While I agree that scoring being down league-wide is a drag and that the arena needs more to engage fans, the reason attendance is down is completely contained in these four words from the piece, "the falling Canadian dollar."
Canadians make up about 40% of a typical Sabres crowd. I work in Canada and know many Canadian Sabres season ticket holders. Most of them aren't Sabres fans, they have the tickets because they are NHL fans. When their dollar was par with ours they went to most games ( and sold the Leafs games for a big profit to offset their season ticket costs).
Now, the Canadian dollar is worth about .65 compared to the USD. Once the Canadian dollar rebounds in a couple of years, combined with the maturity of the Sabres' young guns, it will be near impossible to spot an empty seat at a game.