Star Spangled Banner - Why did they sing the Canadian national anthem and America the Beautiful instead of the Star Spangled Banner?

Why did they sing the Canadian national anthem and America the Beautiful instead of the Star Spangled Banner?

During the Buffalo vs Penguins game why did they sing the Canadian national anthem and America the Beautiful instead of The Star Spangled Banner? The game wasn't even in Canada and America the Beautiful isn't even our anthem. This is troubling to me.

Public Comments

Why would singing the Canadian anthem trouble you?I like it.

Izayah-Why are you yelling-Russians played in the game too should they play there anthem too.
O Canada was done very tastefully, and then this weirdo comes out and sang America the Beautiful. Did you notice he added a verse in the beginning of the song? What the hell was that about? I found it disrespectful.

I thought it was appropriate to have the Canadian and American national anthem played at that game.

Jay, wrong song, sorry. We were watching different games, I guess.

Tarter: No way man, that guy was going free-style on a patriotic song. He didn't sing "O beautiful for spacious skies" until like 30 seconds into the song.
Hales- I believe that verse is actually part of the song...left out most of the time!
They sing the Canadian Anthem at every Buffalo Sabres game because over half of the crowd are Canadian.

The only reason the Sabres are still around is because of their strong Canadian fan base and the fact that it is next to impossible to get Toronto Maple Leaf tickets.
I agree, I have no problem with them singing the canadien national anthem, but sing the american anthem too.
O Canada is done because Buffalo is so close to canada and the figure it's right to honor all the Canadians in the sport. They dod htat at every buffalo home game.

Same with America the Beautiful actually. Every buffalo home game...

The thing is, there is a pretty large group in the US that hates the star spangled banner. The song contains imperialistic references ("the onward we must if our cause it is just/ and this be or motto in god is our trust") and that actually runs counter to the declaration of independence and the constitution- freedom for all and religious separation.

Plus the entire song is a celebration of war.

So people want to change the anthem- to America the Beautiful (personally, I think this land is your land would be great as well)

What the Sabres are doing is actually pretty political, but being in new york I think most everybody supports them- I don't know the situation either, could've been a public demand sorta thing too.

So the why they do that anthems is, in my view, classy and very cool.
Jerk of the week goes to....

Izayah_Connolly!
Haley - The weirdo is Ronan Tynan, he's an Irish (probably obvious) tenor that sings at a lot of Sabres games. He's pretty big here. Piece of trivia: Sunday night he performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic, and Ryan Miller and Drew Stafford played with him during a song called "All I Want", in which Ronan changed a word to say "All I Want is Stanley" =)

And the Canadian anthem is always performed at Sabres games, as many have mentioned!
fine and great if you dont like the star spangled banner as the national anthem then try and get it changed, i dont think a profesional sporting event is place to make the statement and I find it disrespectful. and jeff thats first i heard of being movement to change, well i mean people trying to change stuff all the time, mean serious movement. And to me it means more then just war and imperialism, its over comeing turmoll, and able to with stand anything.

sad thing is to change antheme on cause of imperalism and "God" would need to change flag too as the color represent war and God also
Both the American and Canadian anthems are played at all Sabres home games, because of the city's close proximity to Canada(HSBC Arena is about ten football fields away from Canada) and because of the strong Canadian fan base the Sabres have. I believe around 20 percent of ticket sales is from Canada At the normal home games, Doug Allen(the guy that sang the Canadian anthem) sings both national anthems for almost all games.

Irish tenor Ronan Tynan, the guy you saw sing God Bless America, (not America the Beautiful) occasionally sings that song for the Sabres(usually for special events like the Ice Bowl or playoff games).

Here's a link with more info about him and how he became connected to the Sabres and the city of Buffalo(the only nhl team that he will sing for is the Sabres, other teams have asked him to sing and he has turned them down)

http://www.wgrz.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=45584
Because they felt like it.
I'm sorry you find the choice of American anthem sung as 'troubling'.

For years, Philadelphia always had God Bless America. In Chicago for years Wayne sang God Bless America and/or America the Beautiful.

Both the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball give teams the right to choose which song will be sung, and many teams leave it to the performer as to which they are more comfortable with.

Similarly, if a Canadian team wants to have the Maple Leaf Forever (as the Toronto Maple Leafs had Anne Murray do at the closing of Maple Leaf Gardens) they are free to do so.

It troubles me that people are so inflexible.

Jay

Ronan Tynan has sang the Canadian and US anthems at the ACC twice this year, once with his good friend John McDermott (former member of the Irish tenors along with Ronan and Finbar Wright) and once by himself.
If you sing one anthem and not the other then yes...it is disrespectful.

While Buffalo may draw a large Canadian fan base, the fact remains that Buffalo is a city in a state of the United States........its nice they do the Canadian anthem, but lets not forget that we are America and our anthem has been around since our independence...........and deserves the same respect as our visitors.