from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

We spent the day Monday talking to people close to the Sabres. It’s a laundry list of issues, but hey, it’s never one or two things that digs a hole the depth of the one this franchise finds itself in.

Here’s what we unearthed:

- They say Kim Pegula does the firing. A 2016 NFL.com profile on her called Pegula “one of the most powerful women in American sports, and the de facto queen of Buffalo.” She referred to herself as “the Black Widow,” a moniker earned by her willingness to hand out a pink slip inside the Sabres or Bills organization.

Hockey people say she makes everyone nervous. Maybe they should be.

- Here’s the one that is the trickiest. To the man, sources say the Sabres dressing room is not a healthy environment.

What does it mean to have “a bad room?” You never really know unless you are inside the room, and we won’t guess. But hockey isn’t basketball. It literally takes 20 guys pulling the same way, taking hits to make plays for each other, arriving at the rink in a team frame of mind, executing the coach’s game plan and putting the team’s goals ahead of your own in order to win.

The minute two guys are in it for themselves, they become four guys. Then they become seven. If management doesn’t step in to fix the problem — that’s on the head coach first — it only gets worse.

It’s a hockey cliché, we know. But if guys aren’t playing for each other, you can’t win. Period.

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