How do you go from being a young and talented team that had made two consecutive appearances in the Eastern Conference Finals to being one of the worst teams in the NHL in a span of less than 20 games?
It's an almost impossible scenario, and it takes a special blend of arrogance, ineptness, and all around stupidity to pull it off. That's why at first glance it's hard to believe that Buffalo Sabres general manager Darcy Regier was one of the main players in the Sabres' total meltdown. However, the harder you look, the easier it is to believe that Regier could commit such egregious errors.
Darcy Regier is a lucky, lucky man, and that is putting it mildly. He decided that the Sabres could no longer afford their most prolific scoring forward and best two-way defenseman.
While Alexei Zhitnik has become the stereotype for the nomadic hockey player, playing for his third team in less than one season (fourth if you count the fact that the Islanders traded him away and then picked him up again during the off-season), Miroslav Satan has 62 goals for the New York Islanders over the past two seasons. Unfortunately his mere 10 points this season would make him one of the highest scoring Sabres on the team.
Regier made everyone believe that the team would be better off without the moody and inconsistent Satan. That he happened to be right is more of a credit to coach Lindy Ruff then Regier.
Ol' Darcy didn't bother to think of replacing the 92 goals that Satan had produced over his final three seasons as a Sabre. Instead Regier's big signing after the NHL lockout was an aging defenseman with a bad heart, Teppo Numminen, who along with Dimitri Kalinen cost the Sabres a chance at beating Ottawa in the playoffs last season.
Following the magical run through the playoffs in 2006, ending with the Sabres succumbing to four injuries on the blue-line, losing to Carolina in game seven of the Eastern Conference finals, there was the first whiff that Regier may not be as great as the team's record may have shown.
If you were to name the three grittiest, hardest-working players on that Sabres team not named Chris Drury, the three players you would most likely come up with were Jay McKee, J.P. Dumont, and Mike Grier. Well, Grier left money on the table, taking less in San Jose just to be able to leave Buffalo. Grier didn't like the way the Sabres did business, and who could blame him? Dumont and McKee were given their walking papers.
After losing Grier, the Sabres should have known that they needed Dumont's grit for the playoffs. But the biggest oversight was McKee, who at the time was the longest tenured Sabre and should have retired as such. However, the Sabres felt they didn't have enough money to offer him a competitive contract, and he was gone as well. With the loss of the one big tough defender willing to hit people, so was the best chance at winning the Stanley Cup.
Don't be fooled, despite the 06-07 team's outstanding regular season, the 05-06 team was the one built to win the Stanley Cup, and without the ridiculous run of injuries most likely would have done it. The 06-07 team was one of the best offensive squads this side of Gretzky's Oilers and Lemieux's Penguins. However, besides Paul Gaustad and Chris Drury there was not an NHL-caliber player who was willing to take a hit, give a hit, and still control the puck. You cannot tell me that Adam Mair or Andrew Peters belong on an NHL roster.
This team did not have the toughness and grittiness to withstand the pressure of a seven game playoff series, even the most casual fan saw this. So what does Darcy do? Probably his luckiest move to date.
He brings in a guy who, while big and strong, had never shown an affinity to using these gifts. However something struck Dainius Zubrus during his flight from Washington to Buffalo and he became the big talented forward that the Sabres needed. And again, if he had not been injured during the Ottawa series, his toughness against Alfredson, Spezza, and Heatley may have changed the course of the series.
All this brings me to this off-season, which has to be one of the worst displays of management in recent memory. During the previous off-season the Sabres could have locked up Daniel Briere to a long-term deal. After a season in which he scored 58 points in only 48 games, and then continued to dominate the playoffs, Briere was ready to sign a five year $25 million deal. Regier did not have the foresight to realize what kind of a talent he had in Briere, waited until this off-season, after a year in which he fulfilled his potential with 32 goals and 95 points, to offer him that five year $25 million deal. Briere, insulted, would not even negotiate with the Sabres after this.
But that's cool. Regier has Mr. Sabre, Mr. Clutch, Chris Drury, locked up. It was only a matter of days until the contract was finalized, or so we thought. Regier fumbled this one as well, as his arrogance led him to believe the team had Drury locked up. So why do I see Drury in a Rangers jersey?
After this horrible turn of events, Regier could not even save face by re-signing Zubrus, who was one of the best playoff performers, before he went to New Jersey.
It's just disgusting to think that the Sabres spent over $80 million on Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy and Jochen Hecht, and they have combined for a total of 29 points. Meanwhile, they could have easily overpaid for Drury, given him enough money to compensate for the fact that he stayed in Buffalo instead of playing close to his hometown in Manhattan. In this strategy, they probably lose Hecht or Roy, or maybe they lose Vanek, but you have leadership and goal production, both of which the Sabres are sorely lacking right now.
So how do you go from a young talented team on the cusp of winning the Stanley Cup to tied for last place in the Eastern Conference in the span of 16 games? Well, over the last three seasons the Sabres have lost Miroslav Satan, Daniel Briere, J.P. Dumont, Chris Drury, and Dainius Zubrus, without replacing any of them. By the way, these five players have combined for 20 goals this season while the entire Sabres squad has only scored 44.
