This can only mean they are holding back tickets to cash in on public mania.
... or perhaps that they are behind some of the $$$ tickets currently on StubHub and are getting higher prices as they constrain supply through the pre-pre-sale
sarcasm
, the pre-sale and the public sale.
Call me a bit of a conspiracy theorist here, but there are tons of tickets available WAY before the majority of people have tickets to sell. A few days ago there were >2,400 seats. That's way more than were ever available even just a couple days before puck drop.
I observed this prior to Game 3 of the WCF where availability nearly touched 3,000 ... AFTER STH had their tickets deposited into Flash Seats. For that game there were a ton of large blocks available up to game-time -- literally 3-4 completely empty rows, even down near the glass.
That said, there's only 1,780 left for SCF Game 1, so unlike prior rounds, people seem to be buying.
As for the 10a sale, I tried to get seats but got shut down. In the first 10' I was presented with exactly one set of seats: 2x GS2 seats @ $3,500 each. Pass. Later a pair in the Loge popped up, but the site would not take the card's CVV during the 10' buffer for some unknown reason. Gone.
I had a line on seats for the series but I think they fell through, so if anyone wants to sell some lowers definitely shoot me a line. I'd made a big effort to take my boy to games in earlier rounds and was hoping to do a father-son Stanley Cup thing.
At this point I don't know that I'll be able to take him, but I've never been in the barn for an SCF game and could at least go with a friend even if I can no longer afford a pair.
Hard to say right now if prices will drop near game-time. It will be interesting to see what happens after STH are allowed to list their seats. I'll bet many will list them at prevailing rates, though some will start to undercut and who knows?
Thanks.