from Chris Johnston of Sportsnet,

LaFontaine seems like a bright guy and he may have a bright future, but he’s hardly been put in a position to succeed here. It almost certainly would have been more beneficial to first give him a chance to get comfortable in a lower-profile role like Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman and a slew of other former players did.

The timing of the move is also hard to understand and Pegula didn’t offer up much in the way of an explanation when he made it this week. There is little doubt that he was at least somewhat influenced by the fans who had taken to chanting "Fire Darcy!" while watching the Sabres lose all but one of their opening 10 games at First Niagara Center this season.

The locals seem much happier now. Nolan has returned promising a much more entertaining brand of hockey than what was played under Ron Rolston and it won’t be hard to deliver immediate results with Toronto visiting for a raucous blue-collar Friday night matchup.

"It’s going to be fun," Nolan said.

Yes, the glory days are here again – although it seems there’s a collective bout of amnesia involved for those painting the Sabres shakeup in that light. Even though Nolan won a Jack Adams Trophy during his first stint in Buffalo and LaFontaine piled up all kinds of points during six seasons here as a player, neither man was part of a Sabres squad that got past the second round of the playoffs.

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