BUFFALO, N.Y. — The captain is back. The question is, can he right the ship?

Wild captain Jared Spurgeon was set to play against the Sabres on Friday at KeyCenter Arena, his first game since he suffered an upper body injury in an Oct. 5 preseason game in Chicago.

“Are we looking for him to come back and be a savior right away? Of course not,” head coach Dean Evason said before the 6 p.m. CST puck drop. “Everybody’s got to play the right way.”

Spurgeon has been skating for the better part of two weeks, and traveled with the team on this three-game trip through New York in anticipation of getting into at least one game. General manager Bill Guerin said Wednesday that was unlikely to happen, but player, trainers and coaches agreed the veteran defenseman could play on Friday.

He slotted back into a pair with Jake Middleton, who has struggled in his absence — although the team as a whole has struggled in Spurgeon’s absence. They entered the last game of this trip 5-6-2 overall after a 4-1 loss to the Rangers on Thursday in New York City.

Like most coaches, Evason won’t use injuries as an excuse. Twenty players suit up for a game and it’s their job to win games. But he acknowledged Friday that Spurgeon was a major loss as the Wild stumbled out of the gate.

“He’s just one of the best defensemen in the world, right?” the coach said. “So, to have him out of our lineup, sure, it’s hurt all areas of our game.”

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New Life Academy of Woodbury beat West Central in five sets in a Class A state volleyball quarterfinal Thursday night at the Xcel Energy Center.

The Eagles emerged from the back-and-forth match with a 25-22, 16-25, 18-25, 25-18, 15-12 victory.

No. 4-seeded New Life Academy takes on the top-seeded Russell-Tyler-Ruthton in the semifinals at 1 p.m. Friday at the Xcel Energy Center. Russell-Tyler-Ruthton swept unseeded Pine River-Backus in their quarterfinal.

Momentum looked to be in the hands of West Central after decisive wins in the second and third sets put the Knights just a set away from victory.

But New Life wouldn’t be put down so easily. In the fourth set, 6-foot-2 senior Makenzie Anderstrom and 6-foot sophomore Marisa Michaelis made getting the ball over the net tough for West Central and regained the momentum for the Eagles, who completed the comeback by winning the fifth set.

New Life head coach Dede Lawson said that this year being the team’s second time at the state tournament played a role in pulling out the victory in a game where they expected a tough battle.

“This is our second year here, and West Central’s first year,” she said. “I think that gave us a little edge, that we had quite a few players that have been here last year and played. And so I think that helped them be a little more relaxed and have a little more experience in that moment, and they handled that a little bit better.”

“As a team, the nerves weren’t as high; it was more excitement,” junior Makenna Lilly said. “Since a lot of the lineup has been here before, we were able to calm those younger girls down, I think, and that was good for them, to see that someone else was calm.”

Players said the pressure of going into the final set with the season on the line is a moment they relish.

“It was unreal,” Lilly said. “These are the moments you want as an athlete. These comeback moments, these big-time plays that you want. I think our team overall is just happy that we pushed through that fourth set, and then it’s like, ‘We want this,’ and then we just acted like it.”

Senior captain Addi Ross said that in the past few weeks, the team has made an effort to not look too far down the road.

“Just these last couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about taking things one step at a time, one point at a time,” Ross said. “I don’t think our team was even thinking about how this is the fifth set, we need 15 points to win this. We just wanted to take it one step at a time, one point at a time. Everyone there was so determined to do their job.”

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When the White Sox hired Tony La Russa, I told myself, “It can’t get worse.” After last year’s 81-win season of lethargy, I told myself, “It can’t get worse.” After last summer’s dysfunction, defined by a literal shooting in the ballpark, the hiring of Chris Getz as general manager and 101 losses, I told myself, “It can’t get worse.”

Naive is the word that comes to mind. I yearn for those days.

On Thursday, the Sox hit rock bottom. The Detroit Tigers announced they hired Jason Benetti, beloved White Sox TV play-by-play man. After eight wonderful years with the South Siders, Benetti, like many Sox fans, is moving on.

The foundation to any sustainable partnership is an ability to recognize when you have a good thing going and then committing to it. For the past eight years, Benetti was the best thing the Sox had going, and he committed deeply to them. Despite the terrible product on the field for six of those years, Benetti’s observational humor, love for the game and its characters, and ability to draw out nuggets of analysis from color analyst Steve Stone made the White Sox appointment television. Hanging out with Benetti made my day better. He made a terrible baseball team lovable because he is lovable.

Benetti grew up a die-hard White Sox fan in the south suburbs. He loves Chicago. He loves Sox fans. He had his dream job, and he excelled at it. Indeed, a great opportunity awaits him in Detroit. Three years ago, the Sox almost hired A.J. Hinch, the Tigers manager, but Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf torpedoed the process and chose his friend La Russa instead.

Scott Harris, Detroit’s head of baseball operations, once Theo Epstein’s protégé with the Cubs, has an experienced and shrewd baseball mind. Unlike the Sox, Detroit is moving on up in the world. Despite all of this, I imagine Benetti feels a sense of loss leaving Chicago. The franchise not only failed to build a winning team, but it also failed to fully recognize his brilliance.

The Sox didn’t hold up their end of the partnership. Benetti’s love for a job, a team and a city were no match for the dysfunction bred by Reinsdorf. For 43 years, Reinsdorf has been defined by a litany of mistakes and one magical 2005 season. After his worst season, 2023, losing Benetti will hurt most. The White Sox lost their best fan.

As MLB researcher Sarah Langs often writes, “Baseball is the best.” It’s the best because of people like Benetti — storytellers who can detail the game’s small wonders and rise to its defining moments, from describing a young fan in right field with ice cream slathered over her face to a bat flip by a young unburdened shortstop from Alabama, his full career ahead of him.

As I remember the Benetti era, one moment will always remain with me: turning on the television to see an empty stadium on opening day on July 24, 2020, four months into COVID-19. The sight felt like a warm blanket. Then I heard Benetti’s voice, which brought a tear to my eye.

“White Sox baseball is back. Every statue, every nook, every cranny, every seat, every hedge, every cloud, every angle to look at a cloud, every mural, every blade of grass is still here and ready for you to watch our national pastime from. We wish you were here. We really do.”

Thank you, Jason Benetti — for being there, not just with us, but for us. We wish you were here, too. We’re also proud of you for moving on. Maybe it’s a lesson for all of us.

Charlie Stanton is a speechwriter based in Oakland, California, and a proud Chicago native.