TYLER PACOS
Staff Writer
It’s starting to look more and more like another year without playoff hockey in Buffalo. As the NHL inches towards the end of the regular season, the standings are quite definitive now in determining who’s a contender for the Stanley Cup Playoffs and who’s receiving a good draft pick in June.
The Buffalo Sabres are 18–31–8 (wins, losses and overtime/shootout losses) on the season with 57 games completed out of 82 total games scheduled. This year would mark Buffalo’s 11th straight year without going to the playoffs. It will also be a new record for the longest playoff drought in the history of the NHL. Hearing that as a Sabres fan is gut wrenching.
However, the addition of young stars on the roster as well as new-comers recently acquired by the team do seem somewhat promising. Tage Thompson, a developed prospect involved in the Ryan O’reilly trade with St. Louis has 23 goals and 19 assists in 53 games played and leads the team in points. Alex Tuch, who was acquired from Las Vegas in exchange for ex-Sabre star Jack Eichel, has 7 goals and 16 assists since joining Buffalo this season (25 games total this season). Compared to other seasons, it seems more enjoyable to watch the current roster perform compared to previous seasons.
With the given state of the franchise, fans are most likely to not attend games. Most of us are fed up and don’t want to watch until they start winning, which seems pretty fair in all honesty.
I’m 20 years old and have been a fan of the team ever since I was younger. I can say for myself that it’s getting old not seeing your favorite team in the playoffs — and it seems like many others agree as well.
Some other factors have also affected attendance, specifically within the past couple of years. Of course the main reason being the pandemic. But another factor was that there was a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination check for all events at the KeyBank Center since Sept. 25, 2021. As of Feb. 28, 2021, the COVID-19 vaccine mandate was lifted for the arena. According to numbers obtained through ESPN, the Sabres are averaging roughly 8,600 fans a game this season, compared to the season before the pandemic where they averaged 17,100 fans per game. That’s almost a 10,000 person difference.
Of course it is unclear as to what the real reason is behind the attendance decline. Hopefully with the country seeming to finally reopen from the pandemic, fans will start enjoying Sabres games again. For now, the organization needs to put an end to the ‘rebuild’ and focus on bringing playoff hockey back to Buffalo.