The Columbus Blue Jackets are facing off again against the Detroit Red Wings at Ohio Stadium on Saturday night.
The game is the second in the Stadium Series between the two teams. Both teams are battling for a wild-card pick for the NHL playoffs.
The game is anticipated to be the second-largest crowd ever in attendance at an NHL game. Currently, more than 90,000 tickets have been sold.
“The crowd will be 4.5 to 5 times the size of a typical Blue Jackets game, and they have one of the larger seating capacities in the NHL, close to 20,000,” said Paul Braverman, communications manager for NHL events.
Braverman thinks that the Blue Jackets and the Red Wings both vying for a playoff spot has been a big draw. “The Red Wings and Blue Jackets are in a playoff race. They're rivals, you know, regional rivals as it is, and then you add the playoffs on top of that.”
The Blue Jackets won 5-to-2 over the Red Wings on Thursday night in the first of the two-game series.
Another draw for the game is the intermission acts. Columbus natives and Grammy Award-winning band Twenty One Pilots will perform during the first intermission.
“I have friends that are coming to the game that are Twenty One Pilots fans, and I'm sure that motivated a lot of people to come out in addition to the hockey,” Braverman said. “It's going to be a great show, hockey and otherwise start to finish.”
The second intermission will be played by the OSU Athletic Band, who will also play during the game.
Ohio Stadium also has undergone some changes in order for the game to happen, in part due to the Ohio State Buckeyes' own playoff wins.
Braverman said that one of the reasons that a game did not happen sooner at Ohio Stadium is because the stadium needed to be winterized. Winterization of a stadium is a process that needs to happen every winter. The Buckeyes’ later games in the season had already winterized the stadium, allowing the Blue Jackets game to take place.
Braverman also said that the response Columbus fans have had to the event was amazing to see.
“There's palpable buzz around town, you know, the excitement for this game is significant. You know we overhear people talking about it at the hotels, at the restaurants, the ticket sales numbers certainly speak for themselves when you're talking about 90,000 people or more for a hockey game,” he said. “Columbus has really blown us away with their response, and I think it really validates the decision that this was the right place to do this event.”
There are still tickets available for the game, starting at $70 per seat, with some reaching prices over $500 per seat.
The game is scheduled to start at 6 p.m.