IKnowPhysics Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 There's been a lot of out-of-town news rumor milling that: a) Ruff might not be back with the Sabres next season and b) Holy hell would their team like to employ Ruff because c) They believe that Ruff is one of the best coaches in the league. OP's article linked to the blog version of John Murphy's talk with Pegula: http://blogs.wivb.com/category/news-4-buffalo-sports/ I think an important Murphy mumbling was: We continued to talk for about ten minutes, during which he mentioned how he “loves” Lindy Ruff as coach And now for an opinion piece: I like Ruff. I think he's a good coach and I wish him to stay (at least to patiently see how things flow into Pegula's beginning). I don't want the first 2-5 years of Pegula Era to be a revolving door of failed coaches. If we don't win the Cup in the next few years, I want it to be that we got beat by really good f'ing teams, not because we were out-coached or because we squandered some greatly talented roster with a bad coach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eleven Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 There's been a lot of out-of-town news rumor milling that: a) Ruff might not be back with the Sabres next season and b) Holy hell would their team like to employ Ruff because c) They believe that Ruff is one of the best coaches in the league. OP's article linked to the blog version of John Murphy's talk with Pegula: http://blogs.wivb.com/category/news-4-buffalo-sports/ I think an important Murphy mumbling was: And now for an opinion piece: I like Ruff. I think he's a good coach and I wish him to stay (at least to patiently see how things flow into Pegula's beginning). I don't want the first 2-5 years of Pegula Era to be a revolving door of failed coaches. If we don't win the Cup in the next few years, I want it to be that we got beat by really good f'ing teams, not because we were out-coached or because we squandered some greatly talented roster with a bad coach. A legitimate fear that few seem to understand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taro T Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 Why does there have to be someone to fill Quinn's role, with respect to hockey decisions? For me, I want only ONE person making hockey decisions, and I want that person to be the GM. Of course, that person will have to report to Pegula, but with respect to hockey decisions, I don't want that person reporting to anyone else. If Pegula needs someone to oversee the day-to-day non-hockey decisions, by all means, he should hire someone. Because TP has no significant hockey background and I would hope that the Sabres would end up with someone (Craig Patrick, Neil Smith, Scotty Bowman, ???) with a strong hockey background and with a working knowledge of the business side of things to run the hockey operation. While I expect that the GM will be hiring the scouts, I don't want him wasting time determining a lot of the other little details. I want the GM to be focused on improving the talent on the ice and in the pipeline, but there are a lot of additional hockey related matters that I don't necessarily want him spending time on. Most of the top orgs have a President and a GM and the President is a hockey man. It's a good thing to have a hockey man (rather than a land developer) to be able to advise the Owner and tell him, 'yeah, let's let Darcy (or whomever) pull the trigger on this deal; the fans will hate it but we'll be a better team for it.' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IKnowPhysics Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 A legitimate fear that few seem to understand. It's one the reasons I pray that Terry Pegula is nothing like Charles Wang, because I watch the Islanders lowlights, laugh at them, then go "oh ######, that could be us if we had a REALLY bad owner/front office/GM/coach." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eleven Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 Because TP has no significant hockey background and I would hope that the Sabres would end up with someone (Craig Patrick, Neil Smith, Scotty Bowman, ???) with a strong hockey background and with a working knowledge of the business side of things to run the hockey operation. While I expect that the GM will be hiring the scouts, I don't want him wasting time determining a lot of the other little details. I want the GM to be focused on improving the talent on the ice and in the pipeline, but there are a lot of additional hockey related matters that I don't necessarily want him spending time on. Most of the top orgs have a President and a GM and the President is a hockey man. It's a good thing to have a hockey man (rather than a land developer) to be able to advise the Owner and tell him, 'yeah, let's let Darcy (or whomever) pull the trigger on this deal; the fans will hate it but we'll be a better team for it.' I guess I respectfully disagree; let the GM be the GM and have the team president stay out of personnel matters. If Pegula loves Patrick's hockey acumen, he should make him the GM. The problem was not that the Sabres had a land developer as team president; the problem was that he was given a voice (IMO, the "last word" voice) on personnel decisions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taro T Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 It's one the reasons I pray that Terry Pegula is nothing like Charles Wang, because I watch the Islanders lowlights, laugh at them, then go "oh ######, that could be us if we had a REALLY bad owner/front office/GM/coach." I'd be surprised if he does follow in Wang's footsteps as the way he went about preparing to give the $$$ to Penn State displayed a lot more due dilligence than 'how could it possibly go wrong if Milbury buys into it.' Pegula got input from hockey people on what the best programs and facilities were and then spoke with people from those locations to see what was done; and he then spent ~2x what would be necessary to get things rolling. The thing to remember is that, even with getting good people around him, there will be a learning curve for him. The Wings were still really bad for a long time after Illitch took them over. But Illitch got good people into the org and trusted their input, and since it started working it hasn't had a major regression. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PASabreFan Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 A legitimate fear that few seem to understand. So the opposite of Lindy being here 13 years is a revolving door of failed coaches? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PASabreFan Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 Pegula got input from hockey people on what the best programs and facilities were and then spoke with people from those locations to see what was done; and he then spent ~2x what would be necessary to get things rolling. He not only spoke to those people, he went on trips with PSU people to see various college hockey arenas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wnyguy Posted February 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 Should Pegula determine that a new GM is needed it should be that new GM's decision on who coaches here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taro T Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 I guess I respectfully disagree; let the GM be the GM and have the team president stay out of personnel matters. If Pegula loves Patrick's hockey acumen, he should make him the GM. The problem was not that the Sabres had a land developer as team president; the problem was that he was given a voice (IMO, the "last word" voice) on personnel decisions. It's fine that we disagree, this place would be awfully dull w/out disagreements. Craig Patrick would be 65 years old by the time he got into the fully up-to-speed mode. I don't want a 65 year old that has gone several years without working as a GM to be putting in the kind of hours that a GM should be putting in. Would Patrick (or other potential team President) even want the GM role? I also would do as much as possible to emulate the Wings. Devellano has had Ken Holland reporting to him for a long time and it works. While there is the odd run of a team to the top with a President/GM (Candy Canes - Jim Rutherford), it seems to be the exception. A quick review of the NHL guide & record book makes it look like the majority of teams split that role. (Didn't have time to tally them all up, thus the 'it looks like' qualifier.) But as long as it works for Detroit, I'm good with it. Quinny didn't have last word (TG did, and I'd expect TP will have last word as well) but his was a non-hockey background politician's voice which wasn't strong enough to say 'sign the damn Drury contract.' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eleven Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 So the opposite of Lindy being here 13 years is a revolving door of failed coaches? Did I say it was? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PASabreFan Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 Should Pegula determine that a new GM is needed it should be that new GM's decision on who coaches here. This is a great point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
korab rules Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 It's one the reasons I pray that Terry Pegula is nothing like Charles Wang, because I watch the Islanders lowlights, laugh at them, then go "oh ######, that could be us if we had a REALLY bad owner/front office/GM/coach." You don't want Lalime to be our GM? :unsure: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrader Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 He not only spoke to those people, he went on trips with PSU people to see various college hockey arenas. I know he's been out here at BU's arena and from the sound of things, that's what they're going to end up with at Penn State. I'd love to make a trip down there at some point if that's the way they go. It won't hurt that program at all when they have the 2nd best arena in all of college hockey (they could have the best, but Pegula would probably have at least triple his donation to match what North Dakota has). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IKnowPhysics Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 So the opposite of Lindy being here 13 years is a revolving door of failed coaches? If one thinks that Lindy has been a good coach, then yes, that would be pretty close to directly opposite. It's a gamble with a new coaching choice, and it's one that takes many paid game tickets and standings points to see the result of. And really, compared to Ruff, there's so many worse coaches. Should Pegula determine that a new GM is needed it should be that new GM's decision on who coaches here. I agree with this as well... somehow. I suppose I hope that if we did have a new GM (and I'm not sold on ditching Regier, but that's a whole 'nother bag of ###### I'm not defending in this thread), they would see the value in Ruff. Wang hiring Neil Smith and Ted Nolan at the essentially the same time, then shunting Smith by making major personnel decisions by committee was uberretardo poison for that front office. I'm not expecting Pegula to be a Wanger, I'm (baselessly) expecting quite the opposite behavior. But there's a lot of work to be done in a transition like this and perfection won't come right away. In the land of rainbow farts and carebear circlejerks, I'm also hoping this transition doesn't cost team performance in the interim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrader Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 If one thinks that Lindy has been a good coach, then yes, that would be pretty close to directly opposite. It's a gamble with a new coaching choice, and it's one that takes many paid game tickets and standings points to see the result of. And really, compared to Ruff, there's so many worse coaches. I agree with this as well... somehow. I suppose I hope that if we did have a new GM (and I'm not sold on ditching Regier, but that's a whole 'nother bag of ###### I'm not defending in this thread), they would see the value in Ruff. Wang hiring Neil Smith and Ted Nolan at the essentially the same time, then shunting Smith by making major personnel decisions by committee was uberretardo poison for that front office. I'm not expecting Pegula to be a Wanger, I'm (baselessly) expecting quite the opposite behavior. But there's a lot of work to be done in a transition like this and perfection won't come right away. In the land of rainbow farts and carebear circlejerks, I'm also hoping this transition doesn't cost team performance in the interim. I don't think many are thinking of him becoming like Wang. I don't remember every seeing anything that suggested he knew a thing about hockey before he bought that team. The more likely scenario I keep coming back to is hoping he's not a Dan Snyder-type owner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IKnowPhysics Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 2nd best arena in all of college hockey No big deal, but as a Badger, I couldn't let this slip through. Ahem, Kohl Center. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost of Dwight Drane Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 So the opposite of Lindy being here 13 years is a revolving door of failed coaches? I was reading some old articles when Golisano was buying the team.....and it was written something like, "Golisano comes into control of a team that has the longest tenured head coach with his current team in Lindy Ruff." How you like them bananas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spndnchz Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 I was reading some old articles when Golisano was buying the team.....and it was written something like, "Golisano comes into control of a team that has the longest tenured head coach with his current team in Lindy Ruff." How you like them bananas? What did they say about Regier back then? I'd b interested to know how this 'regime' change is different than the last one. (besides the bankruptcy stuff). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nobody Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 What's the average lifespan of a NHL coach nowadays - 2.1 seasons (or so it seems)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
X. Benedict Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 What's the average lifespan of a NHL coach nowadays - 2.1 seasons (or so it seems)? I believe it is 3 1/2 seasons, roughly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost of Dwight Drane Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 What did they say about Regier back then? I'd b interested to know how this 'regime' change is different than the last one. (besides the bankruptcy stuff). Nothing stood out. This was on the internet when I was looking for how Golisano got a debt waiver as opposed to Hamister. I was just shocked that going back 7+ years that was the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weave Posted February 7, 2011 Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 I dunno. Maybe it's just me but it seems that there is probably a huge gulf between 3-/2 years of revolving coaches and longest tenured coach in the league. It seems to me that the strongest possibility is somewhere in between "new Sabres coach takes team deep into playoffs in 1st season" and "Sabres miss playoffs for 4th time in 5 years". Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Realist Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 I'd like to see Ruff stay, but with a GM and Owner who are willing to do a lot more for him than just get players that help us "Break Even". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darksabre Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 No big deal, but as a Badger, I couldn't let this slip through. Ahem, Kohl Center. Ya Ya Ya Yaa Jesus Hates Wisconsin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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