Wyatt Russell is set to jump into Lake Erie and chug a Lake Hour beverage from a Buffalo Sabres beer sabre on Sunday after the team ended the longest playoff drought in NHL history two weeks earlier.
Russell announced on Lake Hour's social media that the plunge will happen at 11:45 a.m. Sunday at Woodlawn Beach State Park, where he plans to stay in the water for 15 seconds. Anyone who joins him will get a commemorative T-shirt that reads, “I survived the plunge and the drought.”
The promise began in a November text with colleagues from Lake Hour, after Russell wrote that if the Sabres made the playoffs, he would jump into Lake Erie and drink from a beer sabre. He later said, “I was a doubter, I was like everybody else,” before adding, “I’ll put myself out there: I was like, ‘They’re not going to make the playoffs guys. If they make the playoffs, I’ll jump in Lake Erie and chug out of a beer sabre.”
Russell, a noted hockey fanatic, is no stranger to the sport. He played goaltender in the Alliance of European Hockey Clubs and in college at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and he served as a celebrity goaltender for the NHL All-Star Game breakaway challenge in 2022. He also said, “NHL playoffs are, I think, the absolute best thing in sports; I just love them so much,” and, “The rivalries that have been created and hockey’s one of the best parity sports.”
The Sabres' turnaround came as Russell and Lake Hour co-founder Richard Peete had already built a drinking brand tied to hockey country. Lake Hour launched in 2023, expanded into Western New York the following year, and Russell said he celebrated the team’s run because the fan base deserves a good team. He also joked that if Buffalo ever wins the Stanley Cup, he and Peete might head down Niagara Falls in a canoe.
Russell said the plunge could leave him “possibly radioactive,” adding, “Hopefully not too radioactive.” With ice chunks still in Lake Erie and temperatures far below the 76-degree summer days that make the lake look forgiving, Sunday’s dip looks less like a stunt than a promise he no longer has a choice but to keep.