The coronation of Terry Pegula

by Steve

‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest!” When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Just change Jesus with Terry and Jerusalem with Buffalo and it was about what happened today around Buffalo and especially inside HSBC arena. Call me cynical or overly negative, what with all of the great times Buffalo sports fans have had the last 30+ years and the lack of empty promises. How am I suppose to be 100% positive and completely fall in line with new Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula. The local media need to wipe the mayonnaise off their face.

What was his first order of business? Basically to give Lindy Ruff a life time contract and keep in place the same GM that has routinely bungled and destroyed everything in his path. It was all G Tom Golisano's fault for the last 4 years AND the three years before the lockout? Ugh, spare me. This is the same GM that didn't want Briere, grossly overpaid players like Pominville, Hecht, Vanek and Miller, right? And Pegs is entrusting him to "win the cup within 3 years" ?

Ok true, he is going to spend more in scouting and doesn't care about losing some money. That is nice and all but hasn't this team spent to within 5% or so of the cap since the lockout? Haven't we been told that Regier is one of the best drafting GM's already? It is still the same approach and same coaching staff requesting specific types of players. Call me skeptical on the quantifiable results of a huge increase in spending on scouts. Lets start by buying out some of the shitty players and trading away some of the fan favorites for players that actually have a chance of winning in the playoffs.

I don't have much on new adviser Ken Sawyer or team president Ted Black other than they had a team with four top two picks (Malkin, Crosby, MAF and Stall) and won the cup. I hope the plan isn't to lose out for the next four seasons to get talent of that level.

A few other overly negative viewpoints on the press conference today

• Why would the victory parade go down Main St?
• Crying after seeing Gilbert Perreault, little creepy
• The i'll just drill another gas well was actually kind of funny but not exactly great for the environment.
• He said he was friends with Larry Quinn, yuck
• Is an owner really suppose to instantly make Buffalo a great place for free agents to move to?
• And wasn't it a big knock on Goli that he was an absentee owner that rarely attended games? Well isn't this guy the exact same thing, Florida resident, busy business man with a young family? Will he even be at 1/5th of the games?
  

Call me a pessimist but i'm just not buying all the slobbering over a fan with $3 billion in the bank.