I am proud to say that I was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. While growing up I was never into sports or any particular sports teams. In the 2006 – 2007 season of the Buffalo Sabres, I saw my first game. It was against Ottawa in the Conference Finals of the Stanley Cup.
My mom took me to the old-fashioned movie theater in town to go watch the game. The place was packed and everyone had black, white and red jerseys on. The only place to sit was upstairs in the balcony in the top corner.
I had never watched a hockey game before in my life. It was hard for me to know what was going. The only way I knew if something good happened, was because the whole place would go crazy if a goal or a penalty for Ottawa happened. We didn’t end up winning that game and actually lost the Finals with that game.
This memory will always stick with me. It made me feel like I was a part of something big. My sister was also a huge fan of the Buffalo Sabres and ran into Brian Campbell, or “Soupy” as us Buffalonians called him, a few times at her work. My sister and I would go out to restaurants to go watch the game because we didn’t have cable at the house. If we couldn’t make it out that night, we would turn on the radio and sit around it as if we were watching TV.
I went to my first hockey game in high school with my boyfriend. I saved four weeks of paychecks to pay for the tickets but it was so worth it. The only place I could afford was the nose bleed sections. We were playing Carolina that night and it was a great game. It was very different than I expected. There was no announcer over the speakers and it was very quiet at times. During the quiet times, you could hear the ice under the skates and the puck hitting off the wall. We ended up winning that game three to one. That season was great but not as good as the year before.
Actually, no year would be as good as the first year I ever watched a game. We have never won a Stanley Cup or have ever come so close to it again. I have been to a few games here and there since then. I would never stop loving the Buffalo Sabres though. I think that I really like them because it’s a Buffalo pride thing.
I love hockey and I am proud of my team because its where I am from. When you go to a Sabres game or even an event that the Sabres are at, people are proud of them. We are proud to call them our team. They always called Buffalo "Hockey Town." Coaches and players have come and gone since my first game and that’s what happens. We will get there one day. I believe in my team, I think we all do.
