Unhealthy groups which are at all times dangerous have a tendency to remain dangerous for a purpose. You simply must pinpoint what that purpose is. It normally begins on the high of the group. That’s the case for the once-proud Buffalo Sabres franchise, which has been fully sabotaged and changed into a league-wide laughing inventory by the possession of Terry Pegula.
Sabres want an possession change greater than anything
The Sabres have been humiliated on Friday afternoon, dropping a 5-0 determination to the New Jersey Devils in entrance of a sellout crowd in Buffalo. That loss stored the Sabres on the backside of the Jap Convention standings, the place they’re the one group that doesn’t have a factors proportion of at the least .500 or higher.
Because the minutes ticked away within the third interval, the Sabres followers who remained within the constructing began chanting for the group to fire general manager Kevyn Adams.
It’s in all probability a vital change given how dangerous his basic supervisor tenure has been and the way distant the group stays from critical competition.
The issue is {that a} basic supervisor change won’t matter, as a result of the stink that occupies the Buffalo Sabres workplaces is coming completely from the proprietor’s chair.
The mantra from followers ought to be “promote the group.”
Pegula bought the Sabres in February 2011 and watched because the group completed the season with 43 wins and made the Stanley Cup Playoffs, finally dropping within the first spherical to the Philadelphia Flyers.
That was the final time the Sabres group certified for the playoffs.
Their now 14-year playoff drought is the longest within the historical past of the NHL and is tied with the NFL’s New York Jets for the longest lively playoff drought in skilled sports activities.
That implies that in each full season Pegula has owned the Sabres, his group has did not qualify for the playoffs in a league the place half of the groups qualify yearly.
For the reason that begin of the 2011-12 season, each different group within the NHL has played in at least 14 playoff games, together with the Seattle Kraken, who’re solely of their fifth yr of existence as a franchise. When you exclude the Kraken, each different group within the NHL has performed in at the least 25 playoff video games throughout this time interval.
The Sabres stay at zero.
From an everyday season standpoint, the Sabres’ .454 factors proportion because the begin of the 2011-12 season can be final within the NHL.
Discover the road under the place Pegula bought the Sabres? Discover what has occurred since then? It’s staggering.
