Montreal may be the last Canadian team standing in the second round of the NHL playoffs, but for many hockey fans in St. Catharines, Ont., the Buffalo Sabres are the local heroes.
At Kully’s Original Sports Bar in downtown St. Catharines, fans wearing dark blue Sabres caps outnumbered those cheering on the Montreal Canadiens as the playoff rivals faced off in Game 1 of the second-round series on Wednesday night.
Bar owner Adrian Kulakowsky said it’s a normal sight in this border region, where many Canadian fans see themselves represented in an American team.
“It’s part of the culture here in Niagara — a lot of family and friends on both sides of the border,” he said amid a backdrop of loud chatter and intermittent cheers.
As the Sabres took an early lead in the first period, half of the tables in the packed bar leapt to their feet and glum Habs fans sipped their beers. The cheers carried on as the Sabres defeated the Habs 4-2.
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Mal Romanin said Kully’s bar has become the place for Sabres fans to congregate, and he came half an hour early on Wednesday to secure a seat.
“I grew up in Thorold and it’s our hometown team,” he said of the community near St. Catharines.
Romanin, a former communications director for the Toronto Blue Jays, said that for decades his family had Buffalo Sabres season tickets. “It’s kind of a local team — it was easy to access from this area of Niagara Region.”
Cheering for the Sabres in these playoffs is not un-Canadian, he said.
“I don’t think hockey, in the NHL level, is about being nationalistic. It’s about your local team and the team that you root for.”
At another table, Carol Taylor, her daughter Shelley Brevitt and granddaughter Kailey Brevitt said they’re lifelong Sabres fans who frequently attend games in Buffalo.
Shelley Brevitt recalled lining up for Sabres tickets with her mom as far back as the early 1980s.
“You have three generations here of Buffalo Sabres fans that are proud Canadians,” she said. “Yes we have [the Toronto Maple Leafs], but for us it was always more convenient to go to Buffalo.”
In an interview before Game 1, the bar owner said it’s been “a party atmosphere” when fans come in to watch the playoffs. It’s the first time the Sabres have made the playoffs in more than a decade, Kulakowsky said, and the city is feeling it.
“There’s a huge fan base here,” Kulakowsky said.
“Obviously given that drought, there’s been a lot of pent-up excitement from a lot of local fans here.”
Kevin Townsend, a city councillor, said there’s a long history of Niagara Region fans cheering for Buffalo. The Sabres used to have their training camp in St. Catharines, he said, and the team had significant playoff runs over the past few decades that created fans for life.
“If you go watch any of the games at any of the local restaurants, you’ll notice that there are a lot of fans currently wearing Sabre jerseys,” he said.
Even with tensions between the United States and Canada amid a trade war, Townsend said there’s a “lifelong friendship” between Upstate New Yorkers and Niagara Region residents.
“Politics should never get in the way of that friendship. Friendships should last for life,” he said.
Townsend pointed to last week’s game between the Sabres and the Boston Bruins, which saw the crowd continue to sing O Canada after a microphone failed.
“It just kind of goes to show that level of respect that the people of Upstate New York have for Canadians, but also Canadians go down there and support the city of Buffalo,” he said.
That camaraderie was also reflected in the Niagara Falls on both sides of the border, with Niagara Parks sharing photos this week of the Horseshoe Falls illuminated in red, white and blue for the Habs, and the American side of the falls lit up in blue and gold for the Sabres.
