PASabreFan

Ah yes the good old days when admitting some videos were better than watching the team was considered only a slight indulgence until the Sabres turned things around in 13-14 on the back of Mikhail Grigorenko.

True. Is there anything the league can do about it? It's just a question. I'm not saying the league can or should do anything about the ownership woes in Buffalo. But the savaging they are taking in the "press," from some of the biggest names in hockey media, gets my one eyebrow up. I feel like I'd be naive to think that the people who cover the team and the league itself are so separate that there couldn't be at least a bit of coordinated messaging here.

There's no link where Darcy is sitting in front of two bandana-ed men holding machetes, unshaven and haggard, reading from a script, "I, Darcy Finnigan Regier, declare that I opposed the signings of Ehrhoff and Leino, but Terry Pegula made me do it." There's everything I've presented for almost 10 years now, and you should listen to the podcast, because it has Barnaby reporting that his team sources told him the signings were against Regier's wishes and Harrington confirming it "100%" while adding another bit of circumstantial evidence beyond one of the daughter's tweets. Does it really defy your imagination that much?

Darcy opposed the Leino and Ehrhoff signings and lost the argument to Terry and Kim?

I can't even keep track of where to put this meddling stuff anymore. But nfreeman made me hunt around the Interwebs, and I found an interview Terry did with The Instigators before the Dahlin draft. Terry said he waits until the draft work is almost done then he offers his input. Other than "he owns the team" and/or "other owners do it," is there any good justification for him offering input, whatever form that might take? He also said he pretty much lets Jason do his own thing, but when Jason wants to do something, "we talk and discuss the pros and cons." Again... WHY? Maybe it's harmless and the hockey people just humor him. But with almost 10 years of hockey futility under our belts and Terry being the only constant (except Ripper, I guess), there's a pretty good case that can be made that Terry's. Just. Not. Helping. Things. And. Is. Likely. Hurting.

You've seen it, you've just forgotten. I'll keep trying to find my original post about Terry's call to WGR (Instigators) when he suggested the other owners were upset about his free-spending ways (I think he said, "They're saying, 'who is this guy?') and admitted of the summer of 2011, "It was my decision/I wanted to do it." (As if Jessie's tweet about how much her dad liked Ehrhoff wasn't enough.) Finding the archive of The Instigators show is even less likely than finding the post. I remember that Terry called in unprompted while out on a drive with his dog Sidney. I was eating a raspberry filled paczki from Tops and drinking a hot green tea at the time. The chatter about Darcy's plan being "too sublime" came from Terry's visit to the Buffalo News editorial board on his first day as owner. There's a link to the video, but when you click it, it asks you sign up for Buffalo Bills Blitz or something. For $2, I might try, but I suspect the video is gone. This is where the infamous comment on Darcy came from — "What did he do wrong?" Terry also blamed the News' coverage for being part of the reason for the "quit in the team" and said if they would write more supportive stuff, it would help the players. The editor or sports editor said that wasn't the paper's role, and Harrington explained that when the team is winning, pages and pages of positive content are created, player posters and such.

Was tanking risky? And what about the original sin of this owner: not letting Darcy do his thing in 2011? Terry asked Darcy to submit a plan, this was even before the presser, Terry didn't like it and made Darcy re-think it. This led to the summer of 2011, when the Sabres went on a spending spree because, as Terry admitted later, "I wanted to do it." No way that was Darcy's doing, even with loosened financial restrictions. The resulting disappointment ended up in fans cheering for the Coyotes at MMA. And here we are. They are risky people. The very idea that they thought they could, as non-hockey and non-hockey business people, run an NHL team, was the biggest risk of all.

Has anyone flat out asked the Pegulas how it went down?

Patty told Terry he couldn't take the GM job because he didn't have enough experience, then Terry offered him prez. Seems risky. How about hiring rookie GMs to try and lead the franchise out of tankdom? The Mrs. as team president? Some pal out of PSU club hockey to accompany Pat to Ottawa to interview Murray?

I think it deserves a call-out thread because it goes to the heart of a lot of what's been wrong with their ownership. When the Pegulas had to fire Tim Murray, citing lack of communication skills among other issues, Terry said, this time, he'd be fully involved in the new hire. (He claimed he wasn't overly involved in Murray's hiring.) One can imagine the meeting of Terry, Kim and team president Russ Brandon to discuss GMTM's replacement. With the organizational depth chart limited to those three, where else would they turn but to the NHL offices for advice? Why was the executive bench so short? Brandon, a non-hockey guy, had replaced Ted Black, who had been a highly capable former vice president of the Pens. Ken Sawyer, brought in by Black to be a special advisor, had been CFO of the league for 14 years before serving in the same capacity to save the bankrupt Pens, then becoming CEO to help the Pens become a powerhouse, one with a sparkling new arena to boot. That Sawyer was also long gone. There was no hockey president to rely on, as the LaFontaine experiment had quickly fizzled. Craig Patrick? Have they even found the body yet? (Spoiler alert: grain silo.) Battista! was a joke here, but he's yet another adviser they brought in who didn't make it — the official reason he left was that he was tired of driving down 219 on the weekends and having to pass the monstrous oil refinery in Bradford (or maybe it was the monstrous-smelling paper plant in Johnsonburg) on the way home to Happy Valley. Terry. Kim. Russ. Before firing Botterill, of course, the situation was even more dire, with Kim having named herself president after Brandon's dismissal. Terry. Kim. It turned into the episode of Impractical Jokers where two of the jokers were locked in an overheated basement room with a rotary phone their only way of selling a turquoise ring and thus winning their freedom. Before they could quickly die of dehydration, Kim remembered Kevyn's number, and here we are. The NHL and other "hockey people" were easy scapegoats, but let's remember why the Pegulas needed the hiring assistance in the first place. It's not a fluke that so many good hockey people didn't stick around. Terry's conception of the front office is that he centers a line with the GM (and the odd adviser/team president) on his left and the coach on his right. It's dysfunctional and in no way a standard operating practice in the league that's needed because there's so much money involved these days (involvement need not lead to meddling). Moreso, it's offensive to anyone who's actually been in the business for decades, including the three former GMs. (I've never believed Darcy was fired for cause, but instead got a golden parachute.) The Pegulas might be saved by Ralph Krueger and a lucky hire in Adams. If not, there's only one scenario left. Kruegams follow all the others out the door, and Terry and Kim are left in the bunker under the streets of Berlin with a panting German Shepherd in the corner and no one left to call. Copyright 2020 pasf

I wonder how much money LQ and Dan DiPofi have and whether they and OSP would want to get back in the game. Tom could then say he saved the Buffalo Sabres twice.

You should have tried being a critic of Terry on February 22, 2011. That was fun. You have to have a thick skin to post on a sports message board. If you can get through the abuse from little rocket men and hairy Korab men, you'll find most of the responses are crowd-sourcing challenges that make you improve your position. We had a trial and everything. His Honourable Judge Pheromonius Smell even ruled in my favor.

The confusion we're seeing here comes, I think, from a confusing statement made by a WHO official.

You are in the running. My team is combing over posts and social media content to see if you're "PA People."

Do you know how they're handling contact tracing? To do it right, if a player tests positive, then all of his close contacts would have to be in quarantine for 14 days. Or maybe daily testing supercedes that. At least in the U.S., it never went away. We modestly flattened the curve, but now there's clear evidence a second wave (or resurgence of the first wave) is beginning. Increasing positivity rates and hospital usage are telling.

If you lend your support to this, I can promise you it'll be a mule and the goal song will be that Erie Canal song.

Anwyho... what should the next Sabres mascot be? I love snark, but I think it's a serious question. Sabrepede? No. Seriously, what would be up there with the brilliant Flyers rebrand of Gritty?

I called dibs.

So doesn't this argue against giving Kim doing anything of note re: "gutting the hockey department"? She did what the new GM would have done anyway. Or did the GM do it? Did Kevyn know what he was going to do after getting hired and just do it very quickly (immediately after being hired)?

Was she inside a public location?

I can be liason with ownership. (First I'll learn how to spell it. WTF.)

No, you're right. You do a good job. You can be inside the next mascot suit. Unless... it's a real cat? That can type?

Bobby Pin Kim is in testing right now.

Throw your fedora in the ring.

Everybody who got fired should report to work tomorrow and act like it didn't happen.