SabresVet

Time has a way of revealing the truth. Owners are always going to have a say, but the degree of control TPegs believes he should have in light of continued losing...shows a level of ego hard to imagine. As in, the owner cannot compromise at all on control over hockey operations and installs the puppet who'll ensure that. A GM whose blunders are so numerous and bad that either he's not making any decisions and someone more idiotic is...or this guy takes inept to another level. Not even the Great Depression lasted this long.

Pretty clear the owner attending games later in the season was all for show if Adams isn't fired. What person with a fully functioning brain goes to those games and walks away saying the team this GM constructed is capable of meeting their established 2024-25 goal of making the playoffs? Then again, this is the owner who thought speaking to the team in the midst of an 0-10-3 streak would elevate their play. And the GM has more of late been revealed as a puppet.

Sequence seems to go like this. 1. Star player signs big contract. 2. Teams keeps losing. 3. Star player makes it known he doesn't want to keep losing. 4. Team keeps losing. 5. Player makes trade demand. 6. Terry is offended and sends Kevyn out to say he wants players who want to be here. 7. Player gets traded and is blamed for not wanting to be in Buffalo. We're at step 3 right now. Step 4 probably happens next season. And it's Terry's fault for being a loser of an owner.

Funny how a GM who signed Cozens to a big contract now has to unload him and gets to negotiate the return. If only the Sabres were a real organization that held GM's accountable.

Adams received authorization to spend some money at the deadline. It's also a doubling down on their "guys" not to mention with a little term. Then again it's Terry and this train has made some weird stops along the way these past 14 years. Most have gone off the rails.

A team which hired a veteran HC and started the season with a mandate to make the playoffs is now in last place and has made not trades all season. The apathy from leadership, who I suspect really has little authority continues to defy logic. Maybe there's no deadline deal to make...but after this season a message must be sent.

Adams' lack of response as the season goes down like the Hindenburg is indicative that missing the playoffs remained more optional from a management perspective than what was advertised to fans. And if that's the case, the GM has almost no fear of losing his job regardless of performance. If there's a benefit to more losing it's how this illuminates that Adams has no real authority, there is a low internal spending cap, and the playoffs wasn't as big a priority as promised. And like last year when people debated whether Granato would be fired, I will not assume they'll fire Adams. They could easily sell Lindy Ruff, but a GM promoted from within like Forton is not going to move the needle after 14 straight missed playoff seasons.

I don't expect owners to be personnel executives, but I do expect them to find people who will advise, line up interviews, and help make a decision. He's not had that with either franchise when he went in. For example, Ryan's firing was extremely awkward: https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/bills-owner-explains-why-rex-ryan-was-fired-and-why-gm-had-clue/ Whaley's firing was pushed by McDermott, who at his introductory PC talked of being the one voice for the Bills. And Whaley was known throughout league circles as not the hardest working guy which conflicted with a workaholic like McDermott. All of this is to say, Terry's always been a bumbling mess with front office decisions. I'd be OK with that if he had someone to reliably advise him, but with neither the Sabres nor Bills has he had that. He just trusts the people he inherits, sees them predictably fail, and then finds himself needing to identify replacements...and this is why we're here.

I think people forget how bad TPegs was from the point of buying the Bills in late 2014 to hiring McDermott in early 2017. Retaining Doug Whaley, trusting Russ Brandon, hiring Rex Ryan, and then firing Ryan with the HC and GM sniping at each other in the media near the end. Sure, it led to McDermott, who received authority as a condition of employment and who fired Whaley to bring on Beane, but that was 2+ wasted seasons before they even started a real rebuild. This organization hasn't done an honest HC or GM search in 5+ years which is why I think Terry is scared of them. He's made the wrong call so many times and wants to retain his meddling abilities while presenting that they're a serious organization. But you can't have both and it's why we end up with limited "searches" where he makes the call in the end. No decent GM candidate signs up to work under those conditions.

I can't see Adams moving a player that he re-signed like Thompson, Cozens, or Power. Doing so is an admission his plan didn't work. And Pegula has the perfect front man in the GM role who won't make a sound when TPegs wants to meddle. But anyone with a pulse know that the plan failed last year and a shake-up is warranted now more than ever. I don't put much blame on Lindy - yet. He can't make up in half a season for an owner and GM who have steered this organization toward a cliff the past 4.5 years.

Yeah. NYI and CHI aren't an indicator they've suddenly upped their game. Because I still saw a team which struggles to maintain puck possession and has too many defensive lapses. Still miles to go.

I'm sure that laugh from real executives is about the same as Russ Brandon showing up to the NFL Combine in 2008-09 for the Bills. And to think, Terry remains completely oblivious that his security hiring a known entity GM has completely hamstrung the entire organization.

Terry believes he knows hockey still after almost 14 failed years as an owner. That's the root cause of the problems. He meddles in decisions and it's reached a point where no career-minded front office executive would work there. And yet, that's made worse because Terry doesn't know people across the league nor seems to have made much of an attempt. It's why they relied on the league to give them names which led to hiring Botterill. It's the perfect storm of stupid: owner thinks he knows stuff and is on an island with the league. At this point, I don't seem them ever getting a respected GM for those 2 reasons. That's how you wind up with someone as miscast as Adams. Only way it could happen is, someone interviews and tells Terry to his face that unless he essentially delegates full control over hockey ops, then no one will work for him.

Saint Joseph can do some amazing things.

The Sabres playoff drought will reach 14 seasons in 2025, or about 6 years longer than it took the Americans (with French help) to whip the British in the Revolutionary War.