Sabres Draw 17K-Plus For Scrimmage Featuring First Look At Eichel

The Sabres "sold 17,115 tickets" to First Niagara Center for Friday night's Blue & Gold Scrimmage, which featured the first look at No. 2 overall draft pick Jack Eichel. There were 11 NHL teams that averaged fewer than 17,000 fans per game last season, and coach Dan Bylsma said of the atmosphere, "Even coming to the game with the weather, it had the feel and excitement of a playoff game almost with the people that were here. Seventeen thousand for July 10. Pretty awesome." The Sabres, who "added an Internet stream in the hour before the scrimmage after howling popular demand" on social media, "pushed the faceoff back to 7:15 to accommodate fans because they could, since they were not beholden" to TV restrictions (BUFFALO NEWS, 7/11).