tom webster

This is the biggest contradiction about him. Most of the message board seems to think he is aloof and doesn't care enough about hockey. Those close to him believe that his biggest problem is that he cares too much and is too hard on himself. I just can't stand to watch him anymore but I think he is likely to and up one of the most successful ex-Sabres since, I don't know, maybe Andreychuk? and I'm alright with that.

I need to say this for the record. I have no problem replacing Miller if the right replacement is in place. You have made some pretty persuasive arguments for replacing him, and while I disagree with them, I am not 100% sure you and others like you aren't right. In my opinion, any highly sought after replacement GM and coach is more likely to come here because of him then not, but again I see the counter argument. What diminishes your rant, again in my opinion is some of the things your side of the argument post as fact. That he is not well liked by his teammates or he is treated with kid gloves or his personality is the problem. This is all garbage. Anyone who has had even the most casual interaction with any of them players knows this to be false and is again refuted by the number of times the players have voted him their team mvp or have come to his defense when the need arises. And then to blame yesterday's first two goals on him, that's ridiculous. Deflections happen all the time and yes some of them get stopped but some of them don't . You can blame them all you want for what happened after that but don't diminish your argument with urban myths or something your friend told you his friend read about. Carry on and see for the next edition of Tom Webster's off season contest. Hope Trueblue enjoyed the tickets. Sorry you ended up with the Devils game. Did you boo?

Seriously?

Nill might be all that but history has shown that some guys are just better at being support staff. Picking anyone that has never done it is as much a crap shoot as the draft. You have ot hope that TP, TB and KS have some good connections that can point them in the right direction.

This is where I'm at as well. This team needs a big, physical center at number three, especially if they keep trying to keep Ennis there but even with a one, two of Hodgson and Grigo.

Bryan Murray?

I think the plan may be to lower expectations and then deliver more.

Why can't this be a quick turn around? This team got absolutely nothing from Stafford and Leino and worse then nothing from Myers and yet finds itself about 5 wins out of a solid playoff slot. If all these kids are as good as most on this board seem to think they are, why should it take more then two years?

I swear that some of you watch the Sabres in a vacuum. Do you realize that only 4 players scored over 40 goals last year? Vanek is an elite talent entering what should be the prime of his career and should definitely be part of a quick rebuid if he wants to be. That being said, I think he wants out so my guess is next year we be talking about how if only the Sabres had a couple of veteran 30 goal scorers we could challenge for the division.

As much abuse as Howson took, it is mostly his acquisitions fighting for a playoff spot.

Would that be 5x 5 years?

Yeah, I didn't phrase that right. I was trying to reflect the point of his diminished production. Thanks for clarifiying.

Let's see. 1) Player leading his draft class and points playing mostly first line minutes with third line talent 2) Player struggling to stay in league, mostly uninterested in playing the role he was heralded for, now playing mostly fourth line minutes. I'll take player one, Alex

Put Scott on defense, let's close it out with 9 straight losses.

I may be in the minority, but I don't think it has to be a long rebuild. I get a sense that all that is happening now at One Seymour Knox Plaza is a lowering of expectations. My one fear is that all they think they did wrong was raise expectations. If they are fooling themselves, long rebuild. If they are honest, it can happen quick. One last question, is it alright with Ms. Ott that my 12 year old daughter booed and laughed at them yesterday? Or would she like to tell her to f-off too?

You can draw whatever conclusions you want but so far all Kassian has showed is that his backbone stiffens when he feels he has the edge physically but he wants no part of anyone that is his equal physically.

I can see why he would go there but I would think he could pick a date when the parent club wasn't playing and I can think of a couple of very good reasons to be in Buffalo yesterday. Maybe it fits his MO "too" perfectly.

Since they can't do much of anything till end of April, don't you find that a little odd?

Since he can't sign an extension for 90 days, you may want to revise your time line.

Seriously, that was what all the fuss was about?

Under the old CBA, Teams out of the playoffs could make trades once the regular season ended. Did they close that loophole?

Russ has always been among the best "insiders." He openly admitted a few years ago that the team needed the media to help them sell the product and now he is reaping the benefits of that closer relationship with the front office. It isn't much different then the relationship Chris Berman built with the Bills' front office that allowed him to know who Buffalo was drafting before anyone else.

The Cap going down is being overblown. First its being set artificially low for one year and after a market correction, I believe it will be as high if not higher the following year. If you check out capgeek, there are a habd full of teams that will have to do some maneuvering next year but I predict it will not have the impact some predict.

A) You didn't really say that, but B) While I don't usually agree with you, I can see your opinion is based on a fair amount of fact and well thought opinion, so I assumed you mis-spoke. Didn't mean that I wasn't going to take a shot at you, though. C) I know that Lindy had input but I also know that they didn't always agree and sometimes disagreed by a wide margin when it came to some pretty big decisions. It is why now Lindy will hold out for at least some personnel authority in his new gig, and finally D) To use your analogy, Darcy bought the groceries and made some terrific buys on the prime meats and dairy products but failed miserably when it came to supplementing his diet with iron and fiber. Lindy did the best he could but there was no way to make it work with what he had to work with down the middle.

I only credited him for "finishing" the job in Anaheim as opposed to Darcy doing his thing. getting close but falling short. It is the story of his reign. You are the one spinning it when throwing out stats skewed by his first years here and neglecting the failure that has been the last few seasons. For the record, I told Darcy in person in 1997 that I didn't think he valued "grit" enough in constructing his team. I have been consistent but I think fair in my criticism of him through the years and even now don't believe things are not as bleak as is being portrayed. I even think that Reiger could serve a useful function in the organization if he would cede ultimate control to a different type of hockey guy. In the end, I hope I am wrong about him or at least that the odds of him getting it right make up for his shortcomings. By the way, I'm not really sure why I am wasting my time with you, didn't you say its not the GM's job to build a team?