Mango

I just don't understand how they can roll it back? The team vs fans is at an all time toxic level. They are quick to boo and the team is quick to chirp back through the media and on the ice. Rolling it back again is likely the most dangerous business decision Pegula and Co. have made since buying the team 13 years ago. More dangerous than the tank. Even a mediocre start is going to create a super tense atmosphere for everybody involved. So what happens then? Fans get worse, players start pushing back, each one-upping each other, driving this franchise further into the ground. I have to start wondering if there is some "Major League" to it all? No more spending, don't hire competent staff, refuse to replace the worst ones, stop taking care of the KBC, pull out of the lease in Rochester. I don't know if the team leaves Buffalo or changes ownership, but the only thing Terry is doing well is alienating hockey fans in this region. Under those circumstances selling makes a lot of sense as a next move.

I think the opposite. They only win games when there is almost nothing on the line for them. They aren’t making the playoffs. This team has won 3 games in a row only twice this year. Stringing together wins now is meaningless. In fact this group the last two years has basically only been able to string wins together at the most meaningless times. They don’t like playing with their backs against the wall. They loathe it. I don’t understand why he is still up with this team and not in Rochester. It is baffling.

He just signed a new lease out to 2033.

This is really odd. I have argued both that the Sabres will and won’t leave. Terry’s divestment from Rochester, the Sabres, and his lack of upkeep of the KBC keep nagging me that he’d like to sell his hockey teams. I think the team stays, maybe even under Pegulas ownership, but every-time he pulls back I can’t help but think… EDIT: Very strange the article is titled and opens with "Owner of..." I don't understand why it doesn't say "Terry Pegula". Also less than a year ago when they dissolved PSE they said "No no, don't worry Rochester nothing will change. We just won't be PSE anymore". Now this.

On the flip side, for all the "the defense is better" folks the Sabres are near the worst in the league in xGA and high danger chances against. UPL has saved this team from being bottom 5.

I know a bunch of people who work at Labatt and shared an office with PSE. I also know a few of the players in Terry's OG career. Yes, PSE was not a good place to work. That has been documented a bit in the news as well. It has also been reported that McBeane have worked hard to keep the Bills separate from PSE, which is part of the reason things are different at OBD. It has been speculated that they both also have a no meddling clause in their contracts, something Pegula has refused to do on the hockey side. Worth noting that Pegula's most successful franchise, The Bandits, have a director of lacrosse. A position he will not fill with the Sabres. Of course any owner is "allowed to meddle", but there have been too many reports of Leino, Skinner, asking Botterill to lay a ton of people off. He is of course welcome to do those things as owners. He also bares the weight of the criticism as well. And when the solution is clear as day, that you need to GTFO of the way and you refuse to do so, you deserve your motives questioned as a leader. I am unsure what your point is here. Terry Pegula is literally the worst owner in the history of the NHL. This is the worst run any owner in the history of the league has ever had. He inherited the 4th most winning team in league history and has turned it into the worst franchise ever during that time. It isn't really debatable.

I agree with all of this, but it’s also worth noting that in that time he’s named himself president of both orgs, been to nearly every Bills training camp practice, been in town for the ground breaking of the stadium, and still not stood in front of a microphone for 4-5 years. While I certainly feel for him and Kim it’s tough for me to definitively draw the line. He’s been around and named himself at the top both organizations.

The xGA, odd man rush, and high danger chance metrics are amongst the worst in the league.

I don't think he even showed up for the memorial service they did for him either. Kim's health issues are a valid reason, but it was odd he was a call in, hold the phone up to the mic, type speaker. Even if he was in the middle of something, it is weird he wasn't plugged into the arena's AV. It is almost as if he is in charge of a professional hockey team that misspells their alumni jerseys.

I was at this game and this moment has always stuck with me. Bills fans spent a decade scared and wondering what would happen to the Bills when an aging Ralph Wilson passed. Terry's first words to a cheering packed house were "OK guys, that's enough". It was a very heavy wet blanket for us in our section. https://www.buffalobills.com/video/watch-terry-pegula-on-field-ceremony-13989551

That is one way to look at it. The other is that I think this years goaltending is worth about 10-15 points more than last years goaltending. If you adjust for UPL's emergence this year then that means this team would be picking top 5 without him. A bottom 5 NHL roster is a sad place to be.

Always worth mentioning that "taxes" were written right next to "lifestyle".

We don't really "know" anybody on the internet, or any professional athletes, or any billionaires at all. We can certainly make some educated guesses based on local interactions, interviews and decisions regarding the franchise. - We know for a fact that Terry likes to meddle. It has been questioned and defended by Terry across nearly every hockey hire he has made. - We know he would rather make a decisions himself rather than professional consensus; he literally said owners thought he was crazy for the Ville Leino deal. - We know that this organization has a toxic work culture. That has been been said since before the pandemic. - We know the Sabres model is all about economics, efficiency, his family lifestyle and tax breaks. This is a definitive shift from when he bought the team. Most importantly we know that Terry is really, really, really, really bad at being the owner of an NHL team. Like historically bad. We also know that his greatest successes in business come as an engineer/geologist, not as a people manager. So it isn't crazy to be on an internet message board and attribute bad leadership qualities to somebody who has shown to be.....a historically terrible leader. Some may be more accurate than others, but most are likely not super far off base.

Shocked this one was sponsored by Bud Light. Such a Buffalo Holiday/Event seems like low hanging fruit for this to be a Labatt Blue event/game/coozie. Yuengling is also the sponsor for the on screen score.

Terry has been kicking around Buffalo circles for some time. Well before he bought the Sabres. Jerry Forton's brother-in-law is Terry's business manager in oil and gas. Jerry has always been very plugged in in Buffalo, his wife is an event planner who has been managing all the Jim Kelly and Ryan Miller events for decades. The relationship goes so far back that I always assumed Jim Kelly's decade long blubbering before Ralph died about "assembling a buying group" was Terry Pegula. Terry is a trained in oil and gas, not in people management. There is this constant take that he must be good at business, or people, or whatever because he amassed fortune. He amassed fortune by finding natural gas. He has another business partner (not employee, but partner) who manages people, structure, etc.

Just turned the pregame on. Can somebody catch me up on WTF is going on with Marty’s hair? EDIT: I’m an idiot. It’s bald for bucks.

Probably but I was talking about this year.

Whenever Levi talks about his time in Rochester it is always "it was..." almost like it was temporary, a field trip, or beneath him. It is your team dude. I really like Levi, he is already one of my favorite guys in the system. But this has irked me on a few occasions. He does know he is going back down right?

There is a place for it. Coaches who make it their whole personality have a pretty short timeline with pretty drastic spikes of improvement then failure.

That is a pretty short timeline, a sign of effective and efficient coaching. Another plus 1 for keeping Donnie and Co.

Right. I was just putting it out there.

I am outside of Buffalo these days, but people should start brining Pegula signs to the games. Especially for games not on MSG where they are likely to get actual air time.

He’s watching all that video of this team trying hard.

I don't understand how anybody can say they are not. The Buffalo Sabres under Terry Pegula are the worst era of hockey for any franchise in the history of the NHL. Literally nobody has ever been worse. It isn't close. It doesn't stop there, the Pegula lead Sabres are amongst the worst run sports teams amongst the big 4 leagues in the US. That isn't hyperbole.

- Enough anger towards the Sabres may spur some additional spending on PSL's for the Bills? - The town could use more breweries, I drink more when I am sad, and I am more sad when I watch the Sabres. - Maybe we can reduce the fanbase just a little bit more so that the team can start playing in the Harbor Center. That would free up the calendar for KBC to make room for a 10 year Taylor Swift residency.