The Road Back To Respectability
This morning the Buffalo Sabres announced that Pat LaFontaine will become the President of Hockey Operations for the Buffalo Sabres. This meant that the longest tenured GM in the league was relieved of his duties. Darcy Regier served the Sabres through three ownership changes-the NHL, B. Tom Golisano, and Terry Pegula over nearly two decades. Fans and media alike have been clamoring for his dismissal for years. By my own admission I have not written a lot about the Sabres this season because frankly, they have been a joke both on and off the ice for years now. Owner Terry Pegula finally had enough of Regier and his yes man Ron Rolston, and the questionable decisions they have made. It seems like the straw that broke the camel’s back was the benching of newly acquired Matt Moulson in the Anaheim game. Moulson’s response after the game summed up the Sabres season in one word-“embarrassing”. LaFontaine will begin his search for a new GM immediately, although he must privately already have a short list of candidates to build a team. Make no mistake this new GM will be faced with a huge mountain to climb to bring the Sabres back to respectability.
Pegula clearly heard Moulson’s remark, and enough was enough. During the introductory press conference the most notable words came from new coach Ted Nolan. He vowed to “bring credibility back to the organization, and change the culture.” Nolan has been coaching since he was relieved of his duties during the Dominik Hasek era. I note this because he was run out of town by ownership at the time due to a personal issue with Hasek. The team sided with its MVP goalie, and let Nolan go the season after he won the Jack Adams trophy as coach of the year. Nolan then went to coach in the NY Islander organization, and most recently has been working as the coach for the Latvian Olympic team. On that team is one Zemgus Girgensons, who the Sabres are leaning on as a major building block of their team. Nolan coached the “hardest working team in hockey” with the likes of Matt Barnaby, Stu Barnes, Vaclav Varada, and Michael Peca. This team is set up with similar (lack of) offensive talent and will need Nolan to guide them like the teams of the mid to late 90’s.
Rolston was clearly in over his head as an NHL head coach with his questionable decisions and inability to lead the men, (and kids), in the locker room. His plan to rotate players in and out of the lineup like a college or junior team didn’t sit well with players, but that’s just it, he was never a NHL coach, and other than some recent experience with USA hockey it showed in his handling of players.
