Ahhhh... It feels good to be back in the mix again. After the chaos that was finals week, my two week hiatus in Europe and recovering from the subsequent mild touch of the Black Plague I am pleased to announce that my summer season of writing has started.

Luckily not much has happened since I left off in early April. Well, just the NFL Draft, the Detroit Tigers explosion onto the nation scene and the best NBA Playoffs in many, many years.

Even the Buffalo Sabres are alive kicking (unlike most fans of the NHL) and geared to make a push for the Stanley Cup. I hope they can pull it off, for a couple of reasons actually. First off, I can honestly say that I have never, ever, in my entire life watched a regular season NHL hockey game for longer than 10 minutes (except for the ONE that I attended downtown at the Joe when I was 12). When this years NHL playoffs started I told my roomates that Buffalo would take home the cup. If it holds true, one could argue that I know more about hockey than all the idiots in Detroit that thought the Wings even had a chance to win it this year (I also guaranteed on several occasions that the Red Wings would not make it past round 2).

Reason number two that Buffalo needs to win the Stanley Cup...the city of Buffalo neeeeeeeeeds this. I honestly have no idea why a bigger deal hasn't been made out of this...oh wait yea I do...its fricken hockey. Anyways that doesn't change the point, the city neeeeeeeeds them to win. Allow me to explain.

So many fans around the country complain and gripe about the misfortune and heartbreak that their local teams put them through. The Red Sox curse, the Cubs never ever winning, the city of Philadelphia being title deprived, the Colts blowing it every single year, the Atlanta Braves inability to win the World Series. The fact is that it gets over done, and even more annoying, done incorrectly.

I could honestly care less that the Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1613 or whenever it was, screw the Cubs, you know why...because any sports fan in the city of Chicago has gotten the privilege to watch Michael Jordan and his 1,281,239 titles during the 90's. I can understand if you are from, or live in Chicago and are a huge Cubs fan, but no one outside of Chicago should care. I can't even begin to explain how amazingly entertaining it was for me to watch a guy decked out in Cubs gear, listening to the game on the radio, reach over the wall and knock the ball away from Moises Alou. I half expected him to rip his Cubs gear off to reveal his Florida Marlins apparel and start waving his finger at Alou Dikembe Mutombo style. Of coarse the Cubs imploded and the Marlins went on to win the World Series.

Boston's had the Patriots, the Indianapolis has had decades of (in my mind) the best basketball coach ever in Bobby Knight, Philly had the Phillies a few years back with the powder blue uniforms (and any city that takes on Terrel Owens deserves what they get). The Braves have won their division for 14 straight years...let me put that in perspective. The last time the Braves missed the playoffs, I was seven.

Buffalo, my friends, neeeeeeeds this, they are the most tortured sports city without a doubt. The worst part, they don't even have an outlet.

The Buffalo Bills won the AFC championship four straight years from 89-93 and lost FOUR STRAIGHT SUPERBOWLS. They didn't just lose either, Buffalo was down 20-19 with 4 seconds left and they were a 37 yard field goal away from winning in 89, but Scott Norwood pushed the kick wide right. Worst part, the kick looked perfect for about 35 yards and just flew wide at the last second. If any other city would have lost four straight Superbowls in that fashion there would have been riots and possibly domestically planned nuclear attacks on team facilities.

The University of Buffalo Bulls football team has not been ranked in the top 100 in years (there are only 116 teams) and the basketball team lost its NCAA tournament bid on a crushing OT loss to Miami Ohio in last year's MAC tourny.

In the 1970's the Buffalo Braves (currently the Los Angeles Clippers) had great teams led by scoring machine Bob McAdoo but could never get past the Celtics (who dominated the era).

But that's not it, fast forward to 1999. Stanley Cup finals, Game 6, Buffalo Sabres vs. the Dallas Stars, Dallas leading the series 3-2. It was a 1-1 game at the end of regulation. As the game entered the third overtime it had become apparent that the Stars were not going to score another goal on Domanik Hasek, the Sabres goalie was on fire. Buffalo had taken control of the period when Brett Hull (22) of the Stars tipped in a shot with his entire skate, and leg for that matter, in the goalie's crease (this was illegal until the 2006 season's rule changes). He has so far in that his skate was actually touching Hasek's stick, shielding it from the puck. The play was never reviewed (even though it was an option) and the goal was upheld making the Stars Stanley Cup champs. This, in my mind, was the worst call in the history of sports.

(Even worse than Don Denkinger calling Jorge Orta safe at first in the 1985 world series, because the call against the Sabres ended the game. The Cardinals still has the chance to shut the Royals down after the call...the Sabres didn't)

Joe Juneau said it best, "Everybody is going to remember this as the Stanley Cup that was never won, it was given away. The goal was not a legal goal. It's cheating, you know? It's not a loss. The game is not over, it's just not. They just decided to end it."

The game is not over Joe, it lives in infamy.

I was lucky enough to attend a Bills game at Ralph Wilson Stadium last year, and I came away very impressed with the huge fan support. This town loves its teams, it needs its teams and it has never ever seen any of its teams succeed.

If this were any other professional sports city, a huge deal would be made out of the entire story.

But it's not a huge market...its Buffalo, New York. A city that neeeeeeds its Sabres.

(This will probably be the most I ever mention hockey in an article again)