Job Performance Poll: President/Alternate Governor Ted Black

[Ghost of Dwight Drane]

I love a good conspiracy theory, but this story doesn't ring the bell for me, and I'm basically Pavlov's dog.

 

The Sunday column is not where Bucky fires his big gun — and he says he's still going to rip the Sabres new ones in his commentary columns. I take the juxtaposition of his farewell and the Black tidbit as basically innocent. Well, maybe a bit of an eff you.

 

Readers of Bob Swados' book, by the way, might remember his story of going to the newspaper during the Nolan brouhaha and getting coverage of the team softened — for a couple of days — so Ghost's theory is not crazy.

 

I'm in no way saying Ted started a beef...just the "so long!....by the way Ted ### ##### ####" at least makes me wonder. If he didn't then it sounds like Black actually IS in trouble....and I don't like that. He's been the best of the bunch up top and has taken countless bullets. Call me whatever, but I don't need another tax man/ banker in Pegula's ear. At least Black is candid most of the time and tries to relate to the fans. That's all his "turdburger" was...the setting with a couple 20 somethings on a loose talk radio show. I couldn't believe he said it, but as a fan I appreciate it.

 

And Weave, sorry to get snippy....I was in rant mode. And I would still eat week leftover Halibut. I agree some of the stuff I question is tightroping, but asking this question seems like a 3 out of 10 compared to what else looks goofy at times.

[26CornerBlitz]

10/17/13 Ted Black on WGR: http://podcast.wgr550.com/wgr2/4175725.mp3

 

The tank is on without explicitly saying so.

[Ghost of Dwight Drane]

Ted's Tired.....and Leon's Getting Larrrrrrrger!!!!

 

 

[IKnowPhysics]

Yep there it is. Trying to hoard 1st and 2nd round picks, 8th place be damned. From the audio:

 

We committed. This is what we want to do. We want to build through the draft Those 15 first and second round picks (from '12-'15) are the most in a four year period in Buffalo Sabres franchise history, and there's only one franchise that accumulated more first and second round picks in a four year period, and that's the Montreal Canadiens in the '70s.

 

So that's where we are. So any kind of day to day evaluation that deviates from that, whether we lose a game or lose two games or have the start that we've had, we have to pull back and think big picture. We can't sell out for the short run. We can't panic and say, 'oh my gosh, we have to satisfy this need to race to 8th, 9th, 10th place.' We need to be fully committed to what we're doing right now. And that also includes a commitment to developing the guys that are on our roster.

 

It's a global process, not one that you can say, 'what did you do to evaluate somebody today, what did did you do to evaluate somebody this week?' It's a constant evolution.

[TrueBlueGED]

Yep there it is. Trying to hoard 1st and 2nd round picks, 8th place be damned. From the audio:

 

And there you have it. Strap in ladies and gents, it's gonna be a long bumpy ride.

[That Aud Smell]

So, after giving a vote of confidence to DR and saying that the franchise can't panic and sell-out the long-term vision, Black would not respond directly to the question about whether firing DR would qualify as a panic move. He refused on several occasions - saying "draw your own conclusions."

 

Minutes later, he interrupted and derailed a fan's call by saying that he didn't want his silence re: the Golisano bashing to be interpreted as a form of agreement with what was being said.

 

Yeesh.

 

It really seems as though he wants to keep the door open on terminating DR.

[Ghost of Dwight Drane]

So what happens when they tank for 3 years.....it takes another 3-5 years to have the team reach their prime....and the GM, giving him the benefit of the doubt, does an average to above average job of identifying players and assembling the team? You go from 60-80 points to 90-105 points and get into the playoffs from 2017-2022?

 

That's the good case scenario. The best case is that they win the draft lottery 3 straight years (a 1.53% chance if they finish dead last the next 3 seasons), those turn out to be true franchise superstars, and you have a chance at the Stanley Cup for a decade.

 

What is realistic? That the Sabres under the same management, will not have won a playoff series from 2007 until 2016, and they probably manage to win a few series from 2017-2022 with a 5-1 chance at the best to win a Cup in their peak year if everything goes gloriously, and between 15-1 and 30-1 if they are a decent to very good team.

 

Horses are known not to panic when a barn catches fire. They feel safest in their stall and remain status quo, even running back into a burning barn after being set free and attempted to be led to safety.

 

So who is willing to volunteer to bury the bodies the next morning?

[IKnowPhysics]

And there you have it. Strap in ladies and gents, it's gonna be a long bumpy ride.

 

 

War nerves? Who said war nerves?

[26CornerBlitz]

I generally think Black does a good job with the non-Hockey operation of the Sabres, but he's FOS saying on WGR this morning that the Fans signed up for this Sh!tWagon run by Darcy and Ron: http://podcast.wgr550.com/wgr2/41835...nloadlink=true

[darksabre]

 

War nerves? Who said war nerves?

 

:lol:

[TrueBlueGED]

I generally think Black does a good job with the non-Hockey operation of the Sabres, but he's FOS saying on WGR this morning that the Fans signed up for this Sh!tWagon run by Darcy and Ron: http://podcast.wgr55....nloadlink=true

 

He's not entirely wrong. The team flat-out said there would be suffering, and did everything in their power except literally say they were tanking the season for a pick. It's not the Sabres' fault that people either didn't want to believe it or simply didn't care and still bought their tickets.

[qwksndmonster]

He's not entirely wrong. The team flat-out said there would be suffering, and did everything in their power except literally say they were tanking the season for a pick. It's not the Sabres' fault that people either didn't want to believe it or simply didn't care and still bought their tickets.

This rubs me the wrong way. Fans are going to be fans of their hockey team either way. Saying they signed up for the suffering is rubbing salt in the wound.

[26CornerBlitz]

He's not entirely wrong. The team flat-out said there would be suffering, and did everything in their power except literally say they were tanking the season for a pick. It's not the Sabres' fault that people either didn't want to believe it or simply didn't care and still bought their tickets.

 

Tanking and suffering? Okay. Having the same Commander-In-Chief in Darcy and an unqualified General in Rolston is what I'm having an issue with.

 

Too bad Pegula doesn't believe in "term limits". :(

[Ghost of Dwight Drane]

I'm worried about Ted.

 

I didn't hear him talk today, but he is out and about in town without any hair product. While I admire that trait, it is a drastic change.

 

Ted is our only hope. I know he feels our pain.

[26CornerBlitz]

@WGR550

Listen to WGR's full interview with Ted Black here http://audio.wgr550.com/a/83333553/10-31-ted-black.htm …

 

Ted talks Halloween...oh and rebuilds

[LGR4GM]

53% of all goals are scored by players drafted in the 1st round

16% of all goals are scored by players drafted in the 2nd round

- Ted Black and analytics

 

BTW if you have not listened to the Ted Black interview 26CB posted... you should. Ted Black explains a lot of stuff.

[HopefulFuture]

8, 8 and 5.

 

8. A couple years and finally we see a right and proper rebuild underway. I appreciate the efforts to try and give the old core a push into the playoffs. To bad it didn't work, but the effort was there.

 

8. My expectations are very high, given the brief stint to attempt an old core push then the subsequent rebuild decision that, IMHO, was the right direction to move in.

 

5. Responsibility for the teams record since Black came is shared from TP on down through management to the roster and staff as well. No one person is completely at fault, however, Darcy Regier is the GM and such bares a good deal of the responsibility given he put the product together with the staff he assembled. The players play also contributes, as well as the owner and upper management (Black and Sawyer) decision to keep DR on after the team purchase.

 

In short, there is enough blame to go around and all facets of the organization are responsible.

[Assquatch]

@WGR550

Listen to WGR's full interview with Ted Black here http://audio.wgr550.com/a/83333553/10-31-ted-black.htm …

 

Ted talks Halloween...oh and rebuilds

Wow. Maybe I'm looking too hard for a glimmer of hope but just after the 20:00 mark a caller makes the analogy of hiring a contractor who has done bad work in the past to rebuild a house. Black answers the question by talking all about how right now they're in the phase of maximizing return for assets (something even people like me admit Regier is good at). This leaves the door open for those of us hoping a different contractor will be hired for the building phase. Hopefully Regier is just running the estate sale.

[dudacek]

 

Wow. Maybe I'm looking too hard for a glimmer of hope but just after the 20:00 mark a caller makes the analogy of hiring a contractor who has done bad work in the past to rebuild a house. Black answers the question by talking all about how right now they're in the phase of maximizing return for assets (something even people like me admit Regier is good at). This leaves the door open for those of us hoping a different contractor will be hired for the building phase. Hopefully Regier is just running the estate sale.

 

It's what I'm hitching my hope wagon to for the time being.