dudacek

I’d take a chance in him if I was a contender because he still thinks the game very well and I could see him turning back the clock in the right scenario. As a Sabre, he is the softest forward on a soft team, and he loses every foot race. His feet stop moving every time he gets close to the puck and his lack of engagement is positively Alex Nylander like.

it doesn’t matter now, and it may never matter, but this is true. Tage still isn’t a good hockey player, but he is a notably talented one. He is the worst player on the team.

I crossed out the stuff that every other team faced. The puck luck I might buy before the COVID break; since then, they've generally been embarrassingly bad Let's say the goaltending generously cost us 4 points and the division another 4. So we're a 25th-placed team instead of a 31st. Yahoo

You are falling back on two premises that some might take for granted, but actually show no signs of being true: The Pegulas will eventually sell and/or The team will eventually get better. Don't underestimate the damage that has been done as old fans literally die, current fans fall out of love, and new fans fail to be nurtured, or the damage that can continue to be done the longer this continues. Sports fandom is like a marriage.

The paint dry. Literally. House is looking nicer.

What player, what coach, what hockey executive, what sponsor, and — most importantly — what fan? They've used up most of the considerable good will capital this franchise accumulated over its first 40 years. I don't think it is an exaggeration to say the future of the business is at risk.

That does make sense. I've already gone through denial, anger, bargaining and depression.

I does, proving once again that Terry's business sense matches his hockey acumen.

I can't be the only who thinks any money they are saving by keeping Ralph will be devoured by the empty seats next fall? Nothing short of acquiring McDavid is going to bring people back into the building after another 25 games of this.

I cannot believe what I am watching (or, more accurately, watching less and less). Ralph's record: First 20 games .575 (P%) 21-40 .450 41-60 .500 61-COVID .333 Gets the roster he wants. Tells ownership and Adams "this team is close" 1-20 .375 21-now .083 He has no excuses. He got what he wanted. This is his team, with his people, playing his way. He's hit the firing trifecta: his team is significantly underachieving, his team is embarrassingly bad, and his team has lost the paying customer. I am at a loss to remember a coach ever going through something like this and not getting fired. Krueger's legacy is destroyed. He will never coach in North America again. For God sake, put him out of his misery. The damage this season is doing to the business is enormous, both in terms of selling tickets and attracting talent. Every night it becomes more unwatchable. It's like Terry wants to destroy Ralph and burn down the Sabres at the same time.

It sure is.

Skinner and Eakin down, Okposo and Staal to go. Ralph might be doing it backwards, but he's getting there. 😄

I think the context here is that Risto used to lose his ***** over losing, try to do too much and make things worse. We've seen it happen. If he's saying he can't fall into the trap again — which is how I read it — I'm fine with it too.

I believe that the boss of any coach on a 7-26 run should have had his finger on the trigger a long time ago.

What needs to be emphasized here is the real opportunity that exists to blow up this team into something unrecognizable. We have 11 UFAs you can trade or simply allow to walk entirely: Hall, Staal, Rieder, Sheahan, Montour, McCabe, Davidson, Irwin, Hutton, Johansson and Ullmark We also have the ability buy out Eakin, Girgensons and Thompson for peanuts this summer if we want to, and the cost of buying out/burying Okposo starts to become realistic. We're basically stuck with Skinner. Every other player has trade value, some of them (Eichel, Dahlin) have considerable value. Reasonably speaking, Adams could choose to save $5 million by burying Okposo and buying out Girgensons, Eakin and Thompson, use this as his starting point this summer and build almost an entire roster from scratch: Top six: Skinner (untradable) Middle six: Cozens (why trade?) Bottom six: Lazar (under contract, good value) Forward depth: Ruotsalainen, Asplund Top four: Blueline depth: Bryson, Borgen, Laaksonen, Samuelsson Goalie: Lukkonnen, Tokarski Then he can use ~ $24 million in tradable assets under contract (Eichel, Olofsson, Ristolainen, Miller) ~ $8 million (qualifying offers) in tradable RFA assets (Reinhart, Mittelstadt, Dahlin, Jokiharju) ~ $62 million in cap space to fill out 16 roster slots If Adams is truly angry, he has an extraordinary opportunity to do something about it.

Well, Adams’ inability to pull the trigger seems to be cementing Krueger’s position as the Sabres most-hated coach of all time. That’s something.

What’s irritating is not the lack of attention to the centre position, it’s the lack of judgement in the players they have selected. In the past 9 years they have invested six high first round picks on centres (Cozens, Mittelstadt, Eichel, Reinhart, Grigorenko and Girgensons) They’ve also used five second-rounders on centres (Davidsson, Asplund, Cornel, Compher and Hurley) and traded a large package of picks and prospects for another (O’Reilly). I would be surprised if there is another team that has invested the draft capital the Sabres have into centres over that period. Jack Eichel and some hope is all they have to show for it.

I would still debate your point if Staal was actually preventing any of things you and Weave are worried about.

Meh. You still have Eakin and Eichel for the toughest matchups if that's what you want. He already isn't protecting Cozens. Mitts, Tage, Asplund and R2 aren't babies any more. There's 30 games left and the season is over. Let's use it to see if they have a future.

He’s not coming back and he is standing in the way of players that need developing. Take whatever asset you can get.

Maybe it's about giving the fans a reason to buy tickets...? I knew this was coming. Pick the one that fits your agenda.

That's what I saw, more careless than dirty.

The "insider" buzz is we might recoup a 2nd rounder. If the team that wants him has scouts, I can't see it.

The path I would take if I were Adams: 1) fire Krueger and his entire staff (I might keep Bales because we will need a body and a reference to what came before) 2) hire Boudreau as an interim coach with the focus of evaluating what we have on the current roster and reporting to Adams at the end of the season. 3) hire Rutherford as a short-term consultant with a focus on evaluating what we have and advising Adams on player personnel and hockey department structuring 4) trade every pending UFA — Hall, Staal, Montour, Rieder, Sheahan, Irwin — with a focus on accumulating assets to fuel a summer rebuild 5) tell Boudreau to focus his attention on reclaiming Skinner and Dahlin 6) play the crap out of Bryson, Casey, Tage, Dylan, Joki and Asplund, while giving a taste to some of the guys down on the farm 7) evaluate the trade market for every other veteran. Take what you've learned at the end of the season, formulate a plan for fixing this mess including your long-term hirings, signings and trades, and execute that plan.

I think Howard Berger is a pro media guy, or at least used to be. Haven't heard that name in a while and not sure where I place it. EDIT: Former longtime Leafs reporter with TheFan590. Hasn't been on the beat for a long time.