OUR VIEW: Sabres must pay to play

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April 8, 2008

Staff Reports The Journal-Register Tue Apr 08, 2008, 11:14 AM EDT

The Sabres will miss the playoffs this season, which for most is a huge surprise, considering two years of back-to-back Eastern Conference final appearances.

Many are looking for answers, some are looking for heads to roll. They may be related.

Don’t blame head coach Lindy Ruff and don’t blame General Manager Darcy Regier. Both were operating with what they were given by owner Tom Golisano and managing partner Larry Quinn.

They are the ones to blame. Simple as that.

Give Regier credit for actually saying the Sabres would be less successful this year. He acknowledged as much when co-captains Daniel Briere and Chris Drury left for the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers, respectively.

Golisano and Quinn are the ones holding the pursestrings and the ones who give Regier his power — or take it away.

We can be told over and over again that it’s a tough marketplace and Buffalo is a small-market team, but ownership needs to realize money has to be spent to compete with teams that are playing for the Stanley Cup this week.

Pittsburgh is a small market, maybe even smaller than Buffalo, and the Penguins may finish atop the Eastern Conference. Granted, they lucked into some pretty decent prospects over the past few years, but they have also paid to get some top-notch players to flank their young crop of superstars.

Buffalo had that, but let it go by being cheap and playing the “marketplace card.” It’s going to take one long, hard off-season with some positive moves come free agency for the Sabres to redeem itself and come into next season with some appeal.

Right now the league looks at the Sabres as formerly great. It’s going to take some spending by Golisano and Quinn to give Regier and Ruff the tools they need to get back that greatness. Fans may not have jumped ship just yet, but a couple moves like last off-season and another regular season like this will not be good for a franchise already claiming “small market.”

Sidenote: If there’s one thing that we beg of Sabres fans for the 2008-09 is not to mention Drury or Briere. If you haven’t gotten it out of your system yet, do it this off-season, it surely will be long enough.

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