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PASabreFan

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Posts posted by PASabreFan

  1. I feel relieved and I'm glad it's over. I'm also angry at this franchise and at myself. There should be no joy in this. Something nasty was required. I didn't agree with it, but the plan worked. I'll say this openly to any member of the Buffalo Sabres front office who might be listening. I wouldn't walk away from you after 40 years for one indiscretion. That would be like divorcing your wife after your first big fight. I promise you this, however: you pull this again, and I am gone. Ask the Bills. What you did to me was just shy of the Bills taking a home game to Toronto, and that did me in. Whatever. Good riddance, tank. Now go beat the Pens.

  2. Hated by some fans in Buffalo, but admired by the rest of the World, if Nolan pulls this off.  I have to go out of town, so will not see what happens or fan reaction.  I expect Sabres to lose tonight, but do not hope for it.  Have fun.  Adieu.  

     

    ps. I will be back in time for massive revolt, @fakegorby.  I wouldn't miss it for all of the vodka in Mongolia.

    Mwah. Parting you is such sweet sorrow.

  3. Are we even still debating Terry Pegula? As someone who was born and raised in Buffalo, I agree with most sane people that Pegula is a saint. The city couldn't be more blessed.

     

    If you don't agree, go visit the Rigas's in jail, then travel to Hartford and ask people there about their NHL team.

    It's not about the city. It's about the Sabres. I think a reasonable person could say he's been great for the community but has been a terrible owner.

     

    As for the Rigases, maybe they're terrible people, I really don't know. But their money, or their company's money, was important to the Sabres when the Knoxes were majority owners. And that money paid Hasek a king's ransom to come within two wins of a Cup. Get back to me when Terry gets that close.

    Maybe? We'll never agree on this, but there's no way to guarantee a Cup as a tremendous amount of luck is involved in a playoff run. I think we'll be in the playoffs yearly and as a top-4 seed more often than not. Will it result in the ultimate victory? Who knows. But we'll be in the conversation every year, and I think that's the best a team can hope to build for.

    Thanks for clarifying. Maybe I'll save your post. Let's just agree that the first time the Sabres make the playoffs and go out in the first round, there will be no "I told you so"s.

  4. I think everyone agrees that tomorrow could/will get very ugly if things don't go as planned tonight.  Let's see what happens tonight first.  I'm predicting shart.

    I hope there's no scenario where the game is meaningless for Pittsburgh on Saturday. I don't think there is. 

    I want to time capsule this post for a few years from now when this team is making the playoffs every single year.

    Are they winning Cups?

  5. What's at stake for this franchise if the doomsday scenario completely plays out? What would it take for the fans to reach a tipping point, a boiling point even?


     


    Let's consider:


     


    • TP comes into town talking Stanley Cup and saying, "Money? Pffft." He also says he likes gritty players and Lindy ain't goin' nowhere and Darcy? I can work with him.


     


    • Same day, he goes to a Buffalo News editorial board meeting and asks what has Darcy done wrong? He blames the News for the quit in the team.


     


    • He is accompanied to town by accountant friend Cliff Benson, Benson's client Ted Black, Black's old boss Ken Sawyer and later Sawyer's old boss Craig Patrick, as well as PSU pal Joe Battista. The Old Keystone Reacharound (Urban Dictionary).


     


    • The Sabres lose in Game 7 to the Flyers, the last sight of a playoff game in Pegula's tenure.


     


    • TP goes on a spending spree (the Sabres eventually have to buy out two of the prizes, including the reviled Ville Leino, and the third is traded.) "We tried some things and they didn't work," said Ted Black later. "It was my decision," Terry admits to Hockey Hotline while driving around town with his dog.


     


    • After the lockout, the team's gesture of "thanks and sorry" to the fans is a discount in the Sabres Store, while other teams around the league are much more generous.


     


    • The team continues to flop and the popular Lindy Ruff is fired and replaced by Ron Rolston. Terry starts to consider the extent of the rebuild that is at hand, according to Darcy, who has inexplicably been retained.


     


    • The Sabres raise season ticket prices for the third straight offseason and the letter arrives on Fan Appreciation Day. One year, the increase is the highest in percentage in the league.


     


    • Ted Black says since the Sabres can't land free agents, they have to find elite talent in the draft; the extent of this rebuild is going to be balls-deep.


     


    • Black introduces a third jersey to wide disgust. He later calls it a turdburger but refuses to eat it as promised — he blames the fans for "jersey fatigue."


     


    • Darcy is finally fired. Terry asks Pat LaFontaine over dinner if he wants to be GM. Pat says no, I'm not qualified. Terry offers him a more complicated job, team president. Facing a massive rebuild, and with former Penn State club hockey coach Battista in on the interview, LaFontaine hires first-time GM, GMTM. He also brings back coach Ted Nolan. With no official explanation, LaFontaine leaves four months later. 


     


    • Battista, not Murray, tells Nolan that Ryan Miller has been traded. Battista brags on Twitter that he signed Ryan Vinz, a Sabres staffer and former high school goalie, to be the team's backup goalie that night.


     


    • The Sabres fail to win the lottery despite finishing 30th.


     


    • Murray has to go on his own spending spree to get the Sabres to the cap floor.


     


    • The Sabres host Connor McDavid and the Erie Otters in an OHL game at the arena.


     


    • Draft pick Sam Reinhart, apparently not physically ready for the NHL, is a mild disappointment.


     


    • Dominik Hasek Night is roundly criticized. At one point Hasek references the kids from Hockey Heroes, then looks around to realize they are not on the ice yet. "I must see… the children!"


     


    • Murray trades Tyler Myers and Drew Stafford and prospects for Evander Kane and Zach Bogosian. The former Sabres play well, the Jets make the playoffs and Bogosian, often injured in Winnipeg, misses time in Buffalo.


     


    • Prized PSU player Casey Bailey goes to Toronto. The Sabres, who burned a year of Mikhail Grigorenko's entry level contract, won't do it again for the highly regarded Bailey.


     


    • Murray says he thinks too much about McDavid; he can't help himself. Previously he had said he hopes the team is better next year while still being a lottery team. 


     


    • For the second straight year, the Sabres are epically, historically bad. Some fans openly cheer for opponents at FNC.


     


    • The Sabres can't seal the deal on dead last.


     


    But wait, there might be more! Let's say we add:


     


    • GMTM is unwilling or unable to do the dirty work to ensure a last place finish, and the Sabres finish 29th and lose out on McEichel at the lottery.


     


    • The braintrust tells the fans it was never about McEichel, just about getting top talent at the draft, and they never expected the team to be this bad.


     


    • GMTM shitcans Ted Nolan one year into his contract.


     


    • Season ticket prices go up again, because, of course, the Sabres have no choice!


     


    • The ticket price letter arrives on the day of the lottery.


     


    • Kim Pegula unveils a blue and gold flecked puffy jersey.


     


    • At a church service, Terry tells an Aristocrats joke that involves a quadriplegic, Byron Brown and the widow Paterno.


     


    In all seriousness...


     


    In all seriousness...


     


    How much would the fans reasonably be expected to take? No one has cheered in that building since 2007. Exciting, entertaining hockey is only played on TV screens in Buffalo, which probably explains the healthy ratings for national games. Attendance is a house of cards built on a ton of STHs who view their tickets as an economic investment. How much would it take for a butterfly to flutter in southeast Asia and start a fan revolt, and not just among STHs, in Buffalo? 

  6. You expect to land Babcock????  I wouldn't bet the farm on that one.   I would love to have him here I just don't see it happening....

     

    IF they don't land Babcock then give ole Teddy another shot.  I don't want them to bring in a completely unproven coach like Richardson.  Let him stew a bit in the AHL to see how well he can coach. 

    This one's tricky. Young(ish), first-time GM and Stanley Cup winner and hot commodity Mike Babcock? I bet Murray would rather have his boy Richardson. It gets tricky if TPegs wants Babcock and lays down the law. Yummy.

  7. Yep.

     

    Although it's less "sweating" and more like embracing the grim realization that we're heading for the worst ending to a season in Buffalo history. (Yes, worse than the Super Bowl losses.  Worse than Homerun Throw-forward.  Worse than Brett Hull.  Worse than Darius Kasparitis.  Worse than Jay McKee's staph infection.)

  8. Tannahill with the youngest combover in human history, only 17 or 18! And look at Sanderson. And Lorentz.

     

    http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/roster_gallery.php?tid=5133&sid=1967

    OK, these photos (apparently) are from later on. Because I got to Danny Seguin at the link below and was like WTF is going on here!

     

    http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/roster_gallery.php?tid=1048&sid=1967

    Rick doing a sportscast on CJRN Radio in Niagara Falls.

     

  9. Release starving badgers.

     

    Seriously, with ratings and attendance strong and the league flush with cash from that big Canadian broadcasting deal, what would the impetus be for such dramatic change? This is a traditional sport with traditional fans who are going to watch no matter what. I hate to say it, but the changes after the lockout are now starting to look like gimmickry intended to make sure fans came back.

  10. I really think it is. It's gotta be. 

    It could be his dad, yes. If you told me this was a home game for Niagara Falls, I would be more inclined to believe it (pulling double duty). But there doesn't seem to be a big ruckus when the Flyers score to make it 5-4. Another mystery is why Rick said that goal made it 5-4 Flyers, when he had earlier said it was 5-3 Kitchener.

    Rick was 23, 24. :)

  11. Is RJ doing the PA calls as well off mic? It sure sounded like he was announcing the penalties in the arena. 

    His voice isn't as musical yet. As he matures his voice gets a little deeper and smoother and the lilt he uses becomes more sing-song. 

    I think that's what I love about RJ, especially mature RJ. His calls are like music. The rise and fall, the stops and starts, you can almost see the notes on the page in your head. 

    On a second listen, it's totally Rick doing the PA calls in addition to the play by play. That's awesome. 

    Boy, I dunno! It's close. I'd vote no.

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