That Aud Smell

Meh.

Cripes. First Brandon's sent packing, and now arguably the most respected writer covering the NHL takes a sh1t on Harrington. I'm havin' myself a week.

That's a transcript of something he said on a podcast, not something he wrote. Friedman is a good writer.

Appears that Friedman, like so many others, came to the inescapable conclusion that Harrington is an unmitigated and unrepentant a*shole on Twitter.

You ain't crazy.

Well, it is unprecedented, I think (at least in our region?), for someone to be the president of an NFL team, an NHL team, and a sports entertainment conglomerate. She has a ton on her plate. Confession time: I read Bucky's adieu to Brandon. It read strangely -- almost as an early image-rehab piece (i.e., Brandon was once great, lost his way, and hopefully can return to greatness). But that's not my point. A lot of people ask, "So, what's a president do?" Bucky touches on one big part of the job: Getting juiced and connected with the corporate interests of the team's region. As oily and insincere as I found Brandon, I don't think there's any denying that he did a very good job of insinuating himself into those circles. And Bucky raised a fair point about how much time Kim would spend in WNY now that she's the president of the teams. The article still read to me like it was in need to some sentence structure and a hard edit, but he raised some salient points.

Born at the right time, so, for sure, it’s Perreault. But this guy is a sneaky second. I was coming of age myself when he defected and joined the Sabres. And, Lord, those seasons he had with Lafontaine.

Is bigger than your Peca.

*squints*

could go either way, i guess. if it can be properly harnessed, it will be a rare gift.

Thanks for taking that time to draft a reply. So many moving parts here. Adios, Brandon, is right. p.s. Will there be more fallout? Russ's brother is general counsel. Does he stick around?

He can drop a prototype into a fish tank, though!

Ain't no education like OTJ education. It occurs to me - JBOT and Beane look and act the part of GMs who are also able to serve as senior executive officers in a Pegula-owned operation. My hope and prayer is that they can do it, and do it exceptionally well.

Ha.

Yes she is. Like, literally. p.s. It's a little strange that she is not listed as an owner of the Bills. To my ear, the tone of this is part of what I've been talking about. She owns the team(s). As a result, I just presume that she'll be doing whatever she has a mind to do.

You know. I'm not too proud to admit that there's some ... irony in that Kim was, at some point or another (prior to being hired? after?), dating the boss. That doesn't necessarily shed a bit of light on the Brandon situation. But, oh, world. You are so complicated.

one of the more notable things on his highlight reel is how PISSED he was when, on one play, he'd made 3 spectacular moves, but then could not finish with a goal. he slammed his stick into the boards, angrily jumped into the bench area, took a seat and put his head down in a rage.

There's nuance here, but I think this misses the point (or at least suggests the point is being missed).

OY. complete and utter and total board fail: ENGAGE. Maybe, maybe, maybe there are weird and uncommon reasons that can be conjured to potentially contextualize and even excuse the guy's behaviour. Or maybe the simplest, most straightforward, most plausible, and, frankly, most substantiated explanation obtains. Maybe.

^ is a good take.

I appreciate the response. I probably fail to appreciate the extent to which I have information (much of it second-hand, some of it third-hand) on which I have chosen to rely, and that others here have little or no such information (or they've heard the same information and choose not to credit it). What I would point out, again, is that an external firm of some kind - probably a law firm (maybe a white shoe firm - one other than the firm that does most/all of PSE's local work right now) - prepared a report following an internal investigation. Kim Pegula confronted Brandon with the report. Brandon denied the findings and, it appears, demonstrably lied about certain findings (e.g., there were texts or emails from him that rebutted what he had claimed). The Pegulas then issued a post-separation statement that made no mention of Brandon -- a guy who'd worked for the team for 20 years. If, in light of that, someone thinks it's an open question as to what Brandon did or did not do, then, really, Godspeed.

I figured.

Fixed. It changes nothing for me.

That Stanford DT was on WGR this morning. Dude was impressive as all get-out. Hopefully it translates to the field in the NFL.