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LaFontaine rolling with the punches
Cam Neely thought Pat LaFontaine was merely picking his brain to see how things were going as one longtime friend and former competitor checking in with another. Little did Neely know LaFontaine was on a clandestine advice-seeking mission each time the two spoke earlier this season.
"Looking back I can say maybe it was research," Neely, the Boston Bruins' president and alternate governor, told NHL.com, "but during the conversations it felt that it was just his interest in what was happening."
LaFontaine and Neely are laughing about those conversations now, two weeks after LaFontaine was named the Buffalo Sabres' president of hockey operations. He was hired on Nov. 13.
"I couldn't quite tell him everything," LaFontaine told NHL.com. "After he found out he sent me a funny email, called me and wished me good luck."
There's a reason why LaFontaine chose Neely as his secret sage.
"I have great respect for him," LaFontaine said. "I'm so happy to see him have success in Boston."
LaFontaine wants to have similar success in Buffalo, but their roles are different. Neely acts as the conduit between the day-to-day hockey and business operations of the club and Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs; LaFontaine is tasked only with revamping the hockey side of the Sabres. Ted Black handles Buffalo's business side as the team's president and alternate governor.
However, LaFontaine and Neely have enough in common that the Sabres' new hockey boss thought it wise to collect advice from the Bruins' president.
LaFontaine rolling with the punches
Two weeks into his tenure and LaFontaine already has the sour taste of losing. The Sabres are 1-4-0 since he and coach Ted Nolan took over for departed GM Darcy Regier and ex-coach Ron Rolston.
LaFontaine is trying to keep perspective as he evaluates his new club.
"I hate to lose like anybody else who is competitive, but I also have to be realistic," he said. "I'm mainly focused on where our energy level is, where our compete level is, who wants to continue to work hard on every shift, who is showing up consistently. Creating the culture is more important. Results will come, but I want to see who really wants to be here under the culture and environment we're going to create."
LaFontaine said he brought in Nolan because he needed "somebody down in the trenches who I can work with to not only watch the players but identify what's going on, on the inside."
He said he needs to have patience, a trait he's been practicing since he hung up his skates.
"One thing I have learned since being retired is you can't dig the puck out of the corner, make a pass and score a goal in 10 seconds anymore," he said. "It doesn't work that way in life. We talk about delayed gratification. In this case I've had to learn to adapt with patience.
"We're seeing what we have. You can't expect things to happen and change in five games. Over a month or two things start to show."