1:43am and Bleeding Blue and Gold

It's time to blog. Hello blog.

It's nearly 2am the night before Game 1 of the Sabres-Islanders playoff series. I can't sleep because of the anticipation and the excitement. Might as well start to blog. Could it be? Could all the years of pain and suffering losing Super Bowls and Stanley Cups be over? If there has ever been a Buffalo team to end the misery, it's this one.

I lay in bed thinking of all the times growing up going to the games at the Aud with my dad and all the excitement. The crowd literally making the entire building shake in chants and cheers. The goal horn going off. The Oranges and the Blues. Brad May, Pat LaFontaine, Rob Ray. The final game at the Aud, the first game in the Arena. The new jerseys and red and black. The Jumbo Tron crashed onto the ice. The times watching the games on TV, and then the re-cast of the game in Ashok's basement. The posters I would save that the Buffalo News printed of Zhitnik, Hasek, Peca and Stuuuuuuu Barnes. The trips to Damon's Bar with what seemed my entire high school, cheering on the Sabres in the '99 Cup which ended in a heartbreaking Brett Hull No Goal. BS, he was in the crease! Baker getting fired from Ted's for going to Game 7. Coming home from college and going to all those near-Christmas games. Golisano buying the Sabres, keeping them in Buffalo. The return to the blue and gold but ushering in "the slug." Creeping up to an empty conference room at work last year to listen to the Sabres dismember the Flyers on WGR online. Being on Chippewa St. during the playoffs last year and hearing the Buffalo chants ring through the streets, the car horns beep "Lets Go Buffalo" and Rick Jeanneret calls blaring out of SoHo every couple songs. Maxim Afinogenov! Chris Druuuuuury, Danny Briere, Milllllller. Pominville's OT shorthanded goal. Winning 10 games in a row to start this season, the 6 goals the Sabres scored right in front of me in under 10 minutes vs. the Caps at Christmas, watching the Sabres sweep the Canes this year after they beat us in the Eastern championship last year.

With all those great memorable times in the past, there can only be more added to them. Hopefully this year will go down as the year. Hopefully my greatest Sabre memory is coming in June...

It's time to...