Sabres set opener time

Buffalo opens its first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series against Boston on Sunday, April 19, with puck drop set for 7:30 p.m. at KeyBank Center. (nhl.com) The National Hockey League’s full first-round tracker lists Buffalo as the Atlantic Division’s No. 1 seed and Boston as the Eastern Conference’s first wild card. Game 1 is in Buffalo, with the series shifting to TD Garden for Game 3 on Wednesday, April 22. (nhl.com) The Sabres said every Round 1 game will air on MSG inside their broadcast territory, while Game 1 will air on ESPN outside that territory. The team’s playoff page also directs fans to Ticketmaster as the verified marketplace for home-game tickets. (nhl.com) Buffalo locked up home ice by winning the Atlantic Division, and that gives the Sabres Games 1, 2, 5 and 7 at KeyBank Center if the series goes the distance. Boston enters as a wild card after finishing below the top three in its division. (nhl.com, nhl.com) The schedule is compressed from the start. After Sunday’s opener, Game 2 is Tuesday, April 21 in Buffalo, and Game 3 is the next night, April 22, in Boston. (nhl.com) Games 4 through 7 are spread across April 24, April 26, April 28 and April 30, with start times for the later games still listed as to be determined by the league. The series follows the National Hockey League’s standard best-of-seven format, so the first team to four wins advances. (nhl.com) Buffalo announced the opener before the full bracket times were finalized, telling fans on April 16 that Game 1 would start at 7:30 p.m. and that broader timing details would follow later that night. The league’s updated playoff tracker now fills in the rest of the first-round calendar. (nhl.com, nhl.com) For fans, the practical details are now set: Buffalo gets the opener at home, the series begins Sunday night, and the Sabres and Bruins will be on an every-other-day rhythm until at least April 24. (nhl.com, nhl.com)