As the immortal Rick Jeanneret famously dubbed them, they were scary good.
For a multitude of reasons, we will never forget the 2005-06 Buffalo Sabres. If you're in your late 20s or early 30s now, they were probably the first hockey team to move you through a season of joy and ultimately Stanley Cup heartbreak.
Daniel Briere's overtime goal in Game 6 of the 2006 Eastern Conference final against the Carolina Hurricanes started a wild celebration on the ice at then-
HSBC Arena and in the stands and concourses, as fans screamed and chanted their way through the pavilion and on to the streets. Buffalo News file photo
They are your version of the ’75 and ’99 teams that got to the Stanley Cup final. The ’06 team, of course, did not but that doesn't lessen our memory of them one iota. Try as you might, you can't forgot how it all ended with that Game 7 loss in Carolina when basically the entire defense corps was trashed by injuries. Had they won, everyone in Buffalo feels they would have thrashed Edmonton in the Cup final and won it all.
So many of you can rattle off the names, be they first or last. Miller and Marty in goal. Drury and Briere. Vanek-Roy-Pominville. Connolly and JP. Gaustad and Grier. Hecht and Kotalik. Max. Peters. Campbell and McKee. Tallinder, Lydman and Teppo.
Most of them will be on hand Thursday night for a pregame ceremony prior to a massive game against the Montreal Canadiens. When it was announced a couple of months ago, lots of folks snickered that it was a cheap way to sell tickets and keep Habs fans out of the building.
It's no joke now. It's an entirely different feel. Just like the ’05-06 team, the ’25-26 Sabres have come out of nowhere to have impact on the playoff race.
"We could use a couple," a smiling coach Lindy Ruff cracked of his old players Tuesday when I brought up the subject. "I'm excited. I hope they're excited to see me.
Obviously, we have no idea where this Sabres season will end. But I'm struck by some of the similarities of the 2025-26 team with the 2005-06 club.
Both started with relatively muted expectations, with ’05-06 having more mystery included because of the lockout that had canceled the prior NHL season but allowed several of the younger players to have a standout campaign in Rochester. And let's not forget the Sabres were just two years out of bankruptcy.
Both seasons started with several nights where there were plenty of empty seasons and lots of silence in KeyBank Center. This year's team was 5-8-4 in mid-November before exploding on a 10-game win streak in December and extending that to the first 13-1 run in franchise history this month.
The ’05-06 group? They lost seven of nine after a 6-2 start to fall to 8-9-0 in mid-November. Then they got white-hot on a 15-1-1 run that included a five-game win streak and a seven-gamer. And they just continued to roll, with winning streaks of six and eight games later in the year.
They hit one big bump, suddenly struggling through a 1-7-1 stretch in March, but rebounded to close 7-1-1 with shutouts in their final two games. They finished 52-24-6 for an eye-popping 110 points.
We'll never forget the noise that spring. Especially the overtime winners. Daniel Briere in double OT of Game 1 against Philadelphia. J.P. Dumont in Game 3 against Ottawa and Jason Pominville's forever series-winning goal in Game 5 at Ottawa. And Briere again in Game 6 against the Hurricanes, prompting bedlam among the fans as they chanted and howled their way through the concourses and arena atrium.
The players' change room was just behind an atrium wall back then and many have told me how the wall was creaking from the noise after that win and the din came right into their room.
Daniel Briere, right, celebrates his Game 6 overtime goal against Carolina with, from left, Maxim Afinogenov, Adam Mair and Jason Pominville in 2006.
Buffalo News file photo
One key point that should not be forgotten that helped this team: The NHL came out of the lockout cracking down on interference to help offense. Sabres GM Darcy Regier gave Ruff a roster that took advantage of that and other clubs were left playing catchup.
"I know the change in the schematic of how you were allowed to play really helped us," Ruff recalled Tuesday. "We know that it's hard to win. There's lots of teams that are trying to win it in and we gave it a real good shot.
"When your team's built a certain way, you're trying to win it a certain way. And that was such a good time because of how we played, what we were accomplishing. To remember those guys for a great year is an awesome thing."
Asked if he asks himself what-if about the way the Carolina series finished, Ruff quickly joked, "Do you have to bring that up? I think you always do. You always look at one play or one goal and go, 'Geez.' "
One injury, too. Jay McKee's infamous leg infection the night before Game 7 was the last blow to a battered defense. And even though the Sabres led the deciding game 2-1 through 40 minutes, they couldn't hold on and Carolina won, 4-2.
The ’05-06 players have grown up and are in their 40s and 50s now. Maxim Afinogenov was traded to Atlanta in 2009, played one year with the Thrashers − and played 10 more years in the KHL before finally retiring in 2020 at age 41. I would imagine this is the first time he's been in town since that ’09-10 season.
Many of them went into management and coaching. Briere (Philadelphia), Chris Drury (New York) and Mike Grier (San Jose) are sitting NHL general managers. Brian Campbell is a key hockey operations advisor in Chicago. Thomas Vanek has a similar role under Grier in San Jose, where Ryan Miller is a goalie scout and development coach. McKee has been a longtime Ontario Hockey League coach, currently with Brantford. Teppo Numminen did a three-year stint as a Sabres assistant.
"I always thought we had super high IQ on that team," Thomas Vanek said while in town for Ryan Miller's jersey retirement in 2023. "I remember I was a young kid and Chris Drury would talk to me just like I had played 10 years in the league. Same with Mike Grier, same with Teppo Numminen. I loved talking hockey, I loved talking new faceoff plays, ideas, it was just all about hockey talk."
During an interview at the 2022 draft in Montreal, Grier said folks should not forget to credit Regier for the post-playing days success of the ’05-06 team.
"Our team was successful because we worked hard, we enjoyed the game, we competed hard," Grier said. "But I think we all thought the game at a pretty good level. And we believed in teamwork and chemistry that formed when he brought us all together."
"You wonder what some of these guys have been up to and it will great saying hello and seeing where their lives are going," Ruff said, his smirk foreshadowing a mic drop. "And to see how many guys put on a lot of weight."