The Blade Gang will officially bang the drum ahead of Game 5 between the Sabres and Bruins at KeyBank Center on Tuesday, bringing the nine-boy crew that turned playoff attention into a live in-arena moment. The group, all childhood friends and hockey teammates from South Buffalo, has gone from a local sighting to one of the most talked-about storylines around Buffalo’s postseason run.
The boys — Sean Maloney, Jack Ellis, Danny Maloney, Alex Pawlik, Ian Macvie, Jackson Soto, Luke Soto, Tommy Maloney and Michael Bollenbacher — first drew notice when they rolled up outside TD Garden in Boston in a van with hazard lights on. Four of them spilled out in full hockey gear, sat on the curb and strapped on skates and helmets, a scene that fit the kind of playoff theater social media latches onto in a hurry. The group later said every car that passed them was honking before they even got to the arena, and that “when we hit Michigan and turned onto Perry, it was over.”
Max Maloney said the group had been planning to go home that morning before deciding to stay another night. He said they were going to pregame rollerblade and watch Game 4 in the car on the way home instead. That kind of improvisation has defined the Blade Gang since the start of the playoffs, when they began appearing in full gear in South Buffalo and then outside TD Garden, turning a loose brotherhood of friends into a live playoff sideshow.
The first known Blade Gang sighting came when Jackson Soto was filmed blading through the South Buffalo suburbs in full uniform. The rest of the boys then got into uniform and piled into Maloney’s vehicle, which later dropped them at a pizza place on South Park Ave. Before Game 1, they had gathered at the Maloney residence for a cookout, and the rhythm of the group’s appearances only grew louder after that.
They also found themselves at the center of one of the playoffs’ stranger viral moments when a dummy carried by Sabres fan Nick at the Party in the Plaza ahead of Games 1 and 2 became the target of their attack. The group said of the dummy, “We’re taking him out. He’s got a Boston jersey on. He’s dead.” They later said, “Just all the videos and everyone talking about us. Tkachuk, he said it himself, he wished he could buy us tickets,” and added, “We were loving that.”
The attention has spread well beyond South Buffalo. Paul Bisonette and Dave Portnoy have weighed in, and Lindy Ruff said, “I’d actually like to play with those guys.” Matt Tkachuk was also mentioned by the group as part of the swirl of attention around them. Now the same nine friends who were once just another playoff-night bunch from the neighborhood will be part of the show inside KeyBank Center, where they said, “You know what, man? He’s right. We do got to go to those games. Doesn’t matter if we can’t get in or not. We’re going to support the team.”
For a crowd that has already followed their every roll, skate and van ride, Tuesday puts the Blade Gang at the center of the building itself. The group said, “That place is going to be rocked out.”
