Surging Sabres have brought the buzz back to Buffalo in closing in on 1st playoff berth in 15 years
Josh Norris’ father had never steered him wrong before. Sidelined by an injury, Norris would sit in the press box staring out at a half-empty arena, and hearing a chorus of boos and derogatory chants directed at the team and now former general manager Kevyn Adams, who was fired in December and replaced by Jarmo Kekalainen. “I knew he wasn’t lying,” Norris said of his father’s recollections, which have suddenly been realized by a Sabres team enjoying a remarkable turnaround that’s unmistakably revived the hockey buzz in Buffalo this season.
BUFFALO, N. Y. (AP) — Josh Norris’ father had never steered him wrong before.
And yet the Sabres forward was somewhat skeptical of just how passionate Buffalo was as a hockey market upon his arrival in a trade from Ottawa a year ago. Sidelined by an injury , Norris would sit in the press box staring out at a half-empty arena, and hearing a chorus of boos and derogatory chants directed at the team and now former general manager Kevyn Adams, who was fired in December and replaced by Jarmo Kekalainen . This wasn’t the rollicking atmosphere his dad, Dwayne Norris, recalled of Buffalo during his brief NHL playing days in the mid-1990s, before spending 11 more seasons in Germany.
“I knew he wasn’t lying,” Norris said of his father’s recollections, which have suddenly been realized by a Sabres team enjoying a remarkable turnaround that’s unmistakably revived the hockey buzz in Buffalo this season. “I feel like they’re getting let out of a cage in a sense — and I mean that in the best way possible,” Norris said of an energized fanbase that’s filling the 19,000-plus seat KeyBank Center, and bringing back memorable chants such as, “Ooh! Ahh!
Sabres on the warpath. ” “Now that we’re in this spot, I think it’s hard to miss,” he added. “It’s right in front of you.
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