Faithful, and Faithless, Receive Reward
What could you possibly have been thinking?
The idea of leaving anything you’ve paid good money to see before it ends has always been rather mind-boggling to me, unless you or someone you love requires immediate medical attention.
But to head for the door with the home team trailing the New York Rangers by one single swipe of a stick, particularly given the Buffalo Sabres’ season-long propensity for late rallies?
As word of Chris Drury’s shutout-ruining, game-tying goal with 7.7 seconds remaining in regulation spread through the bowels of the arena, hundreds of such fair-weather fans climbed over each other to get back to those abandoned seats.
There’s something tremendously satisfying about the thought that more than a few of the early departed didn’t make it back in time to see Maxim Afinogenov net the winner at 4:39 of the first overtime. The goal by the guy who got benched for Game 4 gave Buffalo a 2-1 win. It also yanked the Sabres back from the brink of what would have been one of the biggest upsets ever suffered by a local sports franchise and put them in position to close out the Rangers on Sunday.
If you did miss one or both scores, or just want to watch them again and again and again and again, they’re here for your perusal, courtesy of your friends at NHL.com.
Or if you just want to hear Rick Jeanneret scream himself silent, you can do that here, courtesy of Brendan Loy, one of the faithful who posted 267 responses during Game 5 on bfloblog.com’s open thread, many of which demonstrate rather creative, if repetitive, use of obscenity.
Sunday’s Game 6, Buffalo’s first shot at moving on to the Eastern Conference Final, will be shown on Channel 2 (NBC for those outside the Western New York market) and TSN in Canada.
(Photo from earlier playoff game, sans abandoned seats, by Joe Cascio.)
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sbrof
I was at Cobblestone and wondering the same thing, when i saw the sections of people leaving... for what? to save yourself 15 minutes of traffic. Get a life and STOP worrying about your car for once.
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STEEL
There are many who spend their entire life worrying about their transportation. Where am I going to park, I hope there is no traffic, The price of gas is out of control, etc
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kelly
I was at the game watching people leave. We went into the little smoker's area between the end of regulation and first OT and watched some of them try to argue their way back in, with no success. Someone shouted "you don't BELIEVE, so you don't DESERVE to see the win!"
It took us damn near an hour and a half to get from the arena to allentown, and it was worth every second of waiting to see that win.
They're nuts, really. We drove because I lucked out with a pair of 200 level tix from work and they came with free parking in the adjoining ramp. But seriously, given the postgame traffic, it's always been faster to park at UB or Lasalle and take metrorail. Not to mention a $2.50 round trip compared to the $10 to $15 for parking I saw posted.
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kelly
One more note: I laughed my butt off when my friend commented: "we're in a 1983 Town Car... and I think we get the best mileage of everyone in this ramp!" as we looked out at the sea of SUVs (including not one but two Hummers!)- most of which had two people in them.
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