- Cami Clune’s microphone cut out during O Canada at Game 5
- The KeyBank Center crowd took over and finished the anthem
- Watch below for the moment that gave Canadian fans chills
KeyBank Center had a tech problem on Tuesday night. The Buffalo Sabres crowd had a solution.
Cami Clune started her usual pregame O Canada performance ahead of Game 5 against the Boston Bruins. Her microphone cut in and out almost immediately. Nearly 17,000 fans never broke stride. They sang the rest of the Canadian national anthem as one, in unison, every word.
Watch the incredible moment below:
Buffalo is one of two American NHL markets that plays both anthems before every home game regardless of opponent. The Sabres and the Detroit Red Wings have done it for decades because of where they sit on the map. Buffalo opened in 1970 with a Canadian fan base baked into ticket sales, and it never went away.
Roughly a quarter to 40 percent of Sabres season-ticket holders are Canadian. The Bisons baseball affiliate is the Toronto Blue Jays. Labatt outsells Budweiser. Canadian flags fly at Bills tailgates. Buffalo even spells “Sabres” the Canadian way.
That is why those fans knew every word, including the updated “in all of us command” line. They have been singing it for 55 years.
The political timing made the moment land harder. Things have been tense between the U.S. and Canada lately, and a Canadian-heavy Buffalo crowd carrying the anthem on its own felt like a reminder: hockey people, neighbor people, regular people don’t actually buy into any of that.
I’ve watched a lot of pregame ceremonies. This one is different.
Buffalo did not miss a beat for a country that is technically not even theirs. That is the kind of thing that builds goodwill nothing else can.
Class act, Buffalo. Absolute class.
