Sabres Singer Freestyles Canadian Anthem After Forgetting Lyrics

The Sabres' anthem singer started improvising after forgetting the lyrics to "O Canada."

Fans at Tuesday night’s game between the Sabres and Bruins were treated to a rendition of the Canadian national anthem that was one-of-a-kind—and not in a good way. 

Because Buffalo is located on the border, the Sabres are the only non-Canadian team in the NHL that plays “O Canada” before every home game (even against other American teams). That means Sabres fans are pretty familiar with the lyrics, so they immediately recognized when the singer at Tuesday’s game went off script. 

The Boston Bruins celebrates a goal in the first period against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center.  / Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports

Sabres singer Christian Kramer completely skipped one of the lines and was forced to improvise. 

In case you’re as unfamiliar with the lyrics as Kramer is, he skipped the line “from far and wide” and jumped right into “O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.” But he realized his mistake in the middle of delivering the premature line and continued carrying the correct tune while freestyling some of his own lyrics: “O Canada, we stand our eyes, we stand on guard for thee.”

He got back on track after that, but his error was so glaring that even a small child in his father’s arms in the stands cocked his head curiously when Kramer botched the line. 

To make matters worse, the three hosts of the Toronto morning show Breakfast Television decided to see live on air Wednesday morning if they could sing the American anthem—and they totally nailed it. Point made.