolded the crowd for not reacting to the TV cameras the first time. Next time they see themselves on the screen – on national television – they “need to go absolutely bananas.”
A few minutes later, moments before the cameras were to show the crowd again, organizers played “Sandstorm” by Darude. The crowd danced. They cheered. They held a Stanley Cup high in the air.
“Keep going,” said the emcee. “There’s a delay.”
They kept partying. Nearly all of the sunlight was gone. The concert screen illuminated their faces. This time, when they saw themselves on national TV, they cheered.
“Did we make it?” asked the emcee.
Yes. They made it.