Man, Buffalo, why so crazy? If you didn't want my family at the Ice Bowl you could have just said so, you know. Now I, like many poor WNYers, will be left out in the cold (or rather in the warm) this coming New Years Day when the Sabres play the Penguins at Ralph Wilson Stadium. I'm plenty depressed about this, because the timing for this game is perfect: three weeks after my 21st birthday (hello, tailgating!), and six days before I leave to spend six months in Europe (goodbye, hockey!). And the circumstances surrounding the selling of the tickets certainly doesn't help matters. I mean, why should Toronto fans (both of hockey and of baseball[?!?]) get to see this game, and not me? I realize it's a momentous, once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing that all sports fans, not just those of the participating teams, can enjoy, but why reserve tickets for them? Let them buy them (or not be able to buy them) just like everybody else. And then there are the people who picked up 15 extra tickets, expecting to make a huge profit off of them, which they undoubtedly will. I mean, good for them if they enjoy getting back the hard-earned money they spent on hockey tickets by gouging fellow fans for their hard-earned money, but there really should have been some kind of volume limit on tickets.
BUT there is a big bright side to this, and that bright side is, Buffalo, that we rule. We sold over 40,000 tickets to a game over three months from now in ten minutes. Those tickets were selling, as Heidi Klum would say, "like bagels." Really, really delicious bagels. Sure, some of those tickets were going to Toronto fans and scalpers, but judging by the sheer amount of whining from the locals I've been hearing (and heartily participating in), those factors only influenced when the tickets sold out (and probably not by very much), not if they would sell out. Thanks to us, the Sabres are now like the Backstreet Boys circa 1998, and that's awesome, right? I mean, they were practically bigger than Jesus! Seriously, as bummed as I am by my lack of ticket situation, I'm really happy and proud to know that Buffalo loves hockey this much. (Oh, and Jerry Sullivan, do you want to tell us now how unready the fans are for the season to start?)
In other news, Maxim Afinogenov is a devious Russian. The mystery surrounding Max's play and benching in the playoffs has finally been cleared up as Lindy explained that he smacked his head on the concrete while partaking in the team's soccer warm-up during the first round. This answers some questions for me, as I had been wondering if he maybe came back from his wrist injury too soon. But no, he was just showing off his sweet bicycle-kicking skills. Or perhaps slipping on a banana peel. Silly, silly Max. For his part, he's sure he has no idea what everyone's talking about. "Injury? What do you mean injury? Look, I am fine, I will show you. I will do a back flip!" Max, maybe next year you should wear a helmet during those soccer games.
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3 comments:
I have to admit that, for a change, I really enjoyed this Buffalo News article. You could practically see the ironic quotation marks Tim Graham was putting around "memory lapses."
I too thought Tim Graham was pretty witty in this piece.
At least they're starting to write about hockey again and not grumbling about the offseason anymore.
Still won't convince me to ever read Bucky or Sully again, though.
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