As a season ticket holder with the Buffalo Sabres since 2006, I was absolutely thrilled, when I read and heard the comments from new owner Terry Pegula. For the first time in a very long time, probably since the team joined the NHL, the club has an owner whose primary objective is to win the Stanley Cup. Money and profit are no longer front and center, for the franchise that started out so well in its early years, under the leadership of former four time Stanley Cup winning Leafs coach and general manager Punch Imlach, earning a birth in the Stanley Cup finals by 1975 against the Flyers, losing to Philadelphia in six games, after having joined the league as an expansion team in 1970, along with the Vancouver Canucks. Buffalo also lost the Stanley Cup final to the Dallas Stars in 1999, on a controversial goal by Brett Hull in triple overtime of the sixth game, giving the Stars their first championship.
Pegula is a former resident of suburban Orchard Park, and was also a Sabres season ticket subscriber for 18 years. His plans for the team are a refreshing change from the dark ages style ownership, of former owner Thomas Galisano, who allegedly trimmed expenses to the detriment of the team, and nearly made it impossible for general manager Darcy Regier, and coach Lindy Ruff to have any sustained success. The Sabres GM had to eliminate his team entirely of scouts, and rely on video for intelligence gathering on other professional players, or junior hockey talent. The scouts they lost, included former Sabres and Leafs forward Terry Martin, now scouting for the Avalanche, and former Leafs defenseman Jim Benning, now the Assistant General Manager with the Boston Bruins.
Under Galisano, Buffalo also failed to keep significant players, due to the his desire to closely control spending. They lost Danny Briere ( as detailed by Wikipedia, he led the 2010 playoff scoring, with 12 goals and 18 assists for the Flyers, and in the Cup finals, he had 3 goals and 9 assists, one point shy of Wayne Gretzky’s record of 13 in a final ), Chris Drury, and Brian Campbell, on top of the rediculous elimination of the scouting staff.
Pegula has brought with him experienced executives with a strong hockey background. They include Ken Sawyer, as the team’s senior adviser, and the former chief financial officer of the NHL, and former president and chief executive of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Also working with Pegula, who has a net worth, according to Associated Press, that is said to be an estimated $3 billion. will be Ted Black as president,who spent the past two years as general manager of FSN Pittsburgh, after nine years as a Penguins vice president under Mario Lemieux.
Every fan of a professional sports franchise, would love to hear their team owner speak like Pegula did, in terms of his vision for the club. As detailed by the Associated Press, Pegula forthrightly told the media, along with former Sabres players and fans: “ Starting today, the Buffalo Sabres reason for existence will be to win a Stanley Cup.” The AP story also mentions that he will increase budgets for scouting and video,and bring in more player development coaches to work on rallying player morale, by paying more attention to everything from locker room amenities to nutrition.
No city in North America, has been more jinxed in professional sports, than has Buffalo. Perhaps “ wide-right”, referring to the missed 47 yard Bills field goal, by Scott Norwood, and subsequent loss of Super Bowl XXV to the Giants, 20-19, on January 27, 1991, will not be heard as often or at all, and might be replaced by the much more energetic and upbeat, “right on”, if Pegula’s wishes come true for Buffalo, and his Sabres.