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00:00I don't know that I've ever missed something as badly as I missed.
00:06The first time Mike asked me, which was on the heels of folks with the Sabres asking me for part
00:12of a project they're working on,
00:14about what it's going to feel like when the drought ends, I kind of just went, I don't know.
00:22It feels like a formality at this point.
00:25I mean, they're going to make the play.
00:26It was like a week ago Mike brought this up to me.
00:29Like, I don't really feel, I don't know.
00:31I'm not that dialed in on when it's going to happen.
00:33I'm not thinking about the magic number.
00:37I just think I've thought since New Year's Eve this team was going to make the playoffs,
00:40so I'm not that worried about the moment, right, which misses the entire point of the moment.
00:47The moment is not whether or not you think it's going to happen or not.
00:51It's what is it going to feel like when for the first time in almost 5,500 days of life
00:58on planet Earth,
01:01you go, hey, you know, when the playoffs start and there's like four games and, you know,
01:07two of them are at 7 and two of them are at 7.30, your team's going to be one
01:10of them again.
01:11You're going to have a dog in the fight, a horse in the race, and I completely miss that,
01:17and now today I am super excited about tonight and the opportunity.
01:22It's almost, I think, Nate, a bulletproof go-out night because there isn't the tension that will come in a
01:31few weeks
01:32when it's a playoff game, and, I mean, are you ready out there?
01:37An elimination game in a playoff.
01:39Like, argh!
01:42This is, you got a lot of net here.
01:44You got a lot of runway, right?
01:47There's enough games left here.
01:49There's seven games left, and they can clinch tonight,
01:53which means that the next time they play on Saturday night against Washington,
01:56they can clinch then if they don't do it tonight.
01:58And then after that, there's still five more opportunities.
02:01Like, they got a mile to work with here.
02:03So there's not, you know, if you do go out tonight to party and celebrate with friends
02:08and you want to be with one another when it happens and it doesn't happen,
02:13yeah, that kind of sucks for your night out and the bill will feel a little heavier when you go
02:17to pay it
02:17because, you know, they didn't win, but you didn't really lose anything either.
02:22You lost an opportunity to celebrate on a Thursday instead of on a Saturday or a Monday, right?
02:26There's just a lot of room here for them,
02:28but that doesn't mean it won't feel pretty incredible when they actually win a game
02:34that puts them in the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
02:39Yeah, I think we're probably, I don't know, maybe a full month removed from actually feeling like
02:46talking about it is not a jinx, right?
02:49I mean, we're probably about 30 days from that.
02:52Like, I had a conversation with a buddy of mine who lives, you know, in the Southern Tier.
02:58We're talking about, hey, game one, you come up, you can stay with me.
03:03We'll do party in the Platte.
03:04They're going to do party in the Platte.
03:05And then we're just kind of like that conversation, you know?
03:09And I think even a couple of years ago when they got close in that Don Granato season
03:15and they missed by a point, there wasn't really any moment where you were like
03:22you could enjoy it a little bit.
03:24And I think what they're doing now and what they're hopefully going to do tonight
03:27is going to give us a little run here of a couple of games where, again,
03:34I'm trying also not to be dramatic about this, but I said this to somebody else.
03:37It was like, I don't know what the 51-3, you know, Bills-Raiders game,
03:43like in the second half of that game where you know the Bills are going to the Super Bowl
03:46and like the party and the celebration that was existing in the stands.
03:50I would say, again, not to the extreme, but like a couple of weeks here where we can just be
03:56like,
03:56we could go to a Sabres game, we could just go stand at the Odd Club for two periods
04:01and, you know, just stand at the bar and be like, hey, we're here, but like, awesome.
04:07There is a game going on, but, you know, we could just kind of celebrate in here.
04:11So, yeah, it's been a really fun 30-ish days, I think, for a lot of people my age
04:20who the last time they were in the playoffs, I was in college.
04:24You were still old.
04:24So, I mean, you know, it's fine for you.
04:29You know, I was still old, but this distinction is important,
04:34and it's why I should – a bunch of my friends are going to More Room tonight,
04:42including Jeremy White from our morning show and our buddy Brett from – whatever.
04:46Owen's going – a bunch of people are going.
04:48And, you know, you're making the – you know, I'm 60.
04:52You know, there's comfort in going home.
04:55There's, you know, a controlled environment.
04:57There's like, I know what I'm going to eat for dinner and all of that, right?
05:00As opposed to at quarter to seven or seven o'clock, whatever time I'll get out of here,
05:04elbowing my way into a packed North Buffalo bar and, you know, just – whatever.
05:13But I think I have to do that.
05:15I think I have to do that in part because while I wasn't as old as I am now back
05:20in –
05:21especially 05, 06, and 06, and 07, what I'm also not anymore is tethered to my house
05:27because I have a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old living there.
05:30Yeah, that's right.
05:31Right?
05:31And a wife who's working nights or going to grad school or whatever the hell my wife,
05:35God bless her, was doing, like, throughout all of that time.
05:38But I would work at the arena during the 06 playoffs.
05:43I would work in the arena with Mike and get out of there and literally –
05:48I was often on a motorcycle at the time, but get on a motorcycle, get in my truck,
05:53in the ramp, and drive the wrong way out of the ramp and out through the traffic.
05:57As quickly as humanly possible.
05:59As quickly as humanly possible because I had to get home and get settled,
06:03get the boys settled, see my wife off to whatever she was going to do,
06:08try to watch a playoff game while putting a 2-year-old to bed.
06:12I don't have to do that anymore.
06:13So, like, I never really got to ride that ride in 06 and 07 because my life just dictated
06:22that I'd be home all the time.
06:23So I watched that entire – both of those playoff runs from my living room.
06:27I never went to a game and I never went out for a game.
06:31No, I shouldn't say I never went to a game.
06:32I went to, like, game one of the Islanders series in 07.
06:35I was 15.
06:36Yeah.
06:37Okay.
06:37Right.
06:38I was 15 years old.
06:39Right.
06:3914 years old.
06:40Right.
06:40So it's been a while.
06:41I mean, yeah, the kid who was 4 works here now and has a mustache.
06:45Yeah.
06:46So, you know, this is a very different world.
06:48So I think I need to get – I need to get out just to enjoy that because I'm –
06:54I don't have too much of that.
06:56Like, a lot of my adult life being on the radio was being at home taking care of little kids
07:00when the Sabres were good anyway.
07:02And I don't really know that I think very much about their last playoff series, to be honest.
07:09It's pretty – it's not a memorable – it's not the 05, 06, 06, 07 where they're contenders.
07:17They sort of backed their way into the playoffs.
07:20It was a fever dream.
07:21Yes.
07:22Then back in, they went, like, 24-2 or something.
07:25You just didn't ever feel like –
07:27They were a good team.
07:29Yes.
07:29Yes.
07:29And even though they're – obviously, this year there has been very similar moments
07:35or feelings from that last playoff team, this one has a little bit more of a, okay,
07:43like, they're one of now four teams with 100 points.
07:46They're one of the best teams in the league.
07:49Yeah.
07:49They've done it over the course of three or four months.
07:52This isn't, you know, luck and, you know, again, backing their way in.
07:57But just – there's a real feeling that, yes, the playoffs are here,
08:01but I don't think anyone's got reservations.
08:04Like, if that team, that Don Granato team, makes it in by one point, or the – what was it?
08:10The season that – was that the same?
08:12No, that wasn't the same year.
08:13I'm thinking the Cajun year where they trade for Simmons and Cajun,
08:17and we're going to make the, you know, Bottrell's up there.
08:20Were the moves we made are the moves?
08:22And then they lose, like, six straight, and then they miss the playoffs.
08:25That's the COVID year.
08:27So, like, those years, there's nobody here selling you that these are teams that are going –
08:34if those teams got in, they're likely getting swept in the first round.
08:38I mean, look, I don't think, you know – I mean, anything I say that is a generalization,
08:43I know doesn't speak for everyone, but even the year before that, 9-10,
08:47when they won the division, I mean, I was in this chair the whole time.
08:52I don't think the fans really bought that that team was going to go win the Stanley Cup,
08:56even though they basically went wire to wire at the top of the division that season.
09:00It was still too recent from things having fallen apart after 07 when Breer and Drury left.
09:07We were, I think, still collectively hungover about that.
09:11Like, we just weren't out of the malaise yet.
09:13And, no, that's why this year, to me, I don't think about – I mean, 11 is the last time
09:18they were there,
09:18or so you might think about it, and, you know, the clinching game and everything was, you know,
09:23X amount of days away and all that.
09:26But this year does feel much more like 05-06.
09:31And not just because they had that retro Thursday night, you know,
09:36remembering all the alumni back and everything.
09:38It's that – it's a team that you didn't really see coming.
09:42You know, we talked – Mike and I talked about this yesterday.
09:45Like, I think there were signs that the 05-06 Sabres – like, there was a lot of new there,
09:49and you were coming out of a season-long lockout.
09:52So, it was, you know, maybe a little easier to see a good team forming.
09:57This team, who knew?
09:58I mean, the same team was in last place, and then the switch flipped.
10:01But the fact that they've risen to the point where they're a contending-level team,
10:06like, really, not just playoff contention, but round-winning, cup-winning contention level
10:13is very similar to 05-06 because you didn't see it coming, and suddenly a few months go by,
10:20and you're like, how many points do I have again?
10:22What happened?
10:23Right?
10:23So, I mean, it's awesome.
10:25I would love to hear today – I know the morning show did a lot of this – you know,
10:32not to focus on the drought, but, like, the drought – it's going to end here one of these days
10:38real soon.
10:38Tonight is a chance for it to end.
10:40And so, if you want to reminisce a little bit about, like, drought memories,
10:46that is totally cool by us, 803-0550, you know, just different moments.
10:52Maybe the time you thought – you most thought, this is going to work, this has to work,
10:59they're going to be good now, and then they weren't.
11:02I'll raise my hand.
11:03One of my favorites was liking the idea of hiring Ralph Krueger.
11:06Yeah.
11:06Right, that was –
11:07This is outside the box.
11:09That was really real.
11:09This is innovative.
11:11This is a really – yeah, don't just hire another recycled, you know, grizzled, half-balled coach.
11:18Go get something – go get somebody different.
11:21And holy crap, what a disaster, right?
11:23Yeah, what a disaster, yeah.
11:24I mean, that goes on.
11:26I mean, I looked at – there's a tweet that made the rounds.
11:29It's from August.
11:32It's like an iceberg, and it's just got a couple of lines describing different events.
11:36And there's stuff on there that I don't even remember.
11:39I'm not sure what it means.
11:40Like, the three words, like, I don't really know what that is, but okay.
11:43I mean, it means something to somebody.
11:46I get it.
11:47So there's a lot of different low points, if you will, there.
11:54So anything in that realm is fair game.
11:57Any way you want to talk about what this means to you.
12:01I've been asked a lot in the last week or so to try to express what it means – excuse
12:07me – to have them back at the level that they're back.
12:11And so if anybody wants to share that, whether it means you're going out tonight with your adult sons or
12:18your young family or you're leaving kids at home to go do it or whatever you're doing, just to have
12:24something back in your life that really – it wasn't ever gone, but it was very much over there, I
12:32think, for a lot of us.
12:35To have it, like, storm back into the room and just be the bell of the ball again is pretty
12:40incredible.
12:40Yeah, no, it was – there was so many – again, it's hard because different times of my life with
12:47the Bills going on their 17-year playoff drought and then kind of how it broke where I was here
12:53at the Stationverse now and where I was in my life when the drought began,
12:59it's borderline not particularly – like, I just – it's not very clear to me in the – after the
13:08Music City miracle was like, you know, I don't remember a lot about that season.
13:12I don't remember the Music City, that's pretty much it.
13:15But now it just sort of felt like there had been continuing – like, just continuing lows and low points.
13:23Well, it can't get worse and then it gets worse.
13:25Well, it can't possibly get worse and then it gets worse.
13:27And the whole – yeah, they were over there.
13:30There were times I just felt like, why – why am I watching these games?
13:35Why – and I got to a point I just, like, I'm not going to watch the games.
13:40And I remember times of the last two seasons being here, filling in for Mike talking with you about, like,
13:47okay, I might be back.
13:48I'm listening to post-game press conferences again.
13:51And that has some meaning to me because I feel like when I'm listening to post-game press conferences, I'm
13:57there.
13:57That's a thing you only do when you really care deeply about whatever clues you're going to get from the
14:04coach about any of this.
14:06And basically the only time this franchise could fill that arena was, all right, well, we want to roll back.
14:13You want to roll back the 05-06 team.
14:15You want to have a – who are we going to put into the Hall of Fame this year?
14:18And instead of, like, normal teams who do that once a year, maybe once every two years, Sabres were like,
14:23we got to do this three times a year.
14:24It's the only way to get people in here.
14:25And we've talked about this a bunch where it almost felt where it was so cheap to get to these
14:32games.
14:33I mean, I was living, and I have been for the – shoot, the better part of four years downtown
14:38where I could walk to the arena when the weather started to turn.
14:41But by April, my God, their playoff chances had been zero for a month.
14:47So why would I ever walk three-quarters of a mile in the city to that way when I could
14:54go any other way downtown?
14:56Even if the ticket was $6.
14:58Right.
14:59And there would be more times where, okay, hey, we'll go to the Sabres game, or hey, someone's got free
15:04Sabres tickets.
15:05Okay.
15:07We could go to the casino.
15:08Perfect.
15:09And we'll hop in for a period and then go to the casino.
15:12And that's really what it became.
15:13And it is nice to go back to games – does this sound weird?
15:18It sort of feels like everyone is the popular kid again.
15:23You go to the Sabres games, and you're like, oh, hey, what's up, buddy?
15:26You're at the 200 level with your buddies, and you're like, hey, eight people you know are all in a
15:31group text.
15:31Hey, we're going down to the Odd Club.
15:33Everyone meet there at the end of the intermission.
15:35Right.
15:35And it's like, man, I don't remember a time where being at a Sabres game, it was like a reunion
15:41of sorts.
15:42It's because you haven't been there in so long to enjoy a game where it's, I wonder what the hot
15:49dog of the day is today.
15:50Well, that convinced me to pay the $6 on Ticketmaster.
15:55Yeah.
15:55You know, or people were showing up to the game.
15:59I mean, think about the last time we were, you know, parking up in the thing, up in the ramp,
16:06and we're like, we're getting up there.
16:08It's 6.50.
16:09We're like, we're going to miss face-off.
16:11Like, damn it.
16:12And it's like, in years past, first of all, it would never happen because there would be no line to
16:17get into the ramp.
16:17But you were just thinking, ah, we'll get there a couple minutes in.
16:21We'll miss the anthem.
16:23Big deal.
16:24It's like the Sabres became, I don't mean this in any way to be offensive to the Bisons, but it's
16:32like the Sabres became minor league baseball.
16:35Like, part of the fun of going to Bisons games is that there's not that, like, pressure to, like, it's
16:42not as expensive, which is what happens when the Sabres are bad.
16:45You buy tickets on the secondary market.
16:47They were less expensive than Bisons games.
16:48The results don't matter because the standings don't matter, and, like, I know that they keep standings in the international
16:54league, but, like, I'm not living and dying on whether, you know, the Bisons beat the Rail Riders.
16:59I'm just going to go to the game, and I'll watch some baseball, and I'll like the ballpark.
17:03Yeah, that's it.
17:04And, yeah, that is not what going to hockey games had been for a lot of us.
17:10You said you were how old, 14, 15?
17:16When they, I would have been 14 or 15 in the 06, 07 run.
17:20Oh, okay, okay, okay.
17:21I was a freshman in college when they last made it.
17:26Right.
17:27So, like, you've had, like, that's a, that's a significant part, like, you were playing quarterback at Buff State, like,
17:32you had a, you know, and, like, your life has completely changed since then.
17:37Which, I mean, of course it would for most people.
17:40But, like, it's an interesting pocket of your life.
17:43I was looking, it's like, you know, the iPhone 5 was launched.
17:46Five!
17:48Osama Bin Laden was killed.
17:51Like, things that you don't remember because they were long enough ago.
17:56Yeah.
17:56I mean, I remember some of those things where I was in college and in my freshman dorms at Buff
18:03State, right?
18:03And it's like, I don't have a lot of those things.
18:06And 14, 15 is, I mean, we are talking peak of my Sabres and Bills fandom, even though the Bills
18:14had never been good during my childhood.
18:16It was, man, 14, 15 years old, 05, 06, you know, or 04, 05, 06, and 06, and 07.
18:23I mean, that is, to me, my dad's getting sweet tickets from work and smuggling me into games.
18:29And I think I told you I was at the Rangers game where, you know, Drury scores in regulation with
18:35whatever, three seconds left and then a Finneganoff scores in overtime.
18:38I'm young enough to be so upset and brought to tears that they were about to lose that game that
18:44I was not watching the game when Drury scored.
18:47So, I'm young enough to have been in tears for that.
18:50So.
18:50Right.
18:52Martin Strzokka made you cry.
18:54Yes.
18:55Yes.
18:55Well, not almost.
18:57It actually happened.
18:58He made me cry.
18:59Turned out the reason for the crying was preemptive.
19:01I was in the back of the suite.
19:02It wasn't even in eyesight of the, of the, of the, of the, uh, the rink.
19:07Your dad's or this co-worker.
19:09Just sort of let, let Nate have a moment.
19:10Yeah, let go.
19:10Let him go over there.
19:11Let him go over there.
19:12He'll be fine.
19:12Yep.
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