Buffalo Sabres Ranked Most Polite Fan Base: Are You Kidding?

Hockey fans in Buffalo are among the most knowledgeable and passionate in the NHL, which is reflected by local television ratings for the Stanley Cup playoffs being near the highest of all NHL markets.

That fact is quite remarkable when considering that the Sabres have not made the playoffs since 2011. Buffalo’s 14-year streak of ineptitude has contributed to a growing sense of frustration and apathy at times, but those emotions have been misread by the Canada Sports Betting website, which used fans' Reddit comments and stadium review data as a methodology for calculating politeness. The website rated Sabres fans as the most polite in the NHL.

That said, there's more to a fan base than what it says online. Anyone who has heard what has been chanted at KeyBank Center since the club’s 13-game winless skid in November and December could not interpret that as politeness.

Since the losing streak, chants to fire GM Kevyn Adams or for the owner to sell the team have been quite audible, and booing the team’s performance at the end of periods has been a regular occurrence. Some fans have even brought in inflatable palm trees after Adams said that getting players to come to Buffalo was not easy because of the less-than-tropical conditions and high taxes in New York.

Sabres fans are not rude, but friendly even when fans of rival clubs like Toronto or Montreal come to town. Lately, the practice of Sabres season ticket holders has been to sell their tickets to rivalry games to opposing fans to recoup some of the cost of their tickets or to avoid having to deal with throngs of Leafs or Canadiens fans invading their building. But to rank them as the most polite fan base is pretty off-target.

Buffalo is nearing the end of a four-game Western road swing and finds themselves in the familiar spot of last place in the Eastern Conference, 14 points behind Tampa Bay and Columbus for the two wild-card spots. The Sabres appear to be on the same path as they've been in recent seasons, looking for reasons why they cannot make the postseason, and likely selling off players with expiring contracts before the March 7 trade deadline.

Related: As Cozens' Pedestrian Play With The Buffalo Sabres Continues, Kulich Seizes His Moment

Maybe a fan base whose team has not made the playoffs in 14 years should be given credit for being as polite as they are, but they should be ranked as the most annoyed or frustrated fans in the league.

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