Its over

Well the rumored split, has finally come about. The 29 year old marriage between the two is finally over. Rochester will be moving on with their Florida mistress, while the Sabres will search for a new partner willing to work with their needs. They have gotten through some tough times, raised some high quality children, but the two have separate goals and needed to start over.

Lets look at the issues.

Neither side says the partnership can be saved this time. The major stumbling block: veterans and who pays for them.

The Sabres say if veterans are important to the identity of the Amerks, then it should be Rochester's responsibility to pay part or all of the salary. Buffalo's contention: it's not the Sabres job to sell Amerks tickets.

But Donner doesn't understand why Buffalo won't pay for veterans. He says they are critical to prospect development, and the older on-the-bubble players also are NHL-ready in case there are injuries in Buffalo.

"I've been puzzled why the Sabres don't have any depth guys here," Donner said. "Do you think they can make a serious run for the Stanley Cup with the depth guys they have here now? No way."

The Amerks' slow-pay practices have irked the Sabres for years. That was clear in a letter sent to the Rochester ownership group by managing partner Larry Quinn in January.

In requesting the start of talks regarding an extension of the affiliation, Quinn wrote that any new deal would require "some form of security to assure payment" (of affiliation fees).

When this dual affiliation first took shape, the Sabres wanted only about 13 roster spots in Rochester. They were leaving seven slots open to the Amerks to fill.

The Amerks, however, didn't have the money to pay for seven of their own players. Since the Sabres had no desire to pay for players with no NHL future, they brought the Panthers in as a limited partner in Rochester.

"That wasn't meant to be standard practice, it was more an aberration," Quinn said.

Yep, just like most divorces, its all about money. So sad to see this partnership break up, because some people are just too cheap. Looks like Quinn and the Sabres were just to stubborn to work together to provide Rochester with some AHL veterans who could help the Sabres down the road. And the Amerks were too cheap to buy their own players.

Lets see the Sabres can find that will make them happy and fulfill their needs. And lets face it the Sabres are kinda needy.