Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Hockey has returned to Western New York, as the Buffalo Sabres get ready to open their 2026-27 regular season on Thursday in Columbus against the Blue Jackets. Meanwhile, the home opener for the Sabres comes two nights later on Saturday with the Chicago Blackhawks coming to town at KeyBank Center.
As the Sabres are ready to drop the puck on another hopeful run to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2027, businesses around KeyBank Center in Downtown Buffalo are making their final preparations for the mad rush of fans set to attend games at the arena this year.
"We're getting ready by just hunkering down with all of our food orders, beer deliveries - we've been working tirelessly to increase all of those," said Joe Creegan, general manager at Southern Tier Brewing Co. at the corner of Scott and Washington. "We just got a beer delivery today just so that we can launch out some new styles and get ready for everything. Getting all our beer menus and everything in place. Just really increasing and upping all our pars of everything from menus to food to beer to staff. It's just been increasing everything in anticipation of this."
Bob Hamels, co-owner of Hofbrauhaus Buffalo on Scott Street is anticipating another busy season of Sabres hockey.
"What we're doing for all the home games, we're going to have a rally pregame three hours before all the games with our various DJs that come in and work in our sound booth," said Hamels with WBEN. "DJ Kaia is our main leader of all the the DJs, so she'll be in spinning the tunes and getting the crowd wound up. We'll probably have some drink specials and some of our local seltzer distributors going to be helping us out doing some specials. We'll probably do some trivia questions and give some jerseys or shirts away as the season goes on, as we get some more things in. And we just want to get everybody riled up before the game starts."
Given ticket sales for games already this year and the success the team had last year, businesses are very much anticipating one of their busiest kickoffs to the hockey season to date.
"I use Ticketmaster just to go on and check and see how games have sold, and looking at every single game and seeing that the majority of tickets have been sold and it's all just resale at this point, it's great. I love being a part of it and getting to work right next door to it," Creegan said in an interview with WBEN.
"If they pick up the way they left off last year, we're going to be crowded every game," Hamels added. "We'll have 300-400 people in here real quick before the games. We also had Wyatt Russell come in last year, he'll be coming in again probably after the first of the year. He's in Prague right now doing a movie, but he's always going back-and-forth with Rob Ray about whether the Sabres are going to make the playoffs. So I'm sure he'll be involved with us."
Creegan says he's fully staffed for the upcoming hockey season, and employees are excited to be back given the rush that was last spring's playoff push.
"We have a lot of seasonal staff that's excited to come back. They kind of ran into some of their summer season because our season went a little bit later than it normally does, or at least than it has in the past [15] years this last year. They're excited to get the opportunity to come back," he said.
While Hamels is well staffed for the upcoming year at Hofbrauhaus Buffalo, he admits they're always looking for help.
"We actually put a post out today to about 20,000 of our email people that we're looking for more help. So if anybody's looking for a job and employment, come on down and we'll do an interview. And if you fit, we'll hire you," Hamels said.
Even before the puck has dropped for Game 1 of the home slate this Saturday, the excitement around the arena is reaching a fever pitch.
"I actually just went to go check out the new Highmark Stadium yesterday and went to a couple bars. Just seeing even on a non-Bills day, there's always people there to check out the stadium and in their Bills gear. We're starting to see that same thing with the Sabres now as well," Creegan noted. "I mean, I see a group of people that's walking around outside in Sabres gear right now. Just the anticipation of it. And seeing that the Sabres Store is getting a lot busier and they're running through all their stuff, there's a lot more hype around it. There's an equal amount of hype to the Bills and Sabres at this point, which is great."
One fun aspect from last year that Hamels is hoping returns this year is the fans coming from everywhere to enjoy Sabres hockey.
"Especially when we got in the playoffs, we were getting people from all over the United States coming in or Canada or wherever. They were coming down, had never been to our place before, so we got to have some good conversations. It was all fun, going back-and-forth, especially when Montreal was in town and everything," he said.
While the home slate of games will certainly bring crowds for businesses right around KeyBank Center, businesses are also hopeful that continued success will bring fans in on nights when the Sabres are away from the comfort of home.
"Especially if they kick off as strong as they ended the year last year, we're definitely anticipating to get some people in here and to start watching the games, and garner a little bit more excitement about it than in years past," Creegan said.
"We put all the games on, we've got 29 big screens and big projector screens. And we have some locals that come in, some people live in the neighborhood area. They'll come down, have a pint and enjoy the night. But we hope more people come in. We'll probably do some Sabres specials," Hamels added. "We're hoping to get more people in on the away games, but we don't always. Depending if we've got other things going too."
