Terry Pegula was just like any other Buffalo Sabres fan before he purchased the franchise last February. He celebrated their wins, suffered after their losses and wondered if they would ever win a Stanley Cup. His mission since buying his favorite team has been winning a title one way or another.

Pegula, on the day he was formally announced as owner, made it clear that General Manager Darcy Regier and coach Lindy Ruff were his guys when he said they "ain't going nowhere." Forty-two games into the season and seven straight road games around the corner, it doesn't look like the Sabres are going anywhere, either.

The Sabres are in 11th place in the Eastern Conference with an 18-19-5 record that's identical to where they stood at this stage last season. Their offense has been anemic for weeks, their defense has been poor, their franchise goaltender hasn't played well and their effort has been lethargic on too many nights.

Otherwise, everything is just dandy.

Pegula is a diehard fan, but not an angry one. The primary source of his frustration hasn't been the play of his team or management or coaching. It's the number of players who have landed in the medical room. He has kept a body count since the Sabres played New Jersey on Nov. 16 after getting off to an 11-6 start. Since, they have a 7-13-5 record.

"What everybody is missing is that I've been carrying around 167 man games," he said by telephone Thursday evening. "Forget about the season. I'm talking about the last 25 games. We've had 18 players go down. It's like a merry-go-round every night. You look on the ice and what are your defensive pairs tonight? Hell, who knows? Who's healthy?

"I think what's important is the number of guys. You can have 167 man games with four, five, six guys out for a long period. Eighteen? Cut me a break. I told Darcy Regier one time, 'If I was you, I would be afraid to get on the plane.' "

In fact, Pegula pointed toward the injury bug for virtually all of the Sabres' troubles this season.

Free agent defenseman Christian Ehrhoff and forward Ville Leino were slow to adjust when healthy and have been forced to battle through injuries. Ehrhoff had a poor start but was playing better before hurting his rib. Leino wasn't productive before breaking his foot and has no points in two games since he returned.

Defenseman Robyn Regehr, whom Pegula convinced to waive a no-trade clause in his contract and climb aboard, has been inconsistent. He had a team-worst minus-12 rating under difficult conditions against the opposing teams' top lines. And then there's Brad Boyes, whose arrival confirmed Pegula was willing to pay for production.

So far, it looks more like non-production.

Boyes and his $4 million annual salary were acquired in a trade last year with St. Louis with the idea the former 40-goal scorer would rediscover his touch in Buffalo. The move looked encouraging at the time, but he's been ineffective, if not invisible, on most nights. He has eight goals and 24 points in his first 50 games with the Sabres.

"I don't want to single out Brad," Pegula said. "Look who he plays with every night. It changes a lot. He's another guy [who was injured]. ... I have to believe we're a better hockey team than we were last year. We just didn't have this massive, catastrophic injury problem. Put yourself in anybody's place in the organization. How do you evaluate what's going on?"

The Sabres' bigger problem this season has been the play of their so-called core players, the ones Regier viewed as the cornerstones of the franchise. Most have played below their standards. Some would argue they grew too comfortable, became uninterested in playing under Ruff or are simply having poor seasons.

In truth, nobody knows for sure.

Goaltender Ryan Miller is having his worst NHL season. He has a 10-12-2 record with a 3.01 goals-against average and a .902 save percentage, both of which were 36th in the league. He's considered their franchise goalie with a $6.25 million salary, but backup Jhonas Enroth has played better (8-7-3, 2.46 GAA, .923 SP).

Jason Pominville and Thomas Vanek both are among the NHL's top 20 scorers, but after them there's a significant dropoff. Derek Roy is third in team scoring but was 115th in the NHL with only eight goals and 24 points. Drew Stafford, who had 31 goals last season before signing a contract extension, has just seven goals and 22 points.

"They know that more than you do," Pegula said. "I hope you don't think Drew Stafford is happy with his goal production, or Derek Roy, or Ville Leino. They're pressing. They've played pretty well lately. If we get some consistency in the lineup for a period of time, I got to believe it will fall back together again."

Whatever excitement and change in culture Pegula generated with the long-suffering, passionate fan base has largely been replaced by the widespread opinion that Buffalo is a stale team that's nowhere near contention. The Sabres are 23rd in scoring, 21st in goals-against average and first in bummed out fans.

This is not what the new regime had in mind when suggesting Western New York was "hockey heaven." If hockey has become a religion, First Niagara Center has become the quietest church in town. Toronto comes to town tonight, but Maple Leafs fans will likely be louder than the familiar moans and groans coming from the Buffalo congregation.

Regier and Ruff have had their posts since 1997 and make up the longest-tenured tandem currently in the NHL. Calls for one or both to be fired seem to be getting louder with every season, particularly this one. Neither one appears to be in trouble regardless of whether the Sabres make the playoffs.

"Trust me, I'm not trying to sugar-coat anything," Pegula said. "There's nobody in that locker room happy with the record right now and with the way the team is playing. They want to make it better. But it's hard to evaluate something that has been torn apart the way this thing has."

Since the lockout, the eighth-place team in the conference averaged nearly 91 points. The Sabres turned things around last year with a 25-11-5 record in the second half, including a 16-4-4 finish, and slipped into the playoffs with one game remaining in the regular season.

Now, they need a similar run. If recent history holds, the Sabres would need about 50 points to reach the postseason. It would mean posting a record equivalent to 23-13-4 over their final 40 games. Pegula believes it can be done, assuming the injured return, based on their 10 wins in their first 15 games.

The Sabres have a few options depending on how they want to move forward. They can start by keeping everyone in place and improving their play, but they are running out of time. They can make trades to upgrade the roster, which is difficult. They also can sell off players who don't appear to be in their future.

"My attitude now is, 'Let's put Humpty [Dumpty] back together again,' " Pegula said. "I want our players to know that I thought we had a pretty good hockey team until all this happened. Let's paste it back together and start a new season."

bgleason@buffnews.comnull