Buffalo Sabres: Hockey Masterminds or Cheapskates?
During their stirring playoff run, the Buffalo Sabres earned gushing praise for crafting the perfect model of a modern, salary-capped NHL team: fast, skilled, young, cheap. Management was "blessed with the forethought to assemble a stable of swifties ready to slip old restraints," according to one of many glowing reports.
Then the defensemen started going down, and suddenly the Sabres are penny-pinching slobs. Columnist Jim Kelley says the team would rather collect a revenue check than win the Stanley Cup. Bucky Gleason at the Buffalo News says the Sabres let their players down at the trade deadline: "The sensible move would have been moving (back-up goalie Martin) Biron and forcing a deal for a defenseman. Eighteen were traded before the deadline. The Sabres needed at least one. They landed exactly none."
It all came home to roost in game seven of the Eastern Conference Final. Twenty minutes away from a trip to the Stanley Cup Final, Buffalo wilted, in part because a flurry of injuries forced them to play minor-leaguers on defense.
In a recent interview on Hockey Night in Canada, Buffalo GM Darcy Regier said sports executives are never as smart as they're made out to be, and never as dumb either. He should know. He just went from genius to bonehead in about three days.
The Carolina Hurricanes and Edmonton Oilers begin the Stanley Cup Final on Monday.
Comments
I’m offended by the posture of this posting and the bad rap by opinionists. Lets say Miller got hurt in the first round and was out for the remainder of the playoffs. If Buffalo dealt Biron for a defensemen, they wouldn’t have had Biron as a backup. Columnists can’t manage the roster of any team (well I suppose they can after they see how the playoffs turn out). Buffalo did not wilt when they were twenty minutes away from the Stanley Cup Final. Carolina is an excellent team and were fierce competitors. This year’s team was about chemistry, heart, and belief. I seriously doubt the players feel they got the shaft because of trade inactivity. It was not at all about poor management or choices made at the trade deadline. This team is building a solid future, and look at the foundation they created this season. Arguably one of the best, if not the best and most inspiring teams in the National Hockey League this year.
Once again, someone writing an article that knows absolutely nothing about hockey… This Sabre team had the heart of a Sabre tooth tiger. I fully expect them to win the Stanley Cup in the near future. The kids who were called up from Roch played their hearts out and that experience is a bo nus for the Sabres next year. I agree with the poster… the GM built a team that lost for defenseman, their 2nd line center and went into period 3 of game seven, now he’s being lambasted as cheap? What a joke… One last thing what does all of the above say about Carolina? Edmonton is going to run over the Canes in the finals!
Rangers Fan
Brooklyn, NY
You know, I don’t often come across articles as stupid as this one. But I have to ask, how on earth you could accuse the Buffalo Sabres of giving up when they played seven games and lost the final game by one goal? By the time they reached the final game of that series, they had lost Numminen, Kalinin, Tallinder, McKee, and 3 other star players. However, they still were able to stay competitive. With 7 minutes left, Carolina took the lead. Sabres fans weren’t even worried when it came down to the final minute, because the Sabres had scored at least 5 other last minute goals in the playoffs up to that point. Most teams couldn’t have continue to play effectively with 7 of their 26 players (that’s over 25%, mind you… 1 of every 4 players) injured. It wasn’t exhaustion, or a lack of will that lost the Conference Finals for the Sabres, it was their long list of injuries procured from their series against the Flyers and Senators finally catching up with them. Of course the Sabres didn’t look for a defenseman before the trade deadline… they had four excellent players that were more than adequate for the job. Nobody could’ve forseen the team would loose all four defensemen and another three star players in the playoffs, the Sabres had no reason to trade Biron, nor did they have a reason to look for alternative options when it came to defensive players. They had an excellent team and no reason to think otherwise.