WE WANT RAY!

I miss a lot of hockey in the name of Jimmy Carter. The Sabres will still be here in 20 years; not so with our former president (now 87 years old). Pegula Day? Carter. Alumni Reunion at Fan Appreciation Night? Carter.

And a couple of weeks ago I missed a lot of hockey to go to Haiti and build houses on the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project (yes, they were there working with the rest of us). And even when I came back, I stayed at a friend’s house in Atlanta for a couple of days to recover, so the Boston game was watched surreptitiously on my iPad with the volume down while we were all in the kitchen preparing dinner together. At one point I stirred whatever food was in my charge and antisocially snuck over to the iPad to catch some of the game for a minute and… well, speaking of charging.

First I giggled at the hapless Bruin who thought he had a breakaway but had the puck stripped from him by the one member of our team dressed un-aerodynamically like a turtle. Then I exclaimed, “Holy F#@K!” as that hapless Bruin put his stick in the air and ran said un-aerodynamic turtle over intentionally.  Miller lost his hat and spun on the ice like a Sit-N-Spin commercial (as I recall, Sit-N-Spins only really worked if you were in the commercial). Then I waited for the fight.

I’m still waiting for the fight. And yes, I like the fights — love the fights — and I’m never going to apologise for that. I can’t watch violence of any kind — war movies, boxing, Black Friday — but apparently it would all be OK with me if they were wearing skates at the time. I liked having a player on the team whose sole purpose was enforcement. Sure, you put Gaustad, Kaleta, and McCormick out on the next line after a hit like that and we know what’s going to happen. But I miss the days when the sudden appearance of Ray or Peters on the ice meant only one thing — an order had been given and someone was going to be taken out. I miss the guys whose rare goals were pure comedy, an insult to the other team. I miss when the Sabres had balls.

And you, too, Shanny — you were so beautifully consistent until this call, then you turtled on us. An NFL player once told me that the NHL will never have any respect as a league until they start enforcing the rules with some consistency, and Shanny was starting to beat that path down. Then came a player who put his stick in the air to run over a goalie, and you wussed out, setting a league-wide precedent for running goalies that you can’t do anything about without losing face. Shame on you.

There is a strong chance that tonight’s match will not live up to the revenge hype, but it’s the game before Thanksgiving, which has a charm all its own. Once-a-year fans home for the holidays will fill the FN Center, anxious to see what the Pegula Era has wrought so far. They’ll cheer SOGs, pound the glass for good hits, and bring the house down if someone actually takes on Lucic (preferably a Sabre and not a fan, but don’t rule it out). Just a reminder to the regulars of how to have fun at the game.

And there might be some drinking. People will be warming up for the biggest bar night of the year; I’ll be wishing all the drunk drivers a Happy Thanksgiving and getting out of traffic. Not that they’d intentionally run me over, but if they did, who would come to my defence?