Stoner

Need a little help with 3OA.

Is there any evidence for the bolded? Terry described his oldest daughter as the biggest Sabres fan in town. Are you including her? Or just the so-called Tweety Birds? (Yeah, I've watched that intro presser a few too many times)

I wouldn't sleep on this story. Coupled with the rumor from late winter that the Pegulas were looking for someone to help "run" the team, there's a lot of smoke.

What goes into the spreadsheet though? If it can't be quantified, it didn't happen.

What if drafting isn't the problem? What if it's development, or, more likely IMHO, where a player's head goes when he ends up in Buffalo (The Hall Effect, or so many before him). It's a simple thought experiment to place recent Sabres' draftees in Pittsburgh or Tampa and see where they would be today. If the goal was to save money, it worked. The only failing would be if they calculated that the team wouldn't decline further as a result of the layoffs. And it shouldn't have because the layoffs wouldn't affect this year's team. But maybe it deepened the players' impression that the organization was totally, off the rails dysfunctional.

I have the same reaction when I see fear/trepidation/resistance of and to Terry selling the team. He's Ville Leino in year 11.

I tried to get Swampy to bite on my lure one time, but he doesn't roll that way. We were working on our Sabres song, it was late and we both had had a couple of Zimas. I knew it was time to fish or cut bait. I know. It's a super-important discussion and people are into it. Why would it be pinned? "Hockey trades" needs a space.

"A guy like Jack Eichel..."

Yeah? You think McLean put the rumor out there about someone without the ability to buy them?

So Koules and Torts played together in the ACHL. But I see no evidence they are friends. Quite likely to the contrary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oren_Koules

Mods can we get a pin?

h/t to @Flashsabre

I don't read replies.

Being right is what I live by. I think you know what an experienced NHL coach is.

Fun with words. Were those franchises in the kind of shape Buffalo is? I'm asking, I really don't know.

Connecting a lot of dots, but is it fair to say Jack doesn't think the structure moving forward (KA+the Pegulas+Granato+the youngens) will give him a chance to win?

Right, but not hiring an experienced NHL head coach is objectively the wrong decision — and everyone will say it if Granato is bad.

This is the conventional wisdom. If the Sabres want to roll the dice that the "success" wasn't fools gold, they can do so. But they should remember that Ron Rolston earned the opportunity as well. I'm in "what the hell can it hurt" mode, so I'm OK with seeing what Granato has for realz. It's still the objectively wrong decision for this franchise at this moment in its history.

Oh you weren't wrong. It's established terminology. I think Carlin did a bit on it.

And yet that team, in the middle of the dead puck era and in the freakin' playoffs, averaged three goals a game on its way to the finals. The final? Not so much. Such a weird expression. Left the ice maybe?

My recent Bills memory might be a little fuzzy, but did McBeane come in and push to make the playoffs in Year One to get the monkey off their back? IMMSMC, Job One was changing the dreaded culture. Good players went away in the process. If I had to wager, this is the conversation KA had with Terry and maybe Kim when she came in with sammies (damn Terry loves him some Amish Country Ham Loaf; he has it flown in to Boca twice a week), and could argue his Sabres Version successfully because of what happened in OP. I think all new GMs come in thinking they are not responsible for or beholden to the failures that came before them. (As an aside, culture will be looked down upon by smart analytics people. So will character, team chemistry, "difference-making," leadership, momentum in games, clutch play and the like. They can't be put into one of those fancy new pocket calculators.) That's the thing. There's all this debate about trading Eichel. Both sides have made their decision; neither side is wrong about the other. Do we really think we know better? Kim got in trouble for saying there are things they as owners know that we don't. She wasn't wrong. If there's a desire to move Eichel, and there is, isn't it more logical to think they've done their homework instead of some theory about KA wanting to have a long rebuild to ensure his employment? 10 million a year? I bet 50K to hire some private detectives was an easy decision.