Oh Darcy, My Darcy

            So all this talk about coaches and new management in Buffalo is starting to shift focus from ex coach Lindy Ruff to current GM Darcy Regeir.  Mr. Regeir appears to have a fairly impressive resume, lets take a closer look. He took over for John Muckler in the summer of 1997, along with that came a whole plethora of problems. Then superstar goaltender Dominick Hasek was fueding with coach Ted Nolan. Nolan was coming off a Jack Adam's winning coaching campaign whilst Hasek was dominating the league, earning his nickname "The Dominator". It all boils down to Hasek siding with ex GM Muckler over head coach Ted Nolan, which led to Hasek possibly faking an injury during the playoffs costing the city its best chance at a Stanley cup. Darcy's first decision as General Manager was his head coach. He axed Ted Nolan in an attempt to satisfy his superstar goalie and bring solidarity to the locker room. Enter Lindy Ruff, exit Ted Nolan. 2 years later the team makes a run to the finals only to be expelled by a Dallas Stars team. His only Stanley cup final is from a team he had little to do with building, outside of hiring Lindy and bringing in Jason Wooley.

            Since then we have made the playoffs 6 times and missed the playoffs 6 times. When we had competitive teams he was unable to keep them together. Blame ownership all you want, but you cant fire an owner. Surviving numerous ownership changes, with the same results, early successes that he had little to do with. The talent he has brought in at high cap hits is questionable at best. Brad Boyes, Ville Leino, Tim Connolly, Craig Rivet, all come to mind. I mean where is this great track record? What am i missing? Zubrus? Lalime? Tyler Myers and Leino are costing us a combined 10 mil cap hit and have scored combined 1 goal. Thats right 10 million per goal, Vanek must feel short-changed.

            My point is more change is coming. A franchise can not survive so many bad decisions. Financial liabilities are often the first to go in these situations. It's no secret Darcy has made some financial blunders over the past few years, now its really starting to show. Even mismanagement of our home grown talent is hurting us Tyler Myers is over paid and under qualified, Drew Stafford is struggling to produce while bringing in top talent dollars. I really hope we can turn it around, but even if we did I still see the same holes, the same skid marks left from years of negligent spending.