dudacek

Well, the Western Hockey League hasn’t played a game in a year, but it’s about to start real soon. In a fan-free bubble.

Dude, if you don't think it is significant that your top six is pacing to be outscored by 40 goals! at even strength, I don't know what to say.

I don't believe there is one problem. I don't know if there is single thing in your post I would disagree with. I do believe the performance of the top six has hurt the team more than Carter Hutton and I was responding to @bob_sauve28's post that implied goalie was the biggest problem.

I think Jack is hurt, Staal and Skinner are bad, Victor is limited, the coach is in over his head, and the overall team psyche is incredibly fragile. Hall, I'm mystified. He is a better player than his numbers, but he's not the star we were hoping for. Krueger is a problem, and an easy one to address, but I think the fans want to blame him for everything because the alternative is harder to face. Our problems run deeper than that.

Except we werent. We jumped out to an early lead because the Flyers forgot to cover Sam Reinhart and almost hung on.

"Our highly-paid, highly-touted forwards are not producing and they are getting caved at unheard-of levels." This is an every game issue for 30 minutes a game. Hutton has played nine times. I don't think there is any comparison and I think the fan base is sleeping on how bad our top six has been.

To me, this is clearly the problem: 1st line centre: 4 goals, -36 2nd line centre: 7 goals, -45 1st line wing: 5 goals, -40 2nd line wing: 3 goals, -41 2nd line wing: 4 goals, -24 Those are the projected ES numbers over a full season for five of our top six forwards. Compare those to the actual numbers of the tank team 1st line centre: 13 goals, -19 2nd line centre: 11 goals, -16 1st line wing: 10 goals, -11 2nd line wing: 9 goals, -13 2nd line wing: 7 goals, -18 (For the record, that was Ennis, Girgensons, Moulson, Gionta and Stafford) Our highly-paid, highly-touted forwards are not producing and they are getting caved at unheard-of levels. EDIT: Just to depress you even more: 2021 Rasmus Dahlin: 0 goals, -70 2015 Andrej Mezsaros: 7 goals, -13

I don't know man. JJ and Hutton haven't been good, I just can't think of many games this year where we lost because of the goalie. And Linus has been good.

The lasting image of this season for me will be Rasmus Dahlin slightly to the left of our crease, locked in table hockey pose, staring out at the blue line as the puck goes past him to an uncovered player who whacks it into the empty net. That, or the Eric Staal glide and lean.

Your feelings on Olofsson's ES play are clear, but I am curious why you think his value is poised to drop. I would think any team who needs help on the right side of their PP would pay up. Being among the best in the game at your specialty means something, especially when your specialty is rare.

Is it weird that I’ve heard of Molson XXX but I’ve never actually seen someone drink it? Or that I have never heard or pepperettes? You eastern people are weird.

Florida?

I'm on record as saying I don't think it is likely that the Sabres go into another season with Sam Reinhart pencilled into any role, ever again. He's 15 months away from unrestricted free agency. Most players stuck on a perennial loser would be looking to play that card. Most GMs of a perennial loser would be looking to move the asset at its peak. The failures of Hall and Dahlin may have created the budget for a Sam re-signing, but I don't see much that has created the desire. Too bad. Easily my favourite Sabre of these lost-in-the-desert years. I suspect he will go on to a lot of success if he's moved to the right team.

Without talking about intent, or appropriateness, isn't the statement kinda true? Averages 20 assists a season, hasn't been a plus player in 10 years, never played a playoff game, usually effective only within 40 feet of the other team's net...

Sorry, I was talking about what Adams tried to do. If you're talking about what the Pegulas tried to do, this is bang on.

I think that played a big role in how they approached this year. It didn’t help.

Wow. Other than the continued misplaced faith in the Eakin line, that's almost what I asked for.

I suspect (hope?) they've finally convinced him that it is better off for everyone involved if he stays away until he's himself again.

Yes. Or at least preferable. That said, a leadership role in a music company (I'm not overly familiar with what Kim did in that area of the Pegula enterprise) is probably more relevant to the Sabres president job than being a first-line centre. I think you're fighting the wrong battle here: it's irrelevant whether Kim "deserves" the job; what's important is whether she's good at it. So far she has failed to hire the right hockey people or make the paying customers happy. In my view, that's at least partially because she hasn't been able to convince her husband to stop playing fantasy GM

Hall Cozens Reinhart Skinner Mittelstadt Lazar Olofsson Staal Reider Asplund Sheahan Thompson Please and thank you. Don't care how it looks on paper. Try something new.

How in the world does being being a football player on a good team qualify one to be the president of a huge entertainment business? Then again, I don't think we had a thread questioning Pat Lafontaine's credentials, did we?

I think the Twitter threads (and this one) are the social media equivalent of an "..and did you see her nails?" in the school cafeteria.

Others are going to tackle the underlying elements of the question, so I will approach it at face value. What qualifications do you need to be a president of a sports team? It's not a trade where you need to show proficiency in a particular skill, like carpenter, or broadcaster, or hockey player. Nor is it a job that requires a specific degree of expertise or knowledge on a specific area like software developer, or lawyer or analytics director. It basically requires you to lead people and make decisions, predominantly business decisions, so a social presence and a sharp mind and a business background Most importantly, you need the trust of the owner. From superficial viewing at least, Kim seems to check all those boxes.

I think anyone pinning the multitude of poor performances solely on Krueger is in for a rude awakening. Exterior factors do affect performance. But the single biggest factor is always the player himself.

I have no information other than what he presented to the public and how I saw him use his players. Neither of those things showed me what I am looking for.