Head coach Ted Nolan stood their full of emotion, eyes welling up.
He had just gone through his first practice without franchise goalie Ryan Miller and team captain Steve Ott. Both were traded to St. Louis on Friday just before their game with the San Jose Sharks.
On Saturday, he got word that his "dear friend" Pat LaFontaine had just resigned from his position as the Sabres President of Hockey Operations. Nolan was the first person LaFontaine brought on board back in November to guide the on-ice product.
A lesser man would have stood there spewing clichés while reporters dug for answers as to how the front office split came about.
He simply told the media that too much had just transpired for him to go into any kind of detail. Having LaFontaine depart was too much of a blow to even comprehend at that point, much less talk about.
When Nolan was asked questions about his future with the team, the same applied.
There was just too much emotion at the moment to even think about himself. "Right now I have to put my personal situation behind," he said, "and really concentrate on those 22 guys (meaning his players.) I owe it to the younger players."
"Sergeant" Ted, continued, "we traded our captain, that’s tough enough as it is and then all of a sudden the situation happens with Patty, so I have to put my personal, how I’m feeling to the side and deal with the team. I respect what’s transpired from both sides and that’s beyond my pay scale. I have to respect what’s transpired and what’s happened and have faith it was for the right reasons.”
Of course no one knows the reasons outside of the principles.
About all we know is that owner Terry Pegula brought in LaFontaine to guide the hockey operations after GM Darcy Regier was fired. Pegula created the position of president strictly for LaFontaine.
LaFontaine admittedly said that he didn't have the desire, nor credentials to be the GM, which was a position offered to him by Pegula.
We know that LaFontaine brought in Nolan and the team played much better hockey than before, much better hockey than the record would indicate.
We know that the team is severely lacking in talent as they begin to rebuild, and that LaFontaine hired possibly one of the best young talent evaluators in hockey in Tim Murray to be GM.
We know that he brought in Craig Patrick as an advisor. Patrick is part of a legendary hockey family who has spent decades in hockey, is in the Hall of Fame in the executive category and was GM in Pittsburgh during their rebuild.
In his 109 days at the helm, LaFontaine did a remarkable job of putting good people in place to move the franchise forward.
At the forefront of this is Murray.
Murray looks and talks as if he has ice in his veins.
He's all business, completely focused upon the task at hand. Probably the most important aspect of hiring Murray was the fact that he has no attachments to any player in the organization. He can look at the personnel from a purely objective standpoint. And that includes Nolan.
When it comes to Nolan, no on can deny what he has done with this team. He's doing the same thing he did with the Sabres the first go round in the 90's. He did the same thing with the Islanders for a brief stint in the 2000's. And he did the same thing with team Latvia at the 2014 Olympics.
He squeezes blood from a stone.
This group of Sabres has the least amount of talent as any team in their 40+ year history, yet they came out of the Olympic break riding a three-game winning streak into tonight's contest having beat Carolina, Boston and San Jose.
Murray has seen first-hand what his interim coach can do and it would seem as if he wants Nolan to stay.
At yesterdays presser flanked by team president Ted Black, Murray said of Nolan, "We want him to come back, I don’t know what he’s thinking, we’re just going down that road so I guess I’ll get an answer shortly from him.”
There is a three year offer on the table, although no one outside the parties knows what it is.
Murray, for his part, says it's really in Nolan's hands, "I just want people that want to be here to be here. If he wants to be here, I want him to be our coach. I can’t speculate if he does or not and I’m not going to beg anybody to come and work here, I want people that want to be here, I want players that want to be here and we want Teddy to be our coach moving forward.”
There are two and a half days left until the trade deadline and Murray's got his hands full.
Speculation is rampant as to which Sabres player will be moved next.
And through all of this, Sergeant Ted has to guide the team into Dallas to face Buffalo's former coach Lindy Ruff, who succeeded him when there was a front office shift 15 years ago.
This is the business side of hockey. It's cold and ruthless.
The games played in the front office are much tougher than the ones played on the ice. That's why you hire pro's like Murray who've spent 25 years in the business paying their dues, making the climb, enduring all the trials, tribulations and politics that goes on in the front office.
Pat LaFontaine did what he was hired to do: get this team on track. At the time of the Murray hire he said, he "was on a mission to bring the right people" to Buffalo.
He filled key positions with quality personnel--including Nolan, Murray and Patrick--and this train is ready to roll. There's no taking that away from him and he should always be remembered as a key contributor to the Buffalo Sabres post-Regier era.
But as his train gets rolling, you either get on board or get out of the way.
From sabres.com, links to both pressers from Nolan and Black/Murray:
http://video.sabres.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=565780&catid=1373&navid=DL|BUF|home
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