| 17 June 2011
Other blogs have already posted pretty good summaries of what was discussed and I tweeted a lot of tidbits last night during the session so I'm going to focus more on the general atmosphere and attitude.
Hockey-wise, I got the impression that the organization is very much stepping back and leaving the hockey decisions to Darcy Regier. Whether or not that's a good thing depends on what you think of Darcy as a GM, I guess, but after all the talk the last few years about his hands being tied by Tom Golisano's tight wallet and Larry Quinn's interference, I think it'll be very interesting to see what happens. Ted wouldn't talk about any specific players or contracts for obvious reasons but when asked about very long contracts and buying out players, he more or less said that everything was a case-by-case decision and that they don't have any kind of official policy against anything. He said the driving force behind every decision is does it make the team better, does it bring them closer to the Stanley Cup? If so, it's on the table.
The questions I asked were more about off-ice stuff. While answering another question, Ted had mentiond how there was kind of an insatiable thirst in Buffalo for Sabres content so I asked if they had any plans to do more with their website which is, in my opinion, pretty much dead space right now. I said I was particularly interested in stuff that establishes the players more as people, just little behind-the-scenes things. He said they've been looking at what other teams are doing and they definitely want to do more. "Sabres fans want more so we want to deliver more." He also promised that what they provide "won't be status quo." Ted specifically mentioned the Europe trip as something they want to do a lot with, saying that it's an opporuntity to do a lot of different things: a little Travel Channel, a little Food Network, a little style and culture. I was really happy with his answer to this because while I love the sport, I love the players too and want to know more about them.
Along those same lines, I asked him about preseason/offseason events. I mentioned that when I first moved here, the Sabres did a big carnival before the season and how, for someone like me who had no experience with the sport or the team, it really made an impression. (Really what I went to wasn't the full-on carnival that the team used to do. It was more stripped down than that. But it was still fun.) Ted said they probably wouldn't do anything that involved but that they are planning to do more events where fans get face time with players. I think that's a very cool thing. I have a now adult nephew who went to that event way back when with me and I can still remember how completely THRILLED he was to meet Stu Barnes.
Finally, I asked a couple of more personal questions. First I asked Ted, "As a fan, are there any players or even a type of player that you enjoy watching?" I tried to broaden the question a bit in case he wasn't comfortable naming names, but he jumped right in with Nathan Gerbe. He said that he loved the combination of undersized physicality and oversized heart. (Kevin Sylvester chimed in with a pretty cute story about Gerbe. He showed up for his first call-up without a suit so he had to borrow one from someone. The closest they could get to his size was a team employee who was 5'9" so the poor kid walked around for his NHL debut in pants that were rolled up four inches which I'm sure accentuated how small he is. I'm picturing the end of Big where Josh is a kid again but still wearing the Tom Hanks-sized suit.) Ted also said that he admires Ryan Miller's talent and that he thinks Tyler Myers will have a "phenomenal" impact on the league before he's done. His heart was definitely with Gerbe though. He didn't even think about it.
The other personal question I asked was if he was a fan of any other teams or sports. I admit, I asked that because I've been wondering if he's a Pirates fan since he's from the Pittsburgh area and all. He thought about it for a long moment and finally said that he's not as much of a fan as he used to, that as he's gotten older and taken on more reponsibility, it's kind of fallen by the wayside. He did make me happy though and said that he was a huge Pirates fan when he was a kid. His dad used to take him to games a lot when he was younger and he spoke for a minute or two about the connections that sports can make between people and especially between generations. He said that was probably one of the best things about sports and I'd definitely have to agree with that.
Overall I'd have to say that Ted Black is exactly what he seems like on TV and in interviews. He was fully engaged with us and gave a straight-forward answer to pretty much everything. Even when the topic was something he couldn't really address - contracts, new hirings, that kind of thing - he tried really hard to give us something. He came across as smart, funny, and very genuine. He was just the right mix of taking the event and questions seriously while not taking himself too seriously. I forget what phrase he used, but a few times over the course of the night he said something along the lines of, "We're not curing cancer here" in regards to the fact that it's a sports team and you have to keep some perspective on how important or not important it is in the grand scheme of things. At one point, something made him think of the Pegula Day app he has on his phone and he pulled it out and started playing around with it, staging a fake conversation between Darcy and Terry like so:
Ted in Darcy voice: Hey, Terry, did you get my email?
Ted pushes button on phone to make Terry say: I dont even know how to turn on my computer.
Ted in Darcy voice: Terry, is it okay if I offer this contract?
Ted pushes button on phone to make Terry say: If I want to make money, I'll drill another gas well.
That wasn't the exact conversation, but it was something like that and it was both hilarious and charming.
I think everyone left with a really good feeling. I know I did. If Ted is representative in any way of the new ownership, I think we're in good hands. After the official Q&A broke up, I had a more private conversation with him and he was just as sweet as can be, but I can't blog about that yet for reasons that will be more clear when I do blog about it. I'm not sure there could be a better public face on the organization.
A number of the bloggers came in wanting to know about the new ownership's policy toward bloggers in the press box, and while I was very curious to hear what they had to say on that (and it was a pretty interesting conversation), I'm not really interested in being in the press box other than maybe as a one-off, just for the experience kind of thing. I like being a fan too much. So for me, I was happy with the Sabres appearing to genuinely be interested in their passionate fans and what they're thinking and feelings. That's pretty darn awesome. In the end, Ted sent a lot of happy people out into the night. ("Take some pizza but the beer stays!") We're a long way from Larry Quinn, Buffalo, and I like it.
Chris, of The Goose's Roost, was smart enough to record the whole Q&A. If you want to listen to the whole thing, there's a link in his post right here.
