Buffalo Rising Online

May 6th 2007, 11:55am By Dave Staba

With the Buffalo Sabres tangled in a suitably intense playoff series against the New York Rangers, The New York Times took note in its Friday editions of the rather passionate attitude toward ice hockey here, where playoff games draw better television ratings than American Idol.

The article by Matt Higgins suggests that Buffalo may be worthy of sharing Detroit’s self-proclaimed status as “Hockeytown.” The piece focuses on the off-ice manifestations of Sabres mania in a city where the hockey team was on the endangered list as recently as 2002, thanks to the financial misadventures of the Rigas family.

Yet five years later, with a new owner and a salary cap, the Sabres’ woes seem like ancient history. According to ESPN The Magazine, the Sabres are the ultimate sports franchise, ahead of even the Red Wings — standard-bearers for hockey success in the United States — who have struggled to sell out playoff games at Joe Louis Arena.

In an annual ESPN survey published last month, the Sabres ranked first among 122 major professional sports teams in North America when it comes to repaying fans for their investment of time, money and passion.

The Sabres can advance to the Eastern Conference Finals today with a win against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, having taken a 3-2 series lead with Friday night’s stunning 2-1 overtime win.

Sabres forward Adam Mair talked about the high demand for individualized jerseys, which apparently can cause delays even for those who you’d think would have an inside connection:

“As a player, trying to get your own jersey through the store, it can take six weeks at a time,” Mair said. “That’s just a sign that everyone’s Buffalo Sabres crazy.”

And the city’s chief executive noted the team’s transcendent effect on the local populace.

Mayor Byron W. Brown of Buffalo, who has been flying a Sabres flag in front of City Hall, said: “The interesting thing now, people who were not hockey fans, people who never liked hockey, some people in the community who don’t even understand the game, are major Sabres fans, wearing Sabres jerseys, talking about games. They have really transformed and transfixed this community.”

And that was even before Friday night’s wildly jarring comeback win by Buffalo, when Chris Drury drilled one by the previously air-tight Henrik Lundvqist with 7.7 seconds remaining and Maxim Afinogenov emphatically returned from his one-game exile to score the winner less than five minutes into overtime.

Whether the Rangers can recover after falling from the brink of an upset to the verge of elimination will go a long way towards determining if the next game in Buffalo is Game 7 against New York on Tuesday -- or the opener against Ottawa later in the week.

(Photo by Mark Dellas for Traffic East.)