A half inch of ice is now down and the playing surface is painted white

So said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff tonight at HSBC Arena, as the Philadelphia Flyers came to town. The hype meter was off the wall, as former Sabres Martin Biron and Daniel Briere were making their first return to Buffalo since their departures last season.
Both received warm applause during the warmups and intros, but the adulation quickly turned to boos once the game started, especially when Briere touched the puck during play.

For the pregame, the game night staff pitched the “Say Hey Say Yeah” flick, and instead showed a pretty good video montage titled “The Rivalry Continues”, rolling out highlight reel moments between these two teams. While the memorable playoff goals and OT triumphs were fun to watch, goalies Garth Snow and Steve Shields going at it in the ’97 playoffs is the signature memory seared in my mind. Good stuff!

The game took on a physical tone early on, with both teams throwing punishing hits and checks, and while Philadelphia seemed to have the early edge in that department, Buffalo then took control of the play. At 11:41, Marty Biron made an incredible save on a rebound shot by Paul Gaustad, stopping the puck literally in midair on the goal line. Even Drew Stafford’s goal at 17:51 required a video review, as the puck crossed the goal line before Derek Roy tapped it with his stick while in the net. At the end of the first Buffalo led 1-0.

The big debate on the radio this morning seemed to be if Danny Briere and Marty Biron will hear boos from the hometown crowd tomorrow night.

Please.

Talk about making something out of nothing. First of all, nobody is going to boo Martin Biron. While he never became the dominant goaltender many thought he would, he still was a solid goalie, and one of the most popular players on the team. He spanned multiple generations of great Sabres teams, and gave us fans great quotes every time he got near a microphone. Plus, he gave us the classic miked-up quote of “Yo-Yo’s mad; go Yo-Yo”, when Yochen Hecht got in a fight.

As for Briere, I realize he left to go elsewhere. But the Sabres never made a serious, market value offer for him, and Philly did. He was a hell of a Sabre, and people forget that he almost beat the Hurricanes all by himself two years ago in the Conference Finals. I found this paraphrased quote from the Captain Milquetoast show this morning on why Danny didn’t sign with Montreal very interesting: After playing them eight times a year, it just didn’t feel right. Daniel Briere, a French-Canadien, is hated in Montreal because he didn’t sign with his hometown team. Good for him. Screw those Frenchies.

NBC Sports today announced that Bob Costas will host NBC’s broadcast coverage of the NHL Winter Classic between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins, the first U.S. outdoor game in NHL history. The game will be held New Year’s Day beginning at 1 p.m. ET from Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo, N.Y.

Costas has a history broadcasting hockey, serving as the play-by-play commentator for the Syracuse Blazers of the old Eastern Hockey League in 1973-74 and also occasionally filling in for the late, great Dan Kelly on KMOX’s St. Louis Blues radiocasts in the last 70s and early 80s.

The NHL Winter Classic features several of the game’s greatest young stars, including Penguins center Sidney Crosby and Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller. Attendance at the contest is expected to surpass the NHL single-game record, set Nov. 22, 2003 when the Montreal Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers drew 57,167 to The Heritage Classic at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, the only outdoor game in NHL history. Ralph Wilson Stadium capacity exceeds 73,000 and tickets to the game sold out within several hours of going on sale.

The Sabres were better in a 3-1 win over the Blackhawks.

In recent years a visit to Buffalo by the Blackhawks would be an event that would draw little interest and plenty of empty seats. Yet thanks to the presence of Patrick Kane rolling into town tonight was going to be a bit different.

From the time the PA system pumped out the strands of Chicago’s “Saturday in the Park” to the nice applause to hearing Kane’s name in the starting lineups to the wonderful pregame ceremony involving Kane, Brian Campbell and their respective fathers to the great ovation they received. It was quite obvious that the fans of Buffalo, Sabres and bandwagon Blackhawk alike gave Kane a warm welcome home to Buffalo.

“OK kid, now just disappear into the background for the night, will ya.” I thought to myself as the puck dropped.

Except Kane wasn’t finished on center stage just yet, because just two and a half minutes in he took in a nice feed from Patrick Sharp and fired it past Ryan Miller from the slot for a 1-0 lead. About five minutes later in the period he would get on the stats sheet again with a penalty for hooking.