Buffalo Sabres team president Kim Pegula was in Arizona last week at the NFL owners meetings, along with husband Terry, talking about the present state of her sports teams and of other Buffalo business. The Pegula family owns both the Sabres and the Buffalo Bills and Kim took over the team presidencies of both clubs when Russ Brandon left the organization last May. She was asked about a number of things concerning the two franchises including all the changes that have gone on at Pegula Sports and Entertainment as of late. PSE is the umbrella company of the Sabres and Bills, of which she's also the president and CEO, and Kim admitted that they took on a lot early and are also taking on a lot now while being in the midst of an upper-level management restructuring. Yet, when asked just how challenging it was having all of that responsibility she happily told the gathered media, "I think it's fun.
"C'mon, we're in sports," she continued with that happiness running through her big smile. "There's nothing more fun than being involved in sports. I'm actually really enjoying it."
Good for her. She and the Pegula family should be very happy. Being an NFL owner is like having one of 32 ATM cards where a constant supply of profits generated from television revenue and merchandise means that every year they can go to the teller and cash in. Without financial worries, it also allows her to learn on the job, something which she also touched upon. "It takes a while to understand your organization and knowing things like how we want things to be structured," she said. "It's a matter of wanting to put my own stamp, not just myself but Terry and I, on the organization, how we want it to be structured and run.
"I've talked to a lot of other teams around the league asking, 'how are you doing things?' And so for me it was part of the learning process. Once Russ [Brandon] departed it has allowed me, it's just part of the whole progression of how we want things to be and how we want to make our own mark."
The Pegulas are making their mark, however, when it comes to their Sabres this season, they're the wrong marks for her as a first-year team president.
We all know of the Sabres 10-game winning streak which tied a franchise record. Everyone, including the Pegulas (who said as much) knew they weren't as good as that, but everyone (and I'd assume the Pegulas as well) felt that Buffalo was at least a .500 point team and achieving mark that for the remainder of the season would have had them on the playoff bubble. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way. Here are the marks:
--since the streak, Buffalo's 14-32-8 record and 36 points are worst in the league
--those 14 wins are four less than the next worst team
--131 goals-for in 54 games equals 2.42 goals/game, third-worst in the league
--194 goals allowed in 54 games equals 3.59 goals-against/game, worst in the league
--the Sabres have not won back-to-back games since Dec. 11-13, a span of 47 games
--after getting shut out three games in a row this past month, they're the first team since 1929 to get shutout three games in a row in consecutive seasons
--they'll be the second team in league history to have a 10-game winning streak and miss the playoffs
--outside of the 2013-15 tank years (plus those surrounding it) and any NHL-shortened seasons, the Sabres are on pace to finish with the least number of points in back-to-back seasons since 1971-73 when they finished with 138 points in their second and third seasons playing 78 league games.
How did they get to this point? A good starting point is December, but the month of March cemented this team as an incredibly inept and devoid of emotion.
Buffalo went 2-12-2 in the month of March with one win to start the month and one win separating two seven-game losing streaks (both 0-6-1) and were shut out five times. It's been a pretty ugly downward spiral since the streak and as Laurie Anderson spoke in her song, From the Air:
Good evening. This is your Captain
We are about to attempt a crash landing...
We're going down. We're all going down.
Together...
This is the time and this is the record of the time
Buffalo Sabres 2018-19 YTD Team Stats (League Rankings)...(Leader):
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