One More For The Road

A bit out of sequence, but this one was the Patriots - Bills pregame column:

The Buffalo-Boston sports history is glittered with, well, not much

Buffalo-Boston. Sports History for $200.

What have we got?

How about the beloved C. Montgomery Burns/Jeremy Jacobs owning the Bruins and running Boston’s vaunted hockey franchise from Buffalo since 1975?

How about scoring-machine Bob McAdoo and NBA rookie of the year Ernie DiGregorio leading the Buffalo Braves against the John Havlicek-Dave Cowens-Jo Jo White Celtics in the first round of the 1974 playoffs? It took the Celtics six games to beat the Braves. Tommy Heinsohn’s championship-bound Celts had to go through Buffalo again in 1976. Two years later, there was a complicated NBA ownership/franchise swap where the Celtics stayed put and the Buffalo Braves moved to San Diego.

How about when the Buffalo Sabres and the French Connection line played vs. Bobby Orr and the Big Bad Bruins in the early 1970s? Anybody remember the Terry O’Reilly-coached Bruins beating Buffalo in a six-game set en route to the Stanley Cup Finals in the spring of 1988?