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Pridružen/-a: 05.07. 2018, 10:24
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 Objavljeno: 11 Avg 2018 03:57 Naslov sporočila: leading scorer |
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The Buffalo Bills were so dull during their lean years Saquon Barkley Color Rush Jersey , comedian Nick Bakay feared his body would fuse to the couch while watching them play.
”It’s an incredibly disturbing image,” Bakay said of wasting away Sundays witnessing his hometown team sleepwalk through one loss after another during a 17-season playoff drought that ended last year.
”I never missed a Bills game. But I was always slumped on my couch. I was never sitting forward. I was never jumping to my feet,” said Bakay, who wrote ”Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and its sequel, and produced and appeared on the TV sitcom ”King of Queens.” ”You sit on your couch, and your couch slowly eats you.”
No different for fans of Buffalo’s other pro sports franchise, the NHL’s Sabres, who finished last for the third time in five years and extended their franchise-worst playoff drought to a seventh season.
In a shot-and-a-beer town where the winters are interminably long, Buffalo sports fans ride things out on the notion of renewal always being just around the corner.
And there’s a new, palpable optimism for this hearty fan base, thanks to a three-day stretch which showed potential to alter the trajectory of both teams.
First, the Bills made a pair of splashes in the first round of the NFL draft on April 26 by trading up to select Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen and Virginia Tech linebacker Tremaine Edmunds.
Two days later, the Sabres won the NHL draft lottery – something Buffalo lost the previous two times it finished last – and the opportunity to select projected No. 1 pick Josh Allen Bills Jersey , Swedish defenseman Rasmus Dahlin.
During the NFL draft, CBS Evening News anchor Jeff Glor got dirty looks from his wife during a rare dinner date sneaking peeks at the Bills’ picks. He then yelped with excitement upon learning the Sabres won the lottery while attending the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington.
”I had just resigned myself to never winning it,” Glor said. ”But listen, I always have hope.”
In Buffalo, there’s a fine line between affection and affliction for hope.
”I always try to keep it in check a little bit,” said Glor, who grew up in the Buffalo suburb of Tonawanda.
”Unfortunately, you get conditioned to where there are times you can be defeatist. And you try not to be. But you just don’t give up.”
Fans have little choice but to persevere in a place where nickname-worthy moments are tied to losses.
For the Bills, it’s ”Wide Right,” after kicker Scott Norwood missed a last-second field-goal attempt in a 20-19 loss to the New York Giants in the 1991 Super Bowl – the first of four consecutive Super Bowl losses.
For the Sabres, it’s ”No Goal,” following a 2-1, triple-overtime loss to Dallas in Game 6 of the 1999 Stanley Cup Final. Brett Hull’s Cup-clinching goal stood even though replays showed his skate in the crease.
Those were the so-called glory days.
The Bills and Sabres have won five playoff games combined since 2008. By comparison Jaire Alexander Color Rush Jersey , the NHL’s expansion Vegas Golden Knights have already won eight in their first year of existence.
Buffalo joins Nashville, Tennessee, and Charlotte, North Carolina, as the only North American markets with two or more major pro teams to not have won a title.
”I think it builds character in a way. I joke with my friends that one day my kids will have to go through therapy because we are Sabres, Bills and Mets fans,” said former VH1-cable TV chief Tom Calderone, who’s from Long Island, New York, but got his broadcasting start in Buffalo and maintains a home in the city. ”It’s easy to be a Cowboys fan or a Patriots fan. But it takes true dedication to be a Bills or Sabres fan.”
Calderone sees more hope reflected in signs of resurgence for the city itself.
The former site of the Erie Canal has been transformed from vacant gravel lots to parkland, a water park that doubles as an ice rink in winter, and an entertainment/hockey complex built by Bills and Sabres owner Terry Pegula.
Housing prices have tripled and a medical corridor is newly bustling along Main Street, where shuttered and boarded-up buildings have been renovated or replaced by new steel and glass structures.
Buffalo still has its rust-belt blemishes as one of the nation’s poorest cities. Racial inequities Martinas Rankin Color Rush Jersey , failing schools and a crumbling infrastructure remain issues.
The Bills and Sabres aren’t immune to troubling headlines. Last week, the two teams’ president Russ Brandon resigned amid allegations of having inappropriate relationships with female employees.
Buffalo might never regain the industrial-age prominence it held in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the city became a Great Lakes shipping hub as the gateway to the Erie Canal.
Nor, however, should it become the punchline comedian Jon Stewart once delivered during a stop in Buffalo, calling the city the gateway to the Ontario border town of Fort Erie just across the Niagara River – population 30,000.
Watching a documentary on former Bills running back O.J. Simpson, Bakay was reminded of the gloomy times in the 1970s when the steel mills began closing and legions of people left to find jobs.
”It depressed me so much,” he said. ”Every shot of Buffalo looked like a moose that farted into the sky.”
The decline led to Buffalo investing its psyche into its sports teams as a way of remaining part of the national conversation.
”Our teams were the only way we could punch back and say, `Yeah, we
CALGARY, Alberta — Although both the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames have been eliminated from playoff contention, bragging rights will still be on the line when the two teams face off against each other on Saturday at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
After the Oilers (34-38-6) won the first three games of the season series this season Authentic Jessie Bates III Jersey , the Flames (35-33-10) skated to a 1-0 victory over their provincial rivals in Calgary on March 13.
“It’s always fun,” said Oilers goalie Cam Talbot in regards to the Battle of Alberta. “The rivalry brings a different element every time. You know it’s going to be an intense game out there and not a whole lot of space (as) you can see from the previous matchups this year.
“Neither one of us are where we want to be in the standings. It brings a different element and just that intense matchup every night.”
While the Oilers have lost three straight games, the Flames have dropped seven straight decisions since blanking their northern counterparts 17 days earlier.
“There’s pride on the line, and especially this next game against the Oilers,” Flames forward Curtis Lazar told the Calgary Herald. “You never want to lose to our provincial rivals, so that’s an easy game to get up for.
“I think if we can just get back to playing a simple, solid and effective 60 minutes, that will do wonders for our hockey club. The bottom line is we’re banged up and the mood is not where it should be, and rightfully so just because we’re out of it, but you have to find a way to salvage something.”
After Edmonton dropped a 2-1 decision in Vancouver to the Canucks on Thursday, forward Leon Draisaitl told reporters that the Oilers have to “just focus on the next game and come out with the same intensity.”
Prior to their three-game skid that started last Sunday with a 5-4 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks at home, the Oilers had won three straight games and four of five.
“For the most chunk of our games lately have been really good,” Draisaitl said. “We had a few where we weren’t as sharp. Even (against the Canucks) http://www.saintsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-tre_quan-smith-jersey , I thought we could have won that game. We competed and battled really hard.”
Although his team has lost seven in a row, Calgary coach Glen Gulutzan didn’t think his team played that badly up until Thursday’s 5-1 setback to the Columbus Blue Jackets on home ice.
“There’s six of those games where I thought we worked our tails off,” Gulutzan said. “Our effort’s been there. (Thursday) was the first dip that I saw in our group as far as I didn’t think we were quite ready in the first 10 minutes to go. We got going after that, but too little, too late. We’re decimated (due to injuries to forwards Sean Monahan and Matthew Tkachuk and defensemen TJ Brodie and Travis Hamonic) with some skill here and that’s hard on the guys.”
The Flames may get leading scorer Johnny Gaudreau back in the lineup against the Oilers
“We’re not expecting it, but there’s a chance,” said Gulutzan in regards to Gaudreau, who was heading back to Calgary on Friday from New Jersey where his father, Guy Gaudreau, is recovering after suffering a cardiac event last Sunday. “First things first with what’s going on there. Their family went through something real significant and it looks like they’re going to come out hopefully better on the other side. We just wanted to make sure he’s good there first.”
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