The Buffalo Sabres Are A Meme Factory | SDP

The Buffalo Sabres Are A Meme Factory | SDP

Devin Levi of the Buffalo Sabres who just signed today. 2-year contract, $812,500. The $500 was important. Um, and so that’s what I’m saying. I’m like, I’m surprised it’s that low cuz look at Devin Levi making $812,000. Now, by the way, a couple years ago, Devin Levi at that number would have been like, well, he’s not making that for very long. No, but it has not worked out. Yeah, but he’s with the Sabres. So, the Do the Sabres save money cuz they’re bad. Like, is Buffalo Sabers, have they found a Have they found a market inefficiency because they make all their good players or potentially good players look worse than they are? They can This is like a LinkedIn post. You know, you can save money at your company, have a bad company so you don’t have to pay employees that much. The biggest mistake they made, uh, you know why they had to pay Connor Timman so much? He hasn’t played a game as a Saber game yet. That’s true. But you know what? They they were. So, here’s what finishing last taught me about B2B sales, right? Oh, [ __ ] The Devon Levi thing, he is 23 years old. Give him time. Um, there was a lot of expectations on on this kid still when he was 21, 22, and we all were like, “Oh, my Deon Levi’s coming. He’s going to be a starter and blah blah blah. He’s going to take Buffalo to the next level. He’s still so young. There’s so much time for this pair to develop into a good NHLer.” They also for him to take less, they threw in a palm tree, which I thought was nice. If you are at like 50 career games played as a goalie by like 24, you’re like a phenom. It’s just it’s very rare. Now, I asked I’m sure Jesse saw it. I asked Steve not to look at this cuz the Sabres had a huge announcement yesterday. Did I can only imagine how earthshattering it was cuz I haven’t seen it. It it it was it it was something they’re like, “Listen, we’ve called a press conference. Oh [ __ ] There is [ __ ] happening tomorrow.” Now, uh I I have the video for Jesse. We are allowed to play the video because it’s a press conference, Steve. So, don’t worry about it. Uh, it’s fine. We don’t need to play it with sound. It doesn’t matter. But what I want to describe for you is how things are going in Buffalo because people are like, “Oh [ __ ] there’s a press conference.” And even the most cynical Sabres fans like, “I’ll bite. Maybe there’s something. It’s late July. What are we all doing?” Yeah, let’s let’s have some fun. Like, it it’s already Josh Allen season. Like I’m already seeing great videos of him signing autographs for kids who were crying that they missed out and whatever and like you know but the Sabres had news in in Bill’s season which is kind of crazy. Heavens to Betsy now. Uh can I look? You can look at the screen. Okay. And right what you see right now there’s Terry Pigula on the left hand side in the gray suit and then I believe that is the CEO of Key Bank. Uh and here’s uh here’s what here’s what happened. Uh you got to play it. their big announcement. Jesse, go ahead. Play it. All right. Okay. You got to describe it for I guess you could play it with sound if you wanted to. So they give them the key. So what is So they got a door behind them. What will the door What will the key open in the door? And that key is cartoonishly big. Wait. So it reminds me of the Kingdom Hearts key. So they’re going to put the key in the door. Got a key. And what are they going to open up? What What present are Sabres fans going to get? That’s right. We got Taylor Hall back. 10 years the naming rights have been extended to Key Bank Center. [Music] And then there’s a handshake. Yeah. Lucky you Sabres fans. Is it a top six forward? Is it a playoff birth? The fireworks at the top that are above everything and you can just see like the crappy concrete in the background. Oh, that’s okay. And you can see the exit sign. There’s a fire exit sign. Okay. There’s only one reason to do it like this, and that’s to make a big fuss for Key Bank, cuz they’re spending a lot of money with the Sabres, and that is a that is very good news for the Sabres. But the reason to do this is to make a big fuss for Key Bank and make them look good. How do you think that went? How How do you think that went? How do you think you got You got dunked on by the internet for your weird little door. It’s It’s okay. And fireworks. No, it’s not. It’s okay by corporate standards. Yeah, by corporate standards. The corporate standards, this is par for the course. Everything corporate is so awkward. Like this reminds me of everything ever done at Rogers. Like Oh, 100%. Jesse, this is this is every town hall meeting I’ve ever been in. I used to sit there and go, “Who is this exciting to?” Yeah. Everything corporate is, Adam, is those guys on stage. Those executives who think that me holding this big key and opening this door is the greatest thing ever. And look at me. Yes. Yeah. And I don’t want to go home to my wife. I don’t like her. This is I don’t want to go home to my wife. Exactly. That’s these guys. There’s none of that in hockey. Somebody in marketing’s like, “Hey, I have a really good idea. We’re going to do this thing.” And then he’s like, “No, I have my idea. I’m going to do this thing.” And it’s this idea. So, you know, they never then marketing people have better ideas than this and they never go through because the old fogies want to do this. You know how there’s we’re called keybank. Let’s get a key. Hey, can anyone tell me he’s just looking around the room what the first three letters of key bank are? K E Y. That’s promotion. Um, everyone else. Yeah, that now that old man that had keybank there on stage, he’s like, I want to hold a key and open it. Hold on to this for a second. What I think has missed, and I think some Sabres fans really picked this up, and I have to give them full marks for this, is we have right here in front of us potentially the greatest meme template of the upcoming season. Oh no. Oh my god, you’re so right. Because the key Oh, and then opening and then you could just superimpose anything behind those doors, especially if it pertains to the saber. It could be positive or negative. It could be anything. Like Connor Timonss looks like he’s going to win the Norris. You just open it and there’s Connor Timonss. Are you referencing the ones that have already been done where they open it and they’re sponsoring? Oh no. Have they Have they done that? Yeah. No late to the party. Oh, that’s amazing. Yeah. So fantastic. Now, the other great meme from this is Marty Baron was there and I’ve sent Jesse this photo. Um, and he uh has a Key Bank branded uh road helmet and he handed it off to somebody. So Jesse’s going to bring this picture up. What is a road helmet? Like a like a you know when you you wear your whites on the road? No. You Steve, what color do the Leafs wear on the road? Oh, you mean like road unifor? I was like like a bike helmet like your white. Got it. I understand. Oh, it doesn’t always have to be racist. Say whites. Most of the time. That’s not what I was. Most of the time it is. Most of the time it is. That’s true. But uh but in this case, hat refers to uh what you wear on the road in terms of your color comments. Got it. Right. So, Jesse, can you pull that picture up? One second. And he’s just taking him a second here because this one’s my favorite. This one I think uh this one’s the so so the keybank meme thing where you open the door like that requires a little bit of photoshopping skills. Okay. This one anytime the Savers do something hilarious. Yes. All you have to do is retweet that original tweet of them doing something hilarious and then post this picture. And that’s Terry Pagula wearing the the helmet. That’s that’s head of hockey obstacula. Excellent. Yeah. Uh, excellent. No notes. It’s nice of him to show up during Bill’s camp. Like, you’d think that he’d be busy, but he he managed to be there. Well, I mean, it’s Listen, this is good. This is good news. That was a joke for them. No, I know. I’m just I’m trying to be kind to the Saber. I listen. You know how when there’s like Coyotes news, like I would leave the room because it’s not news. I will admit when there’s Sabers news, I get a little excited now cuz they’re so memeable. They deliver. Everything they say is something that can be referenced later. Everything. Look at this. This is Okay, here we go. What do we got here, Jake? Here’s the palm tree right there. That’s so amazing. People are so funny, man. Yeah, honestly, if I own the Sabres, I would plant palm trees out front. I can’t wait for the trade deadline when they open those doors and it just says like conditional third round pick for like guys who they trade like Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that’s great. Uh, Steve tried a little and I will do the same. You must do right by your sponsors. Key Bank is giving them a lot of money. So for them to put on this big show on July 30th is fair for a corporation to do that. It’s it’s something to laugh at in the execution of it, but them doing this is like part for the course. They should do this. It’s not Mark Boretski, Eugene Melnik bad. No. Like that was that was bad. Uh this is just this is this is like we we run a company. We know how valuable your sponsors are. or if Key Bank’s willing to give you hundreds of millions of dollars and they want a little press conference where you open a door with a key like that’s fine. Yeah, that’s fine. I don’t even know if you make a suggestion as to what to do. I think they just tell you and you go sounds cool. Here’s the thing with this arena and Mike Harrington and Matthew Fairburn. So Mike Harrington, I forget what newspaper he writes for. Matthew Fairburn writes for The Athletic. both reference the fact that Key Bank is one of the and I hate to say this, Sabres fans, I’m not trying to be mean, like is a is not an arena that is up to modern standards. Well, it’s it’s kind of old, isn’t it? It is. I think I don’t even know what its original name was, but it has been around a while. Uh, and it’s not as though it’s easy getting like the Bills almost lost or sorry, Buffalo almost lost the Bills because they couldn’t build something after Ralph Wilson Stadium and the Pagoulas obviously changed that. And I wonder in this instance um if they’re going to do like major renovations kind of like what’s happening in Toronto right now with Scotia Bank Arena which as a part of that Scotia Bank naming package. There was agreed to renovations that were going to occur with that Scotia Bank money. And you can see that when you walk in there cuz there’s [ __ ] everywhere. Uh and and it’s you know I think they’re a couple years away from probably being finished. How very Toronto. Yeah. It’s always there’s always something under construction. I do uh I do think that obviously this probably helps them, but I wonder what those renovations are going to look like, especially after the amount of money the Bills just spent on their stadium. You know, I mean, listen, it’s very good news. I think it’s good news for everybody. Oh, it’s great news. The Sabres get what they want. We get content. Yeah. Hooray. Hooray. And by we, I don’t mean us. Like I mean the collective week. Well and fin and and with this money they can now sign Deon Levi which I think is nice. Hell yeah. Um it’s good that they got that done. What a weird like how do you even judge that contract? That’s purely guessing. Yeah. I think that hey if he wins 20 games that contract’s a steal. Oh my god. Mhm. Yeah. 800 grand. Are you kidding? That’s one of the best goalie value contracts in the league. Just win. If you can win 15 or 20 games with that, you’re laughing. So wait, I think I was distracted by the fact that something was coming. He signed a contract two years. Yeah. 82 8125 when? Today. Oh [ __ ] Yeah. Okay. Wow. So I thought you were saying, “Oh, this is what his current contract is.” And technically, yeah. I mean, that is what that is his current Wow. current as of a few hours ago. Very interesting, isn’t it? It is. It is. You would have thought. It’s funny like teams are making these bets, right, on goalies who have barely played. Um, and it there’s a really good chance it works out for a bunch of them. Yeah, there’s Levi. Uh, Yper Walstat in Minnesota got multi-million has barely played. Um, then Yaro Ascarov as well in San Jose. That’s right. I still had him in Nashville in my brain. Nope. Nope. They got guys. They they have guys. Uh, now the the Levi contract like it’s it’s a contract for your AHL goalie. Yeah. Yeah, he played nine games at the NHL level last year. So many for Rochester. It makes sense that it’s not over 900 grand. Who are their goalies again? I know they have Ukapan in. They got UPPL and they got uh Levi and the Miners and Alex Lion backing up UPPL. I almost wonder if they get like another like a vet guy. Is Alex Lion not old enough for you? No, no, no, no, no. like Lion. No, no. What I’m saying is those guys are the backups. That Stanley kept champion and Alex Lions. Inevitably, someone gets hurt and you have to call up uh freaking Levi. But what I’m saying is no. Have a third guy. I think if two if one of those goalies goes down, there’s an opportunity for Levi. I think that’s you’re right. Still the future. And I think there’s like, oh, he can back up. You know, there’s no pressure on him. You come in every couple games on the second half of back to back, you see what he’s got cuz you got to eventually see what Levi has, right? Every team uses three goalies. Yeah, I think that’d be a good opportunity for him. Yeah, pretty much. Um, by the way, Alex L, I’m wrong. Stanley Cup finalist did not win, right? Remember, he went into he was the Florida starting goalender. Then Proski took over it in the Boston series and then they went to three cups in a row. 32 years old. Um, not enough for Steve to be the vet. Um, the Key Bank Center. I know. We just went through that. How dare Key Bank uh center also the 19th oldest arena in the NHL. And that’s not even as bad as I thought. And they’re going to move down the list a little with like Calgary building it. And you do you even count Madison Square Garden who’s like the oldest? So, cuz they’ve had so many renovations. I want to know who are the latest renovations like the the ones that are going through significant changes cuz even Scotia Bank Arena, you’re like, “Yeah, it needs it. it it it’s not up to uh the standards of today and it was 26 years ago it was state-of-the-art 26 years ago it was amazing so the context of them being at 19 it’s one of the oldest arenas in the NHL how old how when was it 96 okay that’s crazy it’s right in line with like uh Bridgestone and the arena they have in St. Louis is like 94. Scotia Bank was 99, was it? Yeah, Scotia Bank’s 99. So, I mean, it’s not that different. SAP’s very old, but that’s like we’ve been there and you wouldn’t say that at all. No. You know, like that’s an older arena than Keybank, but it’s doesn’t the way it is. It doesn’t feel that way. SAP is kind of cool cuz it feels um feels like brutalist architecture from like the late 80s, early 90s, and yet it works. Like there’s something about it that you’re like, “Hey, this works.” Really? It’s a giant friaking shield. Yeah. Moment you walk in, it’s huge. And that like that entry area is huge. Um I don’t know. I uh I was really like sort of I’m like this arena you can tell is from a certain vintage and yet does not feel old.

Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde and Jesse Blake discuss the Buffalo Sabres having a press conference for their naming rights sponsorship and the memes that followed.

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