Today's Bucky Gleason - how a good column ends in mush

I am not crazy about critiquing or picking apart the work of other journalists in the Buffalo sports media. For the most past everyone here does a solid job, and Buffalo News columnist Bucky Gleason falls in that category, even if he is a trifle cold and aloof to people (like us) who he does not deem as his contemporaries. We're fine with that.

In today's Buffalo News, Bucky presents this commentary offering some unique insight on Maxim Afinogenov's mindset about the Sabres playoff run, more or less stating that Max was perfectly fine with the outcome of the season and what the team did achieve. Hmmmm. Interesting.

He then goes on to take jabs at Assistant Coach Brian McCutcheon and players Jaroslav Spacek and Dmitri Kalinin. OK.

Now time to put a wrap on the column, end it with a bang. Here goes...
"If they give half-hearted efforts next season like they did against Ottawa, they’ll have 10,000 people inside HSBC Arena rather than 10,000 people outside."

Huh???

The Sabres capped their season ticket sales at 14,800 this year, and have a waiting list in excess of 6,000 more requests. Most current season ticket holders have already renewed for next year.

Or didn't Bucky know that?

Furthermore, I've been told by sources that the team will most likely scrap the mini pack product next season, because it is too unwieldy to manage and the tickets just aren't there. The team will leave between 2500-3000 tickets per game for single sales, and my bet is they get snapped up as soon as they become available.

Will it ever go back to the days where the season ticket base falters and there are yawning gaps of empty seats in the corners and end zones game after game? Sure it can, but with the season ticket price structure being so attractive, and the variable pricing policy for quality of opponent, it would take years of dreary and depressing play for the ticket base to erode. I'm confident that we're looking at years of continuous sellouts.

It would be nice if Bucky could focus on some of the good days and great moments that have come from the Sabres these past two seasons, yet he seems to only want to dwell on the negative, almost hoping that the future brings misery and hard luck. Perhaps there's something gooey in the water cooler at One News Plaza, because I flip the page, and there's Donny Osmond, ripping once again on Canalside... "Big Box!" "Abomination!" UGH!