Archives for April 21, 2017

‘Pegula will discuss the firings Friday morning.’

‘The players declined to embrace Bylsma’s style of play and teachings. There was talk of ignoring his X’s and O’s after victories, and there was a clear disconnect between what was shown during practice and what happened during games.’

‘What next, a cloud of locusts descending on HarborCenter and its environs?’

‘As unseemly as it is, it was apparent that the Sabres’ players were going to get their wish and torpedo Dan Bylsma. Murray did that himself with last week’s outlandish news conference that buried his coach, something you just never see. Maybe Terry and Kim Pegula didn’t like that look and decided they had seen enough of Murray too.’

‘Terry and Kim Pegula need to come clean. They need to acknowledge that they were over their heads when they purchased the Sabres, that their abundance of misguided confidence came with a shortage of know-how, that their ownership is the primary reason for overall dysfunction, that they desperately need help.’

‘While this latest purge is a bold and warranted one, it surely doesn’t paint the Pegulas as a stable sports ownership. Maybe they’ll get it right this time, but it perpetuates the general dysfunction of their two major pro franchises and heightens the perception that they’re over their heads owning multiple sports teams.’

‘Which leads us to this: Job one for the Pegulas is to fix what they botched when they fired Pat LaFontaine just over three years ago. It’s time to get a real president of hockey to run this operation because the owners have no business picking a general manager or coach. Maybe it’s deposed Los Angeles GM Dean Lombardi, maybe Lindy Ruff wants to get out of coaching, maybe it’s time for Chris Drury to move up from his assistant GM slot in New York.’

‘The Sabres spent too much money and received too little in return, and that falls directly on the lap of the general manager.’

‘Murray and Bylsma don’t deserve all the blame, but a change had to be made.’

‘From train station to train wreck.’