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Archives for June 19, 2020

Dismantling the Buffalo Sabres

‘The three pillars of that foundation, three years later? “Effective, efficient and economic,” Pegula said this week. “In today’s sports world, with all the existing technology, we can move forward much leaner and much more efficient. We’re gonna get leaner. It’s just the way the world’s heading.” From the soaring language of “structure and character” to … something one of the Bobs from “Office Space” would have mumbled in a redundancy meeting. Quite a change in tone.’

What comes next for Buffalo Sabres after major course change?

‘Any time a person is installed in a role beyond their experience, their best chance to succeed comes when they’re surrounded by good, experienced people. People to lean on. Kevyn Adams seems to be left mostly flapping in the wind here, devoid of any transition team. I can’t imagine sitting in that office today, closing the door, and being like, “OK! First order of business: find out what the first order of business is. Then find out how many orders of business there really are to work through.” (Then presumably realize you need to hire a bunch of people to accomplish all those orders of business.)’

Friedman: ‘The days were numbered for Jason Botterill’

‘”There’s a lot of things to unpack. I just think that the more I look at it, the more I think that ever since Kevyn Adams was brought in, the Pegulas know him, they trust him. If you look back at Tim Graham’s article from The Athletic in April, someone sent me a quote from there and it’s one where [Kim Pegula] basically says that they trusted some people and it didn’t work out and they were going to fix that. I think that the days were numbered for Jason Botterill right from that time, and that the Pegulas felt that some of the advice on hiring they were from the NHL was poor, they regretted it, and they were going to go internal to people that they know and they trust. That’s kind of the way it went.”‘

The more things change…

‘In the nine years of the Pegula ownership, the Sabres have the lowest points percentage of any team in the NHL. The nine-year playoff drought is the longest in the league. The next longest active drought is just four years for the Detroit Red Wings. If the Sabres miss out on the playoffs again next season, they will equal the NHL record for the longest postseason drought in the post-original six era.’

The five most memorable moments of the Sabres drought

‘It is sad the top moment in nine years was Buffalo clinching last place in the 2014-2015 NHL standings but it is. April 10th, 2015 is probably the most excited the fanbase has been since the Sabres made back to back conference finals from 2005 to 2007.’