Mr. WEO Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 44 minutes ago, May Day 10 said: 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. True. Their only success in total for their tenure as pro sports owners in Buffalo comes down to the (as it turns out) lucky hiring of McD. McD got Beane. The rest is fumbling and bumbling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldmanfan Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 9 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said: True. Their only success in total for their tenure as pro sports owners in Buffalo comes down to the (as it turns out) lucky hiring of McD. McD got Beane. The rest is fumbling and bumbling. I am so sick and tired of this claim that they were lucky in hiring McD. The NFL has an advisory committee to look at guys they think may be ready for a HC spot. McD was on that list, Pegula interviewed him and liked his plan and hired him. If you’re going to say he was lucky, then so was every other owner in history that hired a winner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. WEO Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 (edited) 13 minutes ago, oldmanfan said: I am so sick and tired of this claim that they were lucky in hiring McD. The NFL has an advisory committee to look at guys they think may be ready for a HC spot. McD was on that list, Pegula interviewed him and liked his plan and hired him. If you’re going to say he was lucky, then so was every other owner in history that hired a winner. Where was that committee when he hired Rex? Look, it's their 1 good hire ever. I can assume it was luck, given the rest of their Bills/Sabres resume. Sure, you could say that any good hire is "lucky", but show me another multi-sport owner with a similar record of hiring "bad luck". Edited March 30, 2021 by Mr. WEO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldmanfan Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 2 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said: Where was that committee when he hired Rex? Look, it's their 1 good hire ever. I can assume it was luck, given the rest of their Bills/Sabres resume. They didn't do a good hire with Rex. They did with McD. It is beyond sickening to blame them for bad decisions and give them no credit for good ones. The Sabres? People crow about the LaFontaine thing. he did the exact same thing with the Islanders and has not gotten a sniff at a front office position since he pulled his disappearing act with two teams. He probably held onto Regier too long, then hired two GMs that were highly regarded in the league in Murray and Botterill. They turned out bad - made bad coaching decisions and bad draft picks. Coaches? Let's look at the last several. Bylsma - Cup winning coach. Players including the boy toy Eichel tuned him out. Housley. another guy highly regarded with many thinking it was time for him to step up. Players didn't play for him. Kruger? Players lauded his selection then the players led by - you guessed it, Eichel - didn't play for him. I have said before if I'm Pegula I go out and get opinions from 5-10 guys that are well connected with a lot of experience in the league. Start by driving out to Dud's house. But for this team to go forward, you can bring in as many caches etc. as you want, but you have to start with players that have some heart and guts that want to play hockey. You saw last night, every player on that team should be embarrassed to have been on the ice the third period and OT. That was inexcusable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg S Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 10 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said: Where was that committee when he hired Rex? Look, it's their 1 good hire ever. I can assume it was luck, given the rest of their Bills/Sabres resume. Sure, you could say that any good hire is "lucky", but show me another multi-sport owner with a similar record of hiring "bad luck". The Pegula's are fortunate the Bills are doing well otherwise the natives would run them out of town with pitchforks and knives. It's weird how the Pegula's can get it right with the Bills but fail miserably with the Sabres. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. WEO Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 1 minute ago, oldmanfan said: They didn't do a good hire with Rex. They did with McD. It is beyond sickening to blame them for bad decisions and give them no credit for good ones. The Sabres? People crow about the LaFontaine thing. he did the exact same thing with the Islanders and has not gotten a sniff at a front office position since he pulled his disappearing act with two teams. He probably held onto Regier too long, then hired two GMs that were highly regarded in the league in Murray and Botterill. They turned out bad - made bad coaching decisions and bad draft picks. Coaches? Let's look at the last several. Bylsma - Cup winning coach. Players including the boy toy Eichel tuned him out. Housley. another guy highly regarded with many thinking it was time for him to step up. Players didn't play for him. Kruger? Players lauded his selection then the players led by - you guessed it, Eichel - didn't play for him. I have said before if I'm Pegula I go out and get opinions from 5-10 guys that are well connected with a lot of experience in the league. Start by driving out to Dud's house. But for this team to go forward, you can bring in as many caches etc. as you want, but you have to start with players that have some heart and guts that want to play hockey. You saw last night, every player on that team should be embarrassed to have been on the ice the third period and OT. That was inexcusable. I clearly gave credit for Pegula's single good decision. If you now want to argue that all of the Sabre's coaching decisions were, at the time, solid--and that 10 years of player apathy is the real culprit....well, good luck. 3 minutes ago, Greg S said: The Pegula's are fortunate the Bills are doing well otherwise the natives would run them out of town with pitchforks and knives. It's weird how the Pegula's can get it right with the Bills but fail miserably with the Sabres. All it took was one correct choice with the Bills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg S Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 5 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said: I clearly gave credit for Pegula's single good decision. If you now want to argue that all of the Sabre's coaching decisions were, at the time, solid--and that 10 years of player apathy is the real culprit....well, good luck. All it took was one correct choice with the Bills. I mentioned this before but they need to bring someone in who has the experience and history of success in building a good hockey team. Let them look at everything. The GM, HC, assistant coaches, players, scouts. Have them look at everything and let them make changes to get it turned around. The Pegula's may not want to give up control but they really don't have a choice if they want to get better. The last 10 years have shown they don't have a clue. Its long past time to bring someone in who does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
May Day 10 Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 17 minutes ago, oldmanfan said: The Sabres? People crow about the LaFontaine thing. he did the exact same thing with the Islanders and has not gotten a sniff at a front office position since he pulled his disappearing act with two teams. 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
May Day 10 Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 (edited) 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. Edited March 30, 2021 by May Day 10 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. WEO Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 43 minutes ago, Greg S said: I mentioned this before but they need to bring someone in who has the experience and history of success in building a good hockey team. Let them look at everything. The GM, HC, assistant coaches, players, scouts. Have them look at everything and let them make changes to get it turned around. The Pegula's may not want to give up control but they really don't have a choice if they want to get better. The last 10 years have shown they don't have a clue. Its long past time to bring someone in who does. Seems they feel that is not necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg S Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 Just now, Mr. WEO said: Seems they feel that is not necessary. The standings and the past decade say otherwise. To quote former Giants HC Bill Parcells. "You are what your record says you are". I get that they are the owners and will do whatever they want. If they don't change their ways then the Sabres are screwed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
May Day 10 Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. WEO Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 12 minutes ago, Greg S said: The standings and the past decade say otherwise. To quote former Giants HC Bill Parcells. "You are what your record says you are". I get that they are the owners and will do whatever they want. If they don't change their ways then the Sabres are screwed. The Sabres record says were screwed as of 2011. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaninSarasota Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 The lesson is the Sabres are playing as poorly as a team which is actually trying to tank, but sadly they are not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
US Egg Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 This is when the team looked it didn't have the right players to lead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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