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Seriously, how far can we sink?
It keeps getting worse and worse for Buffalo sports fans, starving for teams to be proud of, for competitors let alone any kind of championship threat. It's amazing, really. For all the years I've spent bemoaning our existences to think that we're at this low point is both daunting and incredible.
What did we ever do to deserve this?
I've written it before but I just can't grasp how Sabres management fails to figure out that the team is in the entertainment business. Losing happens in sports, of course. But the fans are completely exhausted from debating the notion of Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff bringing us our elusive championship. After a decade and a half of undying loyalty, we have nothing to show for it and we are nowhere near contending status.
If Terry Pegula and/or Ted Black are under the false assumption that sellout crowds mean necessarily a satisfied fan base then they are frankly clueless. (I can't believe they are, by the way, but who is to know?) Fans practically sleep through these games, awaking just in time to boo the team as it skates away. Fun, wow.
It comes as no surprise to this fan that Ryan Miller's overheated comments after Sunday's loss would amount to exactly nothing on the ice. Miller is conscientious and caring but his words don't inspire. Too many times blaming teammates maybe.
And speaking of messages gone flat...
A coaching change here is years overdue. Years.
Who exactly are the Buffalo Sabres to think they're above such a move? If the Detroit Red Wings embarked on a few years of losing and said no, our hockey leadership isn't the problem, that's one thing. Or even the Montreal Canadiens, a team with a tradition built on winning Stanley Cups. But who are the Buffalo Sabres to do this? They think they know the something the other teams don't. It would be nice if there were some proof that they were right about that. Any at all.
The Bills are not exactly a beach vacation from the stuck-in-the-slush Sabres. Thirteen years without a playoff appearance, 17 without a postseason win. But right now the Bills are sporting a fresh new coat of paint. And because they are in SHOW BUSINESS, fans are not at wit's end about them. They have new coaches and a supposed new distribution of power and maybe soon even a new quarterback. The fans have some hope.
All the Sabres have to do to charge their fan base is make a coaching change. It would be best if they would do it before this season's hole were too deep. It would ignite curiosity in the fans. It would awaken crowds, at least for a while, and maybe also players. Imagine that, right?
Also written before is how completely flat the atmosphere at First Niagara Center has become. How a self-proclaimed huge hockey fan-turned-owner cannot notice that and then react to it is hard for me to understand. If it were this way and the Sabres' record were reversed, if they'd won 11 out of 17 instead of lost that many, if I'm Pegula I'd still be questioning what's wrong with my product. What happened to my fans?
We used to be Talkin' Proud. Now we're not even Talkin' Loud.
What did we ever do to deserve this?
I've written it before but I just can't grasp how Sabres management fails to figure out that the team is in the entertainment business. Losing happens in sports, of course. But the fans are completely exhausted from debating the notion of Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff bringing us our elusive championship. After a decade and a half of undying loyalty, we have nothing to show for it and we are nowhere near contending status.
If Terry Pegula and/or Ted Black are under the false assumption that sellout crowds mean necessarily a satisfied fan base then they are frankly clueless. (I can't believe they are, by the way, but who is to know?) Fans practically sleep through these games, awaking just in time to boo the team as it skates away. Fun, wow.
It comes as no surprise to this fan that Ryan Miller's overheated comments after Sunday's loss would amount to exactly nothing on the ice. Miller is conscientious and caring but his words don't inspire. Too many times blaming teammates maybe.
And speaking of messages gone flat...
A coaching change here is years overdue. Years.
Who exactly are the Buffalo Sabres to think they're above such a move? If the Detroit Red Wings embarked on a few years of losing and said no, our hockey leadership isn't the problem, that's one thing. Or even the Montreal Canadiens, a team with a tradition built on winning Stanley Cups. But who are the Buffalo Sabres to do this? They think they know the something the other teams don't. It would be nice if there were some proof that they were right about that. Any at all.
The Bills are not exactly a beach vacation from the stuck-in-the-slush Sabres. Thirteen years without a playoff appearance, 17 without a postseason win. But right now the Bills are sporting a fresh new coat of paint. And because they are in SHOW BUSINESS, fans are not at wit's end about them. They have new coaches and a supposed new distribution of power and maybe soon even a new quarterback. The fans have some hope.
All the Sabres have to do to charge their fan base is make a coaching change. It would be best if they would do it before this season's hole were too deep. It would ignite curiosity in the fans. It would awaken crowds, at least for a while, and maybe also players. Imagine that, right?
Also written before is how completely flat the atmosphere at First Niagara Center has become. How a self-proclaimed huge hockey fan-turned-owner cannot notice that and then react to it is hard for me to understand. If it were this way and the Sabres' record were reversed, if they'd won 11 out of 17 instead of lost that many, if I'm Pegula I'd still be questioning what's wrong with my product. What happened to my fans?
We used to be Talkin' Proud. Now we're not even Talkin' Loud.
If Regier won't fire Ruff then someone needs to do it for him because Regier is not Jack Warner. Enough already. Ruff had his chance and three other guys' too.
Ruff may not care and I'd respect him if he didn't but he is slowly whacking away at his legacy. The Sabres have had two periods of success under him and each appears less his doing as years of mediocrity pile up. It is now, again, fashionable to credit Dominik Hasek for the first (albeit modest) run of success and the combination of Chris Drury and Daniel Briere for the second. Since Hasek left almost 12 years ago the Sabres have had but four playoff teams and in two of those seasons they went out in Round 1.
Fashionable, if not correct.
Four playoff teams in 12 years? In hockey?
Ruff may not care and I'd respect him if he didn't but he is slowly whacking away at his legacy. The Sabres have had two periods of success under him and each appears less his doing as years of mediocrity pile up. It is now, again, fashionable to credit Dominik Hasek for the first (albeit modest) run of success and the combination of Chris Drury and Daniel Briere for the second. Since Hasek left almost 12 years ago the Sabres have had but four playoff teams and in two of those seasons they went out in Round 1.
Fashionable, if not correct.
Four playoff teams in 12 years? In hockey?
Who do we think we are?
Well it isn't our fault. We've been patient, which is a little like saying that Shaquille O'Neal is "tall". You'd like to think that will things will turn up but the problem is that with each passing year of futility our sports teams solidify our city's unfortunate reputation in some minds that it is a relic. That Buffalo is a place that used to matter.
Well it isn't our fault. We've been patient, which is a little like saying that Shaquille O'Neal is "tall". You'd like to think that will things will turn up but the problem is that with each passing year of futility our sports teams solidify our city's unfortunate reputation in some minds that it is a relic. That Buffalo is a place that used to matter.
Not quite two years from when Pegula, our perceived savior, entered the picture, I'm left searching all over again.