Enough Already - Terry Fire Adams and Sell the Team! - This is actually a positive thread.

[mjd1001]

Just now, Crusader1969 said:

I've said it before but a sell and move might be the best solution 

with the promise by the league to give Buffalo an expansion franchise within the next decade 

think fresh start might be the only way to go for them 

I don't think that would happen, that is the problem.

For better or worse, the league was falling over itself to keep a team in the phoenix market. They don't care at all about a passionate fanbase in a small city (if they did Quebec city, with a much nicer/newer Arena than Buffalo, would have a team "back there" already).

The league cares about market sizes like Houston (closing in on 8 millon), Atlanta or Phoenix (5+ million and growing),  Austin, Orlando, Charlotte, San Antonio, Austin San Diego and others (2.5-3+ million) more than they do about Buffalo (Metro size 1.1million)...and it looks at Money (most of those markets have an area "GDP" of 3-6 times what Buffalo has).

If Buffalo did lose the Sabres, in no way, in no world do I see them moving in front of Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix, or a 2nd GTA team. No way.

 

[EM88]

11 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Terry you have driven this franchise into the ground.  Do yourself and the city and the fans a favor fire your Yes-Man Adams and sell the team.   Give a willing owner the chance to hire competent management to fix this team.  There is actually enough here to build from, but you and Adams are not the men for the job.

The sad thing is that there is a core of something that could work, but the team is so mismanaged and the roster so poorly constructed the puzzle pieces will never work without a fresh look

This is what we really have 

????? Tage Tuch

Benson ????? JJP

Quinn ?????  Greenway

?????? McLeod ??????  

 

Dahlin  ??????

Byram ??????

??????  ?????

 

UPL

??????

To make this work Power, Cozens, Byrson, Joki, Krebs, Samuelsson, and Clifton all need to go.  I like Zucker and I'd keep him until the deadline, trade him and then bring him back on another one year smaller deal.  We need two playmakers hopefully at center.  We need partners with a bent toward defensive play for Dahlin and Byram.  We also need our D to be tougher and more physical.  

I cannot see Quinn being here long term unless he transforms into a totally different player. He is producing like a bad 4th liner and brings nothing to the team in terms of skating or physicality right now either.  In addition, he is starting to make more obvious mistakes defensively, rivaling Cozens for lack of hockey sense without the puck.

Bryson I'm good with as your 'spare' 7th or 8th guy. Krebs also has taken a step forward to me.  Clifton I think is playing well for a 3rd pair guy.  Power I can go either way on depending on the game.

[Cranky old man]

I’m sorry, did Pegs blow a four goal lead last night? 

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, EM88 said:

He lucked into a coach/GM combo, through no skill of his own.

Remember the Rex Ryan fiasco? Obviously he wasn't a good coach for the team, but it was the Pegula's who wanted him after talking to him in person a few times. That wasn't a hire that 'football people' suggested to him.  Pegula (or the Pegulas), seem to run their teams like fans, but not even well educated fans, they run their team like 14-year-old boy fans.

Also, getting one of the top 5 players in the league helps.  Take Josh Allen off the Bills and they are a middling team probably not making the playoffs, just like the Sabres. On the other side, add one of the top 5 players in the NHL to the Sabres (McDavid, Matthews, Kucheroff, McKinnon) and they are likely a much better team.

-I have always thought in Football, the game is more complex and there are more 'layers' between the owner and the roster. Roster construction is more complex. Ther are more players to choose and contribute to the roster, and there are more bodies between the players and the owner.   In the NHL, when your roster is basically 15-20 important pieces, and maybe 2-3 of your top 20 pieces change out each year, an owner who wants to be involved can have a MUCH greater impact.  In the NFL, you have 40 important pieces, and many more of those change out each year. An owner who spends 20 hours a month in personal meetings or sitting next to and talking to the GM is simply going to have less of an impact on the roster and staff. There are too many people and not enough time to mess things up.  In hockey, smaller rosters, smaller coaching staffs, making it simply a lot easier for a bad owner to mess things up more quickly.

Actually Club President Russ Brandon played a big part in hiring Rex.  He infamously advised the Pegula's "don't let him get out of the building".  

McDermott was the the NFL's list of top head coaching candidates at the time.  

The Pegula's don't know who to listen too.   Hiring McDermott was based on their interview with him, and then listening to his recommendation on Beane, was as much luck as anything else.  But at least they did it without listening to someone with limited or dubious qualifications. 

In the hockey world they have no clue were to turn - and they had guys like Dudley and Ruff in their backyard for entire time.   

[DarthEbriate]

57 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

I don't think that would happen, that is the problem.

For better or worse, the league was falling over itself to keep a team in the phoenix market. They don't care at all about a passionate fanbase in a small city (if they did Quebec city, with a much nicer/newer Arena than Buffalo, would have a team "back there" already).

The league cares about market sizes like Houston (closing in on 8 millon), Atlanta or Phoenix (5+ million and growing),  Austin, Orlando, Charlotte, San Antonio, Austin San Diego and others (2.5-3+ million) more than they do about Buffalo (Metro size 1.1million)...and it looks at Money (most of those markets have an area "GDP" of 3-6 times what Buffalo has).

If Buffalo did lose the Sabres, in no way, in no world do I see them moving in front of Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix, or a 2nd GTA team. No way.

They would be behind large US metro areas in an expansion.

But, the NHL will want to keep the US hockey-mad market of Buffalo/Western NY and most importantly, a team for any non-Leaf person in Southern Ontario. The Leafs won't let a team in Hamilton, but they can't keep a nearby team out of the nearby US market. One of the best things for the league would be a strong Toronto-Buffalo connection to appeal to any Leaf-haters amid the 13 million people in Southern Ontario.

[Pimlach]

1 minute ago, DarthEbriate said:

They would be behind large US metro areas in an expansion.

But, the NHL will want to keep the US hockey-mad market of Buffalo/Western NY and most importantly, a team for any non-Leaf person in Southern Ontario. The Leafs won't let a team in Hamilton, but they can't keep a nearby team out of the nearby US market. One of the best things for the league would be a strong Toronto-Buffalo connection to appeal to any Leaf-haters amid the 13 million people in Southern Ontario.

We already know that a competitive team in Buffalo, with a few legit NHL stars, equals sell out every night and a passionate venue.  

[mjd1001]

5 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

They would be behind large US metro areas in an expansion.

But, the NHL will want to keep the US hockey-mad market of Buffalo/Western NY and most importantly, a team for any non-Leaf person in Southern Ontario. The Leafs won't let a team in Hamilton, but they can't keep a nearby team out of the nearby US market. One of the best things for the league would be a strong Toronto-Buffalo connection to appeal to any Leaf-haters amid the 13 million people in Southern Ontario.

Maybe.

The problem is you need an OWNER who also wants a team in Buffalo.

If the NHL approves someone new to be an owner, they are going to want someone pretty 'rich' that likes and wants to make money for themself and the other owners.

How does Buffalo get a team 'back' when that would likely be in a 30+ year old arena that needs a lot of work, in a city with so many less people and money....versus other massive cities with a ton more money, that probably would be willing to help build a brand new, state of the art arena that simply could not be done in Buffalo (especially with the region and state just giving money to a new stadium for the Bills).

Even IF the league wanted a team in Buffalo even more than those other cities (not sure I think that is the case but even if it was true), what multi-Billionaire is going to step forward and choose Buffalo (and the Arena here) as the place they will make even more money vs those other cities?

[Thorner]

2 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

But Darth Pegulas the Wise and GM Sheevyn want to be here.

Unlike Eichel, Reinhart (top 10 in scoring in the league in scoring), Montour (16th among D), Ullmark, and many, many others.

Had any franchise ever traded *all* the good players to walk through their door? 

Unlikely? 

well, I wanna be the first one to trade em all! 

[Thorner]

1 hour ago, Cranky old man said:

I’m sorry, did Pegs blow a four goal lead last night? 

Yes, he suited up in goal after UPL got hurt 

[DarthEbriate]

2 minutes ago, Thorner said:

Had any franchise ever traded *all* the good players to walk through their door? 

Unlikely? 

well, I wanna be the first one to trade em all! 

You've got the midichlorian count to do it.

As I once said about Jackikin Eichwalker, "His Aerobic Fitness is off the charts. No skater has a VO2 max that high."

4 minutes ago, Thorner said:

Had any franchise ever traded *all* the good players to walk through their door? 

Unlikely? 

well, I wanna be the first one to trade em all! 

Usually you break up a star roster after you win the Cup. Or at least a lengthy ride at the top of the Conference (San Jose style).

[Thorner]

2 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

You've got the midichlorian count to do it.

As I once said about Jackikin Eichwalker, "His Aerobic Fitness is off the charts. No skater has a VO2 max that high."

Not even master Yandle

[DarthEbriate]

18 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

The problem is you need an OWNER who also wants a team in Buffalo.

And we have one. He's just ineffective.

[Kristian]

3 hours ago, John Tucker said:

Every squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.  Pegula lucked out with the Beane/McDermott hires.  I go back to the Lafontaine fiasco.  Something felt fishy about his departure back then and it should've been a red flag right from the start.  I really think that Lafontaine would've been a great team president, overseeing the hockey department.  Pegula gets his hockey ignorant hands on too many decisions.

Today, my guess is Lafontaine smelled trouble right from the get-go, and decided to get the hell outta Dodge, as soon as he could.

[mjd1001]

10 minutes ago, Kristian said:

Today, my guess is Lafontaine smelled trouble right from the get-go, and decided to get the hell outta Dodge, as soon as he could.

Back then when that whole situation went down, I put it on Lafontaine. Pegula was still rather new here, he told us about hockey heaven, he told us he would do what was needed, spend the money to make the Sabres a winner. If there was friction, well, it wasn't because of our glorious new wonderful owner, could it be? No way!

After years have gone by, I look at that as possibly a little bit different.

[steveoat87]

If the team is sold say goodbye to a team in Buffalo.  There are too many big market teams who would love a franchise.  

The best solution is pressure on Pegula to improve the team management and structure.

[Thorner]

11 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

Back then when that whole situation went down, I put it on Lafontaine. Pegula was still rather new here, he told us about hockey heaven, he told us he would do what was needed, spend the money to make the Sabres a winner. If there was friction, well, it wasn't because of our glorious new wonderful owner, could it be? No way!

After years have gone by, I look at that as possibly a little bit different.

It’s a little scary looking back at the decisiveness with which Pat made that decision. What a canary in the coal mine 

I remember there was even some speculation at the time Pat was a little sporadic 

 

[#freejame]

I used the AI for the first time to make this 

[SwampD]

5 hours ago, Carmel Corn said:

Selling the team means moving the team as well…..which may seem like the lesser of the evils after last night’s embarrassment.

Can we just stop with this nonsense?! I'm so sick of hearing this every time someone mention the team being sold. The Sabres aren't moving. 

2 hours ago, Cranky old man said:

I’m sorry, did Pegs blow a four goal lead last night? 

Yes. By not caring or demanding wins.

[inkman]

15 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Terry you have driven this franchise into the ground.  Do yourself and the city and the fans a favor fire your Yes-Man Adams and sell the team.   Give a willing owner the chance to hire competent management to fix this team.  There is actually enough here to build from, but you and Adams are not the men for the job.

The sad thing is that there is a core of something that could work, but the team is so mismanaged and the roster so poorly constructed the puzzle pieces will never work without a fresh look

This is what we really have 

????? Tage Tuch

Benson ????? JJP

Quinn ?????  Greenway

?????? McLeod ??????  

 

Dahlin  ??????

Byram ??????

??????  ?????

 

UPL

??????

To make this work Power, Cozens, Byrson, Joki, Krebs, Samuelsson, and Clifton all need to go.  I like Zucker and I'd keep him until the deadline, trade him and then bring him back on another one year smaller deal.  We need two playmakers hopefully at center.  We need partners with a bent toward defensive play for Dahlin and Byram.  We also need our D to be tougher and more physical.  

He’s not reading this, just like me 

[PerreaultForever]

We all have to accept the fact that Pat LaFontaine saw where this would go right from the start and he was right. 

After that, the team missed a moment where they could have hired Rick Dudley as a president/director of hockey operations/whatever you want to call it above the GM but that guy is never here and that guy is always Terry Pegula and that sums up all that. We all know it, and we are all helpless to do anything about it. If you keep paying him money to go to these games you are an idiot. You'd be better off buying a banana and some duct tape. 

[PromoTheRobot]

17 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Terry you have driven this franchise into the ground.  Do yourself and the city and the fans a favor fire your Yes-Man Adams and sell the team.   Give a willing owner the chance to hire competent management to fix this team.  There is actually enough here to build from, but you and Adams are not the men for the job.

The sad thing is that there is a core of something that could work, but the team is so mismanaged and the roster so poorly constructed the puzzle pieces will never work without a fresh look

This is what we really have 

????? Tage Tuch

Benson ????? JJP

Quinn ?????  Greenway

?????? McLeod ??????  

 

Dahlin  ??????

Byram ??????

??????  ?????

 

UPL

??????

To make this work Power, Cozens, Byrson, Joki, Krebs, Samuelsson, and Clifton all need to go.  I like Zucker and I'd keep him until the deadline, trade him and then bring him back on another one year smaller deal.  We need two playmakers hopefully at center.  We need partners with a bent toward defensive play for Dahlin and Byram.  We also need our D to be tougher and more physical.  

 

17 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Terry you have driven this franchise into the ground.  Do yourself and the city and the fans a favor fire your Yes-Man Adams and sell the team.   Give a willing owner the chance to hire competent management to fix this team.  There is actually enough here to build from, but you and Adams are not the men for the job.

The sad thing is that there is a core of something that could work, but the team is so mismanaged and the roster so poorly constructed the puzzle pieces will never work without a fresh look

This is what we really have 

????? Tage Tuch

Benson ????? JJP

Quinn ?????  Greenway

?????? McLeod ??????  

 

Dahlin  ??????

Byram ??????

??????  ?????

 

UPL

??????

To make this work Power, Cozens, Byrson, Joki, Krebs, Samuelsson, and Clifton all need to go.  I like Zucker and I'd keep him until the deadline, trade him and then bring him back on another one year smaller deal.  We need two playmakers hopefully at center.  We need partners with a bent toward defensive play for Dahlin and Byram.  We also need our D to be tougher and more physical.  

A new owner would absolutely guarantee all are problems will be solved, yessiree. Then a new GM, new coach and new players. And if that doesn't work, we do it again.

[LabattBlue]

6 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

A new owner would absolutely guarantee all are problems will be solved, yessiree. Then a new GM, new coach and new players. And if that doesn't work, we do it again.

So you are in charge as of right now, what do you do?

[inkman]

17 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Terry you have driven this franchise into the ground.  Do yourself and the city and the fans a favor fire your Yes-Man Adams and sell the team.   Give a willing owner the chance to hire competent management to fix this team.  There is actually enough here to build from, but you and Adams are not the men for the job.

The sad thing is that there is a core of something that could work, but the team is so mismanaged and the roster so poorly constructed the puzzle pieces will never work without a fresh look

This is what we really have 

????? Tage Tuch

Benson ????? JJP

Quinn ?????  Greenway

?????? McLeod ??????  

 

Dahlin  ??????

Byram ??????

??????  ?????

 

UPL

??????

To make this work Power, Cozens, Byrson, Joki, Krebs, Samuelsson, and Clifton all need to go.  I like Zucker and I'd keep him until the deadline, trade him and then bring him back on another one year smaller deal.  We need two playmakers hopefully at center.  We need partners with a bent toward defensive play for Dahlin and Byram.  We also need our D to be tougher and more physical.  

They need to change the roster completely. I don’t think you have enough changes.  Tage, Rasmus aren’t part of the solution either.  If they were, last night wouldn’t have happened.  

[LGR4GM]

44 minutes ago, inkman said:

They need to change the roster completely. I don’t think you have enough changes.  Tage, Rasmus aren’t part of the solution either.  If they were, last night wouldn’t have happened.  

Rasmus Dahlin wasn't on the ice last night when it happened. He has back spasms and was in the locker room for the 3rd.

But he's the new ROR... I mean Eichel... I mean Reinhart. 

[GoPuckYourself]

18 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Terry you have driven this franchise into the ground.  Do yourself and the city and the fans a favor fire your Yes-Man Adams and sell the team.   Give a willing owner the chance to hire competent management to fix this team.  There is actually enough here to build from, but you and Adams are not the men for the job.

The sad thing is that there is a core of something that could work, but the team is so mismanaged and the roster so poorly constructed the puzzle pieces will never work without a fresh look

This is what we really have 

????? Tage Tuch

Benson ????? JJP

Quinn ?????  Greenway

?????? McLeod ??????  

 

Dahlin  ??????

Byram ??????

??????  ?????

 

UPL

??????

To make this work Power, Cozens, Byrson, Joki, Krebs, Samuelsson, and Clifton all need to go.  I like Zucker and I'd keep him until the deadline, trade him and then bring him back on another one year smaller deal.  We need two playmakers hopefully at center.  We need partners with a bent toward defensive play for Dahlin and Byram.  We also need our D to be tougher and more physical.  

Why does Quinn get a pass? His achiles has nothing to do with him not being able to score goals, dude is lost in every sense of the word. Also wouldn't you try an bulk up a bit to be able to at least absorb hits? Not saying this so he can turn into a grinder/fighter just more so he can take those hits better. He goes down like a sack of potatoes way too often.