The fans have had their say on the top Sabres heading into the 40th anniversary season and their choice for No. 1 is ... No. 11.
Gilbert Perreault got the nod as the top Sabre in history, beating out Dominik Hasek and Pat LaFontaine in the fan poll conducted over a two-week period on Buffalonews.com.
Perreault finished with 8,333 votes while Hasek (8,232) edged out LaFontaine (8,227) by five votes to come in second. Hasek was the choice over Perreault by one vote in the 12-man panel of former and current staffers of The News that chose our all-time team.
Combining the totals of all 80 players on the ballot, more than 280,000 votes were cast by fans. And while there were some similarities to the voting of The News staff, there were also plenty of differences.
The coaching work of Lindy Ruff and the broadcasting work of Mike Robitaille clearly influenced the fan vote. Ruff, who finished 40th in The News poll, was rated 19th by the fans. Robitaille, rated on the outside of the top 40 by The News, was picked No. 35 by the fans.
The late Tim Horton, picked No. 39 by The News, finished 23rd among fans. Popular pugilist Rob Ray, now an almost equally popular broadcaster, shot from No. 30 to No. 16. Rene Robert, the right winger on the French Connection, was picked No. 4 by the fans and No. 11 by The News. Robert finished 38 votes ahead of linemate Rick Martin in the fan poll in the battle for fourth.
There were also plenty of similarities between the two tallies. Current Sabre Tyler Myers finished 38th in both votes. It's a tremendous affirmation of his spectacular rookie season that he could make an all-time team after playing just one year.
Outside the top three, players finishing within three places of themselves in both polls were: Jim Lorentz, Jay McKee, Larry Playfair, Brian Campbell, Thomas Vanek, Roger Crozier, Tom Barrasso, Pierre Turgeon, Dale Hawerchuk, Chris Drury, Daniel Briere, Phil Housley, Michael Peca, Jim Schoenfeld, Ryan Miller, Danny Gare and Rick Martin.
Marked down by the fans were Bill Hajt (19th in The News vote to 32nd by the fans), Don Luce (12 to 20), Alexander Mogilny (8 to 14), Don Edwards (21 to 27) and Jerry Korab (25 to 30).
Players who made The News poll but didn't crack the top 40 by the fans at all were Tony McKegney, Donald Audette, Ric Seiling, Alexei Zhitnik and Miroslav Satan. They were replaced on the fan balloting by Robitaille, Rick Dudley, Bob Sauve, Brad May and Matthew Barnaby, who finished 40th.
Barnaby, now an analyst for ESPN and TSN, had 3,146 votes and cracked the top 40 by 250 votes over current New York Rangers goalie Martin Biron.
Among current Sabres, the fans voted Miller seventh, Thomas Vanek 28th, Myers 38th, Jason Pominville 54th, Derek Roy 55th, Paul Gaustad 63rd, Tim Connolly 67th and Jochen Hecht 76th. Longtime defenseman Henrik Tallinder, who signed a free agent contract with New Jersey in July, finished 70th. His former partner, Toni Lydman, was 79th.
The final player in the fan poll was former winger Michal Grosek. He earned just 239 votes.
e-mail: mharrington@buffnews.com
Player, Votes
1 Gil Perreault 8333
2 Dominik Hasek 8232
3 Pat LaFontaine 8227
4 Rene Robert 7772
5 Rick Martin 7734
6 Danny Gare 7729
7 Ryan Miller 7725
8 Dave Andreychuk 7282
9 Jim Schoenfeld 7240
10 Mike Ramsey 7070
11 Craig Ramsay 6913
12 Phil Housley 6823
13 Mike Foligno 6476
14 Alexander Mogilny 6444
15 Michael Peca 6312
16 Rob Ray 5995
17 Daniel Briere 5939
18 Chris Drury 5905
19 Lindy Ruff 5897
20 Don Luce 5708
21 Tom Barrasso 5691
22 Dale Hawerchuk 5501
23 Tim Horton 5451
24 Pierre Turgeon 5325
25 Roger Crozier 5160
26 Larry Playfair 4915
27 Don Edwards 4714
28 Thomas Vanek 4591
29 Jim Lorentz 4503
30 Jerry Korab 4259
31 Brian Campbell 4181
32 Bill Hajt 4173
33 Jay McKee 4140
34 Rick Dudley 3760
35 Mike Robitaille 3757
36 Bob Sauve 3683
37 Brad May 3657
38 Tyler Myers 3522
39 Stu Barnes 3188
40 Matthew Barnaby 3146
41 Martin Biron 2896
42 Alexei Zhitnik 2818
43 Donald Audette 2554
44 Tony McKegney 2421
45 Miroslav Satan 2343
46 Ric Seiling 2242
47 Gerry Desjardins 2174
48 John Van Boxmeer 2098
49 Rick Vaive 2084
50 J.P. Dumont 1707
51 James Patrick 1586
52 Gerry Meehan 1573
53 Rhett Warrener 1559
54 Jason Pominville 1555
55 Derek Roy 1499
56 John Tucker 1418
57 Maxim Afinogenov 1331
58 Lee Fogolin 1322
59 Teppo Numminen 1309
60 Jason Woolley 1193
61 Andre Savard 1137
62 Dave Hannan 1073
63 Paul Gaustad 1060
64 Doug Bodger 1057
65 Jocelyn Guevremont 1049
66 Richard Smehlik 1015
67 Tim Connolly 959
68 Christian Ruuttu 879
69 Derek Plante 876
70 Henrik Tallinder 874
71 Curtis Brown 864
72 Ray Sheppard 774
73 Vaclav Varada 712
74 Derek Smith 626
75 Richie Dunn 620
76 Jochen Hecht 617
77 Dixon Ward 543
78 Jaroslav Spacek 433
79 Toni Lydman 367
80 Michal Grosek 239
TOTAL Votes 280529
