Written on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 1:39pm by Kevin | 8 Comments

Gerry Meehan Open Thread: Oilers at Sabres

Boy oh boy, but No. 15 for the Sabres is fraught with suck.

When Zubaz, Dixon Ward, Lou Franceschetti, and Randy Wood are the big names you know you have issues.

So I kicked it back to all-the-way old school and went with Gerry Meehan, an original Sabre.

Meehan may have only played four seasons in Buffalo but he was on the ice for their first game and served as team captain from 1971-1974.  He was traded to Vancouver along with Mike Robitaille just prior to the 1974-75 season.

His biggest role in Buffalo was as General Manager from 1986-1993.  He was the Sabres representative who flew to Russia to aid Alexander Mogilny’s defection in 1989, and he was also the guy who pulled the trigger and traded Pierre Turgeon for the classiest player to ever don a Sabres uniform, Pat LaFontaine.

Meehan took a lot of grief from the fans back in the day, but I remember him as a kind and generous man whom I new personally and always treated me very well.  That being said, it was under Meehan that the Sabres went five straight years without getting past the first round of the playoffs.  It wasn’t until his final season as GM that we were treated to the “Mayday” goal and the subsequent second-round sweep at the hands of the Canadiens.

Still, Gerry Meehan is a big part of the history of our Buffalo Sabres.  Here’s to you, No. 15.

**************

As for tonight, it’s always fun to see the West Coast teams in our barn.  Dustin Penner is making former Oilers GM and chief assclown Kevin Lowe look a little less stupid for signing him to a five-year, $21.25 million offer sheet by actually putting up numbers in his third season.  And now that Pat Quinn is coaching the Oil there are even more reasons to dislike their organization.

7:00 start from HSBC.

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8 Comments

  1. Scoop77 says:
    November 11, 2009 at 7:01 pm

    My lasting memory of Gerry Meehan was his game-tying desperation shot from the blue line in the final seconds against a screened Doug Favell in the last game of the 71-72 season that KO’d the Flyers from making the playoffs. Watching a toothless Bobby Clarke in agony was the best.

    Reply
  2. twoeightnine says:
    November 11, 2009 at 8:11 pm

    Tara can sing the anthems for me any day.

    Reply
  3. Sharpie says:
    November 11, 2009 at 8:31 pm

    Let’s hope this is better than the weekend. I am going to see a CHL game and
    The Cup.

    Reply
  4. Geo says:
    November 11, 2009 at 11:21 pm

    Hey. 9-year-old Geoff loved Lou Franceschetti. Though, 28-year-old Geoff just learned he only played for the Sabres for 40-something games. What can I say, I was 9 and let;s be honest, Lou Franceschetti is an awesome name.

    Reply
  5. vtTom says:
    November 11, 2009 at 11:59 pm

    I love a win..
    My aunt, a big hockey fan and, even greater Sabres fan passed away yesterday in Southern Ontario. She had lost a good deal of her sight over the recent years but, during a Sabres game she’d have her chair a foot and a half from the TV screen, leaning in with the biggest smile you’d ever seen – she’d bitch at the refs, gripe about missed passes, chear a good check, call the Bruins “a bunch of damn bean eaters”, etc… she also did a decent Hasek – “me and my team mates” impersonation.
    I hope she saw the game tonight, the boys played an honest game, it would have made her proud.
    I can’t stop feeling sorry that I’ll never get to watch her watch a game again…

    Reply
  6. Mark Miller says:
    November 12, 2009 at 12:34 am

    Would you believe I created a website about Gerry Meehan? I lived next door to him when I was a teenager. Good player and a nice guy.

    Reply

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