from Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News,

It started in the pregame warmup, of all things. There was actual noise as the Buffalo Sabres took the ice. Real applause. Like you see in a lot of other cities but not normally here.

Then the game started. And it was "KeyBank Library" no more.

"I figured with the 7:30 game and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving they might have a couple alcoholic beverages in them so they were going to be a little rowdy," a smiling defenseman Jake McCabe said of the team's fans after the 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. "We definitely built off that early, were pumped up to get out there. We rallied around their energy and it was a blast."

Sure was. The building was packed to the rafters, the first sellout since opening night. But lots of people weren't in their seats in the first period -- because they were jumping out of them.

The Sabres ran the Philadelphia Flyers out of the building with three goals in the first nine minutes and had a 4-0 lead when the horn mercifully sounded to send the teams to the first intermission.

continued

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