I attended last night's Buffalo Sabres home opener against the Montreal Canadiens. Now it was only the second NHL game I've attended, but this one was far beyond belief in the way the Sabres pulled it out. 
  
Before the game began, each player skated out to an introduction amid cheers and applause from the 18,000+ in attendance. Goaltender Ryan Miller, along with captains Daniel Briere and Maxim Afinogenov received the most cheering. Head coach Lindy Ruff also received much applause when he was announced.

The Sabres, coming off of a 3-2 shootout victory over Stanley Cup Championship, were determined to put a show for their home fans - fans that stood by them throughout their miraclous playoff run last season. And what a show they put on!

Just seven minutes into the game, the Canadiens got on the board, when Michael Ryder flipped the puck past Miller, and the score read 1-0 Montreal at the end of the first. Early in the second, Montreal increased their lead to 2-0. But this Sabres team was not dead....not dead at all. Jiri Novotny, an Amerk all last season, scored his first goal of the season and the Sabres first at home to cut the lead in half. However, before the period ended, Montreal scored again to lead 3-1.

The third period is where the magic happened. Just 51 seconds in, Jason Pominville cut the lead to 3-2. With five minutes left in the third period, the Sabres found themselves down 4-2. Impossible to come back from that, right? Ha.....not for this team. Not for the team that upset the #1 seed Ottawa Senators in the playoffs last year. Not for the team that came within one game of the Stanley Cup Finals last year.

After taking a faceoff, Dmitri Kalinin shot the puck up ice right to captain Daniel Briere, who skated right between to Canadien defensemen and knocked the puck right past goalie Cristobal Huet. 4-3....and these fans (myself included) felt that this team could do it. And with 15 seconds left, Maxim Afinogenov proved why we believed. After a scramble in front of the net, Max found himself to the right of the net. The puck deflected right to him, and he poked it in to tie the game with 14.9 seconds left! The fans were going crazy.

And oh yeah, I forgot to tell you.....the Sabres fans were frequently angered at the referees, as during one point of the game, the Sabres had three guys in the penalty box. The Canadiens scored two of their goals on the power play.

After a scoreless overtime, shootout hockey began. The Sabres elected to go first, and Briere took the first shot, but the save was made. Miller then stopped Michael Ryder. Maxim Afinogenov was the next shooter, and yet again he lit the lamp, going top shelf over Huet's glove side. Montreal's Alexi Kovalev hit the crossbar on his next shot after a nice fake which had Miller out of position. So that meant one thing - if Thomas Vanek could beat Huet on his shot, the Sabres would win this game, a game they were losing by two with five minutes left. Vanek took the puck and wristed it past Huet!!!!! SABRES WIN!!!!! OH MY GOD.....SABRES WIN!!!!! THE FANS WERE GOING CRAZY!!! (well of course not the several hundred Canadiens fans).

This game proved to me (and I'm sure every Sabres fan in that arena) that this team is built for that Stanley Cup Championship. What an unbelievable game. Someone there last night at HSBC Arena had a sign that said "Cup Crazy," and everyone knows that this team has only that one goal - win the Stanley Cup, something the Sabres have never done. This game was one of 82 that the Sabres will play this season, but what a remarkable home opener it was!

And if this team can continue to play this type of hockey - where they never give up and fight for the entire 60 (and sometimes 65) minutes, this could be the year in Buffalo. After the game, some fans started an "82-0" chant, citing that of course the Sabres would go undefeated. Now of course that it would be impossible to go undefeated, but to see Daniel Briere, Maxim Afinogenov, Ryan Miller and Lindy Ruff hoist the Stanley Cup in April would be a dream come true for the city of Buffalo, forever deprived of a national championship.