The NHL : Sator Writes His Own Ticket, Winds Up on Hot Seat in Frigid Buffalo

They’re calling them the Buffalo Sators now, a mocking tribute to the Sabres’ new coach, Ted Sator.

A month ago, after being fired by the New York Rangers, Sator was asked where he thought he would be working next. “Hmm, is there a hockey team in hell?” he mused.

Buffalo is as close as the NHL gets, but with a marked temperature inversion. Sator inherits a crummy team (8-23-5), an old team, a slow team, a team that cannot score. Equally bad, the Sabres are in the Adams Division, where such faults cannot be disguised.

Did we mention that it’s a team in transition? Sator is the third coach in Buffalo this season.

“The team has undergone significant changes, and there are indications of instability,” said Gary Meehan, the Sabres’ acting general manager. “What we are trying to do is to end that instability.”

Meehan’s title is indicative of the club’s problems. Meehan was promoted from assistant general manager when Scotty Bowman was fired Dec. 2.

In addition, Gil Perreault, Buffalo’s captain and all-time leading scorer, retired last month, saying that the organization should have gotten rid of Bowman sooner. Perrault’s remarks were thought to reflect the general dissatisfaction among team members.

Into this situation steps Sator, a hard-driving disciplinarian who was most cordially disliked by the Rangers. When the Rangers traded Wilf Paiment earlier this season, one New York player remarked, “I guess Wilf Paiment got his Christmas present early.”

It remains to be seen if Sator will change after his experience in New York. It was said that this season he was more mellow than last. Perhaps it’s a trend.

Sator will be among friends, on the coaching staff, at least. He retained Barry Smith as his assistant. They became friends when they coached in Scandinavia. Sator hired Smith’s brother, David, to be Ranger trainer.

Sator, however, will need more than friends and more than a lot of luck to turn around the Buffalo franchise. Even if his system does click and the players accept his methods, the Sabres have a long way to climb, just to reach respectability.

Games in the NHL are getting shorter, according to the league.

The average length of a game this season has been 2 hours 25 minutes, about 10 minutes shorter than last season.

The league had grown concerned about the length of games, “They were headed for a three-hour game,” said Gary Meagher, NHL director of information.

Among the changes was shortening intermissions from 18 to 15 minutes. Officials have also been calling goaltenders for delay of game--penalizing them if they unnecessarily smother the puck or deliberately shoot it into the seats.

Islander assistant coach Bob Nystrom is serving his 10-game suspension quietly. The club decided not to appeal the league’s suspension, levied after Nystrom went into the stands at the Meadowlands to fight with a New Jersey fan.

As terms of the suspension, Nystrom is not allowed to converse with the Islanders’ coaching staff or the players between periods.

Nystrom indicated that he would go fishing for the duration of the suspension period.

With that in mind, a friend delivered rod and tackle box to the Islander bench at Nassau Coliseum before the first game of Nystrom’s suspension.

NHL Notes

Ryan Walter of the Montreal Canadiens says he is the butt of most of the practical jokes on the team. The worst occurred in his rookie year. “We were en route to L.A., so I stretched out on the plane, took off my shoes and fell asleep,” he said. “When we got to California, my shoes were gone. I had to walk through the airport to the baggage area in my socks. When I got to the carrousel, my shoes came down with my luggage!” . . . When the Washington Capitals demoted Jim Thompson to the minors, it broke up a short-lived, thrown-together line known locally as the Reagan line. Why? Because Thompson, Bob Gould and Dave Christian all play right wing. . . . A quarterly report on NHL attendance shows the Kings in last place. They averaged 9,404 fans in the Forum, which seats 16,005.