I've taken my family a few times prior to COVID traveling from the Rochester area. The place was dead and both times were big losses. My kids didn't hate it, but it's not like with the Bills when they were bad, where at least the tailgaiting was fun. I won't take them again, but it's a chicken / egg thing. They have never know the Sabres to be playoff good although when they were little they wore slug Briere/Drury/Miller gear. they were too young to remember that.
I'll also offer that my 65" HDTV cost less than a game with the family and the televised product is so much better than it used to be.