May Day 10

It seems that the team and league are optimistic. I believe if all things go accordingly, there will be a full stadium by opening day. However, some of these variants are a bit troubling, and if the right variant gets out it could undermine the whole progress made by vaccination.

I would say Montour is a big part of the 'turnaround'. He cant wait to get out of here. Also guessing Ullmark is counting down the days. The team has been doubling down on inexperience or giving a shot for too many years. They need someone, somewhere with real NHL experience in their roles. They are in need of something significant to happen in their organization. I also think it will be very difficult to continue this trend. It is better than an 18 game losing streak, but their R wins are against the Flyers who are a train wreck currently and the Devils, who the Sabres should be 10x better than on paper. I dont mean to disqualify their wins, but waiting to see what happens after the deadline and how they play against the real teams. They have shown little small-sample-size glimpses in the past that mean nothing and seem to give ownership an excuse to stick with the status-quo and resist much needed changes. The league is designed to make almost every team believe they are over .500 and 'decent'. The Sabres are up against some really good front offices and coaches in their (typical) division. Going at it with Don Granato and Kevyn Adams isn't going to be competitive.

or its a group of players trying to play their way out of here at the deadline and also for their UFA. Been fooled before. Organization still sucks. Stick with Granato and pretend everything is fine on the cheap, we will be right back here in a year.

A renovation to Rich Stadium would be unlike anything that has previously taken place and quite possibly could displace the team for a portion of a season (or more). Maybe the closest thing was the 1998 renovation when they added the clubs. It would basically be rebuilding a new stadium in-place, much like they did in Chicago, Green Bay, and Kansas City. The latest thing in 2013 or whatever, was largely cosmetic.

Pilot Field was originally designed, ready to remove the green roof and put in another deck and also expand the right field bleachers into more and permanent seating. Buffalo was a finalist, along with Denver, Washington DC, and (Orlando/Miami/St Petersburg) (it was a no secret 1 of the teams was going to be put in a Florida location, it was just a matter of which one. Right around the time that the Finalists were announced, I believe Rich publicly stated reservations about the cost of doing business as an MLB team including the $95 million expansion fee. I dont believe the Riches really pursued it down to the wire. It would have been a disaster here anyway and they may have been relocated by now. Buffalo is/was too small for MLB with how the economics of the league are set. It would be a dream for me and I would almost certainly be a STH. The corporate dollars are not there, and the RSN fees would not be anywhere near competitive. The Riches have enough $ to sustain losses, but they don't really seem to be willing to get their noses dirty (were very silent during Sabres and Bills sales). I still hold out hope for a miracle of a fortune 500 or 2 downtown with a revival and an MLB team. Its a little known story, but apparently before all that, the Riches had dinner with the owner of the SF Giants. The Giants' owner was bitching about Candlestick Park as well as the weather they had to deal with playing there. The riches proposed moving or sharing the team in Buffalo and calling them the New York Giants. There were a few meetings on that but it didnt get too far.

What the city could use is a real brick and mortar amphitheater downtown. That could bring a lot of people down there multiple times a week during the Summer months.

I would prefer renovating the current stadium. I love the sightlines and I believe the NFL experience there is truly unique and it is a draw for fans of other teams. We have history there. I like the elements. I love Bills games, they are hopefully going to remain competitive and game experience will be that much better. I am proud of what we have and every year that is preserved it will be more and more special and more of an attraction. Second choice is an outdoor stadium with more of a roof in an adjacent parking lot in OP. Third choice would be the outdoor stadium with roof downtown. Fourth choice is an indoor stadium but with an open-air feel to it with natural light and a unique setup (that would be downtown no matter what IMO) Last choice would be a Ford Field style sterile indoor where it feels like the games are played in about 80% light and every single game looks the same, devoid of atmosphere. I dont think retractable is a realistic possibility for the cost and the climate.

I think everyone on the planet gets it, with the exception of 2 people. There are rumors ripping around that Adams is hiring Peter Karmanos' son as AGM... but there is a package deal with Jim Rutherford to be some sort of VP/Advisor/etc. Right now Rutherford and the Pegulas are negotiating the parameters of ownership involvement and Rutherford is tentative about jumping in because of that.

OK, I did say McDermott was a lucky hire. That is a bit un-fair. Credit is deserved to some degree. A head coach in the NFL is very similar to a team-president role in the NHL. They seem to have nailed it with McDermott who radiated out with Beane and everything else. They tried the same model in the NHL which is laughable. Krueger was empowered like an NFL coach would (NHL coaches mostly have a short shelf-life). They went with a guy Krueger and the Pegulas liked working with as a GM, and went with some extreme cut-back efficiency model. Not to mention Krueger's questionable/non-existent track record in the NHL. I have said it before, but building an NHL organization takes longer and is a bit more challenging than the NFL. Drafting 17-18 year old kids from all over the world playing in different levels of competition is tough. Then the whole development thing. On the NHL-level, salary mistakes can haunt you for 8 years. Not saying it is 'easier to win' in the NFL, you can just hire a coach and turn everything over within 2 years.

Not exactly true. LaFontaine was an un-paid advisor for the Islanders to assist his good friend Neil Smith who was hired as GM. That lasted a month and Neil Smith was let go by dysfunctional ownership who hired Garth Snow as GM and LaFontaine walked away.

For me, it was surprising the pegulas went into buying the Sabres cold. Didn't really have any plan or any help. If it were me, I would be day 1 introducing my team president who was going to right the course of the franchise. So they didn't and every move since then has been terrible and made at the wrong time. When they were buying the Bills, I was certain they learned their lesson and had someone on their team who was going to come in and build the bills organization that was sitting on moth balls in Ralph Wilson's closet for 20 years. Instead, no plan. They just decided to continue with russ brandon as team president because he knew his way around the building and that was impressive. Doug Marrone walking away should have been a wake up call and the bills showed their belly for the pegulas to make absolute change. Instead they allowed russ brandon to help steer them into more bad decisions, culminating with an embarrassing pr run, capped with whaley's "privy fest". They got McDermott which seems to be a stroke of luck. He seems to have been clear about walling off russ brandon and the pegulas.

I wonder if it's possible it could be a Canadian company

I think most people are making the direct comparison between the Sabres' current drought vs the Bills 2000s drought. In Bills terms, I would compare it to the Bills entering a continuing loop of 1985 and 1986. The scary part is, the Sabres have been behaving like they are in 'win now' mode for the past 5-6 years. You also have to take into account how the NHL is structured presently. The league is designed for parity. The points system alone all but insures that nearly every team remains close and gives about 75% of the league the feeling that they are over .500. What the Sabres have accomplished here is remarkable. While there were certainly plenty of dark days in the Bills' drought, the Bills were almost always able to remain ahead of the bottom dwellers of that particular season. The Sabres have been THE bottom dweller for 4 of these seasons. A few of the other ones, they were going straight down the toilet but ran out of schedule. Their last regulation win in March was 3/31/18, Housley's FIRST season against Nashville.

They weren't good going into that covid break either, hemorrhaging points against the rangers and devils, two teams they theoretically should be miles in front of

The bills during the drought were always an average to below average team. In only 2 of those seasons were they really bad. I wanna say 02 and 2010. They would normally feast on the bottom quartile of the nfl, but were hopeless against the top quartile. The Sabres are blasting a hole in the floor of the NHL right now as possibly the worst team in a generation (since 1992-93 when they gave the shaft to expansion teams). They have been a frequent visitor at the bottom of the NHL. The bills normally gave you "in the hunt" for awhile. I have never seen a pro sports organization so fundamentally broken as the Sabres are right now, and that includes the bills throughout the drought. Krueger convinced them to fire everybody and these fools went along with it

Me too. I didn't expect them to be worst team in 20 years bad... but I didn't expect them to sniff a playoff spot. The organization is broke. Almost beyond repair. Time for a team president and rebuild from the smoldering rubble

Im going against the grain here. I hate the trade from a SF standpoint if they are planning on going QB. Basically waiting to see what is leftover from the first 2 picks in no control.... However, I wonder if this is for Pitts, Sewell, or Chase (or even Surtain). I could see the justification and huge upside for any one of those guys. Pick #3 basically gives them a 1OA for all non-QB players. By all accounts, Sewell and Pitts are 1x in a generation talents at their positions. Kittle and Pitts could be a nightmare.

Do nfc teams sign anybody?

I get that, but this has to be less than fun. It's been an embarrassing endeavor for 10 years. There is a happy medium between feeling involved and choosing your nhl coaches over your gm's head and funding his wife's Senate campaign. I remember he was in on bills stuff and the search for qbs. Give him a stopwatch and throw him in a corner.

That reeks of a Ralph Kruger position. A lot of this downsizing/efficiency reeks of Kruger. Hopefully. Man, imagine being a billionaire and so gullible as these Pegulas.

The part that stuck with me was when they fired Murray/Bylsma. During the PC, one of Pegula's answers were that he really regretted not making the decisions on GM and coach and how that would not happen again. The owner having a hand in picking the coach is poison in the NHL. It makes a toxic well for any prospective general manager. Thats just not how it works. In the NHL you arent looking for a life-partner coach. If it happens and you stumble on a unicorn coach who has 10 years of staying power, great. But they are the exception to the rule.

This is so similar to the 00s Wilson/Brandon Bills it is scary. This is actually worse though because IMO, a hockey organization is a bit more complex than an NFL team. At least as far as the element of drafting 18 year olds from all over the world, developing, and signing long term contracts that could potentially cripple your payroll for 8 years. The immediacy of the NFL draft helps, as do non-guaranteed contracts. The Bills never came close to bottoming out like the Sabres have done a handful of times in the past 7 years.

Its not just amateur scouting. You can argue that at this time amateur scouting isnt needed as a lot of leagues are delayed or not allowing people in. Pro scouting is absolutely critical. You need boots on the ground there to scout the other players for upcoming UFA, trades. get a feel for their mental state, rub elbows around the league. Not to mention watching and analyzing other teams for a competitive and schematic advantage.

The nfl is more structured from the coach-out. The coach is often the ceo of football. In the NHL they are hired and cast away as tools to manipulate players. Nhl is harder and takes longer to build than the nfl. You have to draft 18 year olds from numerous leagues that are apples to oranges all over the world. Then you have to develop them. The salary cap with guaranteed contracts is unforgiving. Less good players move around. Nfl you can blow out and rework a roster/system/organization in 2 years time. Can even potentially find 4-7 starters in the draft, or more if you are rebuilding and get some udfa The NHL is much more president/gm driven. The pegulas tried to carry the empowered coach model to the NHL and it was a complete trainwreck

Trade bait for the deadline? When a team is desperate?