Two nights ago, I went to sleep with a smile on my face. Ryan Miller had finally gotten a win by standing on his head like he's done so many times before. Sure the Sabres were atrociously outplayed by a team less than two full years removed from winning the Stanley Cup, but you take it.
Yes, I get we needed to lose for a high pick, but you have to relish the wins whenever they take place because they are so few and far between. It was a night for celebration, if only in a limited way; like a small oasis in the midst of the suffering that Darcy Regier had prognosticated in the off-season. They dodged the bullet of one of those all-time futility records (Avoiding the record of a home winless streak to start the season).
Then, yesterday morning happened and everything changed.
The calling of a major news conference led to speculation as to what the definition of major was and if it actually was major, what would it be? We all know the Sabres have called more Harbor Center conferences than they've state of the team addresses or trade altering conferences.
Would we be in for a let down? Nope. Not in the slightest.
The Sabres are announcing a new position? President of Hockey Ops? We gasped and considered whether it meant a new boss for Darcy, or GOD FORBID a promotion and bringing in someone else. Then it came to light that it was going to be Pat LaFontaine, a great guy who is well respected and super intelligent figure in the NHL, would be given a similar position as to what Cam Neely has in Boston and Joe Sakic in Colorado. It’s a very Terry Pegula-like decision and one that makes hockey sense. He can guide Darcy and eventually lead the search for the next chapter in Buffalo folklore-
Now hearing that Darcy and Rolston are out, LaFontaine in and possibly Ted Nolan returning as coach.
— Bucky Gleason (@TBNbucky) November 13, 2013
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What the hell?
There’s no way. There’s no freaking way that the witch is dead!..Wait..Did he say Ted Nolan?
I'm looking at Ted Nolan at a Sabres press conference, and it's not announcing a wrongful termination suit. #MindBlown
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) November 13, 2013
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On November 13th of 2012, Lindy Ruff was the head coach of the Buffalo Sabres. On the same date in 1997, he was also the coach. For fifteen years he was the only coach we had known, and had been the Sabres coach since I was just 13-years- old, meaning he's been here for a better part of my life.
On November 13th of 2013, Ted Nolan was named the interim head coach of the same Buffalo Sabres. On the same day in 1996 (seventeen years ago, and when I was twelve for those keeping score), he was also the coach. His captain was Pat LaFontaine and he was about to coach the Sabres to a Northeast Division title for the first time. It was the first time that the Sabres had won a division crown since they won the Adams Division during the 1980-81 season, approximately three years before I was born.
Nolan would win the Jack Adams trophy as the league’s best coach, Mike Peca would win the Selke, Hasek would win MVP and the Sabres would make it out of the first round of the playoffs for the first time since Mayday.
To say I was stunned at what I was reading, like much of Twitter and the hockey community as a whole, would be putting it exceptionally lightly. I was so stunned that it took me a long time to even formulate a similar thought about Ted Nolan that I had for Pat LaFontaine.
Is this a fan-placating, fanboy Terry Pegula move? At first glance, I hadn’t been able to process anything to defend the hiring except that anything was going to be better than Ron Rolston. It felt like Marv Levy being brought in by the Bills, but as the HEAD COACH instead of the figurehead GM!
I sat and tried to decide how I really felt…Relieved? There was certainly relief with Rolston (and especially Regier) gone from the hierarchy at the First Niagara Center. But there was also this nagging fear that it was just another repeat episode of suffering.
Why oh why would the Sabres look into the past AGAIN while trying to forge their future?
But then I saw the following anecdote from WGR 550’s The Bulldog on Twitter:
Lafontaine and Nolan drove together through a blizzard to be at the wake for the late Jim Kelley. So yes, they have stayed in touch.
— Christopher Parker (@Bulldogwgr) November 13, 2013
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It was a little thing, and an important thing, that completely re-framed the conversation, along with this bit from WGRZ:
Pegula annoucnes Pat LaFontaine as President of Hockey Operations and Ted Nolan as interim Head Coach. Only met Nolan last night #Sabres
— WGRZ (@WGRZ) November 13, 2013
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And the whole story changed. It wasn’t about Terry Pegula’s judgment, but rather about Pat LaFontaine’s mindset.
At this point, I decided to forget about the nostalgia angle about Nolan and just rename him "Ted Smith" for a minute and just take a look at his full portfolio while releasing all the baggage that he held onto. Why don’t you join me on this strange and interesting (well, interesting and really straight forward) journey into that alternate universe where we can forget that Ted Nolan is Ted Nolan?
In four years as an NHL coach, “Ted Smith” made the playoffs twice and won a playoff round with Steve Shields as his goalie. Setting aside his two losing seasons for a moment, and taking overtime losses as losses, his combined record was 80 and 72.
In his first year in Buffalo, he took what was not a very good team and made them work their asses off to earn the moniker of “The Hardest Working Team in Hockey” and made them incredibly tough to play against. Yes, tougher to play against was thrown around then like it is now, but it meant something then and the results showed it.
His second year on the Island, he was released of the weight of Alexi Yashin and his historically bad contract, but also lost top players Ryan Smyth, Viktor Kozlov, Jason Blake, Richard Zednik and Tom Poti and missed the playoffs.
“Ted Smith” brings with him the aforementioned hardware from being named Coach of the Year in 1997 and played a part in forging the core of a Sabres team that would eventually play for a Stanley Cup in 1999. His career record is 147-140 with 19 ties and 21 overtime losses. That comes out to a .449 winning percentage for his career while coming away with points in approximately 54% of his games.
So where does this leave me and my opinion on Ted Nolan being hired again by the Buffalo Sabres?
I am optimistic about what is to come. A different voice and different point of view will be good for this team, especially the youngsters. Also, the team as a whole needs a guy like Ted Nolan who can teach them how to play for one another.
I don’t mean gooning it up and beating up Milan Lucic the next time he takes out Ryan Miller, but playing for personal pride, for the laundry, for the fans and above all else for each other. I don’t think it’s a permanent solution to the question of Sabres head coach, but for coaching out the string this year and maybe into next year, I think he works.
And I don’t think that just because he was the coach of the brawlers who made up "The Hardest Working Team in Hockey" that we’re going to be embarrassed going forward like we have been so far this year.
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