Win now?
Not next season or the season after.
Dan Bylsma was relieved of duties Thursday – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Win now.
So is the refrain from Buffalo today where the Sabres fired their general manager, Tim Murray, and head coach, Dan Bylsma.
“After reviewing the past season and looking at the future of our organization, Kim [Pegula] and I have decided to relieve General Manager Tim Murray and Head Coach Dan Bylsma of their duties,” Sabres’ owner Terry Pegula said in a statement. “We want to thank Tim and Dan for their hard work and efforts that they have put in during their tenures with the club. We wish them luck. We have begun the process to fill these positions immediately.”
The Sabres missed the post season for a sixth straight year and promises were made to Jack Eichel that a competitive team would be wrapped around him.
Can’t have a disgruntled future superstar.
Eichel is playing on an entry-level contract and his superstar status will be confirmed with a new deal.
“As a coach, he asked me about my season. We go through our meeting, and I thought things went pretty well. By the end of it, I thought we were on the same page,” Eichel said in a report in the Buffalo News via a Washington Post report. “In terms of hockey specifics, we talked a lot about the team, the play and my play and what he thinks I can do better and what I want to work on in the offseason. I think it was a pretty normal exit meeting, and one that you leave saying I want to work on this stuff and this stuff and be better for next year. That’s the way I took it.
“For him, I think I told him some things that I think as a group we can all improve on. He was very receptive. I don’t think what’s being said about the way things ended is accurate in any way.”
Eichel may be saying some of the right things but there is an obvious undercurrent of discontent or anxiety about the near-term future for him and the Sabres.
Bylsma had a core of talent in Pittsburgh when he coached the Penguins to their 2009 Stanley Cup win and six seasons of playoff appearances. But he never got back to the Final.
The Washington Post quoted a Buffalo News quote from Mike Harrington of the News, saying:
“Leaders don’t undercut the coach as many times as Eichel has this season,” Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News wrote Saturday. “Or make veiled comments about teammates, like Eichel clearly has about Josh Gorges more than once when referencing players who speak but don’t perform on the ice. Leaders don’t brood and pout in front of the media either like Eichel did to absurd levels Monday on locker cleanout day.”
Eichel has taken issue with many of the less than flattering comments he has been reported to have said of the Sabres, Bylsma and a long-term contract.
With the future in doubt in Buffalo, the Sabres made the call and fired their GM and head coach to keep the budding star.
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