Almost 20 years ago my family moved to a suburb of Chicago known as St. Charles, Illinois. We moved in October and my brother and I immediately hated Illinois, it was cold, dreary, uncomfortably foreign. Our neighborhood seemed to be filled with kids that were life-long friends, and we were simply outsiders (stay gold). I attended a school that is more well known for proximity to an infamous school for troubled boys (in fact, I've met transplants originally from Chicago that know what made St. Charles famous, and they always say, "ah, the bad boy school") whereas my brother was setup to attend his first year of what the Midwest (and now Northwest) call middle-school. Needless to say, we were unhappy for reasons that really had nothing to do with the Chicagoland area, but more to do with our selfish views on life.
Although it is always a good idea to rehash one's past and try to learn lessons in retrospect, this is supposed to be a post about the playoffs, so I'll get to the point. It was in Chicago that I learned to love sports. Interestingly, in the city that had just recently (within 5 years) won the Super Bowl, I became a huge fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers whereas the Bears were my "second" team. That's since changed, as now I'm a Bears fan...Pittsburgh's just my "second" team. More importantly for this story, Chicago is where I learned what the hell hockey is. Over the 2 years I lived in the great state of Illinois, I became a fan of the Chicago Blackhawks. They were a tough team that featured dynamic characters at skill positions whilst maintaining their image as a team more willing to mix it up than to play dominant offensive hockey. They were an amazing team to watch growing up even after moving back to the Northwest.
Those 2 years in Chicago were important to who I became when we moved back to the Portland, Oregon area. I had a passion for things that were previously missing in my life, and I had become a hockey fan. I had also started the tedious journey of a Chicago Blackhawk fan. Easily the most maligned teams in all of the sporting world. I've watched all-stars leave the team, heroes be dealt, coaches forced out, players sign on just to fail and potential talent dealt away before it was realized. I've felt guilty for cheering on a team with an American Indian head as its logo, dirty rooting for a team that has the best looking sweaters (jerseys) and yet still made a black 3rd sweater (jersey), foolish for thinking that each year will be better when they were steadily worse from 1991 and downtrodden for criticizing them today for mistakes they made in 1992. Point being, I've been loyal, and will stay loyal.
At the same time, I had to find a way to be happy for 82 games every year. In 1992, I was able to find the way. Super Nintendo's first great hockey game was NHLPA '93. There were the Blackhawks that I had loved for 6 years now, Roenick, Chelios, Belfour and Larmer. And even though I would play with Chicago by default, so would my brother and all my friends. You see, the Blackhawks once really were that good (well, maybe it was more that Roenick was so good) and my friends really only knew hockey from me anyway; so, invariably Chicago was their team (if not, then Pittsburgh--kinda odd thinking about it). Like anyone realizing saturation, I looked elsewhere. I found a team from Buffalo, found out they were called the Sabres, and looked into their lineup.
I've always loved goaltenders, and Buffalo had 3!!! Darren Puppa (how could a 12 year old not love this name) and Clint Malarchuk were unbelievably good. Plus, I'd never seen a team have so many *chuks; from the aforementioned Malarchuk to Andreychuk and Hawerchuk. Years later the Red Wings would sport the OV line...paled in comparison to the Chuk team. Then, the coup de gras, an American center and a Russian winger named LaFontaine and Mogilny respectively. These two players were legends to me. I spent countless hours trying to find a way to get them into a Chicago sweater, alas all my solutions involved paying these players more than the league minimum. Thus, a Sabre fan was born.
I've followed Buffalo for 15 years now, only 2 more than I've followed Chicago, and at times I feel as though the Sabres really are my favorite team, even if they aren't "my team." They've had 4 near perfect teams in my lifetime, '94-'95, '98-'99 and '05-'06/'06-'07, my favorite is still the team from '95, but the one that made me realize I was a fan was the one that lost to a technicality in '99. In a way, it was that moment when I realized that the Sabres were the right team for me. From the time I decided to like any sports team (excluding the Bulls), they'd followed a track record of let downs (those keeping score: cubs, sox - both, bears, steelers (fucking neil o'donnell), blackhawks). I was sure that leaving Chicago and Boston sports teams behind for Buffalo would be the answer.
And now, we're down 3-1 to Ottawa, after a season of determination where the Sabres ran (nearly) wire to wire leading the league in points.
They say, somethings never change; but, here's to when they do.
1 comment:
Because I feel guilty rooting so heavily against your Bulls, I shall now root for the Sabres. Definitely the coolest team name, at the very least.
Post a Comment