Buffalo Sports
Sabres say Sayonara to season
By Art Wander
Apr 9, 2009, 22:06

For the past several days, Sabres players, coaches and front office were almost begging other teams for help. They didn’t get it and once again the Sabres are ready to come home and shine up the golf clubs while the New York Rangers clinched the final playoff spot with a 2-1 victory over Philadelphia while Buffalo prevailed over the Carolina Hurricanes. Too little too late.

Sabres fans know only too well that it shouldn’t have come to this point if the entire organization paid attention to business and did what every good organization does…..prepare well for the future. It seems, the Sabres org simply concentrated on the present and in the end it proved futile.

It will be interesting to see how Darcy Regier and Larry Quinn explain why the Sabres no longer are a playoff team.

The season has ended for Buffalo. The struggling and inconsistencies this season brought misery to many die-hard Sabres fans. More importantly, the loss of those leaders who propelled Buffalo to great heights when they were here, now are doing the same for their new clubs.

Tuesday night, Chris Drury scored two goals for the Rangers to lead them to needing only a point against the Flyers Thursday night. The Rangers won 2-1 for two points and will continue playing.

Tuesday night, Marty Biron shackled the Florida Panthers clinching a playoff berth for the Philadelphia Flyers. Thursday he certainly tried helping Buffalo by playing a fine game against the Rangers.

Brian Campbell is doing his stuff, helping help lead the Chicago Blackhawks to more hockey in April.

Jay McKee continues to play out his career as his St. Louis Blues climbed to clinching the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. J.P. Dumont continues to produce for Nashville, while Mike Grier is part of that San Jose Team that has terrorized everyone in the NHL this season as one of the top teams in the league.

Why do we mention these, among other players? Because these players, along with Daniel Briere formed a pretty good team that went to the playoffs; the conference finals and kept giving hope to Sabres fans that the Stanley Cup was possible.

Let’s not forget some of the former heroes who had a part in those successful years. Don Luce was outstanding as an evaluator of talent. He’s gone. Of course, Teddy Nolan’s departure hit many fans pretty hard. Wednesday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs paid tribute to Brad May playing his 1,000th game. It was a tremendous tribute to the former Sabre as memories of May, Barnaby and Rob Ray along with Bob Boughner put fear into every opponent the Sabres played - coached by Nolan.

Fans didn’t suffer as much in losing games during the Nolan/hardest-working-team-in-hockey years because fans were entertained by an over-achieving bunch of players.

The two top front office guys (Quinn-Golisano) can look around the league and see the players they allowed to leave, including marvelous Patty LaFontaine who still managed to perform after the Sabres let him to. This front office felt comfortable with a great season ticket base and practically sold out HSBC Arena for most all games in the past couple of years.

Yet, when Toronto or Montreal don’t sell out in Buffalo – what does that say about the ticket price structure set up by the Sabres over the past couple of years so they could pocket some loot. Oh, they’ll blame the economy, etc., etc., etc. In hockey, make the playoffs and you generate big bucks. Which is more important, negotiating and paying players with a confidence that the money will be recouped when post-season play begins? Or don’t negotiate – allow them to leave – and you don’t make the playoffs and wind up losing quite a bit of loot.

But the big story is the lack of consistent production by the 2008-2009 Sabres. Lindy Ruff can do only so much with what the front office provided him. Youngsters were elevated to the big club still needing more seasoning.

We’ve brought up the mistake of not negotiating during the season for a couple of years so there’s no need to go there. What is important is……what’s on tap for next season. Will Quinn allow Regier to pull the trigger on bringing in some big talent? Will Lindy have a say in what he needs (defensemen, anyone?) Will Lindy stay? How will that affect the fan base?

Want to sell tickets next season? Wouldn’t it be something if the Sabres front office really worried about selling tickets next yea and made a bold move by…..are you ready for this....bringing back Teddy Nolan? Everyone knows that won’t happen considering the way Nolan was handled when his contract ran out the first time Quinn and Regier stepped into the emperor’s throne and bid adieu to Nolan. By the way, John Muckler helped make the hire of Nolan but he, too, was ousted.

Oh well…..there will be no more hockey; there will be no more MSG or Versus to switch to until next October. Equally interesting will be what the front office is going to do in the off-season. Notice how little was mentioned of the “waiting list for tickets?” Winning brings fans…..and in these tough economic times it will probably cause many fans to re-think their priorities in terms of sports.

Let’s hope the Bisons do well; Bills training camp is just around the corner and will occupy a lot of space; and University of Buffalo football will be getting some attention. Sabres players hope that the next couple of months won’t be consumed about the erratic season that saw them fall out of a playoff spot…..and maybe fall out of favor by Western New York sports fans.

The fans deserved better. Yes, when they desperately needed to win games against Toronto and Carolina…..they did it. Could you imagine losing 4 games against Atlanta? But the Rangers did what they had to do under John Tortorella, yet another former Sabre, who will be enjoying post-season play.

For the past couple of years, the fans did their job in turning out for Sabres games; the Sabres players were very inconsistent in the performance and lacked what the Nolan teams provided game-in-game-out……toughness.

So the front office has a lot of soul searching to do and their golf clubs should remain in the garage until they provide the fans with some positive moves that will restore faith in the team.


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