Back on the road back to "Hockey Heaven" for the Buffalo Sabres?

Published by hockeybuzz.com, 8-5-2018


Yeah, it was cheesy, and the timing of it probably wasn't the greatest but the concept behind the term "hockey heaven" from former team president Ted Black was solid.

This is what Black had to say at owner Terry Pegula's introductory press conference as the billionaire Sabres' fan-turned-owner promised no financial restraints on the franchise and a dedication to the lone goal of winning the Stanley Cup:

"A clarion call should go out to the league and to hockey players everywhere," Black said at that February 22, 2011 press conference, "that Buffalo is hockey heaven. If you want to come somewhere and work for the best owner in the league, which that's what you have in Buffalo here right now, then you should make some plans to come to Buffalo because this is where it's going to happen. It might not happen this year, it might not happen the next, but it's gonna happen."

Black was right in one aspect. It hasn't been "happening" on the ice in Buffalo in the seven years since Pegula took over the team. In fact it's been a disaster culminating with a another last place finish, their third in five years.

For his part, Pegula put his money where his mouth was but unfortunately for the first-time professional sports owner, money isn't the be-all, end-all. Having access to financial resources helps immensely but as we found out, hiring the right people to spend that money (and/or assets) properly is equally, if not more, important than throwing money around.

When Pegula took over the Sabres they were a mediocre team in a downtown area that represented a microcosm of an entire rustbelt region in decline. While he was pouring financial resources into the team which included everything from locker room renovations to the scouting department to lavish, ill-advised free agent contracts, he and his wife Kim began what would become a downtown revitalization centered around hockey.

The vacant lot adjacent to the arena where the Sabres played their home games was turned into a large hockey complex called Harborcenter. The building had two regulation-sized rinks, one that seats 1,800 people, an off-ice training facility, hotel, restaurant and parking garage.

The Pegula's threw their considerable financial weight behind Harborcenter and the sport with a strong commitment to USA hockey. That commitment actually began when Terry gave his alma mater, Penn State, a generous grant to start up a NCAA Division I hockey program. Harborcenter with his focus on USA related hockey is home to the Canisius Golden Griffins (D-I) and Buffalo Jr. Sabres as well as the Buffalo Beauts of the National Women's Hockey League.

The big coup for Pegula and Harborcenter, and what really put them on the map, was landing the National Hockey League Scouting Combine. Toronto hosted the event for over two decades but Harborcenter offered a facility built for hockey and the league moved the annual pre-draft event to Buffalo, on a temporary basis in 2016. It coincided with the city hosted the NHL Draft that year.

Yet despite all the wonderful hockey-related activity around what is now KeyBank Center, home of the Buffalo Sabres, that success did not equate to a winning product on the ice whether it was self-inflicted or a matter of a poor product.

Pegula and Black set the franchise on a course to bottom out and rebuild with top picks but it ended up being disastrous and the road to hockey heaven eventually lead to a ditch.

It began with the teardown where GM Darcy Regier did a great job of acquiring high draft picks for veteran players before getting fired. But many were tossed around as his successor, Tim Murray, tried to speed up the rebuilding process. The Sabres did get two high draft picks in Sam Reinhart (2014, second-overall) and Jack Eichel (2015, second) out of the morass that was the tank years and they look to be core pieces for years to come, but the young vets Murray paid dearly for to surround his young talent with never meshed and none of them remain.

Jason Botterill came in as general manager in 2017 and set about fixing what his predecessor had done but the team ended up in last place once again. However, the Sabres were able to land the first-overall pick in the NHL Draft and selected what many consider a franchise defenseman bordering on generational talent, Rasmus Dahlin. That pick, along with some other core pieces such as Eichel and Botterill's first ever draft pick as GM, Casey Mittelstadt, are combining to produce a positive effect that's starting to generate interest outside of Buffalo.

Case-in-point, the decision by winger Jeff Skinner to waive his no-trade clause for Buffalo.

Botterill pulled off a remarkable trade for Skinner last week when he sent prospect Cliff Pu and three draft picks (a second, third and sixth) to the Carolina Hurricanes for the three-time 30-goal scorer. Granted Skinner's no-trade clause limited his destinations and his pending 2019 UFA status limited interest in him, but for Buffalo this is a huge get, at least for this season, as Botterill filled a position of dire need with a bona fide top-six player.

When asked by the media why he chose to waive his no-trade clause to come to Buffalo, Skinner said there were a number of variables that went into breaking down an NHL team, but right off the bat the 26 yr. old pointed to the young core the Sabres had. "I think first and foremost, the players they have, the young core, is exciting," he said. "There's a lot of good players and I'm excited to join those guys and be a piece of the puzzle."

Skinner didn't limit his praise to that young core either when he talked about doing his homework which included talking to other players about the organization. "I've heard a lot of positive things about the city," said the Markham, Ontario native, "a lot positive things about the ownership group, the management group and the fans."

This isn't the first time a quality player has waived his no-trade clause to come to Buffalo but it doesn't happen that often. And before we get all giddy about hockey heaven being right around the corner, it's best to be reminded that the Sabres landed in a ditch last season and before we can get to nirvana, they've got to get back on the road.

Having said that, the things PSE have been doing off the ice have been nothing short of impressive, but as will all NHL teams, much of it is about the product on the ice. The hires of Botterill and Sexton seem like very good ones at this point as they've been able to point this thing in the right direction, which is something that Skinner took notice of when he decided to allow a trade to Buffalo. However, much more is needed for them to get to the ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup and without a Cup, there is no hockey heaven.

HarborCenter makes it easy for Combine success in Buffalo. On-ice testing in the future?

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


The Buffalo Sabres held their own scouting combine for the first time in 2011, just after Terry Pegula took over the team. The idea was to augment the information the team gathered at the NHL Combine by adding their own tests which included on-ice workouts. The Sabres brought in a few dozen prospects that year and tested them over a four-day span.

The Sabres Draft Combine was an idea the scouting department had for a while but due to budgetary constraints of the previous owner never came to fruition. At his introductory press conference in February, 2011 Pegula stated that "there is no salary cap in the NHL on scouting budgets and player development budgets. I plan on increasing...our budgets" and he followed that up four months later with the inaugural Buffalo Sabres Draft Combine.

NHL Draft Combine begins tomorrow in Buffalo, NY

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


For the first 21 years of its existence the NHL Scouting Combine was held in hotel ballrooms and convention centers in a large Canadian metropolitan city that likes to call itself "The Centre of the Hockey Universe," which happens to be home to NHL and NHL Central Scouting Services.

The idea for the Combine was basically a two-fold approach where teams could get an up close and personal look at prospects eligible for the upcoming draft. During the week long Combine teams will conduct player interviews with an expected 120 or so players this year (for a full list, click here) before attention is directed a the players' physical attributes. One-on-one interviews are set to take place June 1-5, with individual medical examines on June 4 followed by endurance and fitness testing on be June 6th.

"The goal is to present an event that allows NHL personnel to interact with the future stars of our game and assist the NHL clubs in their pursuit of gaining as much knowledge about the draft prospects as possible," said Dan Marr, the Director of NHL Central Scouting.

Ted Nolan and his coaching staff may be doing much better than most think

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


Buffalo Sabres head coach Ted Nolan is said to be on the hot-seat for the performance of his last-place team.

I know. Newsflash. Right?

We all know the stats which include 16 wins in 56 games, a franchise record 14-game losing streak, last place in goals-for, goals-against, powerplay, faceoff, etc., etc., etc. And if the stats were bad to this point, the impact of losing Tyler Myers and Drew Stafford along with goalie Jhonas Enroth last week will probably further cement their place at the bottom of the aforementioned.

Blame is starting to get thrown around for a wretched season as history will be judging the 2014-15 Buffalo Sabres in a harsh light with Nolan and his staff as coaches of record. While whispers of discontent are said to be emanating from the foot of Washington St., there's not been a direct, full-blown indictment of the coaching staff. That being said, there are more than a few media types and a burgeoning group of fans who believe that Nolan's second stint will be coming to an end in the near future.

Sabres raise some eyebrows in beating Detroit, are 2-2-1 in last five

Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com


The Buffalo Sabres weren't supposed to beat the Detroit Red Wings yesterday evening. Get a loser-point? Maybe. But win the game? Nope. Shouldn't happen.

It's too early to think that Sabres head coach Ted Nolan might be ticking off the powers that be in Buffalo, but Sabres President Ted Black and general manager Tim Murray may have had their interest piqued yesterday. The team Nolan coached vs. the Red Wings in the Sabres first home victory looked like a good, hard-working team that's tired of being an embarrassment.

With the 3-2 shootout victory over Detroit, the Sabres are now 2-2-1 in their last five games. Granted, they were shut out in the two losses by a combined 9-0 score, but a loss is a loss whether it's by a goal or five goals. And a win is a win no matter how few goals it takes.

The Sabres are in Jekyll and Hyde mode right now as they've altered between good, solid performances and embarrassments. It started in San Jose' as they throttled the Sharks 2-1 in the last game of their three-game, west coast swing. That was followed by a 4-0 shellacking in Toronto, one that caused Nolan to put the team through a grueling practice the following day.

Suck it up, Sabres fans, no one said it would be easy

1-7-1

That would be the Buffalo Sabres record after their 3-0 loss at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.

The reason for the loss was painfully obvious--a big discrepancy in talent. The Canucks boast, among other talents, the Sedin twins, Henrik and Daniel, who have combined for 18 points over the first eight games of the season. Their defensemen lead the league in scoring as a group with Jason Garrison's two goals and six assists setting the pace.

As for the Sabres, they are at the bottom of the league in scoring with an average of 1.11 goals per game. Their only bonafide top-line player is Thomas Vanek. He has three goals and two assists.

In last nights game Vanek thought he scored his fourth of the season. He ripped a shot high glove-side over Roberto Luongo and everyone thought that the Sabres had cut the 'Nucks lead to 2-1. But video replay showed that the puck clanged off of the crossbar, hit the far post and trickled on the goal line never crossing it.

No goal.

Buffaluck.

In any event, there's only one team worse than the Sabres right now, the Philadelphia Flyers. At least we knew this team would be bad. The Flyers early troubles really came out of nowhere.

Even knowing that this team is bad can't take away the pain of watching the games. This is not to say that the players on the ice aren't trying. Nor is it saying that the team is poorly coached. But when Steve Ott is playing top-line minutes, it shows that the talent-level isn't close to where it should be.

To emphasize the point, Ott made a nice toe-drag on a break Thursday night, but his shot hit his linemate Cody Hodgson who was being steered into a goalie interference penalty by a 'Nucks d-man. Ott had both sides of the net open, but shot it in the middle where the traffic was.

Yup. It's gonna be a long year.

For years now Sabres fans have been clamoring for a top pick in the draft. They'd been watching the team finish in the middle of the pack year-in, year-out with nothing to show for it. When the Sabres made the playoffs, they didn't have the horses to win a series. When they didn't make it to the dance, they ended up picking in the middle of the first round.

When Sabres GM Darcy Regier told fans during the summer to be prepared to "suffer," he wasn't just whistlin' Dixie.

On WGR's Howard Simon Show Thursday morning, Sabres President Ted Black says he hears the fans and feels their pain, but it's imperative they stick to their plan. "We have to stay the course," he said. "We can't panic. I understand and acknowledge the frustration. Everybody wants to talk about the rebuild and getting a lot of picks and drafting high.

If you end up drafting high, it's wonderful. But the pain of getting there is great."

The "frustration" he's talking about is personified by the incessant booing from fans at the F'N Center. In effect they're booing the GM and an organization that's been asking them for patience for a number of years. And they're fed up. The only thing patience has gotten them over the 16 years is mediocrity with a mere two years of hope thrown in.

The architect of this is Regier, and they want him gone.

But the Sabres organization isn't looking at Regier's full body of work that stretches back to 1997. They're only looking at the years Terry Pegula has owned the team. More specifically, when it comes to Regier, Sabres upper management is looking at how Regier is breaking down his "core" and the return he's getting. They're basically starting with the trade of fourth-line center Paul Gaustad for a first-round pick at the 2012 trade deadline.

On GR, Black talked of a "four-year plan" that started with the 2012 Draft and he emphasized not being distracted by the day-to-day occurrences this year. The focus should be on the big picture "of where we are and where we want to go, not getting too bogged down in wins and losses," he said. "It's gonna be a long season. It could be a long process."

The process he's talking about is breaking down "the core" and re-building through the draft, a process that has already begun.

Within the Sabres plan, that "four year cycle," Black mentioned they will have selected, and are slated to select through the next two drafts, a total of 15 first and second round picks. He points out that it's unprecedented in Sabres history and says that only one franchise has had that many in a four-year period pointing to the Montreal Canadians of the 70's.

"That's what we've committed to doing," he said. "We're trying to get as many picks as we can because that's the best place to get top players, through the draft."

Of course what they do with those picks, and how they develop them, will determine whether or not the "suffering" was worth it. But we'll get to that at a year or two down the road.

Later in the evening, an "embattled" Regier was on WGR's Schopp and the Bulldog.

He also acknowledged the boos that were raining down on the team and the calls for his head but said that the entire organization is on the same page and they can't deviate from the course. "I have no illusions," he said, "about what it will take to win a championship. It won't be easy, it will be very difficult. There will be periods like this that we will have to be prepared to work through."

Regier had warned the fans that there would be "suffering." Although I'm pretty sure no one thought it would be this bad this early. Not even himself.

"I fully expect that, myself included, we're going to go 'Oh my God! This is harder than than I thought. This is more difficult than I thought it was going to be,'" he said.

"I thought that when we started," he continued, "and I probably have as much or more experience than anyone in this area."

But Pegula and his charges will continue to focus on the big picture despite the unrest at the F'N Center. "Any kind of day-to-day evaluation that deviates from that--whether we lose a game, or lose two games, or have a start we've had," said Black, "we have to pull back and think big picture. We can't sell out the short run. We can't panic and say, 'Oh my gosh!' to satisfy this need to race to 8th, 9th, 10th place."

He finished that point, "We need to be fully committed to what we're doing right now."

Which is bottoming out and rebuilding.

Unbeknownst to many who were blinded by the "big city signings" two years ago, Pegula has been committed from the get-go to scouting, drafting and developing home grown talent.

He addressed it at his first presser, "There's no NHL salary cap on scouting budgets and player development budgets, I plan on increasing our...scouting budgets"

And he put his money where his mouth was.

According to Black, "in terms of scouting, it's the department where we've put the most effort into and that's where we need to get the most returns."

The "effort" he was talking about was a financial commitment to increase the number of scouts on this continent as well as have a stronger presence overseas.

"Our scouts currently are at 26 or 28," he said. "That's European, American, Canadian coverage. We're far more covered and get a lot more information than we used to."

This was coming on the heels of the previous regime that had shrunk the scouting staff to a bare minimum in favor of video.

Scouting, drafting and player development are ideals that don't lend themselves to instant gratification. From the re-education of Tyler Myers, to younings like Joel Armia,  Zemgus Girgensons and Rasmus Ristolainen there will be growing pains as they find their way in the NHL. And unfortunately for them, they're being thrown into the fire at the F'N Center.

Regier thinks it's unfortunate that their initiation to the Buffalo Sabres is a repeated chorus of boos. "It can be unfortunate on one hand," he said, "but you [must] do what you have to do. And you have to overlook some things that you can't change and don't have the ability to impact or influence."

He continued with that train of thought, maybe subconsciously drawing parallels to what he's going through, specifically the report that he was on the hot seat and could be shown the door soon. He said that the players can actually influence things that are out of their control by focusing on their game.

"It is to do your own work first and support the other people you're working with," he said. "That's all you can do. And to the extent that you're gonna run around chasing things you have no control over, you're just gonna make it worse. At some point in a players career, the sooner they understand that, the better they're going to be because it will allow them to focus on their own work."

I had the pleasure of talking to a scout from the Los Angeles Kings last night who was genuinely concerned that the whole situation was getting to Regier. He liked Regier as a person and respected his body of work.

As a long-time scout for the Kings, he also knew firsthand of the pains of rebuilding.

They were in a very similar situation as the Sabres at one point around 2000. They were middling and eventually dropped to the bottom of the league. It was only after bottoming out--and in the process landing Drew Doughty--did they begin their ascent to the top of the mountain.

And it's a model worth looking at.

It's a long road, Sabres fans. No one said it would be easy, so suck it up.

Quinn and Regier/Black and Regier--Same Sh*t, Different Owner...

and it's the last thing Sabres nation needed.

The boys at the Buffalo News' were ready to rumble at the end of year presser on Monday.

They couldn't wait to get at the two representatives of the Buffalo Sabres sitting in front of them--Team President Ted Black and GM Darcy Regier.

The News' Mike Harrington got the mike first and immediately dove into the organization.

When he asked Black to "end all speculation" concerning the status of Regier, his first question wasn't really a question, but a statement of disbelief.

Everyone knew that Regier was still on board. He was right there in front of them.

Was Regier still GM? "Yes," was Black's direct answer to the "question."

What Harrington was really trying to get at, as he asked the follow-up, was why, after six years of failure, and when the Sabres fired their longtime coach, is Regier still GM?

Black's answer started chronological, "the decision to extend [Regier] into next year was made before the lockout ended," then turned evasive, "the reality is...," he continued.

Let's stop right there.

The reality is, this team is a mess.

The reality is, this team has being mismanaged on the hockey side--Regier's side--and it seems to be severely affecting the business side--Black's side.

The reality is, Regier's team did not make the playoffs two years running and it's affecting Black's bottom line.

The reality is, owner Terry Pegula listened to his senior advisor, Ken Sawyer, as the latter called Regier a "hockey genius" and it's strained the relationship between owner and fans.

The reality is, the "hockey genius" is causing Black to lose tens of millions of his owners money, much more than anyone ever thought.

The reality is, Black's "Hockey Heaven" in Buffalo is now "Hockey Hell" and an owner who once said his main job is to be liked is now being vilified for what amounts to the incompetence of his two main charges.

Despite Pegula's lavish expenditures on everything from a newly refurbished dressing room to expensive free agent contracts, the present state of the Sabres seems to be nothing more than extension of the Tom Golisano regime.

Black's responses at the presser exposed a very troubling trait. His owner who once said "if I want to make money, I'll drill another well" has such a financial mess on his hands that the team is relying on league welfare for the second season in a row. Just like the previous regime did.

The multi-billionaire has a team president who said they had to raise ticket prices, not because of a league mandate like he initially intimated, but because the Sabres must show year over year revenue growth in order to be eligible for revenue sharing.

Said Black, "the entire process allows this franchise to still qualify unencumbered for revenue sharing. The 4% ticket price increase, is about an obligation [to the league] to raise money so you don't jeopardize that revenue stream."

With Sabres' ticket prices in the bottom quarter of the league, according to Black, they're losing bushels of money because they havent' made the playoffs.

Losses could be in the area of $10M per year outside of the playoffs. And that includes revenue sharing.

No owner, no matter how well off, should be expected to lose that amount of money year over year.

As Black said, "I can't get drunk off Terry's wealth and assume he's going to live forever and he's going to spend money forever."

Turns out we were all drunk on his wealth when he bought the team.

But none moreso than the GM.

With the financial chains off, Regier proceeded to:

• eat Ales Kotalik's $3M contract in the Robyn Regehr trade
• sign Christian Ehrhoff to a 10-yr./$40M contract, $18M of it in the first two years
• sign Ville Leino to a 6 yr./$27M contract
• bury Shoane Morrison's $2M contract in the minors
• re-sign Tyler Myers to a 7 yr./$38.5M contract with a $10M bonus paid out this year
• re-sign Andrej Sekera to a 4 yr./$11M contract with $7.5M paid out the first two years 

Also the team will be eating what's left on former coach Lindy Ruff's contract.

That sucking sound you hear is the sound of millions of dollars being thrown away on a team that failed to make the playoffs--again.

So why, after two years of futility on the ice and with a team hemorrhaging money, would they want to keep Regier on board?

Maybe it's about money--again.

It would make sense that they wouldn't want to eat Regier's contract and pay a new GM in the process.

Right now the Sabres have still have Regier in charge as they continue to dismantle his core. He's proven capable of moving players for a good return like he did when trading core players Paul Gaustad, Derek Roy and Jason Pominville over the last 18 months or so.

Two more of his core, who happen to be the two best players on the roster--Ryan Miller and Thomas Vanek--look to be on the move as well, and the return will probably be mostly picks and prospects.

Financially, there isn't really much more damage Regier can do to the organization by trading high-priced veterans for picks and/or prospects.

What does all this mean?

One would expect that Regier's hand in the rebuild may be limited to the dismantling part. The Sabres will probably be heading into the 2013/14 as the youngest team in the NHL and will be relying on Head Amateur Scout/Assistant GM Kevin Devine to mold the future through draft picks and prospects.

Higher priced vets like Christian Ehrhoff, Steve Ott and Ville Leino, as well as underachieving Drew Stafford will probably remain for a variety of reasons. The Sabres still need to put a product on the ice, they'll still have the cap-floor to reach and they'll still need some veteran leadership.

We should not, however, expect any big splashes in free agency with high-priced players coming to Buffalo this off season.

And with the salary cap going down, the Sabres payroll going down, not paying for two GM's next season, and ticket prices increasing, Black should be able to keep the team finances in check for the upcoming season.

It should also be assumed that the team will retain interim head coach Ron Rolston for another year. As the team continues to pay Ruff's salary, it makes sound financial sense to keep a coach on the cheap.

This attention to the bottom line is what the team went through from 2007-2011 when Golisano owned the team and had his "just break even" mandate to then team president--and part-owner--Larry Quinn.

Same shit, different owner for Sabres fans which is the last thing Sabres-nation needed.

Let the 2012 off-season begin

The LA Kings won their first ever Stanley Cup as the 8th seed in the Western Conference. Darcy Regier had said around the trade deadline that a low seed has a good chance of winning it, and sure enough he was right. In fact he'd have been right in either case as the runner-up New Jersey Devils were the 6th seed in the Eastern Conference.

Some notes from the Stanley Cup Final:

The Kings started every series on the road and won both games each time, something that was unprecedented. They beat the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd seeds in the conference with only one series going six games (New Jersey.)

Kings goalie Jonathan Quick had a 1.41 gaa and a .946 save percentage.

GM Dean Lombardi built the Kings through the draft (Dustin Brown-2003, Anze Kopitar and Quick-2005, Thomas Hickey-2007, Drew Doughty #2 overall-2008. He augmented the team--Jarret Stoll and Matt Greene-2008, Willie Mitchell-2010.

In 2009 he began bringing in Stanley Cup winners with the trade for winger Justin Williams CAR, 2006.) Lombardi also signed unrestricted free agent Rob Scuderi (PIT, 2009) that same season. He also picked up Colin Fraser (CHI, 2010) in 2011.

Last off-season Lombardi went all-in up-front by trading two talented youngsters to Philadelphia for Mike Richards on June 23. On July 2 he augmented his scoring by signing Philadelphia UFA Simon Gagne. He completed the Flyers triumvirate by acquiring Jeff Carter. Three top-six forwards added to the line-up.

A masterful job by Lombardi.

********** 

There are no former Sabres on the Kings roster, but there were three on the Devils--defenseman Henrik Tallinder, winger Dainius Zubrus and Steve Bernier.

Tallinder was out of the line up until Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final. He played well on the second-pairing but was vicimtimized by a strong forecheck throughout Game 6.

Zubrus was a non-factor in the last two rounds of the playoffs with no goals and three assists in 12 games to go along with a minus-four plus/minus rating.

As for Bernier, former Boston Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner's name is being frequently used with Bernier's.

Bernier was a part of the Brian Campbell trade at the deadline back in 2008. He came from San Jose' along with a 1st round pick (Tyler Ennis, #26 overall) for Campbell and a 7th rounder. After a ruckus first game with the Sabres he disappeared and eventually was traded to Vancouver in the 2008 off season for a 3rd rounder in 2009 (Brayden McNabb #66 overall) and a 2nd-rounder in 2010 (traded along with Nathan Paetsch to Columbus for Raffi Torres.)

Known more as an energy player than anything else, Bernier had a severe brain-cramp when he leveled Kings d-man Rob Scuderi from behind. He got a five minute major and a game misconduct.

“From my point of view, I don’t,” Bernier said when asked if the hit deserved a five-minute penalty. “I know he stayed down. It’s a fast game. There are hard hits all over the ice. You want to help your team win.”

The quote came from nj.com, in an article written to defend the player and direct the fans attention from rage to sympathy.

Rage may be a little strong. It's not like Boston in 1986 World Series when an 83 year Championship drought was on the line. The Devils having won three Cups in the last 18 years, took it all in stride as the champions they are.

No matter what anyone might say, though, it was a bone-headed move that cost the Devils the game and the ultimately the series. The Kings scored three goals on the power play which meant that the Devils needed four goals vs. Quick to win the game. They had scored seven goals total through the first five games.

And so it goes.

********** 

The Sabres are heading into the off season with four of the first 44 picks in the draft next weekend.

Director of Amateur Scouting, Kevin Devine, was on WGR yesterday saying that this is the most challenging draft he's had since becoming director.

Among the things he mentioned:  injuries to the top prospects, the "Russian factor," and no player breaking from the pack.

Devine considers it a deep, balanced draft going as far to say that there's not much of a difference between their #12 and #21 picks. He also labeled the top five picks as "risky" and used that "risky" when describing the Russian players in the top-five.

The draft is deep with defensemen, an area of strength for the organization, but Devine goes on to say that the team should get two really good players with their first round picks. He mentions that there are some centers up their that look good to the team.

There will be a ton of mock drafts coming out in the next ten days, but Kris Baker of sabresprospects.com had his draft preview up last week. Among the players he has the Sabres looking at with the 12th pick are LW Teuvo Teravainen, D Cody Ceci and LW Pontus Aberg.

It's a good Sabres-centric read and some outstanding work by Baker.

**********

The Sabres shook up the broadcast booth yesterday as well.

Rob Ray will be paired with play-by-play man Rick Jeanneret this season.

Make that Hall of Fame broadcaster, Rick Jeanneret . The long-time Sabres play-by-play man was awarded the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for Broadcasting and will be recognized at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto this November.

Ray will be Jeanneret's partner on the road from the booth and at home from his customary spot between the benches for home games.

He'll be replacing Harry Neale who moves to the studio to join Mike Robitaille for pregame and intermission reports.

Brian Duff will join the Sabres full-time as host for Sabres broadcasts and Kevin Sylvester heads to the WGR studios for a two-hour segment from 10AM to 12 noon called Sabres Hockey Hotline.

Ted Black on the Howard Simon Show this morning discussed the moves also saying that Jeanneret mentioning that he may have taken a little too much time off last season. So it would seem as if there will be more "RJ" this season. Which is good for Sabres fans.

Black also touched upon the needs for the organization mentioning that "they want to be a tougher team to play against," that they want to find "a top forward or top defenseman either through a trade, free agency, development within [the] system or perhaps some of the guys that didn't have the years that they had last year."

No mention of the draft in that statement, specifically no mention of landing a top-three/five impact player to help immediately. Couple that with Devine's "risk" aversion with the top prospects in the draft and it may be safe to say the the Sabres won't be trading into the top-five next week.

On other thing worth mentioning, Black had high praise for what GM Darcy Regier did in the trade with Nashville. He mentioned (without verification, he says) that in the past 30 years there were only 20 trade deadline deals that netted a team a first round pick and Regier got a first-rounder for Paul Gaustad, a "third/fourth line center."

The principals of the Sabres organization, according to Devine, will be meeting at Terry Pegula's place on Wednesday to discuss their plan of attack for this off-season which officially began with the Kings win last night.

Should be an interesting off-season.

Ted Black takes some heat on WGR from fans

"I appreciate the 15 year frustration that the fans of the franchise have. I and [Owner] Terry [Pegula] judge everyone--not singularly focused on [GM] Darcy [Regier] and [Head Coach] Lindy [Ruff]--on the performance since we've been there."
--Team President Ted Black on the Howard Simon Show Thursday

There you have it.

Overall the Sabres are 55-36-15 since they took over. They have made the playoffs once going 3-4 losing in the first round to the Philadelphia Flyers and missed the playoffs this season.

Since they took over some major changes in philosophy have taken place--specifically the financial aspect. The financial constraints of the previous regime were eliminated.

Some of the highlights:

• Brad Boyes and his $4m/yr. contract through the 2011-12 season was brought on board (for a second round pick) at the 2011 trade deadline.
• The team convinced Calgary Flames veteran defenseman Robyn Regehr to waive his no-trade clause to come to Buffalo. He came to the Sabres along with former Sabre Ales Kotalik and a second round pick for Chris Butler and Paul Byron.
• The Sabres traded a fourth round pick to the NY Islanders for the rights to former Vancouver Canucks defenseman Christian Ehrhoff whom they promplty signed to a front-loaded ($10M in the first year, $8M in the second, $13M in bounuses over those first two years,) 10-year/$40M contract. The 29 year-old will have an actual total salary of $6M over the last four years of the deal with a cap-hit of $4M.
• After putting together a package to lure top free agent center Brad Richards to Buffalo, the Sabres signed free agent Ville Leino when Richards opted for the NY Rangers. They signed the winger/(hopeful) centerman to a six-year, $27M contract with $9M in signing bonuses over the first two years and a cap-hit of $4.5M.

In addition to the above acquisitions, the Sabres also took care of their own, in a rather expedited manner:

• RFA forward Drew Stafford--who had an injury-shortened, "breakout" season--was signed to a straight-up, 4 yr./$16M contract in early June.
• RFA defenseman Andrej Sekera was locked up for four years, $11M with most of it front-loaded to the tune of $4.75M in signing bonuses over the first two seasons.
• Defenseman Tyler Myers, who had one year left on his entry-level contract was signed to a 7 yr./$38.5M contract extension with a $10M signing bonus that is paid July 1, 2012.

The front-loading, the salaries, the trading for rights to a free agent and the big bonuses all represent departures from the previous way of doing business.

And as they headed into the 2011-12 season, the Sabres also did something unheard of in the previous regime--bury contracts in the minors.

For years we've seen teams like the Philadelphia Flyers go hog-wild spending and end up burying contracts in the minors to get under the cap. This last season the Sabres did that. Kotalik and his $3M as well as Shoane Morrison and his $2M were jettisoned from the team as the Sabres got themselves under the $64.3M league salary cap.

Obviously, owner Terry Pegula put his money where his mouth was.

That's all well and good, but long-suffering Sabres' fans saw only the bottom line-the Sabres failed to make the playoffs.

For most years they saw a "core" put together by Regier and coached by Ruff fail to get past the first round of the playoffs. They see Regier "married" to his core and Ruff seemingly unable to get his team to reach and/or exceed their talent-levels. They point to players like Derek Roy and Thomas Vanek who had sub-par years statistically this past season and the teams' slow start/drive for the playoffs as yet another year of failure.

But Black did not see it that way. He said, "Sometimes winning and success are not the same thing."

That was a lawyer-like, public relations gem thrown at the fan-base to keep the torches and pitch-forks at bay.

For the entire season, Black had talked about winning the Stanley Cup. Pegula's motto, "From this day forward, the reason for the Sabres existence is to win the Stanley Cup." is on a plaque in the dressing room.

Missing the playoffs constitutes an epic failure on the part of the organization and Black stood in the pocket to take the heat for Pegula. Not only that, he'll be taking heat from the media for not having a end of year press conference with Regier and Ruff, saying "The epitaph for this season has been written over the last week. I think we're singularly focused on next year. I think otherwise [a year-end press conference this season] just turns into, 'we're just going to wallow in despair' and I don't think any of us want to do that."

The Buffalo News' Jerry Sullivan already jumped on that with an piece entitled, Sabre's brass comes across thin-skinned. "Evidently," Sullivan wrote, "Pegula did not feel compelled to explain why he kept his general manager and coach for a 16th season. For now, at least, Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff will be spared the indignity of having to speak for themselves."

Sullivan bashes the organization, even going as far as bringing up hydro-fracking (the source of Pegula's wealth) and the Jerry Sandusky/Penn State scandal (Pegula's alum.) In what's sure to be the first shot in potential media war with the Pegula regime, Sullivan is rallying the masses behind him when he writes, "Fans deserve answers, especially from Ruff and Regier."

If Black can "appreciate 15 years of frustration the fans have" he's probably just starting to feel the wrath of 15 years of pent up incredulity and rage at keeping the status quo.

Grab some popcorn.

The Sabres are on their own in the playoff push (plus other notes)

Last night the Boston Bruins could have done the Buffalo Sabres a favor.

Of course, that's a phrase that doesn't work very well when it comes to a rivalry that dates back to the early days of the Sabres inception.

Or maybe, the Bruins could have done themselves a favor by securing a playoff spot with a win last night vs. the Washington Capitals. Two points would have put Boston in the playoffs.

Leave it to them to come back from two goals down late in the third period to tie the game, then lose in the fourth round of the shootout to a Washington team that needed the two points to stay right with Buffalo in the push for the final playoff spot.

The Pittsburgh Penguins, the team the Sabres meet tonight, could've helped Buffalo last Saturday as they faced a reeling Ottawa club. The Pens started their third goalie, Brad Thiessen, and he was promptly demolished in an 8-4 loss. The Sens gained a valuable two points as the Sabres are nippin' at their heels.

One week ago today, the Winnipeg Jets were battling for the eighth playoff spot with a game on the road vs. the Capitals. In a strange turn of events, the Jets overcame a three goal deficit in the third to force OT and ended up winning the game. And Sabres fans were thankful for that favor.

But Winnipeg, who's considered one of the best home teams in the league had a chance this past Monday to keep their playoff hopes alive as well as help the Sabres again. They faced Ottawa at home, and promptly lost 6-4.

So out of four games that the Sabres could have used some help on, in three they received none, and the fourth was partial help as Washington snared a loser point.

It's a good thing that Buffalo is in control of their own destiny. It's nearing the end of the season and weird things are happening as playoff teams are downshifting their intensity a bit as the playoffs near.

**********

Ted Black trys to refrain from "I told ya so," but really couldn't.

Sabres President Ted Black did his weekly radio show on WGR yesterday and tried not to say "I told you so" when asked if injuries were the main problem with the team two months ago.

The Sabres were in the East cellar, they couldn't win on the road and everybody had nearly every Sabres' player traded or demoted. They had Head Coach Lindy Ruff getting fired or moved within the organization and GM Darcy Reiger on a one-way flight to Uzbekistan.

To be fair, everyone bemoaning the dismal state of the team had every right to feel that way. Sure the Sabres were losing and playing like crap, but for many it wasn't just that they were losing, but how they were losing. The just didn't seem to care.

While Black stressed patience, Owner Terry Pegula blamed the inordinate number of injuries to the team.

Neither seemed to realize that Sabres fans over the last four-plus seasons had been subject to Regier's patience (see Tim Connolly, Derek Roy, Max Afinogenov, the core, etc.) and had heard the injury excuse (2008/09) way too many times.

So when they blurted that out, the ire of fans reached crescendo level.

To be fair to both of them, injuries did play a major role in the teams' demise, although the injuries occurred mainly on the back-end and to goalie Ryan Miller. It should be interesting to note that as of January 2012, the defense-corps had gone through a major makeover dating back to the 2007 off-season. The core up-front remained intact with the "top-six" going through only a couple of changes.

So they were right in one sense and fans who'd been watching the team, were right as well.

It wasn't until a major blow to Regier's "core" was dealt as Paul Gaustad was shipped to Nashville at the deadline. Regier followed that up by bringing in a legit "top-six" center in Cody Hodgson that same day. Add in the fact that, finally, Tyler Ennis was moved to the pivot from wing and you have a pretty significant change in the top-six/nine. (plus we'll throw in Hodgson "throw-in," Alexander Sulzer, who's been rock-solid on defense, as having a positive influence on the Sabres fortunes)

Howard Simon asked Black if he had the urge to say "I told you so" to the doubters--both fans and media-types. After the obligatory "not really, we haven't won anything yet," Black comes out and says (2:35-mark) "I don't want this to slip into an 'I told you so' but earlier I said I liked the trajectory we were on. I'm dumbfounded that people don't think we're ahead of where we were a year ago."

Back in January during the Sabres plummet in the standings, Black was as "dumbfounded" as the Sabres' faithful. After a particularly excruciating loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on national TV, one that had the NBCSN hockey people criticizing the teams lack of competitiveness, he actually apologized on his weekly WGR spot "I apologize to the fans," he said, "it's not what we envisioned. It's painful for us and I'm sure it's more painful for the fans."

As the Sabres PR man, Black did a good job of dancing around the debacle unfolding but he seemed to be leaning towards next season without coming out and saying it. He mentioned sticking to "what they'd said all along" concerning Regier and Ruff, although he never mentioned what it was and never gave an outright vote of confidence. He referred to "the core" group of players on the team as "the Rochester Guys" and mentioned that "over a two or three year period teams flip over for the most part," indicating that a big changeover was coming.

And, when asked about how he'll approach the rest of the season--whether he'll be adding a piece for a run or selling pieces for next year-- his thoughts seemed to be leaning heavily towards next season, "you could argue either of those points," he said, "or a hybrid. By hybrid, I mean, maybe there's an opportunity to peel off pieces for future games, perhaps there's an opportunity to get a piece that either helps this year or next year."

Message to Ted Black, we Sabres fans have been "dumbfounded" for years starting with the 2007 off-season. This is not to take away anything that the Pegula regime is trying to accomplish, but we've waded through so much bullshit, words like "patience" and excuses like "injuries," no matter how valid they may or may not be, do not resonate well.

**********

Say what you will about Regier, and I've said plenty and have wanted him fired for years.

But you can't take away what he accomplished at the deadline.

Cody Hodgson seems to be acclimating himself to his new team, teammates and linemates and shows top-six center promise.

The "throw-in" in the deal seems to be Alexander Sulzer. Sulzer has been nothing short of a revelation, though.

He's been paired with fellow German Christian Ehrhoff and has played real solid, nearly mistake free hockey.

For his part, Regier has been getting accolades for his team's incredible run since February 17 when they sat 10 points out of a playoff spot in 14th place.

Yesterday on NHL Network's NHL Hour with Commisioner Gary Bettman, Regier got to talk with big chief thunderclap himself concerning his team and what they've accomplished thus far.

Regier took the humble approach, "Where we are now, it's cautious optimism," he said, "you're respectfully grateful for where you are, recognizing you're not out of the woods yet."

Like Black Pegula before him, Regier mentioned injuries as playing a role in the near despondency the team was facing in January. The big injury for him being goalie Ryan Miller who he said, "Even though he came back and played I didn't think he was quite right, back to his normal form."

He touched upon other things like NY Islanders mentors GM Bill Torrey and Coach Al Arbour--giving them both high praise and thanks--as well as his and Ruff's relationship.

It's a good read:  http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=624899

**********

Before the big Washington Capitals match-up this week, Rob Ray, who was on the road with the team for a change, had this to say about the Capitals on WGR's Mike Schopp and the Bulldog before Tuesday's game "As far as the team?" he said, "you're not sure what you're gonna get."

He said that those involved with the Caps "don't know what to think, they don't know who's gonna show up, they don't know what players are gonna come to play. There are just so many questions they don't even want to predict how they're gonna play."

And that included Alexander Ovechkin. Bulldog was sure the "Ovie" would be showing up especially after his nine goal in seven game tear.

Ray had different thoughts, though, "You would think he (Ovechkin) would [show up], but I wouldn't bet a dime on it," he said. "Because it's happened too many times when you've seen him do that this year and then he kind of asleep for a few games." He concluded that he hoped Ovechkin "would take a real big nap for the game."

"The Oracle" that is Rob Ray.

Sure enough, the Caps dropped a crucial game to the Sabres 5-1 and Ovechkin's lackadaisical play at the blue-line on the powerplay lead to Jason Pominville's short-handed goal, a goal that pretty much sealed their fate.

Let's hope they have at least one more slip-up for the Caps the remainder of the season.

A few notes as deadline day approaches

***As of right now, the Sabres sit in 12th place in the Eastern Conference with 59 points on the season. They are seven points behind Florida for the eighth and final playoff spot.

Seven points is not a crazy amount of points to make up in the standings, except for the fact that they need to jump over three other teams to get there. And even that, although daunting, is not impossible, except for the fact that many of the teams battling for position--Winnipeg, Washington, Florida, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Buffalo and even Carolina, Montreal and the NY Islanders (who each have 58 points)--will be playing each other often during the home stretch.

The crux of the matter is the three point game. Many of the teams that Buffalo is in the race with will take their opponent to overtime with both teams "earning" points for their efforts. And that makes it difficult for the Sabres, if not almost impossible to make the playoffs this season.

***It's hard, if not nearly impossible, for some fans to root against the home team, but there seems to be a growing majority who hope that the Sabres miss the playoffs this year. Some of them hope that the team tanks and ends up with a lottery pick.

Fans in Buffalo have seen this team, constructed around Darcy Regier's "core," for nearly five years. We've seen the same weaknesses and generally the same results for the better part of those five years.

And there are many fans who are tired of the broken record. They're tired of Regier, their tired of Lindy Ruff and their tired of the core.

There's hope in Buffalo that if the team misses the playoffs, especially with the amount of money Terry Pegula has spent, that Regier and/or Ruff will see their 15 yr. tenure come to an end.

Methinks that would be a good thing.

***Darcy Regier was on the WGR's Schopp and the Bulldog last Friday, and it would seem as if the Sabres Director of Amateur Scouting, Kevin Devine, has moved up the ladder. Reiger mentions (1:25-mark) talking with Devine "our Director of...Assistant General Manager who still oversees our amateur scouting."

Good for Devine, he seems to have a real good eye for hockey players, and although not "official," it's a positive for the organization. Congrats.

***Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins took a shot at Buffalo, just like fellow New Englander, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Toronto Maple Leaves forward, Joffrey Lupul had done recently.

Calling Buffalo "the worst place in the NHL," Marchand is drawing the ire of Buffalonians.

He's in town tonight as the Bruins take on the Sabres and this was his follow up, "People have to learn how to have some fun and take a joke," Marchand said in First Niagara Center, where he and the Bruins will face the Sabres tonight. "It's always cold and usually rainy when we come here, and I was just playing around. I hope I didn't offend anyone."


He's right with the "take a joke" part.

Schopp and the Bulldog spent the first 45 minutes of their show talking about it, even though Schopp said repeatedly that it didn't bother him. They could have spent more time on the subject, but I couldn't listen to their blather anymore and turned them off.

Whatever.

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/sabres-nhl/article739359.ece

***Sabres President Ted Black was on the Howard Simon Show for his weekly appearance.

Early on they jumped right into the playoff picture, the Stanley Cup, and the fact that no team lower than a five-seed has won the Cup.

Roll Ted (1:35-mark):  "The good news is, maybe unlike other teams, we're not under a financial mandate that we must make the playoffs or we don't hit our number. We're capitalized with Terry's resources so at least we don't have that pressure.

That pressure can sometimes create the urge to go for the short-term, to squeak into the playoffs to get playoff revenue. We can still maintain what we want to do long-term."

Black sees the writing on the wall for this season, if fact the week prior he said, "It would take a monumental effort for us to even make the playoffs, that's just the math, and not any kind of false hope or lack of hope."

Put it all together and even if they somehow garner four points from the next two games, they could still find themselves six or seven points out of a playoff spot come Monday, the NHL trade deadline.

And then there's the problem of that pesky road trip coming up next month which will take them to the west coast.

Ted Black seems to be looking towards next season

Two losses in a row at home to Tampa Bay and New Jersey has pretty much sealed the Sabres fate for the year. They're 10 points out of a playoff spot with 26 games to go, a veritable mountain to climb.

Ted Black pretty much laid it out on WGR's Howard Simon Show this morning. As an organization they cannot come out and say the season is over. Not only would it hurt the team at the box office, but it will also hurt them as the trade deadline approaches.

The question posed to Black by Jeremy White was "how realistically" is the team approaching the deadline. The long preface included Black's "somber outlook" the previous week as well as Darcy Regier's intimations that a team outside of the top-eight in the league could win the Stanley Cup.

Here's what Black had to say (4:43 mark):  "It would take a monumental effort for us to even make the playoffs, that's just the math, and not any kind of false hope or lack of hope."

Prior to that (3:30 mark) he alluded to which direction the team would be headed in the next week and a half. Of course, he prefaced it with "we're gonna do everything we can to win the Stanley Cup." then continued, "and to make this team a championship team. If that means we make moves that benefit us next year and the year after, and that opportunity presents itself, then I'm confident that's what Darcy's thinking about."

There you have it. Time to start looking towards next season and beyond. Which is something that fans have been doing since the tail end of the teams franchise record, 12-game road losing streak in January.

"The Core" no more?

The names of Derek Roy and Drew Stafford are whirling around the hockey world as the trade deadline approaches.

It's still five weeks away, but with the Sabres mired in a franchise-record road losing streak and only three points from the bottom of the Eastern Conference, the hockey world is looking at the Sabres as sellers this season.

Sabres President Ted Black was on the Howard Simon Show Thursday talking about the state of GM Darcy Regier, Head Coach Lindy Ruff and a group known as "the core."

Simon referred to them as a "core group of players," as Regier has done often times over the past four and a half seasons.

When asked by Simon if the Sabres organization still believes that this core group is the right group and a group they can win the cup with, Black distanced himself, "I've never used the term core group, so I assume you mean the Rochester guys?" [6:00-mark]

He continues, "The fact of the matter is, over a two or three year period, teams flip over for the most part." Then he pretty much opens the door for the dismantling of the core, "I don't think we're committed to any group of players whatsoever."

"The Rochester Guys" include, Thomas Vanek, Jason Pominville, Derek Roy, Paul Gaustad and Ryan Miller. All of them spent the lockout season in Rochester and all came up together as the NHL entered their "New-NHL" phase. Drew Stafford is also looked at as a core player, although he came up and stuck with the team a year later.

The "New NHL" has come and gone, and with it the effectiveness of some of the "Rochester Guys."

Also in question should be the person who brought this group together and has staunchly defended and overrated some of them, Darcy Regier.

Black opened the door to changes, just who will be involved and how far reaching it will be is yet to be determined. But what we're looking at are some significant changes that may constitute a rebuild as opposed to a retool.

terry pegula's mandate comes to life

the buffalo sabres returned home for practice today after being on the road for six games
and were greeted by this plaque and a new rug:

pretty simple, yet striking

addendum:

cool quotes from sabres president, ted black, on the changes and the dedication to the fan experience (from jon vogl, buffalo news):

"We really tried to work hard these last two weeks [during the sabres road-trip] because we do want to make sure that we show some actions behind our words, that the Sabres are a first-class organization and we are hockey heaven,"

"We're committed to being slug-free by the beginning of next year. The real important part of this process is we're engaging the fans. We're listening, and we're doing something."

"Terry actually coined the phrase, he said it's going to be the 'French Reconnection.' That doesn't just extend to those three special alumni. It's all players." (former sabre dominik hasek will be a guest on march 19)

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/sabres-nhl/article363953.ece