Crazy- I think the Buffalo move is to put butts in the seats. I am not very fond of it, besides the old school feel, it will not make any difference in the play of Buffalo. Maybe a boost for the first couple of weeks, then it will go down the same road again. They flat out need better horses on the ice.
Now about the ref question that comes up every year and I neglected to address it at the first of the year like I usually do.
The NHL considers it a security risk to announce the refs ahead of time. But there are ways to sometimes see who will be on the crew many hours before the game. But if you want to cut it to the wire to make you wager, there is always a way to see who will be out there.
Most teams will have a game notes section for the day of the game. It's usually in .PDF format where you can just look at it on the site or download it. Some teams sites will post it every single game and some don't post it at all.
Now here is the game notes section of Buffalo's website for tonight's game against the Leafs.
https://sabres.nhl.com/v2/ext/2013-14%20Season/11-15-tor-notes.pdf.
You will see that the refs and linesmen are listed for tonights game. Now this .PDF has a ton of great info in it. Don't just stop when you come to the ref information. It has stats for all players, streaks, how teams do after leading or trailing after the 1st or 2nd period. There are 40 pages of info here, yes I said 40 pages !!!!!
I look at all the teams game notes every single day and it does make a difference.
Now onto the way if you want a 100% way to find out the games refs and you can wait till the last few minutes to make a wager. If you go to NHL.com's website about 10 minutes before the game. Go to the box score section of each game and keep refreshing. You will see the games refs listed at the bottom of the page after the players are listed.
And there you go......
SportsFreak69 2-0 (Won last 3 games)
RocNRose 2-0 (7-2 run)
rabbitplus 2-0
ChildishGambino 1-0 (Won last 2 games)
weeble5672 5-2
thetomcat1 3-1 (7-3 run)
DetroitPinball 1-1 (46-31 run)
bob_sakimano 1-1 (14-9 run)
USCdiehard71 1-1 (24-17 run)
grripper 0-0 (Great pick, Won last 4 games)
Jab38 0-1 (71-47 run)
B Lugosi 0-1 (4-2 run)
Didn't make a pick
BooBunny 1-0
wingsnut 1-0
USCdiehard71 1-4 (22-15 run)
CJkamp13 4-0
jredmond 2-0 (29-8 run)
mags4444 1-0 (Won last 2 games)
Toronto at Buffalo 7:00 PM
Los Angeles at New Jersey 7:00 PM
Nashville at Pittsburgh 7:00 PM
Anaheim at Carolina 7:00 PM
Montreal at Columbus 7:00 PM
Boston at Ottawa 7:30 PM
Washington at Detroit 7:30 PM
Florida at Minnesota 8:00 PM
Philadelphia at Winnipeg 8:00 PM
San Jose at Edmonton 10:00 PM