JohnC

He doesn't need to read this particular blog to recognize that anyone involved with the NHL, media, hockey community and fan base have little regard for him and the franchise he presides over. He may be clueless but those who follow hockey recognize his incompetence. You don't have to be an analytical maven to recognize that a generation of failure is not a performance that should be highly regarded. There are plenty of reasons why this fanbase is substantially diminished. All of them relate to his bumbling stewardship as an owner. Who is the person who hired a person no one in the league would have even considered for the GM position?

I'm not arguing for Pegula to sell the team. What I want him to do is act like an owner who cares and is willing to do what needs to do to get this sunk franchise floating again. Or another way of saying that is to hire a competent GM and allow him to do his/her job without interference.

The arena will be 80% or more filled with Toronto fans. How embarrassing! The state of affairs for this franchise is outrageously bad. So sad.

The process was an insulting charade. I'm not even criticizing the Ruff hiring. It would have been a reasonable hire if it came from a legitimate coaching search. If he was the selection right from the start, then just hire him. No one's being fooled. It was a shambolic hiring process in a shambolically run franchise. The lack of professionalism is evident to all. It's a stupidly run franchise. It's embarrassing.

What drives the futility in this absurd situation is that the origin of the problem relates to the owner. He's the person who has made the consequential hires. Until he comes to the realization that he is in over his head and needs outside guidance, this insular organization will continue to chase its own chewed up tail. My sense is that TP doesn't have many meaningful relationships with the other owners or experienced hockey people. The consequences of having an operation that is so parochial is reflected in its generation of failure during the Pegula ownership. People here are yelling we need to do this or that. If the owner is too stubborn to seek and consider outside advice, then the cycle of futility will continue on. What's perplexing is that the owner has models for success within in his own sports businesses: the Bills and Bandits. What the owner has to recognize is that stubbornness is self-sabotaging trait.

What makes the situation even worse is that the GM put this franchise in such a precarious position that it has a lot less leverage to get a fair-value deal done to any interested parties. The sharks are circulating. And they are the ones who are going to get the bigger and better bite out of any proposed deal. When you are in the ring and leave yourself exposed, it shouldn't be surprised that you will come out bloodied. The time to have acted was in the offseason. The GM grossly miscalculated on what he had.

When the owner is obtuse it shouldn't be a surprise that the organization is obtuse. Basic logic. At least we can take pride in claiming to be the most consistent franchise over the past generation.

You sound like a trustworthy fellow. I'll get right on it. On a serious note, I did have personal experience with stolen identities and fraud. Someone stole a credit card from my wallet out of a locked locker at the gym I used to go to. In less than an hour, over five thousand $$$ worth of goods were bought from a number of stores. As it turned out, this was a theft by a multi-state theft ring. I was really pisssed off at the brazenness of the theft. I had a police background, so I really pushed the issue with the police department/s involved and the credit card company. This case ended up with multi-agency involvements, search warrants and seizures from stash houses that held the goods purchased by stolen credit cards. It first went to a lower Maryland court, and as the case developed it continued to get bigger and more complex, ending up in a higher court. Part of the group was arrested. Some of the members flipped on the honcho. He ended up being arrested and taken to court. After more than a year or so of wrangling, he ended up pleading guilty, resulting in jail time. What was aggravating about the case is that the credit card company offered me no cooperation. So the records were subpoenaed and turned over. What perturbed me the most about this theft is that not only was my credit card taken but also my house key was taken out of a wallet compartment. So until I got the lock changed. I slept on the couch on a lower level with my gun nearby. Moral of the story: Criminals create havoc and disruption for victims.

What services do you offer? I heard the back room is where the most stimulating massages happen. Of course, I'm willing to pay the premium price for what your advertisements indicate are satisfying results. Can you schedule me sooner rather than later? After visiting a particular hocky forum I feel very tensed up. Can you give me a guarantee that I will be satisfactorily serviced? 😀

It's stunning to see so much disorganized play at this level. Chaotic play leads to more chaotic play. There is such a stark difference when you watch a Sabre game compared to when you watch other games. You can be unschooled in the game of hockey and still recognize that qualitative difference in play. Pathetic!

The owner doesn't skate. But what he did do is hire an ill-equipped person to be his GM, and kept him on the job for five years. During that interlude, his franchise has degenerated to being a laughingstock franchise in the league. He elevated a person that no organization would have even considered for the position, let alone allow to interview for the job. Common sense 101: If you put an incapable driver in your race care, expect a crash and casualties!

My growing concern is that our best players (Dahlin most notably) will get so frustrated with being stuck in this hopeless situation that they will demand to be dealt. You don't think that there are some pangs of jealousy when they see former teammates (who demanded out) such as Eichel, Reinhart and ROR hoisting the Cup? You don't think that Dahlin sees that his friend, Mitts, is happier with his new team and will feel some envy when he sees Mitts playing in the playoffs while he is on the couch watching the postseason games again? How many road games are played in raucously full arenas while the Sabre home games are played in front of half-filled sleepy and agitated audiences? And don't you think that the players take notice that when the Sabres play the Maple Leafs at home, it seems like a road game? The players are very much aware that the franchise they play for is a league joke. You don't think that it bothers them that their place of employment is universally mocked? There is a lot of mention that a lot of players don't want to come here to this toxic waste site. There is an even more worrisome problem that the players here are desperate to get out of this manure pile. The irrefutable truth is that through its own ineptitude the organization put itself in this pitiful situation. It didn't have to be this way. An accumulation of bad decisions has sunk this franchise into the depths of irrelevancy. So freaking pathetic!

I'm in the minority in my positive view of Power. He's not a banger and never will be. He's more of a skater and finesse style of player. I'm confident that as he gets older, he will get stronger and will play a tougher game. If this dumb organization put him on the market, there would be a lot of teams salivating to get this young player with a lot more potential to tap into. The shame of it is that he is stuck here to wallow in this garbage pile of franchise.

I'm not disagreeing that this team is fragile. However, if that fluke play wouldn't have happened, the Sabres would still have gotten pummeled. The play was disorganized throughout the game. Individually, our players are not bad. If you put them on a pro functioning team, they would thrive. But from a team composition standpoint, this team is disjointed. It just seems to me that both the coaching staff and the players can't get on the same page and react as a team. Everyone is scrambling around, and the concept of team play has been lost. Sandlot hockey might work in midget hockey but it certainly doesn't work in the NHL. Players have lost their confidence. They expect bad things to happen leading to an onslaught. It's so sad that things have gotten to such a low point. The diminishing fan base deserve better. This franchise has become the laughingstock of the league. What more can be said that already has been said. Simply pathetic!

I think you are excessively optimistic about the prospects for the not-too-distant future that this GM and franchise is facing. The hideous disarray that is evident right now is going to reverberate to the point where our options will be limited in attaining help from the free agent market and in making trades because there are so many no trade clauses. Next year, Byram is going to be in his UFA year. Do you think that he has much appetite to stay here with this lagging franchise rather than pursue better options somewhere else? If that materializes, then the Mitts trade will turn into another boondoggle just as with the Eichel and Reinhart scenarios. The plummeting of this team has stunned me. I didn't expect it. The players seem to be just as dazed as the HC seems to be. Who would have thought that there is less structure and cohesion now than under Granato, the developmental coach. I'm simply at a loss for words trying to understand what has happened. Because of this ignominious/embarrassing losing streak, the erosion of the already withering fan base will accelerate. The damage to this franchise is self-inflected. It starts with the top of the pyramid. It's both sad and pathetic.