jad1

If you were an experienced, successful coach, why the hell would you work for/with Adams? You wouldn't even be able to hire your own assistant coaches. You mean I get a roster full of 23 year olds AND Matt Ellis? Sign me up! Ruff took the job because he still wanted to coach and his job prospects were limited and he liked the city. Adams hired Ruff because every other viable candidate refused to take his call.

So it will be different than the last game against the Avs when they blew the lead? Must not have learned much from that game. Been waiting a long time for this group of players to figure out how to play the right way. Maybe the answer is that they're just a bad mix.

It was fun watching old man Zucker carry this group of scared little 10 year olds around on his back all game.

The solution is in the room. It must be one f'n magical room.

There's always porn

This team is not coachable.

Team is panicing. They need to fight through this.

Sabres fans who are also Bills fans. They realize what a f'n joke that statement was.

UPL played great. He's developing into an upper tier goalie. He is fun to watch. The Sabres hit tonight, and blocked a number of shots. Very encouraging. On the other hand they were dominated in the faceoff circle, managed only 5 shots in the third and gave up too many high danger opportunities, some due to mind-numbing give-aways. They were owned with the extra attacker and continued to over-pass the puck, a maddening deficiency that this core of players has not been able to address for the last 5 years, despite being told by their veteren coach, the GM, and Rob Ray that they need to simplify their game. They are 3 games away from the season mid-point and are in last place in the conference and are on pace for 69 points this season. It's been over two seasons since they've won 4 games in the row. I'm not a miserable person. I don't enjoy the Sabres losing. I desperately want the city of Buffalo to experience playoff hockey again, but I have to honestly and sadly say that the positives this team offers are vastly outweighed by the negatives. Anyway, Happy New Year.

He really owns his own development. The organization hasn't given him much help.

Unfortunately, Pegula doesn't have a cash flow problem.

Right, he's the poorest multi-billionaire on the planet. When Terry bought the Bills, his net-worth was around $4B. He bought the Bills for $1.4B cash. So back then his liquidity was at least roughly 1/4 of his net worth. What would change that now to a point where he's so cash poor that he needs to negatively impact the Sabres chance to win by cutting costs?

He fired a GM who was a failure, whether he was listening to him or not. The fact that he and Kim gave Botts a vote of confidence a week before the firing but decided to axe him after conducting end of year reviews shows that he wasn't as wired into day-to-day activities as many claim he was. Daily calls? This why I try to get a definition on meddling, because an owner having a daily call with the GM really doesn't meet the definition of meddling, nor does it imply an ego.

Great, how do you hold him accountable? Unless he's caught doing some kind of Dan Snyder sh##, there's nothing that can be done to take the team from him. That's a fact. It's also a fact that since Pegula pays his bills and has seen his franchise's value increase five-fold despite being the worst sports franchise in North America, the NHL is going to do nothing to hold him accountable either. So petitions, billboards, conspiracy theories, rants, vents, opinions; go nuts. They don't matter. The fact is that there is no way to hold him accountable.

I have this theory that Terry wanted to model his hockey org after the Penguins and his football org after the Patriots. I think he wanted Lafontaine to mirror Mario Lemieux's role in the Sabres org. Again, not making any claim that Pegula is good at hiring or that this hire was anywhere near the right decision, but I think was why he picked an ex-player for the role.

Agreed. The only thing I don't like is when we question our fandom or intent. But I appreciate discussion like this.

He hired a POHO in Pat Lafontaine. Lafontaine brought in Murray, who battled Lafontaine on every decision he made. It was a disaster After the Rex Ryan fiasco, people were screaming for Pegula to hire POFO for the Bills. Bill Polian was often mentioned. Pegula hired a strong GM in Beane instead, and nobody is calling for a POFO anymore. Hire a strong GM and you don't need POHO. But yes, Pegula's biggest failing is hiring bad GMs. He's hired people to make the decision and failed. He's sought advice from outside the organization and failed. And he's relied on his own instincts and failed. It's frustrating and mind-boggling, but it can be fixed with on firing and one good decision.

Yeah, I read the case against Terry. It was a mess of conjecture and speculation. I gave up early on that thread because it didn't match reality. I'm not absolving Terry at all. I think he's pretty awful at hiring his front offices, and enthusiatically attribute his success with the Bills as luck. But I don't buy that he's a manipulative meddler who's made all the terrible personell decisions the last 13 years that have sunk this team. I don't think he's an ego maniac who's willing to drive the team into ruin just to prove his unspoken way of doing things is the only right way to do them. I don't believe he's cash poor and running the Sabres on the cheap. Putting an internal cap to keep costs down makes no sense because 7 or 8M dollars isn't driving the team to profitability. The value of the franchise has increase 5x since Pegula bought the team. I don't believe that a guy who is almost invisible running his football franchise is pulling all the levers for the hockey team. This is not a Jeckyl and Hyde situation. I don't believe that there is a hockey-savy, Buffalo-loving, billionaire out there who can immediately save the Sabres (Ryan Reynolds, c'mon, be serious). Winning is difference between a 'good' GM and a 'bad' GM. The biggest factor in helping a team win is hiring a strong front office. Pegula has done that for the Bills, but not for the Sabres. And I'll admit that it's mind-boggling that Pegula hasn't hired a good GM for the Sabres. It leads to all kinds of conspiracies about his intent, or motivation, or commitment. And no doubt he has made mistakes, and he is not good at hiring, but in his semi- defense, few professional owners are good at hiring GMs or Coaches. I usually try to avoid these conversations, realizing that the Sabres losing has driven us all crazy and we're all looking for someone to blame, so venting is cool. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled programming: how do we get Sylvester Stallone to buy the Sabres?

If they exist, cite them. Aside from hiring terrible GMs, what do you think is the worst hockey decision that Pegula has irrefutably made? When he has gone over the heads of his hockey department to make a terrible decision? Where is a fully sourced account of Terry meddling?

What's this based on?

Right, so there is no evidence that Pegula exhibits this specific smugness or ego that you claim exists. Got it.