I Believe in Pegula-Claus or: The Haves and The Have Mores

Happy NHL Free Agency Day (AKA NHL Christmas)! Apparently Darcy Reiger (GM for the Buffalo Sabres) was a good boy and is getting everything on his Christmas list so far. It's a new day for Sabres fans, who more used to being played and only beginning to adapt to being playas.

Clip is from Tropic Thunder and is NSFW

I kind of want to see Darcy walk out in his next press conference to this music.

As a Buffalo sports fan, you get used to the label "small market team" and all that it implies:

• You're lucky you still have a team
• We can't compete financially with the "big boys"
• Nobody wants to live/play there
• We have to be cautious and build through the draft because we can't afford free agency

and there's a narrative around those assumptions. Teams that circumvent the cap are "cheaters", or aren't getting there honestly. We turn these limitations into virtues, and romanticize the situation. David and Goliath. The plucky, loveable undrdogs. USA vs USSR in the "Miracle on Ice"

Well, under Pegula, we're starting to look less like David, and more like Goliath. WE are the team other NHL fans are upset with because of our wheeling and dealing. People are waiving "No Trade Clauses" in their contracts to come to Buffalo. As Corey Grizwold said on Twitter: Kinda weird to be the Red Sox. We are totally the Red Sox now. (By the way, if you are a sports fan and you aren't on twitter yet, you should be. But that's a whole other post).

I'm interested to see how changing the way Buffalo thinks about it's hockey team changes the way it thinks about itself. Pegula didn't just talk about spending more, he talked about changing the culture of the team. So far it seems to be infectious. Twitter is ablaze with rumors and excitement about possible free agents. People are upbeat, and looking forward to October and the start of the season. People are talking about WHEN the Sabres win the cup, not IF.

The more I think about Corey's comment, the more it rings true in a way. The dirty little secret about Boston is that there is a HUGE inferiority complex with New York. The Red Sox vs Yankees rivalry seems to be an externalization of that inferiority complex. The Yankees are the "evil empire" that bought their rings, and the Red Sox are the plucky underdogs....or at least that's how it used to be.

It's a lot harder to pretend to be the underdog when you have the second highest payroll in the game, and baseball's approach to salary management means you can just keep throwing money around as long as you pony up for a "luxury tax". While Bostonians can still be touchy about how we're "not New York", having those rings, and the cup, and the super bowl and NBA Championships can help. At this point you can argue that Boston sports fans are spoiled (and you would be right). You can also argue that the wins have added a bit of a swagger to the town, for good and for not-so-good. It will be especially interesting to see what happens to young fans who weren't around for the lean years of Boston sports and only know a decade of championships as the pendulum inevitably swings the other way.

And it will be interesting to see how winning the cup will change the way people in/from Buffalo respond to their city and their team. As for me, I'm going home for the parade when they win the cup.