Sabres honor Jeanneret with banner ceremony

Legendary Buffalo Sabres play-by-play announcer Rick Jeanneret was bestowed the greatest honor on Friday when a banner bearing his name was added to the rafters of KeyBank Center.
A sold-out arena welcomed RJ to the ice during a pregame ceremony on RJ Night presented by Wegmans and the cheers continued throughout the night.
Watch the full ceremony here:

Jeanneret, 79, is retiring at the end of the season after 51 years behind the mic. He started on the radio in 1971 and joined the Sabres TV broadcasts in 1995. He is the longest-tenured play-by-play announcer in the NHL.
RJ is a member of the Sabres Hall of Fame, the Hockey Hall of Fame (as the recipient of the Foster Hewitt Award in 2012), the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame, and the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
His banner joins those of Sabres alumni Gilbert Perreault, Rick Martin, Rene Robert, Tim Horton, Danny Gare, Pat LaFontaine and Dominik Hasek, and original owners Seymour H. Knox III and Northrup R. Knox.
He will call five more games in April with his "last call" scheduled for April 29 against the Chicago Blackhawks. Tickets for all remaining home games are on sale now.
Players walked into the building on Friday sporting RJ's signature look: a mock turtleneck and suspenders.

Fans also got into the action and were able to take photos with special RJ signage in the concourse.

The first 10,000 fans in attendance received a replica banner.
Players wore special RJ patches on their jerseys during the game. Those jerseys are up for auction now.

Here's Jeanneret's reaction to the ceremony when he met with the media during the first intermission:

And after the game, RJ went down to the bench to meet with the players and following Buffalo's 4-3 win over the Nashville Predators, they had one more surprise for him. Alex Tuch and Cody Eakin escorted him onto the ice for a team photo.

Kyle Okposo and the players had one more surprise for Jeanneret when he joined them in the locker room for the victory speech:

RJ is known for many legendary calls, including "May Day!," which was selected by fans as his "Best Call" after a bracket-style vote that featured 16 classic highlights:

Congratulatory messages from around the hockey world rolled in (and keep rolling in). Watch the full compilation below, featuring RJ's family, some of his current and former broadcasters, current Sabres, Sabres alumni, and more (including Wayne Gretzky, Jim Kelly and Chris Berman):

Those who know him also struggled to describe the man in just one word:

And with the ceremony being held on April 1, roll back the highlight film on some of his greatest off-beat moments over the years: