Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) - After 51 years in the broadcast booth calling play-by-play action for the Buffalo Sabres - and only the Sabres - Rick Jeanneret is set to retire at the end of the 2021-22 season.
But before Jeanneret calls his last game on Friday, April 29 when the Sabres host the Chicago Blackhawks, the team is set to honor the Hall of Fame broadcaster with a banner-raising in his name on Friday night at KeyBank Center.
"Pretty heady company is what I'm thinking about right off the bat," said Jeanneret when asked about joining the ranks of Gilbert Perreault, Pat LaFontaine and others in the rafters. "I hope that wherever they put me, the players on either side of me might move over a little bit, because I am a little rounder around the belly than I used to be, and certainly than any of the players are. But it's a wonderful honor, and it's something that not only what I will treasure, but also my kids and grandkids, they certainly will too."
LISTEN LIVE TO WGR:
The 79-year-old has already been honored in many ways throughout his storied career. This includes an induction into the Sabres Hall of Fame in 2011, as well as an induction into both the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame and Buffalo Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2012.
Also in November of 2012, Jeanneret received the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award, recognizing "distinguished members of the radio and television industry who made outstanding contributions to their profession and the game during their career in hockey broadcasting." This also meant an induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
While a banner in the rafters of KeyBank Center may not seem as high of an honor as being a Hall of Fame broadcaster, Jeanneret puts Friday's honor right up there.
"It would be in that in that category. Although this one is a little more personal, because it's a little more local," Jeanneret said. "The Hockey Hall of Fame, of course, is worldwide known, so it's not just that even though it's in Toronto, but I think this one is just a little more personal when it's right in Buffalo."
Jeanneret has been calling games for the Sabres since the 1971-72 season, starting out as the radio voice of the team. He eventually made the transition over to calling games on television when the team started simulcasting its games on both TV and radio.
He is currently the longest-tenured play-by-play broadcaster with one single team in the league.
Related
Over the years, many people across the hockey world have been able to directly link the Sabres to Jeanneret. Whenever anyone is reminded of the Sabres, it's hard not to hear someone calling out one of Jeanneret's patented calls. There's "Top shelf where momma hides the cookies!" or "Lalalalalalalalala LaFontaine!", just to name a few of his calls that are synonymous with the history of the Sabres.
"[That's] because they grew up with me, really," Jeanneret said. "Any time they listened to the Buffalo Sabres or something - half a century - you've got a couple of generations in there, and that's not surprising whatsoever that my name would be associated with the team in that regard. I didn't plan it that way. It's just natural, and I'm not surprised at all by it."
Fans had some fun over the last several weeks, getting the chance to cast their votes for the best play-by-play call of Jeanneret's career with the Sabres. Before the winner of the fan vote was announced on Friday, it came down to two historic calls:
1.) "May Day!" in the 1993 Adams Division Semifinal Round against the Boston Bruins
2.) "Scary good!" in the 2006 Eastern Conference Semifinal Round against the Ottawa Senators
But does Jeanneret have a specific call in his mind that sticks out, or gives him the "goosebumps" whenever he hears the call back?
"They were all part of my career, part of my hockey history, and I don't really put one above the other," Jeanneret said.
Over the course of his 51 years with the team, Jeanneret has often times been regarded as the "Voice of the Sabres." However, he says that honor belongs to the man who was the first play-by-play man in Buffalo.
"The 'Voice of the Sabres' was Ted Darling, and as far as I'm concerned, that moniker went to the grave with him when Ted passed away [in 1996]," Jeanneret said humbly. "I'm the Sabres' announcer, and I'm quite comfortable with that. Ted deserved it. He was the first one, and should be the only one."
With Jeanneret calling thousands and thousands of Sabres games over the course of the team's history in Buffalo, a number of great players have gotten the chance to don the Blue and Gold. This includes a number of Hall of Fame players like Perreault, LaFontaine, Dave Andreychuk, and Phil Housley, as well as franchise legends such as Rick Martin, Rene Robert, Danny Gare, Ryan Miller, Jason Pominville and more.
While Jeanneret says it's been an honor to have called games for all of those players, one player, in particular, stood out above the rest of the crowd, in terms of the best player he's seen wear a Sabres jersey.
"I think I would have to say Dominik Hasek," he said. "As I've said before, and I will continue to save say until I'm gone, while he was in a Buffalo uniform, he was the best goaltender I ever saw play this game. I'm going back a long way ago that were some great goaltenders that I've seen, but Dominik Hasek - despite the fact he was erratic, despite the fact he was different, despite all of that - just trying to score on him, he was almost impossible to beat. ... He was really different in his style, but boy, was he ever effective."
Hasek was part of a Sabres team in the 1998-99 season that managed to find their way to the Stanley Cup Final, where they ended up losing to the Dallas Stars in six games. Only one other team in franchise history managed to play their way to a Stanley Cup Final appearance in the 1974-75 campaign, where "The French Connection" came up just short in a battle with the "Broadstreet Bullies" that were the Philadelphia Flyers.
However, neither of those team tops Jeanneret's list as the best group of players he's seen ever assembled in a season. That honor belongs to the 2005-06 Sabres team that overcame massive preseason odds to come one game short of punching their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final.
"They certainly stood out because of the fact that when they got into the [Eastern Conference] Final against Carolina [Hurricanes], they had no defenseman left. They were all gone, they were all hurt, they were all injured. Jay McKee was the last one to go down, and that was it, right there," Jeanneret said. "The fact that they extended the series as long as they did I thought was absolutely amazing. I would say that was probably the biggest team, or individual effort in the 51 years."
For all the great years of Sabres hockey in Buffalo, the past 11 seasons have been anything but. The team is on the verge of setting a new National Hockey League record this season for the longest playoff drought, having not made the playoffs since the 2010-11 season. Sadly, the Sabres have not come close to sniffing a postseason berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since the 2011-12 season.
Through all the losing, through all the ups-and-downs, and through other issues not relating to the game of hockey, Jeanneret managed to find his way back to the press box every single season, continuing to live out a dream that only a select few people ever get a chance to live out in sports.
"It's disappointing, because they have not been playoff years, but it doesn't mean that there aren't some pretty good nights and some very exciting nights," he said. "I still love the game. It's just that when you're not doing as well as you should be doing, sometimes you find it to be a bit of a downer, but I try hard not to let that affect my perception or my broadcast of the game."
Related
As Jeanneret's final season as the play-by-play man for the Sabres nears its end, the memories and stories will continue ahead of the final horn sounding on April 29. When all is said and done for Jeanneret's career, at that point, he hopes that people will continue to look fondly of him and what he's brought to the Buffalo hockey community for more than half-a-century.
"I'd like to think that I've already established my legacy, and I don't know that I could add anything to it at this point in time. I'm very happy with my career," Jeanneret said. "I didn't cheat. I think everybody got all they could out of me, and I got all I could out of every one of the teams that I broadcasted. I honestly don't think that I'm going to worry about it too much, about what people think of me, because I think it will be positive."
You can hear more of our conversation with Jeanneret below: