LTS

I think this is what I was saying but perhaps failed to nail the point. They wanted McDavid, but the fact that Eichel was the consolation prize justified the strategy. However, the primary objective was to get McDavid and then they had to "settle" for Eichel. The continued point I had was that they didn't get first prize and while they settled for second, the decision to get him was taken out of their hands so they felt less ownership over it. Yes, they could have NOT selected Eichel and went with the #3 pick in Strome, but that would have been an absolute career killing error. I'm really trying to figure out how they guy who owns the organization and makes the top level hiring which enables the lower level hiring is not responsible for the team's performance. If Terry hires Joe to be in charge of marketing and attendance and then Joe hires Curly, Larry, and Moe to run the program and they are not qualified, who is to blame? You might say Joe, but clearly Joe is not a good candidate to run marketing and attendance, so who hired that person? Terry. If Terry hires Larry to be the GM and Larry goes out an obtains players who cannot succeed, and hires a coach who cannot get the to succeed then who to blame? Again, ultimately it all goes back to the person who put the unqualified person in charge. That's the owner. This is bad logic. The ability to operate a business in one vertical is not the same as another. A person might be great at running a financial tech company but would suck at running a social media tech company. Moreover, to be successful in your job means more than getting it right once. Let's assume the Bills are considered successful. I guess making the playoffs is successful, but they have not won the Superb Owl yet. That said, Pegula failed at his first hire. He gets credit for listening to the person who suggested McDermott and he gets credit for listening to McDermott for Beane. That said, it's only happened once. It doesn't mean he's a good judge of talent, it just means he got it right once. With the Sabres however, he's made the wrong decision, many times over. He's established a pattern of always doing the wrong thing and the results speak for themselves. Other than a now defunct franchise, the Sabres are the worst team in the NHL over the past 10 years. The original topic was rating NHL owners and by all measurements, as an NHL owner Terry Pegula sucks. He might be a good owner now in football, but will he continue to be? Jerry Jones is usually not considered a great owner and yet he has three Super Bowl wins. Hell his first 10 years as owner of the Cowboys were by all accounts one of the most successful decades of football ownership ever. But is he a good owner now?

Having an opinion is everyone's right. Having an opinion is everyone's right. ----- Exploring this concept. I understand the desire to have a team in your hometown, but is that the sole reason anyone roots for them? Is that the reason anyone roots for any team? I will admit that people being fans of a team that is in their hometown is likely more prevalent but there are plenty of people who do not live in the city and have never lived in the city in which a sports team they root for resides. Does this make them unable to be fans? Of course not. What does it mean if the Sabres leave Buffalo? Would you stop being a fan? I think those who are fans of the team because of the shared connection to Buffalo might. But those who are no longer in Buffalo might not. If you stopped being a fan of the Sabres would you become a fan of another team? If you did, would the fact that you don't live in that city make you a lesser fan? I think people have beliefs on how they would respond but I don't know that we are all confident that we'd hold to those if faced with the situation. I did say in another thread that given the absolute joke the Sabres have become in the NHL under Pegula's ownership that the fact that they reside in Buffalo does not improve the image of the city at all. People who tune into games and see half-empty arenas mock the fans, the club, and the city. How do I know? I only need to look at some of the threads here where people were mocking the Florida Panthers not too long ago for their pathetic attendance. Buffalo is a city known for not winning. Until some franchise wins something it's a moniker that is going to stick. So, a team like the Sabres who move away from Buffalo will no longer be contributing to that image. Still much better if they would just get good and end this ridiculous and unprecedented level of losing.

Absolutely going to be pedantic here and let you know that while these are the dark ages of Sabres history, the games in the afternoon I would consider before dark. 🙂 I'm also surprised that it bothers you, I would have figured you for the connoisseur of "After Dark" programming potentially beginning with Cinemax After Dark on Friday Nights.. 😉

Agreed.. that is incredible. I love when technology is used for awesome stuff like this.

But the Bruins didn't fire the GM, they fired the coach. Do you think the problems in Boston are the coach or the GM? I firmly believe it ain't the coach. I dunno. The Sabres have fired more head coaches since Terry took over. It's hard to use the word "keep" in relation to coaching. The GM position has been slightly less volatile, but only a little. Boston is more serious about winning, but that's because of the owner.

Yep.. and each player is different. The key is developing the player into the role they will serve based on their skill set. You wouldn't bring in a top 6 forward to the 4th line and tell them to go play a hard checking game. This doesn't develop their skill set for where they need to go. Some players need more time to develop and the best place is in the AHL. Some players won't benefit from time in the AHL and need to be in the NHL. The only right answer is the one you learn when the player hits 26-28 and they've either become the player you thought they'd be or they did not. It's not always the plan, many times its the player.

They don't, but it's because of continued mismanagement. The team has had a revolving door at head coach and at GM. They've failed to build anything successful through any of their efforts. Why would any free agent who had an option to sign with a more successful franchise choose Buffalo? If the Sabres build a winning team they will draw players, it's that simple. Certainly there will still be other factors at play but all things being equal, the Sabres have to first be a successful team to draw in talent, until then none of the other factors matter.

Wouldn't it be more accurate to say they tanked for McDavid and had to settle for Eichel? Certainly the prevailing wisdom at the time was that either or would net you a player you build a roster around, but I would be fairly certain they would have preferred McDavid. The rest still being the same, but given that they had to "settle" for Eichel they might have felt slightly less attached to him. ------ I'm never letting Pegula off the hook. The bottom line of any analysis of Terry Pegula is the record of the team he has owned. From 2014-2024 only the Coyotes, a now defunct organization, and a complete tire fire when they existed have a worse overall record and they at least made the playoffs once. I'm not sure how you can take in that information and believe that at least when it comes to hockey, Terry Pegula isn't the worst owner in the league.

Fortuitous west coast trip... this will help get me accustomed to late nights culminating in the F1 race in Vegas this weekend which will kick off at the wonderful time of 1am ET. Hopefully the Sabres win... it would be nice to feel good again about them, if only for a few games.

It was mostly a joke and i did look it up. But thanks for also sharing.

Did you mean 51% here? At 31% it's very possible for an owner to lose all control of the team as long as there are 4 PE groups banding together.

I'm guessing that you aren't allowed to tell us about it?

It could fix it.. I was not cramped in Nashville or Vegas. KBC is a tiny arena so to get as many seats in as they did they had to cram them. I am 6'2 and I hate the seats at KBC. They are awful.

It's not like six pages of content based on nothing is a record around here. 🙂 Consider this thread to be devoted to the people who hate long stretches of silence and feel the need to fill it in with irrelevant small talk. How about the weather? 🙂

I mean, if it was Pastrnak coming back I would do it. So I wouldn't just out and out dismiss things, but it's not realistic.

Yeah, I was agreeing with you but then going on to hypothesize that if they were just floating rumors it will inevitably bite them in the arse. Now perhaps also they are floating it to get some GMs to call, but the statement reeks of desperation.. which it should and of course Adams will not get a good deal offered as other GMs know he's on his last legs.. If only it wasn't left to decay this long.

It's all rumor mill crap. I wouldn't put it past the Sabres to "leak" info with some theory of placating the masses. However, at this point, if things don't materialize then I think most of us are going to be even more disappointed in the GM and owner (if that's possible). Better to be quiet and do nothing than to leak out that you are trying to do something big and have nothing happen. I'm not sure who is listening to that crap anymore and isn't the point where the fan mentality is "Show me or shut up."

Ahh, well fair but as you point out, there was a reason. Cozens just falls and the usually gets a cross-check to the head from the opposition center who won the face-off from him. 🙂

I don't think Benson can be ruined. Cozens earns his ice every face-off, when he falls on it. Seriously, who the hell falls on EVERY face-off?

God no. There's only a handful of players in the league that I absolutely detest and he's one of them. He's a asshat.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who said this last night. This team was so bad last night that I chose to watch Gladiator instead, despite the billion commercials. I couldn't stand another moment of watching this team be the exact same team as last year. I see nothing that has changed. The power play looks the exact same, so either someone was FOS about who orchestrated it last year or the person they have in charge of it this year knows so little about it that all they did was copy/paste which should be grounds for dismissal. If Ruff wanted to send a message he should have stapled Dahlin's ass to the bench after this two penalties early on. Even if one of them was perhaps a bit questionable the team should not have been in the situation (on the power play, twice). This team hates success. Every time they begin to get some they cave on themselves. Also, any team that plays a hard forecheck completely stifles the Sabres. They Sabres play to not lose, they don't play to win. They give up both blue lines all the time. They continue to be a disappointment and I don't know how anyone can look at that game last night and have anything positive to say. Salient Essentially a key characteristic of a mediocre team. Sabres are 3-2 in games where they have a chance to get BACK to .500. So I can’t really draw a distinction that implies they somehow “fold” when the games matter they simply fold a lot because mediocre teams fold a lot

Jacob Bourne's movie franchise definitely did not sell as well.

Yeah.. United Center is on my list if for no other reason than to hear the anthem. I'd love to get to a game in Montreal. There are others as well. Love the praise on the Kraken game. The arena should be state of the art given its age.

welcome back...

It's a great place to put the experience. I want to get there some time. I saw a Knights game at T-Mobile center 3-4 weeks ago. That was, as expected, top notch. I'd probably put it a level above Nashville, which is incredible in its own right.