I had a chance to visit the exhibit entitled Forty: The Sabres in the NHL over this weekend at the Albright Knox Art Gallery. All I can say is that I wish I would’ve went sooner; because then I would’ve gone again. Whether you are an old Sabres fan (hand held up here), or a relatively young one, this was a must see in my opinion. I’m actually shocked it didn’t receive more publicity, especially with the World Junior Tournament in town toward the later end of it.
The Albright Knox Art Gallery gets a tip of the hat from me as do Ron Moscati, Robert Shaver, and Bill Wippert. These were the fellas who took the pics. I’d love to see their work that didn’t make it to the exhibit. My suggestion to these guys – give us a book with pictures (you’ll make a lot of money). Please. And thank you.
I was able to snap off about fifty pictures or so, and I’ll post many of them after the jump along with some comments of my own. Let me say this before we take that plunge – I’m as good of a photographer as I am a writer. So I’ll apologize in advance for my lousy work. Even miracle cameras can’t help me.
I’d say this photo about sums up everything we’d see from Hasek on the ice. Sprawling, unorthodox, brilliant, and effective.
Hasek or this guy? You make the call on the greatest Sabre ever.
Not sure, but I think the next picture has Bill Hajt in it, one of my Father’s favorite players. Were either of these guys wearing shoulder pads at all? Also learned that the New Jersey Devils came from the Kansas City Scouts. Doubt this guy would put up with any Kovalchuk garbage.
I don’t know who this next guy was (you’ll see this as a recurring theme here – there were no descriptions of any of the pictures, and many left me scratching my head). But, I thought it was cool to see a California Golden Seal jersey in the background.
I don’t care who this is. That’s a scary looking goalie.
I’m assuming this here is of the inaugural face-off? Pretty weak looking crowd.
Look how small this joint looks. No wonder it was so much louder than the new gigs. I miss that place.
An old guy next to me said this picture was of the entrance, where you bought tickets. He said it reminded him of a train station; I won’t disagree.
My favorite number of all time, and I never got to see him play.
Speaking of giant defensemen…
A young and old Lindy.
Always thought this guy was underrated. He had good size for his time too. Any guess’s what game this is from? To me it looks like an OT win on the road.
More celebrating..
What were these two guys looking at that made them so wide eyed? And that’s a young Bobby Orr in the background, right?
Wouldn’t it be cool if Marcus had a career here like this guy did?
These guys were pretty good..
These guys were pretty good too.
Have absolutely no idea who this guy is, but I want him on my side.
Maybe my favorite pick of the bunch.
Who is this guy, and what is that trophy? I’m stumped, and too lazy to research it. Notice the old can of Pepsi Cola in the background. Also, it’s lousy because you can’t really see it (my bad), but there is a pair of shoes with about a two inch heel or so toward the bottom right. And, it looks like this guy is holding a pack of matches in his hand for a post game smoke. Times’ are a changing…
Voices of the team.
Russians. The 12-6 game was huge.
I love these next two pictures.
Knox family.
Fights
Misc
Attending the Forty: The Sabres in the NHL exhibit at the Albright Knox Art Gallery was easily worth the fifteen bucks it cost to attend. There were about 200 pictures, 4 video stations (the fighting and scoring ones were the most popular), and something called the NHL in 360, which sort of reminded me of that panoramic ‘ride’ near the Viper at Darien Lake.
Again, tip of the hat to all involved with this; especially the photographers. Nice work…thank you.