Marvelo

Ignore this. :nana:

One of my chief bugaboos about the Sabres Disorganization (can we really call it an organization anymore?) is the involvement of Kim Pegula. It has never been defined. What decisions has she made or influenced? When Terry said he was NOT involved in the hiring of the GM and/or coach?!?, my first thought, and it has hardly been discussed, was it was Kim Pegula making the big decision. We'll never know but this is my feeling. My previous opinion of Kim was discussed passionately among some -- you can look it up. I still believe that part of the reason for the Sabres and Bills being bought by Pegula is that so he could make the sports teams a plaything for Kim and keep her busy. There are lots of couples just like this, where the wife is much younger and has glommed on to a rich man. The husband often finds something for his wife to do and this has become the problem of the Buffalo Sabres and their fans. If Terry isn't calling shots, who is really in charge? I think it's Kim. Pegula is 18 years older than his wife. The story of how they met; she was a 22 year old waitress on the make, he was a 40 year old executive having lunch. ..From wikipedia...After following her brothers' footsteps in enrolling at Houghton College, the college student and a roommate ventured to Alaska to work near a fishing camp upon hearing there was money to be made. It was there that she met her future husband, Terry Pegula, when he and his coworkers ate at a restaurant in which Kim was working as a waitress. Pegula offered her a job at his natural gas company, and they eventually entered a relationship, marrying in 1993. Maybe Terry can hang out in some dive restaurant in Alaska or Pennsylvania looking for a new President/GM/Coach. It wouldn't surprise me. The decision making process really seems arbitrary; a random mix of contacting high-falutin' people who will never come to Buffalo and being played by them in order to negotiate a good contract with their new teams, getting egg on the face with the rejection and finally settling for some retread with a resume who has no connections to the Buffalo Sabres and hope they can translate their success from years ago to this time of management crisis. That the NHL has to step in an give the Pegulas advice is really shameful. I feel like the time where the NHL had to step in to save the franchise from the Rigas debacle. The Sabres have had three owners since 2001. They've become a hot potato in the NHL. No one wanted to commit to them. It's sad that the in the team's armour has always been the owners who handicapped them in some way from winning championships, not going far enough, or going too far. The Knoxes, the Rigases and Golisanos all came close to championships with a tight-fisted fiscal outlook. Besides '86 the Sabres have always been a competitive small market team, operating on a responsible budget. In comes Daddy Warbucks, crying with Gil Perreault, a reluctant lifetime Sabre, crying to Pat Lafontaine, and saying that the only reason for the Sabres existence is to win a Stanley Cup (as if the other owners didn't have that idea first) and then we have the mortifying tanks and now the revolving door management. I think there should be pitchforks and torches for Kim because my feeling is that she's the one who's really in charge.

Vesey is a hell of a fighter.

first dibs from Around the NHL.

So long GMTM. May your road be paved with unicorns, rainbows and jujubes.

Please Pegula, sell the team. You're the problem!

:doh: QUICK, get Lafontaine on the phone! :doh:

I think Eichel is an excellent hockey player whose career will resemble Ryan Getzlaf. He's not a Gretzky piling up points...the league wouldn't allow Buffalo to have that. He's the perfect image of the red-headed stepchild that the Sabres represent in the league. Now if Reinhart resembles Corey Perry, (that remains to be seen) then we may be a contender if the NHL has a down year like they did in 2007 if TM loads the lineup with big and heavy types as well as a Niedermayer or two. Then the Sabres could have a Duck-like success story. But it's not a given.

Kassian not only has Team Upswing led by McJesus but he also has Crazy Lucic there to tutor him how to be a goal scoring lunatic. I think it's great he has put his life back together...but I'm sure it helps be around a group like that who has suffered adversity and is rising as a group.

Last year I predicted Nylander. This year I predict Valimaki.

I agree. No value for the money. There were no pleasant surprises, no overachievers and no bargains. And unbalanced for sure. I looked it up and O'Reilly took about 1800 faceoffs. The next guy in line was Eichel with only 800 faceoffs. That's 1,000 more faceoffs for O'Reilly than the next guy. He was so busy taking faceoffs I'll bet it took away from his game. Murray has built a foundation here with a lot of holes.

I'd fire GMTM and Abysmal and pick up Sutter/Lombardi.

I've seen bad signs out of Jack and Sam that they're both unhappy with the Buffalo experience. They say one bad apple spoils the whole bunch and I think that Kane and his attitude may have spoiled Jack and Sam. Remember, they were with him at that nightclub when he allegedly assaulted those women and also that Jack and Kane are tight. My unpopular hockey opinion is that both Jack and Sam will bolt as soon as humanly possible after their current contracts expire, ala Briere and Drury and negate the entire tank, years 1 and 2.

Here's a quote from Ryan O'Reilly from Complete Hockey: "Seeing a young team like Toronto take the spot where we should be, it's so frustrating coming to the rink right now. Practising. There's no purpose to it," O'Reilly said. "I'm sick of losing. It's getting exhausting and it's not fun. It sucks the fun out of the game." It seems to me they have tried to transplant leadership on this team. All the team's leaders from Gionta on down to O'Reilly, Okposo and Moulson came from somewhere else. Then you have the other supposed leaders, guys we drafted...Eichel, Reinhart, Risto... How can a team gel when the core comes from somewhere else? The guys that the Sabres developed are mostly long gone. I wonder how they can develop togetherness on and off the ice with a situation that changes so drastically every year.

Sounds like everyone else is crazy except for you...so shoot the messenger.

OK, so you don't see Pegula as a problem.

I lay the blame for this entire mess that is the Sabres (and Bills) at the feet of the dim-witted Terrence M. "Terry" Pegula. He created this "management team." The Sabres have fired three coaches since 2013 (going on 4 with Byslma) and the Bills are on their third coach in three years. He created the country club atmosphere with his $10 million locker room... He helped pick and keep many of these defective players with horrible contracts starting with Leino. He encouraged and loved the tank and set us up for the big mutiny we are now seeing. Terry and his wife have made the Sabres and Bills the biggest laughingstocks in the NHL/NFL and I don't think we're ever coming back. Looks to me like he's going to "close out" Buffalo professional sports. The fans are already running screaming towards the exits. "Terry" Pegula is NOT MY OWNER.

Sounds like Ennis got a wedgie.

There are many young draft choices like Kane and Bogosian who were brought in too early and through inexperience got hurt and developed chronic injuries. It's much faster and more ruthless game in the NHL, you know that right?

My feeling is Rick isn't sounding good at all and this might be the end of the road.

Hopefully the Sabres "braintrust" won't get this kid injured as they attempt the dog and pony show for the few fans that remain in these last few meaningless games.

I wonder about Kyle Okposo. He missed ten games in the beginning of March with a rib injury, comes back for two games and then he's out out for more extended time since 3/28 including today's game with an "illness." http://nypost.com/2015/03/10/kyle-okposo-returns-to-islanders-just-in-time-for-rangers-duel/

Buffalo should not let its players play in outside tournaments. There's hardly any upside except for a little prize at the end for the player and their "national pride", and the downside is we can lose that player for a long time or it might contribute to an Ekblad-like concussion pattern. If a player is injured, it should be just playing for the team.

...Buffalo has won the Stanley Cup! Wait...he never said that.

Sam is one of my favorites. I am not on board with the public humiliation of dressing and sitting him on the bench. If there's punishment, make it private. I could see him resenting this move for a long time and the Sabres might be sorry they gave him this unfair reprimand in public.