The epic fall of this organization over 12 years

[blackbookrecords]

I got into a long-winded conversation with a friend today regarding the overall state of this team, and it's turning into a long-winded post here.  Apologies in advance, but there are few outlets for this.

 

It's incredible when you put yourself back into your place in, let's say, 2008, and where we are now.  FORGET the team and record and all that.  I'm talking strictly the organization all the way up to ownership.

 

Under Golisano and Quinn, this team wasn't just an huge upstart on the ice.  It was a leader in the league on many fronts.  They had gone out of their way, forced by the hand they purchased, of course, to undergo a huge fan-connection effort to re-energize this business.  FIrst, they lowered ticket prices not once, but TWICE (https://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2004/07/12/story3.html), in order to entice people to get back in there.  And then, they began innovating.  They were the first team (i believe) to introduce the variable ticket pricing system in the NHL, to further sweeten the deal.  And it worked even before the 2005 season started.  It got a lot of people in there and on the cheap.  By the next year, obviously helped by the lightning/bottle team they had, they had to cap them off and start the waiting list.  ONE SEASON did that.

 

But it wasn't just getting people in there and getting lucky with a hot team.  They tried things.  They pushed changes into the league.  And often they failed, but isn't that what a growing, fast-paced, innovated business does?  Sure, was blue ice kinda silly?  Curved nets?  Slug Logos?  But they tried.  They slapped a number on the front right shoulder of the jersey.  Combined with insanely high jersey sales and a President's Trophy team, even the NYTimes called them "Another Hockeytown" (https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/sports/hockey/04sabres.html), in which Larry Quinn is quoted as saying,

 

 

...wait for it...

 

“I think the most important thing facing teams is not to price your team out of the market,” said Larry Quinn, the Sabres’ managing partner.

 

You don't say.  The difference to now is night and day.  I don't even remember why people disliked Quinn.  People constantly cracked on him for meddling with the team or something.  That guy got on the radio every week and talked to people.   He tried all sorts of fresh ideas that, at the very least, kept the Sabres at the forefront of league talk.   "Oh, look what these new Sabres are trying out now!"  What in the hell happened to THAT?  His BuffaSlug jersey that everyone supposedly hated, at one point, had something like 6 out of the top 10 best sellers in the league (Pres. Trophy, i know).

 

In contrast, while not a "managing partner", Russ Brandon, whom i really have no problem with, is the President of BOTH the Bills and the Sabres, which to me is a massive mistake.  His competence for the one team doesn't mean its just going to roll over to the other, and ESPECIALLY when the main team is of the NFL variety.  That decision alone cemented the Sabres fate to be nothing more than the bastard, adopted, red-headed stepchild with a weird limp that it currently looks like, because you're asking a guy to divide his attention, ANY attention, from the true cash cow, and he's supposed to give a lick about anything else?

 

Of course, it didn't start there.  The LaFontaine hiring-because-we-hung-out-at-a-party situation was our first warning.  Sure, i'll fire everyone and hire you cuz i'm awestruck right now.  Hey while you're at it, WHY NOT bring back a coach that literally no one in the league, inside or out, really respects, and THEN hire a GM who will have to put up with that horsecrap.  What could go wrong?   :huh:

 

And then there's everything else.  All of that forward-thinking, progressive-minded approach to the game of hockey and the league is gone. All of the fan connecting efforts are missing.   Even Ted-freaking-Black got that right.   The entire arena experience is one heaping, sloppy milquetoast glass of boring to levels I can't believe.  Jesus, even Sabretooth used to be a hilarious part of the experience when they'd allow him to perform his wacky antics and pre-game stuff.  Now, he beats on a poorly tuned drum WHILE THE GAME IS IN ACTION, and shoots throws t-shirts that no one will ever wear at people.  He barely exists.  But don't worry, we'll numb you to death with EDM and bad trivia once a period.

 

I know a LOT of this could be reversed with a good team, but an organization is an organization, and I've always felt the vibes flow both ways.  Mittelstadt and Eichel be damned, how can the team on the ice ever truly improve if the people all the way up to the top are running the boat onto shore? 

 

For whatever Golisano and Quinn's legacies are, or should be, that short-lived partnership didn't just save the team, it shot it directly into the spotlight of the whole league.   Hell, it shot the whole league up a little too.  Maybe that would've been different had they not been so good, and subsequently the fan base wouldn't have flipped out so much, but they were making REAL changes in that 2003-2004 season.   And they worked hard during the lockout and into that offseason leading up to 2005 to make that organization beloved again, even before we knew what we had on our hands.  And I tend to believe that all of that effort paid off on the ice in a small way, and things snowballed for those few years.  All i can see this current organization doing is maybe going back to the original jerseys.  Hooray.  Can't say i'll buy one, cuz y'all suck.  Everything else has gone backwards or disappeared completely.

 

Pegula has, despite his apparent/supposed love for them, turned them into an embarrassing afterthought, throughout the league, and most importantly to the fans.  By consolidating the teams into one over-arching organization, he has undermined the Buffalo Sabres so much.  They're the leftovers in the fridge you don't feel like throwing out, shoved into the back and covered up by the nicer, fresher, Red and Blue food.  Spray some febreeze on it so it don't stink.  As a start, he needs to get a true hockey President in there, who is going to treat the team with the full attention and respect it deserves, and let him make sweeping changes all the way down.  Let Brandon run the Bills, where it's worked.  I don't blame Brandon at all for any of this, but I do not want him there anymore for the same reason.

 

Then back off.  Let someone else steer.  Or, get the hell out.

[PromoTheRobot]

All I recall is people saying it couldn't be any worse than Darcy and Lindy.

[blackbookrecords]

All I recall is people saying it couldn't be any worse than Darcy and Lindy.

 

If only.

[Doohickie]

It's on me.  I joined this forum 12 years ago.

[GASabresIUFAN]

Quinn and Golisano for all they did right made two mistakes that will never and should never be forgiven. They played games with Briere and Drury, went cheap (video scouting anyone) and ended up destroying everything they had built. Regier’s failure to draft well after getting Vanek destroyed the pipeline that once feed the resurgent 2005 Sabres. Pegula’s mistakes, and there have been many, accelerated a down hill slide that started that faithful day and rest as they say is history.

 

So now Pegula has learned from his mistakes and as we have seen lately, Jbot looks like a competent man to move the organization forward. Only time will tell.

Edited March 26, 2018 by GASabresIUFAN

[nfreeman]

Welcome to the board, Larry Q., but I'll never forgive you for screwing up that 2005-06 team.

[darksabre]

All I recall is people saying it couldn't be any worse than Darcy and Lindy.

lol no one said that 

[North Buffalo]

lol no one said that

 

Witch...

[blackbookrecords]

I think to say they "destroyed everything they had built" is a major exaggeration.  Video scouting, economically, might make a lot of sense seeing as they had been losing money for a few years.   July 1 was awful yes.  But, those two major mistakes did not result in the kind of damage that's been laid by this current run of consistent bumbling.

 

And my main point, again, was the work done around the team and the league, less about the team itself.  Both organizations have screwed that up, except that one would still contend for the playoffs most years.

 

I'm not here to blow wind up Golisano/Quinn's tails.   I just can't believe, even with their faults, that they could've pulled off what they did, and how our "savior" TPeg could've driven his prized possession into the dirt.

 

Also, jury's still way out on Pegula "learning from his mistakes", and on Botteril being competent yet.  We have no real indication of either.

Welcome to the board, Larry Q., but I'll never forgive you for screwing up that 2005-06 team.

 

LET ME BACK INZ

Edited March 26, 2018 by blackbookrecords

[Sabre fan]

still miss Lindy...boy I loved him  behind the bench. And I actually liked Darcy up to the point he let both Drury and Danny walk for nothing. Either way, th e verdict is for sure out on GMJBotto...he hasn't done anything any GM could or would do. I truly hope his poor return for very good hockey player in Evander kane was not his fault and more a result of kane's reputation, cause we sure didn't get much for him

[Taro T]

lol no one said that

 

No fair stepping on his strawman.

[Doohickie]

Witch...

 

BURN HIM.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Welcome to the board, Larry Q., but I'll never forgive you for screwing up that 2005-06 team.

 

I was thinking the exact same thing.   :w00t:

 

Really, though, welcome.  A very well thought out initial post.

 

I agree, the Sabres need a real hockey guy to run the team as President.

 

Brandon is good at what he does and it is working for the Bills, but that stuff won't work for the Sabres at this time.  If the Sabres were a really good team than maybe it would.

[R_Dudley]

Who is this masked man and why dost though just now protest? 

 

Methinks of people scorned by the current organization !

 

I think we should go all medieval and call for a good old Inquisition. 

 

I heard them singing er chanting in the halls at work, If happy in their jobs we see, witches and warlocks they be.

 

Tie a big rock to them and throw in the buffalo river if they float they're not witches.   

[dudacek]

I just want to hear the truth about Drury’s contract and whether or not the slug was your own personal design.

Edited March 26, 2018 by dudacek

[Sabel79]

If this franchise ever does right itself and somehow win a cup, I will cry actual tears of joy that we never have to speak of this again.

[TheAud]

My favorite part was pointing out the poor utilization of Sabretooth. Deserves it's own thread, really. 

[PASabreFan]

If this franchise ever does right itself and somehow win a cup, I will cry actual tears of joy that we never have to speak of this again.

In the meantime...

 

GREAT post. Check out my post about fan appreciation night last year. And there's another one coming up, I assume.

 

Terry can't even utter the word "Sabres" anymore, even when he's on The Instigators.

 

The sooner he sells, the better. I'll take my chances with anyone, even DT.

[Randall Flagg]

This was a great post. 

I was at the Coyotes game, and more than once my dad and I looked at each other, jaws literally dropping, at how pathetic the "experience" was. 

[SwampD]

This was a great post. 

I was at the Coyotes game, and more than once my dad and I looked at each other, jaws literally dropping, at how pathetic the "experience" was.

 

As Someone who was pro-tank, do you have any credibility when it comes to what the "experience" was? You got what you wanted.

[Randall Flagg]

As Someone who was pro-tank, do you have any credibility when it comes to what the "experience" was? You got what you wanted.

I was talking about the in-between-the-game stuff. The trivia, the tinny music killing all talk about hockey, life, the game, etc. 

 

And you don't have to take it seriously if you don't trust my take because of a position that I've been vocal about switching sides on and feeling bad about supporting in the first place, if you don't want to. I don't care, I just wanted to throw that out there

[SwampD]

I was talking about the in-between-the-game stuff. The trivia, the tinny music killing all talk about hockey, life, the game, etc. 

And you don't have to take it seriously if you don't trust my take because of a position that I've been vocal about switching sides on and feeling bad about supporting in the first place, if you don't want to. I don't care, I just wanted to throw that out there

I'm just saying that all that stuff doesn't mean anything when the team is good.

[Randall Flagg]

Also, in an effort to procrastinate, I'm scrolling through GDT and tanky threads from back then, and I may have been overstating my support for the tank at the time, because I voted that GMTM SHOULDN'T have a firesale at that deadline in one thread, and was posting in a generally upset manner in some of the bad GDTs, along with being an obnoxious thread policeman everytime someone tried to cheer for the tank in those threads. 

I'm just saying that all that stuff doesn't mean anything when the team is good.

I think the OP is onto something though in that the horrendous management has permeated every single level of the organization. 

Like, if you had no idea what hockey was, went to the game, and didn't even watch it, but paid attention to everything else, you'd probably come out saying "this is probably the most Mickey-Mouse franchise in whatever league this is". 

[SwampD]

Also, in an effort to procrastinate, I'm scrolling through GDT and tanky threads from back then, and I may have been overstating my support for the tank at the time, because I voted that GMTM SHOULDN'T have a firesale at that deadline in one thread, and was posting in a generally upset manner in some of the bad GDTs, along with being an obnoxious thread policeman everytime someone tried to cheer for the tank in those threads. 

 

I think the OP is onto something though in that the horrendous management has permeated every single level of the organization. 

Like, if you had no idea what hockey was, went to the game, and didn't even watch it, but paid attention to everything else, you'd probably come out saying "this is probably the most Mickey-Mouse franchise in whatever league this is".

 

If I ever went to a sporting event and didn't realized that the home crowd rooting for a loss was ###ed, I probably don't deserve to be a fan of that sport to begin with.

 

:lol:

[Randall Flagg]

If I ever went to a sporting event and didn't realized that the home crowd rooting for a loss was ###ed, I probably don't deserve to be a fan of that sport to begin with.

 

:lol:

I get that you're messing, but I'm not sure I follow where this conversation went - that was 3 years ago, I'm talking about this week, eh? Nobody was cheering against us and I didn't go to any games that season so idk if the presentation was still this bad then