from Ryan Miller at The Players' Tribune,

This past summer, I was standing in the crease again at KeyBank Center. No ice, just cement all around. My son, Bodhi, was by my side. We were looking up together at the big screen — like I had done so many times as a Sabre — and Rick Jeanneret was up there, talking to me.

It was surreal to see him up there, to hear him speaking directly to me like that. I’d known Rick since I first got to Buffalo in 2002. He’s an icon and one of the great members of the Buffalo community. Hearing his voice, I remembered nights when I was injured and not in the lineup, and I’d head up to the play-by-play booth and just sit behind him. I couldn’t see the ice that well, but I didn’t need to. Rick painted the picture better than my eyes ever could. He is a huge part of the fabric of the Sabres organization.

So when he said that I’d be having my number 30 jersey put up into the rafters … it was hard not to be emotional. I remember whenever I was playing in net and there was a long TV timeout, I used to look up at the banners of all the greats — the guys who had given everything for Buffalo — Perreault, LaFontaine, Hasek. And to think that my name would be up there, too? It fills me with a lot of pride and appreciation for Buffalo.

And I just wanted to thank you all before I see you this week.

You know, at the end of Rick’s kind and generous speech, he said something really simple that stuck with me.

“Welcome home.”

If you play in the NHL as long as I did, you rent houses in a lot of different places. But there’s a difference between a house and a home. Buffalo, for me, no matter where I live, will always be one of my homes.

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