TBN - Sullivan's Useless Follow-Up

Link: Buffalo News - Sabres looking penny wise, hockey foolish.
I would expect a local newspaper to employ someone as a sports writer whose articles can rise above the worst level of internet message board writing.  But, the Buffalo News can't seem to do that.  Jerry Sullivan may really care about the Buffalo Sabres but he has a funny way of showing it.  He sounds like every busybody with a pet cause complianing to their local government to just 'DO SOMETHING! ANYTHING!"  Maybe Darcy should show Jerry he cares by sending him a get well card for the burr up his ass!

As I said yesterday who cares about the malcontents leaving because they didn't feel like they were treated properly.  Maybe it was they who had the loser mentality while Ruff, in an unbelievably bad situation, demanded that they play a brand of hockey that would give them the best chance for success and still expected them to give a full accounting of themselves on every shift, no exceptions, no special favors because your Doug Gilmour or whoever it was you used to be. Regier and Ruff have been slowly acquiring what they think is a balanced group of players with both talent and heart. 

Sayeth La Sullivan:

 

You can bet that the typical free agent is aware that Lindy Ruff's defensive-minded system has suppressed the offensive statistics of virtually every skilled forward who has played for him in Buffalo.

And, tell me Jerry just who would those skilled forwards be?  Dixon Ward?  Michael Peca? Chris Gratton?  or maybe it was the paragon of NHL ability Michael Grosek?  This is typical lazy, straw-man stuff.   The truth is people like Peca, Stu Barnes, Varada, and yes, Satan were never better than when they played for Lindy Ruff and his so-called defensive system.  Seemed to work for Bowman and LeMaire, didn't it?   I mean, how many coaches in the NHL currently would have been able to extract 17+ minutes a night from career AHL'er Rory Fitzpatrick and not have it cost them their job? 

Ruff is the teams greatest asset.  Anyone who can't see this is in desperate need of an eye exam.  Then again, this team was 10th in Goals For last year and no one had more than 30, including the Dark Lord himself. Zhitnik wasn't expendable, he just wasn't worht $3.5 milion a year for 4 years, and he was an impediment to Dmitri Kalinin's growth, which became obvious once Z was injured during the stretch run of '03-04.

His complaints about their lack of draft day performance rings true.  How many times have we discussed this on HF, and how shocked were we all by the pick of playmaking center Marek Zagrapan over protypical Sabre Ryan O'Marra?  How many times have I heard Chainshot scream at his TV to FIRE DON LUCE!  More than I care to remember.

The thing that really gets my goat (Showing off my Angry Goat Head indeed) is his losing patience with Tom Golisano already.  Maybe Jerry should get on his knees and kiss Golisano's ass, because if he didn't save the Sabres three years ago he wouldn't be collecting a paycheck complaining about it.  When your money is on the line as opposed to the other way around, you can then reserve the right to question Tom G. 

This is typical Keynesian stupidity that thinks one must mortgage the future to secure the present.  It's been done before by this organization (see the end of the Rigases Reign of Terror) and it didn't work then.  You build, or in this case rebuild, a business from the ground up, not the top down.  Buffalo is the smallest market in the NHL in terms of revenue generated, local population and number of TV's.  This organization has had to be cheap to survive.  That's the truth.  The new CBA hasn't changed the fact that the Sabres have the same demographics and market potential they had 2 years ago.  Expecting the product on the ice to change significantly is unrealistic and, frankly, childish.

Do Sabres fans deserve a winner?  Of course they do.  Do we as supporters of the franchise feel like Jerry Sullivan because we don't care?  Of course not.  But, dont let the passion for he team cloud your judgement, especially if you're supposed to be a professional.  Blogs, private e-mail, message boards and the local watering hole are where this level of non-analysis belongs.  The sad truth remains that this is a team whose margin for error is still very slim.  The men in charge seem to have a plan and they'll need a bit more time to complete it.  If anything, they should be comended for having put together enough of a team to almost not suck completely.  If they amass one or two more guys with the heart of Danny Briere, they might even make the playoffs.

And, in that siutation, who'd look like the whiner and who'd look like the loser. 

Ta,