‘For the Sabres — who rarely draw more than 9,000 in their own arena after years of devaluing their product and delivering one lousy team after another — it’s a half-step back into the limelight, a chance to demonstrate in front of a big crowd and national audiences in Canada and the U.S. that the franchise is still alive and kicking despite having no star players and a terrible record again this season. To be a Sabres fan is to have watched the team gradually move to the outskirts of the larger hockey conversation, becoming part of the irrelevant hinterland in a way the New York Islanders were for years and the Arizona Coyotes still are. This is a chance to be noticed again.’