Buffalo Sabres Coach Watch: Life After Mike Babcock

Buffalo Sabres nation is waking up today without a head coach, after it seemed like we were a lock to get Mike Babcock in what is turning out to be a summer of dissapointment for the Buffalo Sabres.

First we had to endure this season, the second straight season of just bad hockey as the Buffalo Sabres tried to recover from years of mismanaged hockey and a new regime running the hockey operations. Then the favorite son of Buffalo – a coach with little NHL experience is fired, and everyone feels sorry for Ted Nolan.

Then things start to turn around – wait – we have the best odds in the draft lottery and can pick no worse than second! Good news right? Well the NHL selects through their random draft lottery system the Edmonton Oilers as the first overall seletion in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, relegating Buffalo to the second overall pick for the second straight year.

Who cares right – we still get Jack Eichel! But wait, there’s more – that’s right, the Buffalo Sabres are upset that they don’t have the number one overall pick and stories are flooding the media now that even before the draft lottery Tim Murray was putting the pieces into position to get the number one overall pick at any cost.

Is Connor McDavid that much of a better prospect than Jack Eichel who just performed quite well if not great at the World Championships? Is the Buffalo Sabres organization overplaying the Eichel card to convince the Edmonton Oilers to take him over McDavid so they get the crown jewel of the draft?

The Eichel vs McDavid coversation gets put on the back burner because Mike Babcock is made available by the Detroit Red Wings – ooooooh! Once again the Buffalo Sabres are a lock to get him – everything sounds great – another off season of chasing the Terry Pegula private jet – only this year it isn’t a top named free agent to throw money at – its a head coach.

Again the Buffalo Sabres get played like a fiddle and end up coming in second place as Mike Babcock selects the Toronto Maple Leafs as his next destination.

I thought you wanted to win Mike? Certainly you didn’t think the Detroit Red Wings were a strong enough option to continue their winning ways – the Toronto Maple Leafs have been the literal tire fire of the league for several seasons, making short sighted moves and overpaying names that never pan out.

They haven’t hit rock bottom yet, but the Buffalo Sabres have, and the sun is coming up in Buffalo.

So who is the next coach of the Buffalo Sabres? Mike Babcock isn’t the end all be all for coaches this off season. It isn’t like he won the last ten Stanley Cups and put the Buffalo Sabres on an automatic fast track to June’s filled with celebrations and parades in downtown Buffalo.

Does the Babcock snub teach us anything – will the organization and the fans finally learn to stop counting their chickens before they are hatched? This isn’t the first time Terry Pegula has swung for the fences and missed wildly.

Dan Bylsma is still available. I don’t think Luke Richardson is ready to take on an NHL coaching job, and wouldn’t mind seeing him maybe groomed in the organization in Rochester or behind the bench in Buffalo as an assistant coach.

Whatever the case maybe, the Buffalo Sabres need to learn from their mistakes and get on with the coaching search quickly – there are other teams out there that want a good coach – and it won’t take them long to get snapped up.

Money isn’t the object – so maybe Tim Murray and company need to figure out what went wrong with the Babcock deal and make sure that doesn’t happen again – unless Buffalo was truly just the fiddle and nothing more than a way to squeeze the Toronto Maple Leafs for more money.

There is no life after Mike Babcock – because he now coaches your main rival just up the QEW – does that make it sting more?

Next: Match Made In Buffalo - Joel Ward On Right Wing

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