Sabres will be televised next week

I had a feeling these games wouldn't be blacked out, turns out I'm right. And it turns out the fans do have some say, if they complain enough

The Buffalo Sabres reached a deal today with MSG Network and the National Hockey League to televise four road games that were previously scheduled to be aired only on the radio.

Minority owner Larry Quinn struck a deal that calls for the Sabres and MSG to split the costs of having the NHL Network's feed during the upcoming four-game road trip to Edmonton, Calgary, Phoenix and Anaheim. The games will be aired on MSG or one of its alternate stations.

The decision to get the games on TV was, in part, a reaction to the backlash from fans. Sabres fans who have grown accustomed to watching every game were angry about them taking the road trip off of their TV schedule. The agreement was completed before the NHL board of governors meetings in Montreal as part of All-Star weekend.

"When you start looking at the All-Star break and the whole next week, without the Sabres out there for that long, was probably a mistake," Quinn said. "I'm glad that fans were mad that we weren't going to be on, and I'm glad that we're able to accommodate the fact that they have that much passion for it."

The Sabres initially had an agreement with MSG for 74 games, and four others were set to be televised on Versus. The team was looking to save money on production costs for the other four games that are played later in the evening and typically have a smaller audience.