That Aud Smell

Yeah, that is it right there. The guy's been an absolute beast of late, and he's just about the only thing keeping this team from being utterly and totally unwatchable.

It's not difficult for a business of that size to carry debt of $80M. Some or most of it could be tied up in a "suite" of "loan facilities" that are intended to give the business a ready, reliable access to cash so that all ongoing expenses are met and the business is never caught short. He said that about his oil and gas business. It was a misleading answer because he was saying "there's no financial issue" because his oil and gas ventures don't carry (significant) debt. But that ignored the question of whether revenues from those ventures are down, which presumably they are (way, way down).

His reputation is well-earned.

Unlikely they’d wind down PSE when it still owns and operates the Bills.

That’s a spin on it. This feels more perilous, and not well considered.

Figured we could use a thread for an overall discussion of what's going on with the Sabres right now. It feels like a dark day, to me.

For feck's sake. The philosophical difference was Botterill's reluctance to oversee a gutting of hockey ops? Sorry - a process of making hockey ops leaner and more efficient?

Aye yi yi. Who's gonna turn the lights off?

From 2015-2018, JKLM racked up $500,000 in penalties for violating Pennsylvania environmental laws. https://www.investigativepost.org/2018/05/08/pegula-back-fracking-and-violating-regulations/ $500,000 in penalties can be extrapolated to ... what in gross revenues? I have some idea of it. Again, that's a nice, steady stream of available cash.

Poke around a bit on JKLM Energy. Terry's still drilling and fracking. Bread and butter source of money - steady cash flows. Well, formerly.

Maybe gives a new sheen to Kim talking about how there's gonna be a long stretch of downtime? Or are the people who've been fired still going to get paid under their contracts?

And that's a cold (paraphrased) transcript of the question. His tone was SO nasty. Weird, weird dude.

That's not the point I was making. Their owner is - from all accounts - an absolute unmitigated nightmare. So, they are arguably worse off when it comes to how they're run.

And the absolute collapse of the industry where the Pegulas are still heavily invested (and whence they still derive (or at least used to derive) significant liquidity) is not?

A lot, indeed. Brent crude trading for ~$100 per barrel in February 2011; now trading at $40 or less. I'm not holding it against him. I'm just finding it ironic. I'm intrigued by the idea that a team operating more on the cheap can be more efficient, smarter. Why the hell not? I mean - the Canes are a nice looking team. They aren't swimming in cash.

It was an interesting tidbit to come out of the conference. And it's for sure an interesting irony that, in February 2011, Pegula was brash in talking about how he'd basically spend without limit, and nowadays is talking about being lean and efficient. But it doesn't have anything to do with the energy markets tanking - be assured of that.

You can make a case that the Sabres are the worst-run franchise in the NHL, but the Senators alone make it a close contest.

Also, I'm on record saying I loved seeing @john wawrow's "laboratory."

well, bear in mind that he's probably been doing a Ted Kaczynski quarantine look.

Again, I think RaKru's the main guy at this point.

Given who they hired, I had presumed there was no search. Just sort of a ... "hey ... what about Kevyn?"

Okay - I'm done with this. Not going anywhere.

Terry: Oh spit, I didn't give a shoutout to Jason Botterill. So here it is.

Spectrum: Why do the Sabres stink and Bills are good? JESUS! Someone ask Adams about his philosophy, big picture plans!

Kim: Not a rebuild - more a retooling.