Sabres fan favorite Pominville gets ready for 1,000th NHL game

Thursday night in Ottawa, Sabres forward Jason Pominville will suit up for his 1,000th NHL game. It's a fitting place for the milestone-- the arena was home to Pominville's most memorable NHL goal.

The goal came in the Sabres' 2006 playoff run. The Sabres were on the road in Ottawa for Game 5, and a win would clinch the series against the Senators.

The game went into overtime, and with the Senators on the power play, Pominville pulled off a shorthanded goal to end the game. The accompanying call from broadcasting legend Rick Jeanneret only added to the moment for Sabres fans. He famously shouted, "Oh, now do you believe? Now do you believe? These guys are good, scary good."

“RJs call still gives me chills when I hear it. It’s a goal I’ll probably remember for a long time and I’ll talk about for a while but it’s definitley my most memorable moment as a player,” Pominville said in an interview with 7 Eyewitness Sports anchor Matt Bove.

Pominville began his NHL career in Buffalo. He was drafted by the Sabres in 2001, and called up from the Rochester Americans during the 2005-2006 season. He would go on to spend time as the team's captain.

He wouldn't stay in Buffalo, though. Pominville was traded to the Minnesota Wild in 2013. The Sabres reacquired him in 2017 in another trade.

On making it to his 1,000th NHL game, Pominville said, “I never thought i would get to this point, quite honestly. All I’ve ever wanted as a kid was to play a game in the NHL and that’s all I had in mind. To be able to play one, and then you kind of get going, get playing more and more games and then you hit 900 and you start thinking, man, this might be possible. So definitely a pretty cool feeling to get a chance to play in the best league in the world for that long.” 

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