The Oppenheimer Report 4/24/17

A few days ago, I got a letter from my lawyer in Buffalo regarding some family matters, and at the end of the letter she complained a bit about the Buffalo Sabres. The team hasn’t made the playoffs in a long time, they’ve been such a disappointment, etc. When I lived in Buffalo, my family held seasons tickets to Sabres games, from the very beginning of the franchise. My dad was friends with one of the owners of the team, and one of my uncles sat on the Board of Directors. As a kid, I went to a lot of the home games, back when guys like Tim Horton and Eddie Shack were on the team. I remember the glory days when “The French Connection” was one of the hottest lines in the NHL. I remember Jim Lorenz swatting a bat out of the air with his stick during a Stanley Cup finals game with the Flyers. That Flyers series was (I believe) one of two times the Sabres ever made it to the Stanley Cup finals. They’ve never won the cup, and it doesn’t look like they’re going to anytime soon. Over the 40+ years that I have been following the team, there have been a lot of hopeful moments, and a boat load of heartache.  

I used to joke with other hockey fans that I was a glutton for punishment, because for over three decades I was a Sabres fan, and then I moved to Toronto and evolved into a Leafs fan. I finally turned into a fan back in the mid to late nineties, after realizing how crazy, supportive, and enthusiastic the Leafs fans were. After a long drought, the Leafs made the first round of the playoffs one year, and there was a huge party on Yonge Street. People were hanging out of cars hand-painted with the Leafs’ logo and colors, there was dancing in the streets, there were zany fans dressed in crazy Leafs costumes; there was elation. It was exhilarating to see. Here was one of the oldest NHL teams, in one of Canada’s biggest cities, it had been struggling near the bottom of the league for a long time, and still the home games always sold out. There will always be Toronto Maple Leafs fans.   

I spoke to a good friend from Buffalo (a Sabres supporter) last night, after the Leafs lost Game 6 in overtime to the league-leading Washington Capitals. He was impressed with the team. Nobody expected this young Leafs team to give the Caps a run for their money, but they sure did. Every single game of the series went into overtime, and it really could have gone either way each game. More important, the Leafs seemed to be on fire, and they never gave up. Of course, I wanted the team to win, but I was also happy to see them giving it all they’ve got. It might have been the best, most exciting playoff series I have ever watched, involving a team I support. For the first time since I began following this team, I’m very excited about their future. I think they’re the youngest team in the league and they will do nothing but grow.

To be a fan of any professional sports team, one must learn to accept defeat. No matter how good a team is, they will eventually lose games. I love watching the underdog prevail, t gives me hope. Sometimes fans must wait a long time, decades, for their moment of glory. Ask a Cubs fan. It’s tough to stick by a team that has been bad for so long, but I really think maybe the Leafs are finally going in the right direction. It couldn’t happen in a more supportive city than Toronto. I spoke to my best friend in Buffalo and I told him that my lawyer had sold her last home game Sabres tickets to a couple of Leafs fans. He felt that was betrayal, and that a real fan would not support the opposing team by selling tickets to their fans. I’m still a closet Sabres fan, and probably always will be. Buffalo is my hometown. I think Toronto should be proud of their Leafs, maybe for the first time in a long time. No matter who we root for, there will always be pain. That said, I’m always  looking forward to the next season.

 -Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2017 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED