It hasn't even been a month yet and Terry Pegula has dramatically changed the culture of the Sabres organization. On his first night as owner, Pegula welcomed Rene Robert back to the Sabres family after a falling out with the previous ownership group.
Photo courtesy of twitter.com/klejdys
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The team has generated points in 7 out of 8 games since Pegula entered and Golisano exited. The Sabres acquired Brad Boyes at the deadline - a former 40 goal scorer with another year left on his contract. And the Sabres employees are talking about what a pleasure it's been to work for the new ownership group.
Oh, and Pegula has started to renovate the locker room and he's put his wife Kim in charge of that operation. The first visual of the new locker room has surfaced and while it's simple but powerful. The message on the new locker room plaque comes from Pegula's press conference: "From this point forward, the Buffalo Sabres' reason for existence will be to win the Stanley Cup." Very cool.
We're expecting more locker room renovations over time and, based on some Pegula family tweets, it appears Vancouver's new locker room is the envy of the league and may well serve as a model for a new Sabres makeover. For all you behind-the-scenes junkies, here's a video tour of the Canucks locker room.
Photo courtesy of twitter.com/klejdys
One of the things about Drury and the last ownership was how Drury brought a picture of the Stanley Cup to the locker room. Doesn't seem much but that says a lot about Golisano and Drury.
I'll get by if we don't win a Cup but the loser 'break even' attitude is gone. I hope some of this rubs off on the City itself and starts giving us a little more pride.