Chris: The Sabres yet again have decided against an end of season press conference, much to the dismay of the Buffalo sports media conglomerate. This isn’t the first time the Sabres have decided against holding a press conference and it’s not the first time they have come under fire for the decision. There’s plenty of back and forth on the matter and after a 30th place season with accusations of tanking and a recently fired head coach, should the Sabres have held a proper end of season press conference?
Joe: I have mixed feelings about this. I want to say yes, they should because every NHL team does the same. There are a number of questions I’d like to be answered such as what their plans are in FA and where do they want to go with hiring a new coach. It’s not the end of the world for Tim Murray to sit there for 30 minutes and answer a bunch of questions that he already knows the answers to two words after a reporter asks a question. And that’s my problem here. These pressers are such snoozers in terms of context. Its misinformation mixed in with a bunch of platitudes. Now, I’ll be a devil’s advocate here and say that sometimes you can get an interesting answer out of them. Darcy Regier said there would be suffering at one and that became a battle cry. However, for the most part, it’s a lot of nonsense. I think my issue here is that both the Sabres and a few of the local press corps look like idiots here. The Sabres shouldn’t be arrogant to not have one since I’m sure there’s a contingent of fans who want to know what’s up and TBN shouldn’t bitch up a storm yearly about this and then play the “We are asking questions for the fans!!!” when they are just looking to fill up their notebook and get that adrenaline rush of taking on Murray or Black.
Chris: Well that just about closes up our debate on the matter.
In all seriousness, I’m with you on this. I brought up a point of view on this yesterday only to be told I was enabling the organization and an apologist and things of that sort. There are two primary reasons that I don’t care about the Sabres bailing on a press conference. First: The next time I hear a real, solid, hockey answer given in one of these, it will be the first. Like you said, it’s full of banal responses because no GM is going to tip his hand on his lunch order, let alone plans in net or at the draft. Second, the post-Nolan presser – which was poorly timed and organized – addressed many questions pertaining to the coaching search and Murray has spoken on a fairly regular basis on draft related topics. So I’ve already heard so much of what he’s going to say. I suppose I have a third reason which is that Murray is the only person I’d want to hear from. As much as I like Ted Black, I don’t really think he needs to be at that table. So if it’s just going to be Murray and we take his recent appearances into account, how much else can we expect to hear?
Joe: I think its because the season ended and you can do a full blown presser about how this or that player did this past year. It’s funny, but every time Murray spoke in public to reporters, it was constantly about tanking and McEichel. No one ever seemed to ask him about Grigorenko or Rochester or anything. Tanking and McEichel was all that I seemed hear from Murray or anyone with a voice in the MSM this past season. I remember Murray was on with Schopp and the Bulldog for a solid 20 minutes and all they talked about was McEichel and this was back in January. Now, that’s a byproduct of what was the hot topic at that time and McEichel was far more interesting to most fans. However, at the same time, you can fault the media for being so obsessed with the tank talk and forgetting that there are other players in this organization to speak about. So, maybe that’s why a year end conference is needed.
The question I have for you is do you think the Sabres are being too arrogant about this? It’s funny, but you and a few bloggers have always questioned their motives to get better in game promotions or Twitter presence and it always stems from their arrogance of saying “Well, we sold out the games. We are done trying to get better because we are the best and the sales show it.” Isn’t that the exact same mindset they are having with not having year end pressers and maybe Harrington is playing the role of us?
Chris: Murray has been out in public quite a bit lately. He had his post lottery quotes run through the ringer – out of context in many cases. He addressed why they fired Nolan and what his plans are for the coaching search on locker cleanout day and had to answer questions about tanking and McDavid almost anytime he showed his face. I thought Mike brought up some phenomenal questions in his column. But you KNOW that a massive chunk of that press conference would be directed at Nolan, tanking and the season. And if that’s the case, I’d say those questions have all been asked and answered.
For what it’s worth, Harrington made no mention of that in his column, so kudos for that. The Sabres have a massive season ticket base and aren’t really forced to do anything simply because they know fans will show up. And I don’t mean fans who are tapped in and following their every move on Twitter. Just your regular, everyday fans who probably bought a Steve Ott jersey and wish the team played harder. These people probably don’t care either way about a press conference and the team knows that. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they used the surveys they send out during the year along with their pre-game STH meet ups with Ted Black to gauge the fanbase. If they came away knowing that a vast majority of fans are pleased with the direction and are cool with everything going on, then they probably would say screw it when it comes to dealing with TBN and anyone else who would show up.
I also think it’s arrogance in the sense of wanting to give the News the finger a bit. There’s something of a rift between the two parties and while the News will kick and scream about the lack of access and Murray being a baby (ahem, Sully), the team will continue to string them along because they know they’re poking the bear, so to speak. That’s obviously all an assumption. But that wouldn’t shock me. Nor would I argue that the team is completely in the wrong when you think back to the shitshow presser in 2013.
Joe: Yeah, TBN has gone about it all wrong because it’s Groundhog Day with them. From 2011-2013, it seemed to be an ultimate bitch fest about “Where’s Terry?” which culminated in Sully/Harrington doing their version of wedding crashers at the HarborCenter conference with asking Pegula about Lindy. I’m sure the Sabres loved that…. Then they didn’t have a conference in 2012 which I remember Harrington/Sully went apeshit about. Then there was the fight between Harrington and Black in 2013. The bottom line is that badgering and taunting the Sabres hasn’t gotten you closer to having a press conference and to me, it’s all for show by TBN at this point. It’s a way to get clicks – which we are kind of doing now by talking about it – and getting their names in the discussion. I mean, Harrington’s piece is going to have over 100 comments while a goalie piece TBN ran on the same day currently has 12. Mission accomplished!
If they really wanted these pressers, go to the NHL or The Sports writing association of bad polo shirts and complain to them and not have it be such a public forum by involving us because in the past it hasn’t gotten you what you want. Not to mention, it’s TBN doing the bitching which is a yearly tradition and everyone telling them to STFU. Something tells me if Vogl/Coller wrote a piece about wanting a conference, I tend to think a lot of fans would adhere to their wishes instead of Harrington/Sully, who have a track record of beating dead horses into Elmer’s Glue on this subject.
Chris: I think you’re probably right. Obviously we can’t say that definitively. But it’s almost like the boy who cried wolf at this point. You can only run around screaming your head off for so long before everyone just shrugs their shoulders and shakes their head a little. It’s like me complaining about the Sabres Twitter account or even when 3MI would bring up game presentation. Is there a cause for concern? Sure. But if you keep stomping your feet, it becomes white noise.
Joe: Exactly. It goes on deaf ears and gets played out. It feels like you just have an axe to grind instead of trying to be the voice for fans, which we know is BS. Both the Sabres and TBN need to just hug it out and sleep together at this point because its beyond personal. Getting the story is being replaced by being the story when it comes to these two hard asses. One thing worth mentioning is that the Sabres will eventually have pressers. When the new coach gets hired, they will have Murray and the new guy there. I’m assuming they will have a press conference prior to the draft and FA which means they will address all of the questions about goaltending, Cody Hodgson and prospect dealings. Like I said, I think the sour grapes by some in the press is more about how other teams are doing it and I think they have a valid point. It also doesn’t help that Murray will easily pick up the phone for TSN and 60 Minutes is doing something on the Pegulas which probably makes a few at TBN want to start picketing the F’N Center. Still, I can’t get past how it’s the way they go about yearly in complaining about this. They just need to reevaluate their methods on trying to get answers. While the media claims to never care about the wins or losses of a team they cover, they will never have a problem with caring about themselves.
Chris: Both sides definitely need to bury the hatchet at some point. Although I’m not sure when you could expect that to happen. I would really like to hear some of Harrington’s questions answered too. I think you could probably toss out a few that you know Murray wouldn’t touch. Namely the question about trading up in the draft and anything roster related. You can bet money on any GM answering the question about moving a center to wing or on starting Reinhart or Zadorov in Rochester with a vague non-answer. But pushing for answers regarding Rochester, offer sheets and free agents are absolutely questions I’d want to hear the answers for. And perhaps the best time for that will be when a new coach is hired. If Luke Richardson is hired there will be an opportunity to ask both Murray and Richardson questions about the roster, plans and hopes for next year and any questions otherwise reserved for an end of season presser.
Joe: Last question, do you think if there were more outlets demanding this and bitching about how this is unjust, would the Sabres do a presser? I mean, no offense to the Olean Times, but they aren’t exactly a hot click machine on the Internet. I wonder if WGR decided to publicly scold them for not doing this, would the Sabres give in? That’s a problem with the media in Buffalo is it really seems like its two outlets that get most of the pub (WGR/TBN) while local sports TV and other outlets are viewed in a much smaller scale at this point.
Chris: I think yes. I’m sure that other beat reporters around the league think the Sabres are clown shoes for doing this. But WGR doesn’t really seem to care and they’re the only other serious player in all of this. That’s not a slight to Bill Hoppe, Joe Yerdon or any of the other beat guys. But if the only two major outlets in the region – TV excluded – only the News seems to be making noise about this. So that really doesn’t help their cause. Factor in everything else – like the antics of Sullivan in 2013 and his apparent need to be Buffalo’s resident contrarian – and it’s easy to see why the Sabres decide to blow this off, not that they should do so without anyone questioning the motives. Ultimately the Sabres should probably be doing one despite how little will likely come of it in terms of real answers. I frankly don’t have time for it simply because I don’t have any expectation for the event to bear out any quality information, nor do I have any hope that the questions wouldn’t eventually devolve into queries on morals, tanking and Ted Nolan. Maybe as the team improves, the Sabres will improve their public standing as well. There’s certainly two sides to this, I’m just not sure if there’s enough to convince me that the Sabres absolutely need to hold a press conference. Frankly, I simply don’t need to hear 45 minutes on non-answers from the general manager.
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