Since I didn't have the time earlier. Okay... To be honest, it takes a TON of battery power to upload images from my camera to my computer, so I had to recharge the batteries.I wanted to get some more stuff up from opening night. A few still pictures and a video of the banner raising. For some reason, I ended up with about a million pictures of the Sabres' Jiri Novotny. I have no idea what that means. One, which is posted here, is of a faceoff he took against Kevyn Adams in third period action. I got several pictures of a skirmish Novotny was involved in right in front of me, but none of them are worth sharing. The other picture I'm posting here is of the action immediately following the opening faceoff.
Also, I wanted to clear the air about a few things.
There was some talk on some of the Sabres blogs, and also on Buffalo sports radio about how the Canes hadn't sold out the game. This simply isn't true. As I reported here a few weeks ago, there were no tickets made available to the public. The Canes allowed their season ticket holders the opportunity to purchase extra opening night tickets for friends. Before they were even able to honor every request, every seat was spoken for. The sales office held a few dozen back, hoping to sell more full season ticket packages. When those packages didn't sell, the few dozen tickets were released to the public. All of them were lower level or club level seats, but they disappeared VERY quickly. They also made about 100 standing room only tickets available. At some point, one of the Buffalo radio stations managed to get their hands on a few of these, and started to exaggerate the availability of tickets. By the time it was all said and done, the official attendance was 18,840. Hockey capacity for the RBC Center is 18,730. Do the math.
On the other side, there was some rumbling about the Sabres players showing disrespect for the Canes celebration by refusing to be there. This simply isn't true either. According to an article in the News and Observer, Lindy Ruff offered to have his team on their bench during the ceremony. There was some communication between the PR departments from both clubs, and the Canes decided it would be best if the Sabres weren't there. No offense was taken, and the Sabres used the extra time to get pumped up for what ended up being rain on our parade. You can view the low-quality video of the banner being raised here, or by clicking the embedded player below:
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4 comments:
Like I said before, I made a terrible mistake in listening to what I heard about it not being sold out. My apologies. Still friends?! :o) Your readers will still hate me, but I guess they don't really know who the F I am anyway, and you do. So I'm not going to continue to take offence to the crap name-calling. Done! So there red and black hockey readers! Love, Amanda
your balance and clear-headedness on the "controversial" things continues to amaze me. this could be the best team-oriented hockey blog on the net. well done.
Mike,
It's just a simple matter of two teams and two fanbases that don't like each other anymore looking for things to pick on the other about. In common parlance it's called 'talking smack' and every once in a while it's kinda fun, even if it does get under people's skin.
Ta,
I loved how the players raised their sticks in salute to the fans.
As Cartman would say "Kick Ass!"
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