A passing serious thought on Lafontaine...

[Mace]

I remember when the Sabres got him, I was thinking pretty boy, occasionally throws a shoulder. Guy was ferocious intent no matter who was in his way.

Watching the presser today, he's got the scar on his lip, up near his eye. Having retired from concussions and evidently knowing a lot about them, he hired a previous coach of his who wanted vigorous effort, physical play.

I swing and miss too many times on the Bills. But I think we hired a guy who is pretty intent on his purpose. 12 hrs later, I'm still really happy about today and the Sabres. And I don't really think I ever realized how much I enjoyed that era of the team, though I sure did if overly focused on the Bills, but I was also deep into hockey then and figured we had that part of pro sports on the way.

I realized too, I sure do miss the Knox's, though they always struck me as somewhat, well, rich people. And it's weird to realize they were so Buffalo anyway.

Good luck to Lafontaine, and Nolan, maybe life does give you a chance in a looping circle, and maybe there are happy endings sometimes. Would be real good if this was one of them.

[Skooby]

La La La hope for the best that we've seen the worst.

[Crisis]

News came out of left field completely for sure, I have an irrational (ok, maybe it's not so irrational) love of Patty so I'll blindly like this move for now.

It's just the timing of things that bugs me. If ownership is committed to a rebuild, why wait until the middle of the season to clean house? They caved to public pressure which IMO isn't a good thing. If you're going to tell Darcy he has to rebuild from the ground up and he starts doing that, how are you going to fire him mid season once the results are what you expected?

If you're going to go in a different direction with the rebuild should have been done before the season started. Can't say I'm sad about Rolston being gone, though.

[trapezeus]

News came out of left field completely for sure, I have an irrational (ok, maybe it's not so irrational) love of Patty so I'll blindly like this move for now.

It's just the timing of things that bugs me. If ownership is committed to a rebuild, why wait until the middle of the season to clean house? They caved to public pressure which IMO isn't a good thing. If you're going to tell Darcy he has to rebuild from the ground up and he starts doing that, how are you going to fire him mid season once the results are what you expected?

If you're going to go in a different direction with the rebuild should have been done before the season started. Can't say I'm sad about Rolston being gone, though.

i think the results the sabres were seeing were much worse than anticipated. i think they thought they had the guy who could sheppard the team through to a 9-10th place finish and look stronger by the end of the season and give them hope that they could work some dead weight off the roster and improve.

but the reality was the team was the last place team with no hope, no skill, and a coach who was killing talent. guys didn't know why they were getting benched. They knew they weren't playing well, but they wouldn't speak about it. The team, as an outsider, felt like it was in complete disarray. a lot of "i don't know why" from the GM, the coaches and players. So it's actually a good thing that an owner stepped up and said, "enough. it didn't work, it won't work."

And especially with a young team, you don't want to ruin all these draft picks with your dysfunctionality.

[Skooby]

I skated / played hockey with Patty during the summer leagues when he was with the Sabres, he was a great guy. Always had a good story to tell & was very personable.

[coastal]

I skated / played hockey with Patty during the summer leagues when he was with the Sabres, he was a great guy. Always had a good story to tell & was very personable.
Well that's a relief.

[Historian]

Instant credibility.

Thats what Pat brings.

Not just at the arena....in the community too.

[Dude]

Instant credibility.

Thats what Pat brings.

Not just at the arena....in the community too.And this is important for attracting better players here. No one wanted to come play for Regier and Rolston.

[Rockstar]

News came out of left field completely for sure, I have an irrational (ok, maybe it's not so irrational) love of Patty so I'll blindly like this move for now.

It's just the timing of things that bugs me. If ownership is committed to a rebuild, why wait until the middle of the season to clean house? They caved to public pressure which IMO isn't a good thing. If you're going to tell Darcy he has to rebuild from the ground up and he starts doing that, how are you going to fire him mid season once the results are what you expected?

If you're going to go in a different direction with the rebuild should have been done before the season started. Can't say I'm sad about Rolston being gone, though.

Caring about what your customers, shareholders etc think about the product is a bad thing? I think some are delusional into the reality of how much sports is a business, and not a video game. There are predominantly two ways to run a sports franchise regarding the fans. Care what they think and cater to them while making good decisions, or run the organization like the Buffalo Bills and throw a bone to the fans through marketing ploys and misleading reality's to keep them buying tickets.

I prefer the honesty of Pegula and him being in touch with the fan base. It's like you want to punish him for selling what the customers want to buy.

[Rockstar]

Instant credibility.

Thats what Pat brings.

Not just at the arena....in the community too.



Yes, and not just our community, the NHL community.

[Mace]

It's just the timing of things that bugs me. If ownership is committed to a rebuild, why wait until the middle of the season to clean house? They caved to public pressure which IMO isn't a good thing.

Why ask why, if it was the right thing, when the decision comes.

In most cases, it's a bad thing to cave in to public pressure, but you have to admit, in this case it was the right one. Buffalo will support bad teams cheerfully when the fans are on board, and people think they are trying. People kept trying to think they were trying, and when it finally became apparent this wasn't going anywhere, Pegula (if he indeed did) stopped bleeding goodwill and made some. Ignoring common opinion and sticking with Regier rebuilding (or rebuilding pretending not to rebuild, or not rebuilding pretending to rebuild) would have been as terribly unsuccessful as hiring a teaching coach who specializes in teaching other peoples systems without having any of his own to teach, when he has to teach his own systems and has no one to tell them what they are.

Regier never really had his own system either besides getting talent at his best, which he never had coaches to use as intended. Fatal GM flaw, and if public opinion booted him, I'm sure public opinion will support more losing for a path to success if the intent seems clear. Huge diff between Regier's "suffering" comment and LaFontaine's "patience" comment, though they both mean the same thing. Regier was said the fans don't understand. Oh they understand more than you think, Pegula was one of them then.

Don't overthink it, just be happy now for a while.

[Skooby]

La La La...

[BuffaloRedleg]

I think pretty much anyone between the age of 25-35 can agree that LaFontaine was pretty much our hero groing up.

[BertSquirtgum]

I miss Daren Puppa

http://images.sportscarddatabase.com/3000000/3400000/3430000/3431000/3431992.jpg

[coastal]

I miss Daren Puppa

http://images.sportscarddatabase.com/3000000/3400000/3430000/3431000/3431992.jpgfuxking drunk.

[Mace]

Looking back on Puppa, strikes me we always had really good dorky looking goalies