Afinigenov in a nutshell: He was a healthy scratch for Game 4 in the 2007 Eastern Conference semifinals for unforgivably sloppy play against the New York Rangers, but returned for Game 5. The quicksilver Muscovite could lift fans out of their seats every time he skated with the puck, but just as easily plop everyone back onto their butts with a silly blue-line cut to send a linemate offside. His 274 power-play goals were the most all-time until Alexander Ovechkin surpassed him last season. He’s in the Hockey Hall of Fame with 640 goals and 1,338 points in 1,639 games. Now there’s a statue of him outside Amalie Arena. He signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning, played another 278 games, served as its captain and raised the club’s first Stanley Cup. Andreychuk’s second stint with the Sabres involved a situation late in 2000-01 when he left the team over a lack of playing time but returned amid pleas from teammates and close friends.Īndreychuk was nowhere near finished when those doubts crept into his head in 2001. While that sounds wonderful compared to the current Sabres, such failures were unacceptable for a franchise that, by the time it drafted Andreychuk 16th overall in 1982, was only 12 years old, won the Prince of Wales Conference in its fourth season and hadn’t missed the playoffs since.
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So perhaps more than anyone, Andreychuk symbolized the Sabres’ disappointment from 1984 to 1992, when they won a single playoff series and didn’t qualify twice. He scored 12 goals in 41 Sabres postseason games. But he wasn’t particularly physical or a swift skater. He used his tonnage and two of the most gifted hands in hockey history to guarantee the Sabres 30 to 40 goals, a large percentage on the power play.
Dave AndreychukĪndreychuk was a scoring machine, a cement truck parked next to the crease and difficult to dislodge. Since then? Oh, things have gotten plenty polarizing. Then - bang - the Sabres reached the Stanley Cup Final in 1975 and didn’t miss the playoffs for 11 years. They were overwhelmingly supported through the first few years.
Experience from Tim Horton, Dick Duff, Eddie Shack, Floyd Smith and Roger Crozier provided gravitas. Other young stars such as Craig Ramsay and Jim Schoenfeld emerged. Gilbert Perreault centered Rick Martin and Rene Robert. You’ll notice no players from the 1970s, a honeymoon phase that prevented anyone from being truly polarizing.īuffalo was delighted merely to have a franchise when it launched in 1970-71. No blame or forgiveness was applied for what he did elsewhere or through retrospection years into retirement. The list is “of the moment,” meaning consideration was given only to how that player was viewed while he was with the Sabres. With the Sabres finally on the upswing and seemingly on the verge of ending their NHL-worst playoff famine, witnessing the inevitable scene likely won’t be as difficult as Ryan O’Reilly earning the Conn Smythe Trophy a year after he claimed Buffalo ruined his love of the game and got traded.īut with Eichel in the spotlight as a top playoff MVP candidate himself, let’s see where Captain Jack rates among the most polarizing names in Sabres history, the players who generated the spiciest love-hate debates.
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