Maybe I watch too much sports on television. Maybe I don’t. I guess it depends on who you ask.

If you ask my wife, she will probably say that I should cut back a bit, and she would like to watch something else from time to time.

If you ask someone else, they might say, there’s nothing wrong with the amount of sports I watch.

For now, I’m going with that.

This is an amazing time of year for sports fans. Think about it. The NBA and NHL playoffs are in full swing and Major League Baseball is one month into the season.

Frankly, I’m so involved with watching basketball and hockey right now, I haven’t watched hardly any baseball, yet.

My two favorite NBA teams are in the playoffs, so of course I have big interest in watching the games. “My” Phoenix Suns are taking on the defending champs, Oklahoma City Thunder, and “my” Boston Celtics are about to eliminate the Philadelphia 76ers. It doesn’t look like Phoenix will get past Oklahoma City, however.

In the NHL, my favorite team is the Buffalo Sabres and it is the first time in 15 years that the team has been in the playoffs. Fourteen seasons without appearing in the playoffs is a long time to wait for any fans, but Buffalo fans certainly deserve better.

This season, Sabres fans not only have been rewarded with better, but also an amazing turnaround. In December, the Sabres were fighting to stay out of last place in the Eastern Conference. They somehow straightened things out and went on a couple of long winning streaks to finish the regular season in second place in the Eastern Conference. Now that was fun to watch. Buffalo has had a relatively easy time with the Boston Bruins, and as of this writing, the Sabres lead the series 3-1. If they advance, Buffalo will face the winner of the Montreal – Tampa Bay series.

However, in the back of my mind, I can’t help but think about all the many times the Buffalo Bills have disappointed those of us faithful fans over the past two decades. I don’t know if we can take a collapse by the Sabres in the playoffs.

What might be worse, is if Buffalo makes it to the Stanley Cup Finals and loses again.

I remember the team’s previous Stanley Cup losses. The first one was in 1975 at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers were knowns as the “Broadstreet Bullies” and they were hated by everyone around the NHL except for their own fans.

Then the Sabres lost to the Dallas Stars in the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals. That one was particularly difficult to swallow and still makes Sabres fans sick to think about it. It was game six of the series and Dallas led three games to two. The game was tied and in the third overtime period.

The game winning goal for the Stars (2-1) was scored by Brett Hull whose skate was in the crease before the puck. The goal should not have been allowed, the Sabres protested, but the officials didn’t even review the video and just skated off the ice.

The thing that still irritates me to this day is that video review was used extensively throughout that season, almost to the point of overuse, but for the biggest and most controversial goal of the season, they didn’t even bother to look at the video.

Later, newspapers across the U.S. and Canada printed photos from an overhead camera that clearly showed Hull’s skate in the crease before he shot the puck. The headline read, “No Goal!” and that has stuck with Sabres fans to this day.

I still get upset just thinking about it. Let’s hope this season puts an end to that angst and the Sabres finally get to hoist the cup.

TULSA BEACON RADIO

Tune in to “Tulsa Beacon Weekend” radio show every week, featuring interviews with local and national guests, talking about everything from politics to family issues. This week, my guests will be Abigail Raiford, a local opera singer selected for the Merola Opera Program, and Chris Kaiser, Northern Oklahoma Director for Fellowship of Christian Athletes. The show airs on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. CST on 970am KCFO.