Sabreland

When the Buffalo Sabres win it’s always a good day, and when they lose, it brings up questions about management and if the Sabres actually want to win. While interning within the Sabres organization, you have to be a fan second. It hasn’t been the best year to be a Sabres fan, with their first home win coming just last week. The buzz in the media even before I started my internship was “why is Darcy still there?” And the answers came last week when they fired Darcy after their first home win, which was a move that was long overdue. Waking up last week to missed calls from friends, and even my boss to tell us about the decision from upper management to relieve Darcy of his general manager duties was a relief to Sabres fans, and shows that they want to take the team in a different direction. Hiring a former coach who wants players to earn their ice time compared to their previous coach who played favorites, and hiring a legend in the Buffalo community shows that this organization is turning a new page. This new chapter began last week, and will be a long process in turning this team into a championship team. Pat LaFontaine was hired as the President of Hockey Operations, which was the smartest move the organization has made in some years. LaFontaine isn’t a new face to the Sabres organization, but is a new face to the management side of hockey. Darcy told Sabre fans they would have to “suffer,” which isn’t the proper word to describe a rebuilding stage of any team. The word suffer has a ton of negative connotation, and sounds painful, which it has been. Now with the proper pieces in place, a new coach, a new President of Hockey Operations, we now wait for the man to fill Darcy’s shoes. It has been an exciting week in Sabreland, and will continue to be during this new chapter of hockey at 1 Seymour H. Knox III Plaza.