Let the beatings begin

Since the Sabres have a snowball's chance in Hades of making the playoffs, the blame game is already starting amongst the Sabres fanbase and the local media.

As expected, GM Darcy Regier and Head Coach Lindy Ruff have taken their fair share of the blame, along with the players.

Personally, I would start further up the food chain.

B. Thomas Golisano saved the Sabres from bankruptcy when he bought the team for virtually pennies on the dollar. Coming out of the lockout, Golisano was soaking in the love as not only were the Sabres back, but they were thriving on the ice.

But, over the last two seasons, Golisano has been less and less visible. Given how Daniel Briere and Chris Drury, the co-captains during the team's President's Trophy winning 2006-2007 season, left town, it is not surprising that Golisano has chosen to step out of the line of fire.

Then you have Sabres managing partner Larry Quinn. I was worried when he was brought back into the fold given how things went during his first tour with the Sabres that ended with both John Muckler and Ted Nolan being shown the door.

While everyone involved with the Sabres needs to take a piece of the blame for the treadmill of mediocrity that the Sabres are currently on, to me the most blame needs to go to those with the most power.

And with the Sabres, the buck has to stop with Golisano and Quinn.

Over the last few weeks, there was a message board topic about what needs to happen to turn things around. My tongue in cheek response was to trade Golisano for Mark Cuban. To me, the Sabres need an owner that is engaged and has as a good handle on what it takes to build a successful NHL franchise.

Golisano may have known how to build up Paychex from a small start up to a billion dollar company. But, he doesn't appear to have a handle on how to properly run a sports-entertainment business.

My hope for the Sabres future is that Golisano and Quinn look at the more successful franchises around the league and they figure out how to get from a state where there is talk of competing for the cup, but the team isn't moving in that direction to a team that actually sees results on the ice.

But we shall see............