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Loading ...Yeah, I of the Patented Playoff Meltdown really one to be talking about class. Whatever.
There’s this customer that comes into Stop-n-Rob a lot. He’s a Buffalo fan, and not exactly one of my favorite people ever since the night he decided it would be funny to send me running all over the store to get a buncha stuff for him*, then change his mind and send me running all over the store to get different stuff for him, lather, rinse, repeat.
Anyway. Last May, I decided that I would be classy after the Conference Finals and tell him how impressed I was with the Sabres (and I was) and how they were a damn good team (and they were)–and the response I got was….well, let’s just say it was a lot like the garbage that a lot of Sabres fans dropped on XM last season after their team got bounced and this morning after they humiliated the Flyers. Southern team, don’t know shit about hockey, can’t fill the building, don’t deserve to win anything, stole our Cup, yadda yadda.
You know, the usual load of garbage that tends to get expelled by such festering pustules of assholery. I about laughed at their complete lack of understanding of our wonderful weather down here, though. That was funny as hell.
But anyway, back to asshat customer. The only thing I said to him after the Hurricanes won the Cup was “Go Canes!”, because he’d pretty much made it clear that he wasn’t ever interested in talking hockey unless his team wins–unlike his significant other, who is tres cool and was more than happy to talk puck with me.
So on Friday, the ‘Canes venture in to Buffalo to play the Sabres and have crap thrown at them by the fans, and attempt to finish what they started on Opening Night.
Somebody’s gotta end their little streak. Might as well be us.
*:My store locks the doors and does all business through a service window after 11 PM. If you were in our neighbourhood, you’d do that too–trust me.
Last year is last year, you won the Cup and deserved your Champinship. It was great hockey and I can only say that if the playoffs are as exciting this year as you made them last year it will be a blast to see. As for the immature jerk who made you run all over the store, it’s not ’cause he’s a Buffalo fan… it’s ’cause he’s an immature jerk. When the ‘Canes visit Buffalo Friday, expect to get booed. You’ll be treated poorly at every arena you play when you’re the reigning Champs (we booed the mere mention of Carolina last night when it was announced they were our next opponant).
Everyone is gunning for you, especially Buffalo fans and especially after last year. But as I said, last year is last year, you will be treated with class by almost all Sabre fans, however there are idiots in every arena who drinks too much and try to start a riot, even in Carolina.
That’s easy to say, sitting up there at ECMC.
I’m going on what I saw during the Conference Finals, where the Raleigh PD had to set up a temporary substation in the RBC’s lot just to deal with the Sabres fans that came down from Buffalo and decided to get all thuggish with the locals. Vandalism, assault, all that fun stuff.
So, you tell me–what conclusion are we down here supposed to draw from that, from the foolishness spouted on XM and other sports talk radio venues, and from transplants like Asshat Customer?
It doesn’t exactly cover Sabres Nation in glory, if you know what I mean.
Not all Sabres fans have no class. I, for one, called security when I saw the ‘Canes getting harrassed personally by drunken morons while they were trying to eat their dinner.
(I let the “Go Sabres” cheers go, but when people started screaming things along the lines of “Fuck You”, I stepped in)
On my way back through I stopped and talked to Commodore and a few of the other guys and told them I was really sorry that other fans were giving them a bad impression of Buffalo sports fans.
I don’t like the ‘Canes. I never will. I’m a dyed in the wool Buffalo girl, but I respect each and every player for getting out there every night, regardless of what sweater they wear. And I think it’s cool to do a little friendly heckling during the game, but I would never make a personal attack on another fan or another team’s player, especially on their off night. That is classless.
We’re all hockey fans together at the end of the day, right?
Friday night could be special. And Cam is no Robert Esche.
Not all Sabres fans have no class.
You know that, and I know that (even though I am, admittedly, stirring the pot). But in the end, you’re one fan fighting against what’s become a popular perception down here. When all that people here see is bitterness and nastiness and general all-round idiocy, that tends to really color one’s perception of everything. It’s like me trying to tell somebody who was roughed up by “Simon’s Soldiers” back in 2001 that Caps fans are really not all bad and are fun people to hang out with. Who’s that person going to trust–me, or his personal experiences?
I know what you mean, on the other hand, there was just as much smack coming from Carolina last year on the radio, from the fansites and in the N&O as there were from Buffalo.
As for what the Raleigh PD had to do to contain rowdy Sabre fans, I hear it was blown way out of proportion, and very few were out of hand…but as I say , last year was last year and it’s a new season with new expectations. We’re really not Philly Fan.
Blown out of proportion? I don’t think so. Let me put it this way:
2 playoff series against Montreal - drunken braggadoccio, but otherwise no problems.
3 playoff series against NJ - one assault, but otherwise no problems.
1 ECF against TO - shouting matches, and trash piled on my car after Game 5, as a joke–which is what I got for parking in the middle of a bunch of Leafs fans–but no other issues
1 SCF against Detroit - one altercation caused by a Detroit fan who didn’t want to get thrown out for chunking his day-old sushi onto the ice, but otherwise no problems.
1 SCF against Edmonton - a downright love fest.
1 ECF against Buffalo - arguments, fights, assaults, property damage, arrests, RPD patrolling the parking lot in force.
Anyone who says that nothing happened or that the incidents were “isolated” is either fooling themselves or they were fortunate enough to not be near the drunken idiots that have colored the general perception of the Sabres fanbase. I mean, even the Philly fans are better-behaved (obnoxious, but better-behaved) than the crowd that showed up for Games 1, 2, 5, and 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Just sayin’.
A lot of us were fortunate enough to miss the drunken spectacles there…However I think the Carolina fans that traveled to Buffalo were treated relatively well….
Most of us are good people - we just don’t get all the attention.
And thanks for expressing some concern for us during our on-going October storm miseries!
Go Sabres!
And thanks for expressing some concern for us during our on-going October storm miseries!
I’m a Nodak, I know how it is.