“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.” – Cersei Lannister, Game of Thrones
Sabres general manager Tim Murray’s decision to fire head coach Ted Nolan the day after the season ended offered another demonstration of the organization’s new driving philosophy: get better at all costs. Perhaps never before has a Sabres GM been less interested in nostalgia, loyalty, and other homespun values that don’t relate to winning hockey games. It’s a cold-hearted way to do business, but fans wanting to see their team compete for championships should applaud the clear eyes through which Murray evaluates the Sabres.
We saw it with the decision to tank for McEichel: Murray looked at the roster, determined there was no top-line center, and chose the surest route to getting one. We saw it with the trades of Ryan Miller and Tyler Myers: Murray let the market set the price and took the best offer available for his guys.* Now we see it again with the firing of Nolan: Murray knows he’s a nice man who worked hard, but better coaches are available.**
*(In contrast, Murray’s predecessor, Darcy Regier, tended to hold out for unreasonable offers, producing occasional greatness – Paul Gaustad for a first round pick – but more often allowing the value of his assets to dwindle – Connolly, Roy, Stafford, the list goes on.)
**(There will be a lot of narratives about why Nolan was fired, and Murray himself talked about issues he had with Nolan regarding personnel decisions and assistant coaches. But if Nolan was a great coach, those issues wouldn’t have mattered. Put it this way: If Mike Babcock calls the Sabres and says he’s interested in the job but only if he has input on personnel decisions, you think Murray says no? Not a chance.)
The constant theme in Murray’s management is painfully honest evaluation and the pursuit of improvement at any cost. Captains, best players, star goalies, head coaches – no one is entitled to their spot on the roster and no one is untouchable. If a better offer is made, it’s taken. If you have to sacrifice an entire season or give up a fan favorite to improve, so be it.
That’s what I really love about Murray’s approach to the game. Professional sports is a risk-averse world, and he’s a shark in an ocean of seals. There are seemingly fewer players available in free agency and fewer trades on deadline day each year as teams hold tight to anyone with a shred of value. On top of that, scouting has improved, making it harder to get great players with late picks. It’s harder than ever to shake up your team, creating a miserable purgatory for those in the middle of the pack.
Few organizations have the guts to take the kinds of big risks that Murray took to break out of that. The Sabres under Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff never did until it was clear they were both going to be fired if they didn’t. For the vast majority of their tenure they would add some pieces, take away some pieces, and hope for prospects to develop, but the basic core of the team was the same. For 15 years!!
In the Pegula-Murray era, that complacency is unthinkable. I used the Game of Thrones quote to open the piece because I think it fits the organization today: if you’re not on top, you’re on the bottom. Go big or go home. If your team isn’t among the top half of the league, tinkering isn’t going to produce a champion. If you don’t have a #1 center and a #1 defensemen and a goaltender you trust, you’re not going to produce a champion.
The Sabres today know where they are, know where they want to be, and know the distance in between. They’re also honest about it. That combination might be a first in team history and it’s incredibly refreshing after years of half-baked excuses from Regier and others. After two last-place seasons and some blockbuster trades, we now know Murray walks the walk as well as he talks the talk.
Contrary to Joe, I don’t think it’s any big mystery what kind of team Murray is building. He’s traded for Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian, Nicolas Deslauriers, and Hudson Fasching. He’s traded away more goalies than I can remember. He drafted Sam Reinhart, reportedly tried to trade up for Josh Ho-Sang, and speaks more frequently and glowingly about Connor McDavid than just about any other GM in the league. It seems pretty clear that Murray is trying to build a bigger, more physical and more skilled team than Buffalo has ever had before.
That’s exciting. You can say that firing Nolan was gutless or classless or whatever else you want. I agree it wasn’t his “fault” they finished 30th, but that doesn’t matter. If you’re on board with sports being a business, if you’re cool with free agency, if you can talk about players as “assets” and so on, then replacing Nolan is just another smart management decision. There might not have been better coaches out there who wanted to work for the Sabres last summer, but there are today.
The Sabres are serious about being Cup contenders, and they won’t – and shouldn’t – let loyalty get in the way.
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