lamaisonbleu

Answering mjd1001 I refer to a site 'audacity.com' and the subject 'Sabres still paying for the sins of Tim Murray'. He traded young, core, developing players and a lot of draft picks to win quick. One example is the Tyler Myers trade. The players he got, as good as they were didn't seem to gel and they passed through guickly. There's something to be said for developing your own picks, seeing them playing together, making adjustments, fostering cohesion, and a Sabres identity. Vegas is the exception to quickly developing a winner, but that's another story. In Murray's early press conferences he bemoaned the loss of McDavid so that Eichel was chopped liver. If he had any brains he would have sung the praises of Eichel and never mentioned McDavid. I knew then that the Sabres were in for a bumpy ride.

I'll answer my own question. Get real hockey people in mgr and coach and get rid of the prima donnas. They did it in 2005 when Regier and Ruff put together a bunch of castoffs and hungry rookies and to the surprise of everybody got to the conference finals. On the way they depantsed the Senators and Chiara. Brenda beat the Sabres in the conference finals. Unfortunately the Sabres were depleted on defence or the story might have been different. Ownership should get out of the way and not hire soccer coaches and pay 5 million per year. Trotz might have jumped at that offer. He left the Caps who low balled him and joined the Islanders for less than that. Ownership is clueless. They should have hired a crusty vet such as Burke as head of hockey operations. The penguins did just that for 3 million. Buffalo deserves better.

Up until Murray Les Sabres had a proud history. Even if they were not in playoff contention they left it all on the ice and the games were entertaining. Remember Gerry Mehen beating Favell and Shero's Flyers to knock them out of the playoffs. Shero said the only time he felt as bad was when he lost his mother. Now players can't wait to get out of town. The management and coaching hires are terrible. Couldn't they have gotten Burke, Trotz, Lamorello to name a few. They paid top price for players and coaches and got zilch. So sad.