Thursday's contest against the Arizona Coyotes barely felt like a home game for the Buffalo Sabres.
Sabres fans were actively cheering against their last-place team in a meeting against the franchise in second-last. They booed when Buffalo earned a point by going to overtime and cheered when the Coyotes scored the winning goal - much to the chagrin of defenseman Mike Weber.
"It's tough to get momentum when your fans are rooting against you," Weber told reporters after the game. "That's the unfortunate part. I've never seen that before."
Here's more from Weber:
This is extremely frustrating for us. We don't want to be (in last place). We understand where we are. We understand what this team is doing, what the organization is doing, the place we've put ourselves in. I've never been a part of something like that where the away team comes into a home building and they're cheering for them.
I respect our fans. I love our fans. I show up to work every day to do whatever I can for them and to play hard for them and my teammates.
This is two years in a row now. Physically, mentally, this stinks. To compound things, you have your home fans cheering against you. ... This is a whole new low right now.
Sabres head coach Ted Nolan said:
I'm never going to complain about the fans in this city. We get 19,000 on a regular basis. I didn't hear what happened at the end. I was just focused on the game. You have to be a little bit disappointed as a player. They come here, perform and work. I can see sometimes you get booed when you don't give an effort. Tonight wasn't one of those nights.
It's worth remembering that Buffalo's fans aren't necessarily cheering for their team to lose as much as rooting for the best chance to secure the top draft pick, which carries with it a generational prize by the name of Connor McDavid. That's cold comfort for the players wearing Sabres jerseys, though.
The Coyotes and Sabres face each other again Monday in Arizona.
