Change is Here in Buffalo; Coach Fired, New One Hired for Sabres
After all the ranting and and complaining about a how horrible the Buffalo Sabres have been so far this year, management decided to do something about it, finally! As a longtime Buffalo fan, I have been around long enough to know that change needs to occur with this team more often that every 15 years. When Terry Pegula bought this team, he said we would win a Stanley Cup and that was his number one goal. Since then, we have gone downhill and lost more players than any other team in the league. He would not give up on his general manager and the only person he blamed was the coach. Well, goodbye Lindy Ruff and hello no name coach, Ron Rolston. It seems that was a bust too, but we are finally starting to get back on track.
Pegula decided it was time, hopefully listened to his fans, and fired GM Darcy Reiger, long overdue, and head coach Rolston. Coming in, and back to Buffalo, was once Buffalo player Pat LaFontaine and previous Buffalo coach Ted Nolan. Both were still involved in activities in Buffalo, still had homes here, and loved this community. They are now going to be able to help this team get back in order and at least try and make a better season happen.
Throughout all the commotion of the news this morning, stories of irony are appearing. One of the most ironic so far was that LaFontaine was brought to Buffalo by Regier in his first year as GM and Nolan was offered a contract extension by Reiger, but ultimately turned him down. Both are now back and ready to make changes, get better play out of our current players, and save this season.
It’s a great day in Buffalo, NY and people can’t be any more excited about the changes! Our first game with the new staff will be a tough one against out rivals, Toronto Maple Leafs, and that will be a true test.
I am personally very excited by this and I cannot fathom how it took Pegula so long. His decisions have been VERY questionable to this point and I’m excited to see this new era.
There was such a hopeful feeling when Pegula bought the team, it was almost like we fans were tricked into a false reality of where the team really was. He SOLD us a dream that the (then) current management was not capable of coming up with. I think he really wanted to give Darcy a chance, but I always (and I know I’m not alone) thought he should have gone WAY before Lindy Ruff did. Well, he gave him that chance and he had the funds to support him too, but it wasn’t meant to be.
I said I can’t fathom how it took so long and I really mean it. Pegula strikes me as a guy who’s totally enamored with the Sabres’ heritage. To me, this move fits with that ideology. Filling the front office with former Buffalo greats is something I probably would have done immediately, and I don’t know why he didn’t, but I’m excited to see how it plays out now that it has happened.
I could not agree more. I wanted Reiger gone the minute Pegula took over the team, but he was content on keeping him in charge. Then I though, Ok we have a guy with money and we can do almost anything we want to now, clearly that was not what everyone else thought.
I am also very excited to see what happens n the next couple weeks to the end of the season and I am hoping we can make some great moves for next season. I think this is a great direction and to get Sabres alum in here who have been apart of this before and have been watching from the outside can only help at this point.
I did love looking at all the comments between watching the local news last night, looking at Facebook, and being on Twitter and how happy everyone in Buffalo seems to be and perhaps that will transfer over to the team and even if we continue to lose, maybe we can lose with some dignity and at least make the games more exciting.