Buffalo Sabres playoff return sparks ticket price outrage
Photo credit: © David Kirouac-Imagn Images
Tage Thompson and the Buffalo Sabres finally brought playoff hockey back, but a $429 get in price has a lot of fans staring at their phones, not the ice.
This is the first Buffalo home playoff game since 2011. It should feel like a citywide release.
Instead, a big chunk of Sabres fans are mad, and they have a point.
Buffalo finished 50-23-9 and won the Atlantic. Boston came in at 45-27-10, so this is not some random cash grab game. It is the reward for a real step forward.
Tage Thompson drove that push with 40-41-81. Rasmus Dahlin owned the blue line with 19-55-74, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen gave Buffalo steady work between the pipes at 22-9-3 with a .910 save percentage.
Tage Thompson has lifted Buffalo Sabres expectations
Fans are right to be angry, because a drought this long built emotional equity with regular people, not just buyers who can eat a four hundred dollar ticket.
High resale prices can change the room. The crowd still gets loud, but the noise lands different when lifelong fans get priced out of a moment they waited 15 years to see.
That matters in a Game 1. Buffalo's top-six feeds off pace, chaos, and quick strikes off the rush, and KeyBank is at its best when every shift feels personal.
The Sabres know demand is huge, and the team has pushed the free block party and watch party route for fans shut out of the building. That helps, but it is not the same as being inside for the anthem.
Buffalo earned this stage. The ugly part is that the hottest ticket in town also reminds people who got left outside.
Also read on House Of Hockey :
Lightning still have a huge Game 1 issue vs. Canadiens despite Victor Hedman skating
Lightning still have a huge Game 1 issue vs. Canadiens despite Victor Hedman skating