Hockey is back.

The Buffalo Sabres opened their home preseason schedule at HSBC Arena, and wow what a finish. The Sabres netted two goals in the final two and a half minutes to force a tie, then Ales Kotalik netted the game winner in OT, sending many of the announced crowd of 14,629 happy, and for the Toronto fans, a dress rehearsal for the tried and true formula — “Welcome to Buffalo… Pack our restaurants, fill our hotels, spend your pretty multi colored money, paint your faces blue and white, wave your silly tin foil Stanley Cups, and at the end of the night? The long somber ride back up the QEW.” Heh heh.

It was Craig Rivet’s first game in a Sabres uniform, and he showed the flashes of leadership that this team expects of him, putting a beatdown on Ryan Hollweg in the first period, and making solid plays and hits all night. “I really hated to come here and play against these guys as an opposing player” said Rivet after the game. “It was always so intimidating to be in this building with these fans and these guys.” Rivet admitted that he was as surprised as anybody in the chain of events that led to his coming to Buffalo, as his mindset was that San Jose would be his home for a while. But he and his family have settled in nicely to WNY life.

And how about Max Afinogenov! Three assists, looking like the Max of two years ago, and he was showcased on the top line with Derek Roy and Thomas Vanek all night long.

Being back at HSBC Arena was all good, although Pete kept saying that he still wasn’t mentally ready for all this just yet. Our season creds were ready for pickup, which was nice because usually they aren’t available until opening night, and since October 10 might clash with our upcoming road trip to Indianapolis, nice to get these puppies in our hands.

Last night we parked ourselves in the clubs, and spent a lot of time just walking the arena to get a feel for the building, what’s new and stuff. Some random observations in no particular order…

-The 200 Harbour Club renovations are really nice. Basically they imploded the party suite in one corner, created a new walking area and bar stations, added standing room drink rails along the entire periphery, and created reserved tabletop viewing right along the rail. Traffic patterns and roominess is much improved, and the whole area has a fresh new look.

-We bumped into Mike Gilbert and asked him if the official attendance capacity will be raised from 18,690, since more seats were added in the 200s with the new table seating. He said no.

-Gotta love the Winter Classic murals in the pavilion. Speaking of which, they showed a great trailer twice on the video board promoting the Winter Classic DVD, on sale for $10. Just seeing all those great scenes and clips, done to a great musical backdrop, gave us chills. What an awesome events that was! Yeah gotta get me that DVD.

-New scoreboard and ribbon board graphics are uber cool. The classic Sabres logo, done to the darker blue hues, take up the entire center ice face off circle. Very nice.

-Military guys in desert wearing military khakis, brandishing rifles and waving Sabres flag drew the usual crowd orgasm during the Sabres fans pics segment. Yawn! … But one cool pic bears mentioning. A crowd of firemen displaying the Sabres colors, standing in front of a burning building, likely taken at the county’s Fire Training Academy. Also got the big cheer.

-Oops. Another photo segment on the video board showed fans outside the building earlier that evening, who took part in the Party In the Plaza and the team’s red carpet walk. One fan was holding a sign that read “Blow Leafs Blow”. Yeah we all saw it!

-Considering this game wasn’t part of the season ticket package, 14K plus was a great crowd!

-Changes to the Sabres staff - Brian Wheeler, former Bandits media guy and more recently the team’s Web Content Coordinator, has left the team for a position at New Era. Erin Molina, who worked with the intern crew and is very capable, takes Brian’s place. Best of luck to “Wheels” who is a really great guy. And best of luck to the Sabres with their new expanded web platform and “Sabres TV”. We spotted a good number of familiar faces who also man the Bisons events crew, and they were all over the place fllming and interviewing and doing their thing.

Sabres do another preseason game tonight at the arena against the Minnesota Wild. (We won’t be there). October 10 and the opener will be here sooner than you think!

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