Matthew Fairburn Latest Article regarding Terry Pegula and Adams

[Thorny]

5 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

I think about this as well. It's not just the absence of her role, her personality with the sports teams -- but also the toll it must take on Terry to have a spouse who's become disabled. (Please don't take that last bit the wrong way.)

 

 

 

edit

Edited Monday at 06:04 PM by Thorny

[JohnC]

19 minutes ago, Thorny said:

The hobbit was released in 1937

I'm so out of touch that I can't even comprehend the archaic world and crowd. Please be gentle with me. I'm frail and easy to be wounded i.e. easy target due to inherent insufficiencies. 😄

[Mango]

3 hours ago, Pimlach said:

Kim has nothing to do with the Bills success.  The Bills are good because they found McDermott through NHL channels and McDermott brought in Beane.  Both of these men are very good at what they do.  That is why the Bills are good.  

I think a lot of things can be true at one time. I think McBeane are both very good at their jobs but I also don't think two very good executives are enough to overcome Pegula.

Had the Bills Baker, who is considered a top 10 QB in the NFL right now, I think the Bills look a lot closer to the Cleveland Browns than they do the Chiefs or the Eagles. And that isn't a critique on McBeane, that is a full on insult to Terry Pegula. 

[JohnC]

2 minutes ago, Mango said:

I think a lot of things can be true at one time. I think McBeane are both very good at their jobs but I also don't think two very good executives are enough to overcome Pegula.

Had the Bills Baker, who is considered a top 10 QB in the NFL right now, I think the Bills look a lot closer to the Cleveland Browns than they do the Chiefs or the Eagles. And that isn't a critique on McBeane, that is a full on insult to Terry Pegula. 

As it turned out after a tough journey Baker Mayfield has found his footing and is in the right place at the right time. (As you point out.) I don't care what pro sports you are talking about, front offices and organizations make plenty of mistakes on judging talent. However, the organizations that have a solid foundation, like the Bills, overcome them. There is no question that without Josh Allen, the Bills would probably not be a Super Bowl contending team. But that doesn't mean that with its quality staff that they wouldn't have made the necessary adjustments to be a good team. The Sabres not being a serious team for the full tenure of this silent owner is an indictment on his gross incompetence. This owner bought the hockey franchise and went on to degrade it. It's shameful and pathetic. (I'm aware that we are more in agreement than not.)

[Weave]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

Any piece that involved 10 sources and an hour-long sit-down with Adams has been in the works for weeks and the Sabres were well-aware it was coming.

And knowing the piece is coming is incentive to get the senior advisor news out on a Friday.

[Mango]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

I’m saying they don’t care enough about winning in the now IN MY OPINION. whatever the level you think they care, we can go with: and then I’m going to say it’s not enough. Regardless of if they think they are doing enough to make it, i philosophically disagree with their stance that we achieve success now “without mortgaging the future”. My stance isn’t to win now without mortgaging the future. My stance is to win now. The qualifier totally changes it.

Adams believes winning is a byproduct

Thorny believes winning is a choice

if you take one thing from this post, by all means ignore it all and just take in the bold. This is the crux of my argument almost always  

Its both, nobody has ever accidentally won the Olympics. It was a conscious decision that starts likely a decade or more prior. You don't win without the intent to win and that means you practice with intent, and sleep with intent, and eat with intent.

I understand that I am in full on hate mode since it is as revealed that Adams is back with the full coaching staff.

But I think all of that is just still too much credit for both those dingdongs. I think they are just two monkeys humping a hockey puck. They both think that because they finished they've birthed a legitimate NHL hockey org, team, staff,and roster.

[Mango]

5 minutes ago, JohnC said:

As it turned out after a tough journey Baker Mayfield has found his footing and is in the right place at the right time. (As you point out.) I don't care what pro sports you are talking about, front offices and organizations make plenty of mistakes on judging talent. However, the organizations that have a solid foundation, like the Bills, overcome them. There is no question that without Josh Allen, the Bills would probably not be a Super Bowl contending team. But that doesn't mean that with its quality staff that they wouldn't have made the necessary adjustments to be a good team. The Sabres not being a serious team for the full tenure of this silent owner is an indictment on his gross incompetence. This owner bought the hockey franchise and went on to degrade it. It's shameful and pathetic. (I'm aware that we are more in agreement than not.)

Baker was good in Cleveland. They just got start struck by Watson. Literally everything said stick with the kid, you have your guy at QB. It was considered wildly stupid at the time even without the contract.

 

[JohnC]

12 minutes ago, Mango said:

Baker was good in Cleveland. They just got start struck by Watson. Literally everything said stick with the kid, you have your guy at QB. It was considered wildly stupid at the time even without the contract.

 

The Watson acquisition was an owner instigated transaction. And to compound his mistake he was the one who offered the ill-conceived contract that has negatively reverberated for years. Bad ownership making stupid and crippling decisions. 

[Thorny]

4 minutes ago, Mango said:

Its both, nobody has ever accidentally won the Olympics. It was a conscious decision that starts likely a decade or more prior. You don't win without the intent to win and that means you practice with intent, and sleep with intent, and eat with intent.

I understand that I am in full on hate mode since it is as revealed that Adams is back with the full coaching staff.

But I think all of that is just still too much credit for both those dingdongs. I think they are just two monkeys humping a hockey puck. They both think that because they finished they've birthed a legitimate NHL hockey org, team, staff,and roster.

I guess I didn’t think people would remove all previous context from the discussion. Maybe surprising based on the dim witted nature of my posts but i do get that there are a multitude of components that combine to make winning possible.

But my point of course was that, the sabres have to make the choice to do their utmost best to field a team that has those components, and has them within the context of the prioritization of winning TODAY, based on the very real structure of the nhl, the way it has teams accumulate standings points, and the mandate of finishing 8th or better.

When I say “by product”, I’m saying that at no point during Adams rebuild has “winning today” been the chief priority by which we have operated: we’ve wanted to win, sure, we arguably even THOUGHT we could or would win, but that desire or belief was nonetheless, ultimately in each case superseded by the unwillingness to spend. Winning was the goal: to a point. 

It hasn’t been the goal, the priority, outright. Adams certainly believed winning would arrive; arrive organically through the patient maturing of a core constructed with an eye on being a stanley cup contender, one day, and not a playoff team, now.

hubris, if I may say so, myself 

[Big Guava]

5 hours ago, JohnC said:

The lack of self-awareness about the owner's own lack of knowledge is absurd. He might not realize how little he knows but everyone else on the outside (and many in the inside of the company) certainly recognizes it. This is hubris and arrogance at a mountainous level. On the positive side, bringing in an experienced outside person to be involved in the operation is a positive step. Pegula's footprint on this flailing franchise is not only obvious but it is at a level that it has stomped on this franchise into oblivion. 

Dunning-Krueger Effect taking place?

And not related to Ralph Kreuger ironically enough

[Archie Lee]

I could not be more down on the Adams/Ruff combo. I think it is the worst combo in the East and maybe in the league. It is hard for me to find anything Sabre-related to be hopeful about. But, I did find the article to paint a bit of a good news / bad news scenario.

The good news, is that I didn't read anything in the article that made me think a good GM could not thrive under Pegula. I don't see anything here that supports Pegula is forcing Adams to make bad decisions. Pegula, to me, just wants to be involved, kept in the loop, and listened to. He didn't force Adams to trade Eichel and Reinhart. He didn't force Adams to sign Cozens, Samuelsson, Power, and UPL to long-term deals. He didn't force Adams to extend Jokiharju at $3 million or sign Lafferty at $2 million. He approved these things, but he wasn't the driving force behind them. A capable and qualified GM with good leadership skills, would make better decisions and have no trouble convincing Pegula to support his plan. Pegula's big flaw, is that he has failed, repeatedly, to identify the right person for the GM position and, after 2 big misses, he compounded the mistake by insulating himself from outside opinion. 

The bad news is pretty bad though. That Pegula is stubbornly sticking with Adams is not good. With each year that passes without the Sabres getting it right, they drift further from credibility. Their reputation (the franchise, the brand, Pegula's) just becomes more and more damaged. There is zero reason to think they are on a path to getting it right this year. I know I'm drawing an arbitrary line here, but since 2020-2021, Adams is 0-5 for the playoffs, Ruff is 1-4, and Kekalainan is 0-4.  This is not the group of men that any serious professional sports franchise would entrust with ending a 14 year playoff drought. 

I think success can happen under Pegula. Not with this group of men in key roles though. 

      

Edited Monday at 06:54 PM by Archie Lee

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

The hobbit was released in 1937

That was the same year @JohnC graduated from high school.   He never read the book and his kids were gone before the movies came out.  

[Brawndo]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

Surely you’ve seen LOTR? or do you just mean again

I was in med school and residency from 2001 to 2009, the only thing I remember from that time period was getting married and having two kids. And the only reason I remember those is they still hang around me

[Mustache of God]

This article makes me wonder how long Jarmo will last. Longer or shorter than Patty Lafontaine during the Murray days?

[PerreaultForever]

6 hours ago, That Aud Smell said:

"'Any self-respecting GM who takes that job is going to say, "I have to be able to run this for you,"' said one former NHL executive. 'I know it’s your team and I have to talk to you about things, but I have to be able to build a team and make decisions. If I have to run a simple (Henri) Jokiharju for a fourth by you, what are we doing here?'"

This is the crux of the whole thing and it simply validates what we've speculated on for years. This ultimately started when Pat LaFontaine realized it and said this won't work for me and walked out the door. It's been a clown show with ringmaster TP in charge ever since. 

So the question now is will JK make a difference? Has the owner realized he needs senior advice after all? Will JK stick to his guns and go up against a TP idea or will he just be happy to get a payday and climb in the clown car as another yes man. I thought Ruff would refuse to get in the clown car by demanding his own assistants but when they ran all that back and even promoted Appert I thought Lindy's just glad to have another job. No serious boat rocking here. 

idk, if you want to be optimistic you assume JK will change things and it'll finally change, but the pessimist in me just says it's a fan placating window dressing move to give false hope (and sell tickets) and it'll still be the TP clown show. No idea which way it will go at all. Hope and pray. 

[That Aud Smell]

48 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

I was in med school and residency from 2001 to 2009, the only thing I remember from that time period was getting married and having two kids. And the only reason I remember those is they still hang around me

oh got damn -- do you not really remember the Sabre teams of 2005-2007? (understandable, if so. ... but damn.)

[JohnC]

1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

That was the same year @JohnC graduated from high school.   He never read the book and his kids were gone before the movies came out.  

You may think you are embarrassing me but I take pride in my dinosaur nature. Now get off my weed infested lawn.  Excuse me now. I have to go and pee.

[Indabuff]

2 hours ago, Mango said:

Serious question. 

Adams has to be the greatest alumni that Phred the Phoenix has ever seen grace its halls websites.

But really, if you zoom far enough out he is entrenched as a 6 year executive of a major professional sports team. There might not be a single more "successful" graduate of their business program. 

True.

Maybe he's being underestimated.  Maybe his persona as a simpleton is a ploy.  Given enough time he may grow to a level of mythic proportions, like a Keyser Söze.

[Thorny]

1 hour ago, Brawndo said:

I was in med school and residency from 2001 to 2009, the only thing I remember from that time period was getting married and having two kids. And the only reason I remember those is they still hang around me

Now tell me how many sabres games you’ve watched since 2009. I know the extended editions are long, but.. I’m not sure the hockey has been Oscar quality 

Edited Monday at 08:51 PM by Thorny

[Brawndo]

1 hour ago, That Aud Smell said:

oh got damn -- do you not really remember the Sabre teams of 2005-2007? (understandable, if so. ... but damn.)

It was a blur I maybe saw 10 out of 82 games a year if I was lucky. I was working a 27 hour shift in the NICU at Children’s Hospital when Drury scored against the Rangers. Another resident, who was a Leafs Fan told me about it 3 hours later 

[SwampD]

7 hours ago, Mango said:

Not to rehash history on the Eichel thing. I always thought that the club didn't agree to the disc replacement because they just wanted Eichel out, wanted somebody else to assume the risk, and maximize trade value. 

So I just had a double cervical disc replacement like 7-8 weeks ago for myelopathy. I got opinions from 2 different top 10 spine surgery centers in the US. The guy who did the surgery is the co-chair of one of them. Both said, "easy peasy, double disc replacement". We briefly chatted about Eichel, nothing crazy, just that it wasn't some new aged surgery like the Sabres made it seem. Both had done single level disc replacements on pro athletes in contact sports with success. But even than still rolled up into what I though anyways...

Until....

Shortly after I had a friend go to UB Neuro for herniated discs in their neck and UB neuro told them that they don't do double cervical disc replacements because they aren't FDA approved. I had my 6 week follow up and asked my surgeon and he said that there are reasons to not to do a double disc replacement but FDA approval isn't one of them. 

It is crazy to me that UB Neuro could be so far behind on what was considered a super common surgery from both my neurosurgeons. I am so grateful I live an easy train ride into NYC. I am still pretty young and a double fusion would have severely limited my mobility for the rest of my life. 

I bet it's not because they are behind, I bet it's because they probably get federal funding and have to follow FDA guidelines or they will lose it.

[Brawndo]

56 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Now tell me how many sabres games you’ve watched since 2009. I know the extended editions are long, but.. I’m not sure the hockey has been Oscar quality 

Way too many.

To make it worse I became a partial STH in 2017. 
 

Come to think of it I joined SabresSpace in October of 2011.
 

Dammit the drought is all my fault! 

[Huckleberry]

59 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Way too many.

To make it worse I became a partial STH in 2017. 
 

Come to think of it I joined SabresSpace in October of 2011.
 

Dammit the drought is all my fault! 

Oh I get that feeling too, joined here in 2011 😄

[kas23]

3 hours ago, Brawndo said:

I was in med school and residency from 2001 to 2009, the only thing I remember from that time period was getting married and having two kids. And the only reason I remember those is they still hang around me

I was in med school, residency, and fellowship from 2001 to 2012. Like you, I remember very little. Like those years somehow vanished. I do remember a bunch of people above me acting like total ***** though. 

[7+6=13]

Impressive how all the diehard fans are suppressing their zeal.