Rex Ryan, "Building a Bully" and Patrick Kaleta

by Brett Smith

credit: NY Daily News

Much ado has been made in the past few weeks about how Rex Ryan set out to build a bully in the Buffalo Bills, and then watch as is that bully flailed uncontrollably, racking up penalty after undisciplined penalty.

Seeing this all unfold, I can't help but think about the current fortunes of hometown hero Patrick Kaleta. Kaleta was praised by fans and the franchise alike for his gritty, head-hunting style. The team even gave him Matt Barnaby's old Number 36, to cement Kaleta's mucker status.

But now, Kaleta seems black-balled, the odd man out. From almost the day he arrived in town, Tim Murray has made several public comments intimating he doesn't care for Kaleta and with Murray being a consummate NHL insider -- he's seemingly reflecting a sentiment felt across the league. The only likely reason Kaleta is even with the Amerks is because of his value as a hometown player, someone fans have romanticized as one of their own, a blue-collar grinder. And in a certain way they're right...

So what happened? How did it get to this point?

For years, Lindy Ruff, Rob Ray and others lauded praised on Kaleta for his angry style of play. But all the while this was happening -- Kaleta was earning himself a bad boy reputation on the ice for all the wrong reasons. Reports have swirled that Kaleta regularly crosses the line while trash talking on ice. Specifically, Kaleta is said to have used the divorces of Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell to get under each player's skin. That revelation begs the question: What else has he done in on-ice dealings with players and officials?

Add to that the fact that Kaleta's head-hunting has drawn the ire of players, officials and the NHL's player safety watchdog and you have someone unofficially declared a persona non grata.

With the previous coaching staff publicly supporting his edgy play and Sabres' alumni like Rob Ray and Andrew Peters always around the team, advising Sabres grinders - it can seem like Kaleta fell into the trap so many other Buffalonians find themselves in -- getting bad career advice and ending up caught in the gears of a massive organization focused primarily on its bottom line. Kaleta was told to keep playing his style of game, and in addition to throwing gasoline on the fire, this bad advice made Kaleta very much obselete once the NHL put a microscope on hits to the head.

That's not to say Kaleta doesn't bear some responsibility to finding himself in Rochester, but its hard not to feel for the guy. By all accounts, Kaleta is a decent person off the ice. His HITS foundation is dedicated to supporting underprivileged kids and families. He has been a regular visitor to area hospitals in all his years wearing the blue and gold.

Fortunately, its not too late. Kaleta still has years of good hockey let in him, if he can shake of the shackles of his reputation. In the first year of Eichel, Kane and O'Reilly - an AHL grinder and hometown boy may the the most interesting player of all to watch.