That's the cleanest word I can come up with right now for how I feel about the Buffalo Sabres. Buffalo was well on it's way to victory last night against Philadelphia when I witnessed something that should have been contemptible at the least and downright inexcusable at the most.
With all of five seconds left in the third period and trailing 6-3, the Flyers were whistled for a penalty. The faceoff was in the Flyers' defensive zone, to the left of goalie Antero Niittymaki. Remember, Buffalo was winning 6-3 with five seconds left in the game. There was absolutely zero chance for the Flyers to win this game. All that was left was for the linesman to drop the puck and for the timekeeper to run off five seconds.
So, what does Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff do? He sends out his number one powerplay unit to take the draw -- with five seconds left!! The worst part is that the players actually went for it. Sabres center Daniel Briere, who, in the interest of full disclosure, is on my fantasy team, won the draw back to the point and the defenseman actually took a shot that was, thankfully, blocked.
What was the point to this? For the players, it's a chance to pad the stats. For Ruff, a chance to run up the score on a team that he's had a few run-ins with over the years. (One incident that comes to mind is when Ruff was pelted in the face with a beer after the Sabres eliminated the Flyers from the playoffs a few years back. Talk about wasting a beer.)
This whole incident displays to me the complete lack of respect and classlessness -- if that's even a word -- that the Sabres embody. Once upon a time I felt bad about the no-goal Stanley Cup loss they suffered. I could even get onboard with them in the whole small market, underdog thing they had going for awhile. Not anymore.
Combine the worst uniform/logo in all of hockey with the utter disrespect they show to their opponents and you come up with a team that deserves nothing but disdain from every self-respecting hockey fan.
POST-SCRIPT: You know what the worst part of this is? This incident didn't receive one mention in either Tim Panaccio's or Ed Moran's recount of the game. For all the talk lately of how the Flyers have started to stand up for one another, where was it last night at the end of the game? They just rolled over and took it from the Sabres. So long as that keeps happening, they have no chance of improving.
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3 comments:
You seem to gloss over the fact that the penalty was a cross check where the Flyer player broke his stick over the back of the Sabres' Drew Stafford. That happened with 10 seconds left in the game. Hey pot, meet kettle...
Buffalo, classless? Aren't those words synonyms? The Sabres are the epitome of all things disgusting and distasteful for the antics they pull.
The whole organization in Buffalo are a bunch of whinny Bitches. They bitch and whine that teams go after their people, but they instigate most of it. Ruff is quilty of trying to thug it up and run up scores on teams. Not only does the team suck, but the fans are supreme jack-asses as well. The town of losers. The "Banana slugs" and the Bills.
I case you miss it. Check out the write up of tonights Sens vs Banana slugs. Ruff sent out the goons to hit the quality players on the Sens after a hit that Ruff didn't like.
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