tom webster

Seriously? Which Hershey Bear contributed to the Caps success. Maybe you can tell us which Lake Erie Monsters contributed to the Columbus Blue Jacket Stanley Cup dynasty. Toronto has truly benefited from that AHL Championship they won under Sheldon Keefe.

Is there any evidence that success in the AHL has any benefit in the NHL?

Sorry, nothing is absolute. Not every company acts with complete disregard for their employees.

While I understand the sentiment, what kind of performance do you think said employee is going to give if he’s told two weeks in advance that he’s gone? I’ve been fortunate, I’ve never had to let someone go that didn’t deserve to be fired and never had to close a place that others depended on for their livelihood. I’m not sure there is a pat answer for how to handle dismissal of good, reliable employees. I do think that a twenty-five year employee deserves a severance package.

Sometimes you just have to do what is best for yourself. Good, professional managers understand when someone is bettering themselves. Like others have said, give notice as soon as possible, have that conversation with your boy and revel in the fact that you apparently are a hot commodity. Congratulations my friend.

Yes, I was referring to the time between injuries.

While they have made necessary moves to reset the cap situation and age of roster, why does that mean they aren’t contenders this year? Where are they worse then last year? Safety? Poyer and Hyde where a liability last year. Corner? Douglas is here from the start and is better then what White was before the injury. Linebacker? A healthy Milano and Bernard with Williams entering his second year could be best in league. Defensive line? They lost Floyd who hit the wall about midpoint. Offensive line? Center may be an issue. TE - Kincaid will be amongst the league best RB - Better WR - Diggs was a non factor last half of the season and Davis made more bad plays then good ones. QB - ?

It’s been like this since the beginning of man. The only place I see Power disparaged is Buffalo. Athletic just had another article were anonymous general managers are still divided in their belief that Power will end up better then Dahlin.

I wouldn’t strongly argue with anything you said but we don’t know that they didn’t have a good knowledge of who would be available to them if they waited. Also, there is some, even if minuscule, advantage to getting this behind them in order to plan the course of their offseason. In general, I think you can learn a lot about yourself by interviewing a myriad of candidates. I don’t think the same applies to NHL coaches.

I said “one of, if not.” Like I said, I’m not sure he is the best but I’m not sure who, of the available, experienced coaches would be.

If you were intent on hiring a veteran NHL coach, there aren’t many available with a better resume then Ruff’s. Berube would’ve been the only choice that won a Cup unless you wanted to sell your soul to the devil and go after Quenville. Why lengthen the process when one of the best, if not the best wanted the job? It seems to me that if Ruff never coached here and they took a month longer to hire him, ninety percent of the people criticizing the move would have nothing to complain about. I am not sure he was the right hire. I just think he has a good to better then good chance of being the right guy.

I don’t doubt that he called at least ten guys. I doubt that he seriously interviewed more then two or three.

A) He had Brunette in Jersey. B) It was pretty widely reported that Darcy went to his house to fire him. Is there reason to believe otherwise?

At two o’clock a friend text me that Sabres canceled a couple of scheduled events for tomorrow and was wondering if something was up. I guess I should have assumed this was happening.

He’s not the only coach that ever thought treating athletes like adults was the way to go and it has worked for others. History has proven that all types of coaches win. You can debate his system or lack thereof but he didn’t lose because he was easy on them. In my opinion, if accountability was really the problem, the real failure is on guys like Okposo and other veteran leaders. This team needed someone like Chris Drury, Daniel Briere, Mike Grier and JP Dumont. Guys that ran Satan off the team and wouldn’t tolerate anyone not giving it their all.

I was wondering the same as well and also @Taro T.

Exactly, he’s able to turn equity into liquidity without going public. Only significant change will be when they show TPEGS on tv during the game it will say majority owner instead of owner. Maybe he will have to grant minority partner right of first refusal if he decides to sell majority share.

I’m a little confused by this. They’d have won 2-3 more games? You realize three wins would have put them ahead going into the final game. I think those that want change may be happy before Friday.

That is the conundrum. Finding a goalie good enough to lead a NHL playoff run if needed but willing to spend time in the AHL and able to clear waivers to do so.

I think they will add a veteran goalie and a veteran center in the Boone Jenner mode. I’m with you, I don’t see them adding a defenseman. I think they are very happy with their top seven assuming Ryan Johnson steps up and they have no issue with the top four being all left handed.

I really put little stock into any interviews or radio/tv appearances any of these guys do but it’s hard to argue with your conclusions.

Buffalo/WNY has a fairly good rep amongst older players with families. It’s a majority of the younger players who have a choice that don’t want to come here. Again, as stated before, no demographic is one hundred percent either way. The Bills have no problem recruiting players they want

I have been ambivalent towards the coach and his staff but it really appears he has no answers. I think it’s time to move on.

For that matter, Vesey was drafted as well. Guys who are drafted but don’t sign by their deadline, become free agents in August. These are just guys who were never drafted.

Blake Wheeler was not the same as these guys. He was a first round draft choice who never signed.