Sabres Edge

Be sure to go to the Sports_Ink blog to read all about the Buffalo Sports Museum, the labor of love of local teacher John Boutet. More than 10,000 Buffalo-themed pieces of memorabilia, many of them centering on the early history of the Sabres and even going back to the days of the Pepsi bottle-capped AHL Bisons, are featured in his home and on his Web site.

We'll have a full story on Boutet's collection in the Monday Extra of the sports section. You can see even more of it in our Web video.

Boutet wants his collection to someday be part of a real museum, preferably in HSBC Arena. He's a key part of the grassroots effort pushing the city and the Sabres to do something to honor the Braves in the arena. The biggest push is for a banner to go to the rafters to honor Bob McAdoo and the late Randy Smith (how sad it is to write that). Maybe get an NBA exhibition here next fall at the start of the Sabres' 40th anniversary season so McAdoo, currently an assistant for the Miami Heat, can be here in person.

The Montreal Canadiens have a banner in the Bell Centre to honor the Expos. Why not do something similar? Sounds like a plan. I know the Sabres have much bigger fish to fry with their own business but here's some off-the-ice goodwill they should jump at and not ignore.

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

Photo: John Boutet's mask collection includes, from left, Roger Crozier, Crozier again, Gary Bromley and Gilles Villemure (James P. McCoy/Buffalo News)

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