Mango

Remember when he announced the captains. What an incredibly weird thing for a GM to do.

I don’t think he “got out of the way”. He hired a tandem and always gets outvoted on football topics because of it. He hired Rex Ryan against his GM’s wishes. Then fired him without consulting him. Terry picks sides and always has as an owner. The Bills absolutely cannot move on from McBeane under any circumstances. None. Or we’ll see the same exact results as the Sabres. Unless big oil is involved ($$$$) Terry Pegulas leadership style is basically 86-leadership and 100% a popularity contest. Because there is no line for whose in charge of who one person (coach) brings an idea to Terry and another person (gm) brings another idea, and it requires Terry not to just split the difference but subvert any power structure which muddies internal relationships.

I actually thought it was Ruff trying to help UPL save some face by taking the heat himself. That’s why the condition was so ambiguous.

It seems like common sense should prevail here. It is insane to me that we can’t let a 17 year old go to college because they’re under contract to play hockey.

Powers biggest flaw is that he isn’t on a balanced roster/defensive unit.

It’s B2B on a WC trip with Reimer likely starting in net. They can lose this game for a bunch of reasons.

UPL was phenomenal

We’ll trade Tage for Mitts and 2026 and 2026 firsts but also retain all of Thompson and absorb all of Casey’s. On the trade Kevyn Adams said “Finally we have the players in this locker room to push or team captain and first line center Dylan Cozens to be the absolute “ok-est” he can be” Edit: It was a joke guys.

This looks like the staff looked at the OG "Kid Line" and said "Whatever, just go be useless together and stay out of our way." I have to imagine Lindy is constantly thinking "WTF did I get myself into".

We are at or near the top of the league in defensive spending and we absolutely suck at the blue line. If Byram, Power, and Dalhin could add a little Brian Campbell to their game and play with a little bit of physicality the entire group would be better. These guys don't need to be Chara. But they do need to at least resemble defensemen rather than soccer midfielders.

This group seems to struggle with effort often. Which makes the "maybe" wildly irrelevant. Any player who shows or says that anything remotely similar to "maybe effort was an issue" should sit in the press box for a week. Effort has been an issue for YEARS. It is insane. Or even better yet, make that/those guys do a bag skate pre/post game in front of the entire crowd.

Meh, it’s all the same coded shirt. When they play bad they’re quick to say “well we did some stuff well” has been this locker rooms go to under this group for years. “We thought it would be easier” is just more of the same. I am over Adams and over the US Dev group. Send them all home today please.

Just to confirm, Cozens didn’t suffer from an injury all last year. He got punched in the face then turtled for another 200 days.

Fair. I don’t even think it’s a good credit/bad credit thing. Like I might bid on a seat from the Ralph, but I’d hate it signed by Pegula. Not because of him specifically, just because he is an owner. An old seat signed by Ralph would be cool because he’s an OG and the NFL never happens without Ralph. Maybe the Knox’s would be cool, but Terry is just another guy in line.

I cannot think of one reason why I would want a Pegula signed anything. It would have been hilarious if he came down to do that and you were like “actually I don’t want it anymore.”

I posted it elsewhere but it probably belongs here. I don’t think Pegulas issue is personnel meddling per se. I think the issue is his structure and management style. His stupid flat management structure means that he’s always having to take sides internally whether it’s a President, or GM, or HC. Then it becomes a battle internally to get Terry on your side, and the whole thing becomes some stupid HS popularity/Mean Girls/terrible work environment. I think the only reason the Bills have escaped this as of late is because McBeane came in together and any/all football decisions are almost always a 2v1 against Pegula. The problem now is that everybody is on the same page but they for the most part suck at their jobs. No mater what happens this season; I think the best hope for this franchise to dig itself out of the hole is for Lindy to take hold and either bring in his own GM or move into the FO and bring in his own HC. We need a respectable HC/GM combo to outvote Pegula.

The org cannot be afraid to bench/move on from anybody who refuses to. A little discussion over this in the GDT but Lindy is the new alpha in the room. I don't think 1) Granato had the stones to bench one of Adams guys and 2) Adams lets one of his core guys get benched without a fight. I am hoping that the fact that this is starting to happen signifies that there is some changes.

In addition to McBeane pretty good at their job, I think their best quality is that they are always 2 v 1 when it comes to Pegula. If it weren't for them coming in together and their prior relationship I don't think the Bills work. I think the biggest problem with the Sabres meddling doesn't seem to be so much personnel, rather it seems to retriangulate all the time based on who Terry supports and then they turn on whoever that advisor, GM, or HC is. He thinks he found some secret sauce with Jerry and Adams, but I think Lindy's cache as a HC in this league, prior history with the org and city certainly muddy those waters. My hope for the org is that Lindy can gain Terry's trust back enough to move into some FO, GM, President etc. role and hire a GM, or HC etc. below him so that they are a cohesive voice against Pegula rather than individuals who can be swayed. At this point give me a 92 point team of try hards from now until I die.

The best part of the Lindy hire is he a trustworth barometer for who is and isn't a capable NHL player. Will he take a the 9th best roster in the league and get them to a Stanley Cup Final? No, not without a little luck and/or a generational goaltender. But he can take the 9th best roster in the league and win a playoff series or two, finish the season where they are supposed and say "We need a,b,and c on this roster in order for us to be better". That is something that we haven't had in the org in a really long time.

I have been iffy on Tage the last year. I am cautious around any player under this ownership and regime. BUT.... Tage has been really good this year. Even when the team has been bad and lacked effort he has been all over the place forechecking and backchecking. He has carried a bunch of lazy periods. The guy is all in on turning this thing around under Ruff. I am here for it. Based on on-ice play I wish Tage had the C right now. And that isn't meant to be a direct shot at Ras, but Tage is playing with much more tenacity.

Without going too far down the rabbit hole, this has been the most frustrating part of a big part of the draught and Adams tenure. They go periods, and sometimes games looking like they just aren't even trying. If they were a mediocre 89 point, try hard team every year for the last 13 years the arena would still be filled.

Great overall post but I take a little issue with the final bolded. It just implies that Adams is good or would be good at his job if it weren't for Pegula. And I don't buy it. I think Terry Pegula should be reminded every single day that he has absolutely destroyed this franchise, and his run with the Sabres deserves to be carved into thte mount Rushmore of historically bad sports ownership. I believe the stands should be full of (respectful) signs specifically directed at how bad Terry Pegula has been for hockey in this town. That said, Adams roster construction is incredibly flawed and he deserves a lot of criticism.

The issue isn't system. The issue is that this team under Adams barely looks like it is trying half the time. If we were a try hard, mediocre, 89 point team every single year we would still be averaging 99% attendance. We have been saying it for multiple seasons, now Ruff is saying it. Stop falling back on "we did some good things" and start trying hard for 3 full periods. I cannot believe we are sitting here in year 5 of Adams, and years 3+ of some of these guys, and saying "man, I wish they would just finally start trying hard". It is wildly embarrassing. Dylan Cozens getting punched in the face and then just turtling for an entire season and into the next, is the spirit animal for this roster. There isn't a better mascot.

Agreed he isn't our worst player. He has been fine via the eye test. But Ryan Johnson was also fine by the eye test. The issue that this team has with Byrum is that it just doesn't make sense. If he blossoms into what we were sold he could be, it doesn't make sense to extend him with Power/Dahlin already here. So what is the plan? From a roster construction POV it was just weird. We still need help on the defense and we now need more help filling out the top 6. This team would be better if we had Mitts/Ryan Johnson than it is is Cozens/Byram.

No. I didn't want Adams to trade anybody last year. No more roster moves by Kevyn Adams please. Get somebody else in the role. That as super strange that they marched out Appert after practice and didn't make Lindy available, right?