BlueandYellow wrote:
So nobody even proved their point of how Regier is to blame for this season? He did EVERYTHING HE COULD. ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING in his power in this free agency. Our team last year was 3rd in the conference and made the playoffs. He improved it slightly. This blunder was unexpected. Now it's his fault?
The performance of the players is NOT Regier's responsibilities. His FA signings have done nothing but help us. It's the stars on our team which are not producing, even though THEY HAVE EVERY YEAR.
From my vantage point in any event (I can't speak for others), Regier has had 12 played seasons (13 is you count the lockout) to produce a Stanley Cup Championship Team.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong here, but he hasn't thus far succeeded. Squanto makes a point per his opinion on competitiveness from our team, and, I must concede for full disclosures sake, Regier has had to weather a couple of situations that have hindered his efforts (i.e. the bankruptcy and subsequently, the lockout following that situation).
This in no way however, sways my opinion on his ultimate failure to make the necessary adjustments to accomplish the aforementioned task of a championship.
Lets take a look at his track record in brevity.
He completely fubared the Hasek situation when he took over, there was a real chance to garner a Cup in the closing 2 seasons of the late 90's and he failed to make the necessary adjustments to get us over the hump. He may not have built the team he was handed, but in all honesty, he failed when given a golden opportunity to achieve success.
Was this due to a lack of experience or was he just plain incompetent in not assessing what he was handed (i.e., did he not do his homework on the teams strengths and weaknesses and recognize the situation for what it is, kind of a scary thought if you ask me).
Lets move beyond the Hasek fiasco and past the bankrupcty and lockout.
Lets look at the moves he made to build the 05-06, 06-07 squads. Clearly this indicates he has the ability to make moves, albiet risky ones (no one really knew if Briere would blossom again from his early career with Phoenix) but the Drury pickup was a sound move for leadership. So, clearly Regier took a risk and made a sound decision on the other player and it payed dividends for the team.
Now lets look at how he handles attempting to get them over the hump, so to speak to win a championship. He botched it, plain and simple, and lost the 2 best assests this team had from that squad. And here is another really scary thing about Regier. He got nothing in return for them. Thats not the sign of a competent GM. If its 1 player that walks its one thing, but both? Nothing will ever sway my thoughts on that, it is what it is from my prospective, just another lost opportunity from this GM.
Ok, lets move on from those years and focus on this current squad, with its interchangable parts for a second round pick each season combined with less than stellar FA signings to better the team and make it more "competitive".
It is true we won the NE division last season. Many will say Miller carried this team, and they would be correct, he did bail them out, time and time again in the regular season. The real sad part of this is that it was clear for all to see during the Boston series that those who have been advocating (thats putting it mildly, more like screaming it for the better part of 3 seasons now) that additional talent was needed for them to push over the hump. Its not so much the amount of goals as is the clutch type player/players that we sorely lack.
Regiers failure to address this problem really hit a high note at the trade deadline last season and the following off season that just transpired. The team has clearly digressed in certain areas, not many, but a couple. More important than that however, is the clear lack from Regier to address the already prevelant and well known needs the team needed to address in order to move forward with progress.
Now, is that Darcy's fault? As Sara Palin would say: "You bet your bippy it is".
Darcy Regier is the General Manager of the Buffalo Sabres. The product I see on the ice whether I am the game or watching on TV is his and his alone. He was hired to build it, its that simple.
If, as Squanto points out, there is meddling from Quinn or any other, its Darcy how must bare the burden of responsibility for allowing it to happen while continuing to where that title.
I know people do not like to have this pointed out, but take a look up North of us in Toronto, you want to see a GM that isn't afraid to take risks, look no further than Brian Burke. Granted, Toronto isn't competing for the Cup, atleast not yet (interesting start to their season however), but it must be plainly clear to see that Burke is a GM who will trade assets and make moves that have, in fact, bettered that squad.
If the Sabres organization is frowned upon due to its dealings with players in the past specifically from this management team, then fire them. Its not just Ruff, a majority of players I see speaking (Peca, Barnaby, Drury himself in an interview) have actually said that the system is fairly sound. Its the tools Lindy is given to work with and those tools come from Regier.
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), but when you can go play in a nice city and have a team that has a huge chance of winning, it doesn't make sense to come to a team like Buffalo. It's a harsh reality and it sucks. 