Sabato: Sabres and Canadiens present NHL with a unique opportunity in second round

For the first time in a long time, the Montreal Canadiens will enter KeyBank Center without a crowd in their favor.

There’s likely to be a smattering of red in the crowd, but not the sea that became the norm over the Buffalo Sabres’ 14-year playoff drought. Season ticket-holders looking to make some extra cash while avoiding a dreadful team put their tickets on the market and Montreal fans were all too happy to scoop them up.

Not this time.

The Sabres are back and most of the roughly 20,000 fans inside — and a few thousand more outside — will be wearing Sabres colors when the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs begin Wednesday. Those expecting an old-school Adams Division clash are likely to be disappointed.

You can never go back to the way it was. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be good.

There is also a unique opportunity to be had.

The old-fashioned, hate-filled rivalries that pushed professional sports to a greater societal importance than is probably healthy are largely gone. Michael Jordan’s 35-year disdain for Isiah Thomas and the Detroit Pistons doesn’t exist for current professional athletes.

While Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs fans love to barb each other, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes have a friendly relationship. Jim Kelly and Dan Marino did in the 1990s, but Bryan Cox is no longer walking down the tunnel with twin-fingered salute nor fighting Carwell Gardner on his way back.

The transiency of sports, starting with a youth landscape permeating with travel teams, all-star teams and showcases means most of the nation’s top athletes in their respective sports know each other before graduating high school. And free agency makes it difficult to build a long-standing roster that has time to develop a hatred of another team.

And few players are willing to commit to villainous roles anymore. Players don’t want to jeopardize endorsements and teams are terrified of bulletin-board material being leaked into the media.

So while a blood feud between the Sabres and Canadiens is too much to ask for, prepare for a bit of rowdiness. Montreal and Buffalo may have the two most passionate fan bases remaining in the playoff field.

The Canadiens are the top franchise in Montreal — and Quebec, for that matter — and have a Bills-like following. And even though the Sabres play second fiddle to the Bills, they, along with the Minnesota Wild, might have the closest thing to Canadian passion for the sport among American NHL teams.