Consistency’s Downside with Playoff Outcast Buffalo Sabres
Remember the eclipse? That celestial ballet from way back last week featured an exhilarating example of getting in the way. Obstacles aren’t as satisfying for a team that never overcomes them. Unlike the Moon blocking the Sun, darkness around the Buffalo Sabres remains. A few stunning minutes of visible corona was more than the roster offered during yet another dang bleak campaign.
If the Sabres hated their fans, nothing would change. The fact they’re presumably trying hard to finish in the top half makes cheering in Hell even more agonizing. The ice keeps melting. If Sabres fans on an alternate DC Comics Earth are coping with active contempt from a diabolical owner, the resulting sense on this version of our planet is identical. Fan Appreciation Night gets funnier every year. I don’t appreciate them.
Extending their own unprecedented mark surely must be an accomplishment. We should feel elated when our beloved club doing something no other has ever done. They don’t keep bad records, right?
A high quantity of an item may or may not be desirable. I wish there were some way to make life less ambivalent. Paula’s sometimes sells a baker’s dozen of the universe’s best donuts for the price of a regular one. See: that’s a welcome 13. By contrast, missing the playoffs that many times in a row may not quite be lucky.
A league set up so half the teams move on features one consistent outcast. This seems like a good time to point out the Sabres seized the right to keep playing during their third ever season.
This failed enterprise violates the first rule of business, namely the need for spending money in order to make it. Trying to run a team on the cheap leads to false economy. Dedicated potential buyers are ready to drop a fortune on the right to sit and watch for a few hours. All ownership has to do is invest enough to make a competitive product. Only hiring staffers who accept coupons is ultimately not a good value. Customers stop buying the product in case Sabres executives still don’t grasp why shortsighted saving fails to pay off.
For a multibillionaire, Terry Pegula is one lousy entrepreneur. Making taxpayers fund his football venue is as close as he gets to shrewd maneuvering, and forcing New Yorkers to invest makes him a shameless welfare deadbeat. Keep working to afford a personal seat license that costs more than a Mini Cooper for the right to pay for the seat itself.
Stealing joy is not a crime, which is why Pegula has avoided probation. He’d make taxpayers post bail. It should be exciting to head to a game yet hasn’t been since around the introduction of the iPad. Forced thrills define a relationship that used to create happiness in the MySpace era. Vague memories of enjoyment are the sole reason to administer a dose of voyeuristic masochism. The fact there are any season ticket holders left is a testament to unabashed loyalty paired with unsubstantiated hope.
Is the Sabres Store still open? I want to get a Donny Meatballs shirt before they sell out. I was a Granato hipster who thought he’d fail from the start. Realistic fans could wish for promising results while suspecting they were never pending. The difference between wanting something to happen and knowing it won’t sums up the team.
There’s no rule against letting an intern change lines. The Sabres have come close to proving such. The innovative franchise’s solution to ending playoff banishment was hiring a first-time NHL head coach whose specialty is developing players who aren’t old enough to buy lottery tickets. If that sounds ridiculous, wait until you hear about the NHL general manager whose last gig was running a hockey school.
