The only recent group of players that can even talk about pride and winning is the mid 2000's group of Briere, Drury, Grier, Miller, Vanek, Pommer, Lindy, etc. That was 15 years ago and some left unceremoniously. Many of these players work for other teams now and identify with them. Heck, Mike Peca and Phil Housley are Rangers now.
The culture of Buffalo Sabres hockey has been seriously fractured and replaced by losing - and more precisely by tanking, by self induced suffering, by bad coaches, unqualified GMs, a revolving door of change and commotion, young players wanting out, extremely bad ownership, and an overall acceptance and expectation of losing. The Sabres alumni came out strong to greet and support Pegula when he took over.
We don't have what the Bruins have, we did at one time, for awhile, but we lost it.
Kevyn Adams and Don Granato are not perfect, they are both learning on the job - both are works in progress - but they know enough to realize that a culture change is needed, just as it was for the Bills. So they are going slow and building from within (draft and develop), its their only choice. Even with this team on an upswing, we are still hearing about trades being foiled because the person we want won't come here (Pesce, Murray, and probably even more).
The culture change, and the winning, is coming but it will take much more than alumni support, it will be from the current core maturing and winning and setting a standard. It will take an much improved level of stability and commitment in the hockey front office to keep the winning going.