Taking inventory in Buffalo

Opinion by William Wilczewski

Buffalo Sabres and Bills owner Terry Pegula has come under fire lately in Western New York for some recent bold decisions he’s made on behalf of the two major sports franchises he now leads.

Those decisions mirrored each other when, in the last week or so, he cleaned house more efficiently than an obsessive compulsive on a caffeine high at the county dump.

Yes, in both the Sabres and Bills organizations, Pegula has axed not only last season’s coaches but also both organizations’ general managers.

In doing so, some have accused him of making those teams a national punchline, while others are more concerned about the mistakes of the past that led to those teams becoming the butt of all those jokes.

The latter I can understand, because both the Sabres and the Bills were national punchlines long before Pegula grabbed his dustpan.

If you ask me, though, he did it the right way, because he gave everything he inherited (well, okay, bought) a chance before doing his best Mr. Clean impression.

That impression now, though, serves as yet another ray of hope for a city that’s been without playoff hockey for the last six years—and playoff football for an astounding 17.

On the icey side of things, that meant a goodbye to skipper Dan Blysma, who won a Stanley Cup in 2009 with Pittsburg, and GM Tim Murray, who—by most general reports—seemed to be building quite the roster for the blue and gold in the last few seasons with the acquisitions of offensive stalwarts Jack Eichel, Ryan O’Reilly and Evander Kane.

Defenders Rasmus Ristolainen, Zach Bogosian and Dmitri Kulikov have also bolstered the defensive side of things, which still lacks solid goaltending, but the pieces of the puzzle seemed to be coming together.

Somehow, though, that house of cards came crumbling down this past season when Buffalo did worse (33-37) than they did the year before (35-36). And this was supposed to be the breakout year after the honeymoon with then-rookie and crowned wonder boy Eichel in 2015-16.

Eichel did start the 16-17 season on the walking-wounded list after suffering a high ankle sprain in the preseason, but the Boston University stud didn’t take much time to catch up once he was stamped healthy after the first 21 games of the regular season.

His Sabres, on the other hand, seemed to always be playing catchup—and never quite got there.

I guess that was the final straw for Pegula, who’d seen flashes of brilliance from the Sabres, but none that ever created enough spark to ignite the franchise’s first winning season since 2011-12, when the Sabres went 39-32. That was a year after their last playoff appearance in 2010-11 when they went 43-29 but lost a seven-games series to Philadelphia in the conference quarterfinals.

A trip back to the playoffs, though, is all Buffalo’s faithful fans are asking for out of Pegula—who, according to some in the Sabres peanut gallery, is letting Eichel pull the strings at KeyBank Center.

The actions of the last week or so, though, give me the clear impression that Pegula has a firm grasp on those strings—and is prepared to do whatever it takes to make his Bills and Sabres relevant in the big picture.

Whether cleaning house is an efficient way of doing that or not is yet to be seen, but it certainly beats sitting on your hands and merely hoping things will magically change somehow.

I just hope Eichel & Company realize none of this takes the pressure off them. If anything, it may just add to it—meaning that roster spots just might be the next things on the chopping block if things don’t change.

And fast.