{"id":546287,"date":"2026-04-07T22:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/546287\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T22:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:21:16","slug":"sabres-return-to-the-nhl-playoffs-helping-boost-blood-donations-across-wny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/546287\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabres&#8217; return to the NHL playoffs helping boost blood donations across WNY"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ConnectLife offers fans who donate a chance to win tickets for every Sabres home playoff game <\/p>\n<p>BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 You can feel the playoff energy in Buffalo, and now that excitement is helping boost the local blood supply.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Just yesterday we had 174 people make appointments. On a typical day I&#8217;d say it&#8217;s probably about 60-70,&#8221; ConnectLife&#8217;s Blood Donor Communications Supervisor, Zachary Kineke, told 2 On Your Side. &#8220;So it was an incredible response from people already.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That surge comes as ConnectLife rolls out a special incentive tied to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wgrz.com\/sabres\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Buffalo Sabres\u00a0<\/a>playoff run.<\/p>\n<p>All donors this month are automatically entered to win a pair of 200-level tickets to every Sabres home playoff game in April.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every April donor is a part of every April drawing,&#8221; Kineke said. &#8220;If the Sabres, fingers crossed, play playoff games in May, it will start over and everyone who comes in in May will be entered for every May game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>ConnectLife says the playoff push is coming at a crucial time for donations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Before this boost we got yesterday, this week was looking pretty light because we have a lot of schools on spring break and we rely on school blood drives for a lot of what we do,&#8221; Kineke said. &#8220;We are also trying to get well stocked before the summer, because again schools are off.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While the tickets are a big incentive, the real goal is saving lives across Western New York.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We hope that for a lot of people, the impact that you&#8217;re making on the community is the big driver, but for some people they need that little extra push,&#8221; Kineke said. &#8220;Maybe for a Sabres fan, the idea that you might get to go see the first playoff game in a decade and a half is enough for you to say hey, I can spend twenty minutes of my day going out there and making sure that three people in Western New York have the blood that they need to survive.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Donations made through ConnectLife stay local, helping hospitals across the region maintain safe blood supplies. You can find a donation center or blood drive near you on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.connectlifegiveblood.org\/donor\/auth\/signin\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ConnectLife\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>All donors in the month of April will also receive a shirt celebrating the organization&#8217;s partnership with the Sabres.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re lucky to have them. They&#8217;re part of the community, we&#8217;re part of the community, and when they succeed we succeed,&#8221; Kineke said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ConnectLife offers fans who donate a chance to win tickets for every Sabres home playoff game BUFFALO, N.Y.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5100],"tags":[1107,229,5133,5,4,1108],"class_list":{"0":"post-546287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-sabres","8":"tag-buffalo","9":"tag-buffalo-sabres","10":"tag-buffalosabres","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-sabres"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116365759810668846","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}