Sabres expect home atmosphere to be 'whole other animal' in playoffs

BUFFALO -- Sleep was hard to come by in Buffalo on Friday night. The Stanley Cup Playoffs had begun to seem real, with the regular season over, with one final practice remaining, with the signs going up around KeyBank Center, with playoff tickets being sold, with the postseason finally, finally, finally feeling like a reality. 

So for many of them, for Alex Tuch and Josh Doan and Zach Benson of the Buffalo Sabres, it was a bit harder to drift off. 

They each know what to expect and don’t. Because no team has ever walked into a building bursting with the emotion and anticipation of 15 seasons without playoff hockey, 15 seasons of waiting and hoping, all ready to spill out.

“I don’t think it’s going to be compared to anything,” Tuch, the Buffalo forward, said of what he thinks KeyBank Center will be like Sunday, when the Boston Bruins arrive for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference First Round (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, NESN, MSG-B, TVAS2, SN1, SN360). “I think it’s going to be a whole other animal. … I think even the fans are curious to see what’s going to happen. I know everyone’s really anxious and excited.

“I’m sure they’re going to be out on the plaza early tomorrow and hopefully everyone makes it into the game safely and not too many tables get destroyed in the process. But no, it’s going to be really exciting. I think the roof’s going to probably pop off the building. They’re going to be so pumped and ready to go.”

The building started to be transformed Saturday, when the Sabres held their final practice before the start of the series. Playoff logos adorned windows outside the arena and, inside, “We’re back” towels in blue and gold had been draped over seatbacks. 

It has been 15 years of waiting for Buffalo, for its fan base, 15 years since the Sabres last participated in the playoffs. When they previously hosted a playoff game, in fact, this place was known as HSBC Arena. 

It was April 24, 2011, with Buffalo up 3-2 in the best-of-7 Conference Quarterfinals series against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Sabres lost that game 5-4 in overtime, then lost Game 7 in Philadelphia. 

No one could have foreseen it would be until 2026 that Buffalo would return. 

There is one constant between those two games: Lindy Ruff. Though Ruff was later fired by the Sabres and coached the Dallas Stars (2013-17) and the New Jersey Devils (2020-24) in the interim, he returned as Buffalo coach on April 22, 2024. 

He can see, perhaps more than anyone, the gulf between then and now, between the enjoyment of something that had happened for the Sabres 29 times in their first 40 seasons and something that has been 15 years in the making. 

“I think the difference right now is the city right now is incredibly jacked up,” Ruff said Saturday. “I think the city kind of got used to it before this, us being in the playoffs, '05-'06, '06-'07, we were in the playoffs for a good period of time. It's been such a long wait that you can feel the emotions and the fans' appreciation for how this year went. 

“You could feel it almost everywhere, from the number of flags you drive by on the way in to the people honking or signs ‘Honk if you like the Sabres,’ all kinds of stuff. I think this anticipation has been long waited for. And we're hopefully going to put together a long journey here together.”

But as loud as the building will be, as much emotion as will be spilling out, Ruff said he believes his players will be prepared. 

They will be ready. 

“Our fans have given us a great taste of that in our last, probably last 15 home games, where the building’s been sold out, it’s been electric in here,” he said. “They saw a real good piece of it when we played Tampa Bay (a 4-2 win April 6). That was probably as close an example.

“So, I feel that they’ve gone through some training. It’s been playoff atmosphere and the fans have been electric inside this building. So it will probably get to a little higher level, but it’ll be part of what we learn to grow with.”

And though there are no comparables, Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov has, perhaps, an inkling of what might be in store. Zadorov, who was selected by the Sabres with the No. 16 pick in the 2013 NHL Draft and who played 67 games over two seasons for Buffalo, was with the Vancouver Canucks when they returned to the playoffs in 2024 after not having had a home playoff game since 2015 (the Canucks made the second round of playoffs in 2020, but all games were played in the bubble in Edmonton because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

“I think that place is going to be nuts,” Zadorov said. “We can see how big are the (Buffalo) Bills there. And obviously I played in Vancouver when they haven’t played playoff hockey at home for (nine) years and that was probably the loudest building I’ve ever been to. These guys have been waiting for [15] years. I’m expecting a great atmosphere, and I’m going to enjoy it for sure.”

It will be loud. It will be rowdy. It will be a party. 

It will be unlike anything in NHL history, as the Sabres will try to harness it and Bruins will try to feed off it. 

“If you don’t enjoy it, you’re in the wrong sport or wrong place,” Zadorov said. “That’s playoff hockey, that’s pressure, that’s atmosphere, that’s intensity, physicality, blood, sweat, you name it. Everything is enjoyable for sure.

“And when you play on the road, the building’s been so hungry and the city’s been so hungry for it, you just want to enjoy it.”