Sabres fans might want to slip on some Sorels and a balaclava before they trudge their way to First Niagara Center Tuesday evening.
A massive snowstorm is dumping a forecasted five feet of snow on the area — three to five inches of the stuff per hour in the nastiest part of the band — and it pushed the Sabres’ morning skate to ‘optional’ status.
The team’s 7:30 p.m. ET home game against the San Jose Sharks will go ahead as scheduled, the Sabres announced, even though Western New York being hit with 120 centimetres of lake-effect snow. One Buffalo resident told CBC News that even the snowplows are getting stuck.
Fans unable to attend the game will be able to exchange their unused tickets for tickets to a future Sabres game.
“Talking to a few people, especially the training staff who live outside the area in those snowbelt areas, it’s pretty ugly,” Sabres coach Ted Nolan told WGR-AM 550 Tuesday morning. “It doesn’t look good to even make it to the rink this morning for our morning skate.
“For the vast majority of the guys that live close by, a short drive in, everything will be fine, but there won’t be a whole training staff here to support them, so we’ll just be cautious in that area and maybe just have a stretch.”
The Sabres are in the midst of a seven-game winning streak versus the Sharks and have an all-time home record of 15-1-0 against San Jose.
