Buffalo Wins it's First Stanley Cup!
2024-08-03The Buffalo Sabres are Stanley Cup Champions!
It’s been a long time coming for the Sabres organization. After taking over as Buffalo’s GM in the summer of 2016, Roberto knew it was going to be a long road ahead. It was a very lengthy rebuild, one that took a lot of patience and definitely tested the loyalty of some fans and even had people questioning whether or not it would work out and pay off. The rebuild lasted a good 4-5 years, when the Sabres finally made the playoffs in 2020-2021, but they were quickly bounced in round 1. The following year the Sabres showed what the process was all about, finishing top of the Atlantic and 4th in the EHE. They went on to the Stanley Cup Finals and lost in 6 games to the Presidents’ Trophy winning Arizona Coyotes. “Getting that close and coming up just short was painful. I don’t think I was able to sleep, and I was very irritable for a couple of weeks after that. I knew what we had, I knew we were good enough but we just couldn’t get the job done.”
Fast forward to 2023-2024. There was something different this year. The Sabres had a fantastic regular season, once again led by superstar Auston Matthews who helped them secure a Presidents Trophy title, the first in franchise history. “I saw the way these guys were playing and I just felt like this could be our year. I don’t typically make a lot of moves, but this year just felt like I needed to do something to solidify the roster and really give the guys in the room an extra push for the final stretch”. The Sabres did just that, bringing in Justin Holl and Jakob Chychrun. Holl was leaned on during the playoffs to step up and had a stretch where he played on the top pair with Miro Heiskanen and showed his defensive ability. Chychrun really helped the Sabres move the puck from the back end and chipped in on the powerplay with his vision and good skating ability.
Now came the playoffs. The Sabres got the New Jersey Devils in Round 1. “This was the one matchup I did not want, especially in Round 1. Ryan’s Devils had it out for us all year, we only beat them once and it was a close one. My reward for finishing at the top of the league was playing a fantastic team, which I was very stressed about”. The Sabres went on to take a very convincing 3-1 series lead, only to have the Devils win 2 straight and force a Game 7. In Game 7, the mighty Sabres came out on top, shutting everything down and showing why their offense was one of the best in the league.
Round 2: Toronto. “Another good team who somewhat struggled in the back half of the season, but they have so much talent. How are you going to discredit a guy like Barkov? However, I will say this: we had a lot of success against Toronto this year and I felt much more comfortable against them than I did against New Jersey. This doesn’t mean I thought it would be easier, I just felt the matchup was slightly more favourable”. That was something that looked to be true after the Sabres went up 3-0. Undefeated against Toronto all year and the first 3 playoff games, it looked like there was an easy ticket punched to the Lemieux Conference Finals. Unfortunately the next 3 games were brutal, Toronto crawled back to force another Game 7. “While this was happening I was watching Seattle do the same thing against Minnesota. I even tuned in to their Game 7 match and saw Seattle complete the comeback. I said here it is, I will suffer the same fate”. Luckily for Roberto that was not the case. Once again the Sabres came out on top with a spectacular performance, moving on to the Lemieux Conference Finals.
Now they were faced with the EHE’s commissioner, Mr. Kevin Lacy himself. Carolina had just gone through the Penguins and the Rangers, two of the league’s best and the Sabres didn’t know what to think. Carolina may not have seemed strong to some, but they finished 8th in the league. This is the problem when you’re stuck in the Metropolitan Division. The Sabres lost game 1, well more like Logan Thompson won Game 1. A masterclass performance stopped the Sabres in their tracks and they seemed flustered at first, but came out firing the rest of the series. It was a tight one, but the Sabres managed to come out on top after 6 games, getting themselves back to the Stanley Cup Finals after 2 years where they would face off with the Cinderella run Seattle Kraken.
Seattle finished 2nd in the Pacific Division and had an incredible journey to get to the finals. “I’ll be honest, I was not sure how my team would handle a team like Seattle. They have one of the most defensive rosters in the league, and playing through something like that is extremely difficult. When everyone on the ice is just as good in their own end as they are in the offensive end, that takes some adjustments”. The games were close, as 4 of the 5 games were decided by 1 goal. After a comfortable 3-0 lead, the Kraken won game 4 and brought the series back to Buffalo, where a shootout would occur and the Sabres would find a way to win a thriller 6-5 in front of their home crowd.
“It took a hell of a long time to get here. 8 years of being at the helm of this team and we finally have something to show for it. There have been a lot of times over my tenure that I was doubted, or told what I was doing was not going to work and this is not how you build championship teams. Well, I knew what the plan was, I knew what sort of team we had and I knew what they were capable of when everything came together. Now the city of Buffalo and the fans have something to celebrate, we’re STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!”
The playoff run was lead by (probable) Conn Smythe Trophy winner Pavel Buchnevich having a historical post season. Record breaking statistics of 19 goals in a single post season, 36 points (2nd only to Sean Couturier’s 42 in 2020-21), 2 Shorthanded Goals, 5 Game-Winning Goals and 134 shots, he willed this team on his own sometimes. “A lot of us thought this team will live and die in Auston’s hands, but Pavel really stepped up when Auston was struggling in the first couple of rounds. This is what I love about this team, everyone brings it every night, and we had a ton of performers that may seem unlikely. On top of all of this I would also like to highlight the fantastic play if Linus Ullmark. This guy was a rock for us, and while he will not have any hardware to show for it, he’s one of the main reasons why this group is getting their name on the Cup”.
A fantastic 10th season for the Elite Hockey Experience was ended with the Buffalo Sabres being crowned Stanley Cup Champions. This was one hell of a year, and after all this time I was able to accomplish what I set out to do many years ago. Best of luck to the two teams still involved in the AHL Calder Cup Finals, thank you to all of those who have congratulated me, thank you to all the GMs who have made this league one of the best for the past 10 years, and thank you to Kevin for making this a league that everyone wants to be a part of. I can’t wait for many more years!
*Thank you to Kyle and Doug for allowing me to use their images in this article*
Congratulations Roberto!!
Buffalo Wins it's First Stanley Cup!
Trust The Process
Congrats Roberto. Well deserved.
Buffalo Wins it's First Stanley Cup!
Trust The Process
Sabres fans know him as Roberto "Money" Martucci or "GMRM".. I can remember the days Roberto took some heat for being in a rebuild but he stuck with it and built a powerhouse for years to come. Cheers man, well deserved!
Buffalo Wins it's First Stanley Cup!
Trust The Process
Congrats! You’ve built one hell of a team!
Buffalo Wins it's First Stanley Cup!
Trust The Process
Congrats Roberto
Buffalo Wins it's First Stanley Cup!
Trust The Process