USA Hockey Magazine

Alex Tuch is enjoying his homecoming as he looks to help the Buffalo Sabres snap an 11-year playoff drought. ALK HOCKEY IN WESTERN NEW YORK and it doesn't take long for the topic to turn to those high-octane Buffalo Sabres teams of the early 2000s—you remember, the ones led by Daniel Briere, Chris Drury, Ryan Miller and a slew of talented youngsters. Bring up the conversation and Alex Tuch starts rattling off his most vivid memories of that golden era. Tuch remembers just about everything—the rol- licking post-lockout playoff runs to the Eastern Conference final in 2006 and 2007, the Presidents' Trophy they earned as the NHL's best regular-season team in 2006-07 and the nifty spin-o-ramas by Maxim Afinogenov and Brian Campbell. "Just those memories of sitting on the couch and watching the game so intently and picturing myself out there is like nothing else," says the affable Tuch, a winger who joined the Sabres early in the 2021-22 season. "Every kid has their favorite team growing up and their favorite players, and mine was the Sabres." Growing up in Baldwinsville, a suburb of Syracuse about two and half hours from Buffalo, the Sabres enchanted Tuch. Besides being a pretty darn good team, they sported those sharp black and red "goat head" uniforms that the Sabres, much to Tuch's liking, have brought back as a third jersey this season. They had Rick Jeanneret, the leg- endary play-by-play man whose memorable calls illuminated their success. They also had a 6-foot-1 center who possessed soft hands and dynamic playmaking skills. His name? Tim Connolly, who happened to grow up next door to the Tuch family in Baldwinsville. "He loved Tim Connolly, that was his favorite player, and it was his moti- vation," recalls Carl Tuch, Alex's father. Tuch never had much interaction with Connolly, who's 15 years older and left town to play junior hockey in the late 1990s. Connolly did, however, once stop and play street hockey with the neighborhood kids during a visit. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM // 25 EVERY KID has their favorite team growing up, and mine was the Sabres." T PHOTOS BY Getty Images

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