mjd1001

I have argued that for a while. If a Pegula says no changes, and Adams wants to make a deal, someone who is sensative to criticism and doesn't show up to answer to the fans when things get tough like Pegula, he would not take that too well. Put it on Adams if you want. This may be on him, but the owner certainly makes things even worse than they need to be. The chances of the Sabres getting ANY different GM with experience who knows what they are doing probably slipped a little more after Pegula came in and said that.

If one wants to defend Lindy, and I'm open to that, you could say it looks like they really liked a system the played 2 years ago, where they could fly up and down the ice, not worry about playing the 'hard' part of the game, and just run and gun. Now it looks like its the 2nd year, and 2nd coach that wants to reign that in, and they are throwing a tantrum and some players are refusing to do it...just because they don't want to.

If either of those 2 things have any truth to them, they are the biggest indictments of the owner and the gm I have come across this year. Things are bad. I have alwyas said if the team doesn't make the playoffs, oh well, they are nightly entertainment for me and I can move on..but...No, things are getting BAD.

I've had some bad opinions over the years on here. I am usually anti-change. I didn't want Ruff and Regeir fired over a decade ago. I thought Bylsma, Housley, and Granato could have used more time. I didn't want Botts gone as GM, I haven't been pushing Adams out the door. I am usually VERY patient with young players. Give them YEARS before you call them busts (Cozens and Krebs are the recent exceptions, but I have kinda come around on Krebs as a bottom-of-the-Roster guy). With all that said, DO SOMETHING! Its obvious the current mix isn't working. Its obvious that the Roster, the front office, the development staff, or any combination of multiple things NEEDS to change. You may make a trade and lose that trade on paper, lose it in the eyes of some fans, lose it in the eyes of media pundits. But even if that happens, you may win the trade in terms of needing to do something. Please do something meaningful.

Sports illustrated online getting in on the action. https://www.si.com/nhl/sabres-social-media-post-sad-11-straight-losses

I'm not sure and I'm not going to try, I don't need to. Its my opinion, the opinion of a lot of people on this forum.....and I think missing the playoffs for 13 straight years in a league where 1/2 of the teams makes it, that support stands on itself. If someone can find me an orgainiation in major north American sports that has missed the playoffs that many years in a row where about half the teams make it, that has gone through so many coaches, GM's, presidents in that period of time, I'll listen.

The part about this that is the most notable, is that pretty much everything he promised turned into the exact opposite. Previous owners here, owners in other cities that are closer to 'absentee' owners opering their sports teams on a budget 'luck' into more success. Pegula promised the very best, 'hockey heaven' and it turned into possibly the single worst period of sports ownership its length in the modern history of American sports.

He agreed to be Head coach, but I'm not all that sure he wanted the previous staff. Technically, if keeping the previous staff was a condition of employment I GUESS he agreed to it. But there is a difference between "wanting" or "being fine" with the previos staff...or having "no choice" if he wanted the job. Its the 'one hand on the wheel' thing.

I don't like the choices. I would vote no, but I would'nt call them Bums. I just don't care about that. If they do fine, I don't care. If they don't fine, I don't care.

The Bills success might be a negative this time. Pegula can just ignore the mocking of the Sabres whenever he wants. Everytime he feels any pressure or mocking based on his ownership of the Sabres, he just closes his eyes and plugs his ears until he can open up the "NFL" news page and look for the first article about the Bills, and then he is happy again.

Sorry, just saw this was posted in another thread, merge or delete as you must. The title of the thread being about Rhett Warrener threw me a bit.

Ok I'm going to take a stab at this....what reasonably has a chance of happening merged with what might help things: -Adams gets a 'promotion' to a higher level/more business side of things. -Lindy is either moved to GM or more likely head of hockey operation/president role. -Lindy stays on as coach temporarily, or Appert takes over while Lindy takes his new role and leads the 'search for a new GM'. -New GM his hired. Lindy and the new GM are hopefully on the same page (it being in large party Lindy's hire), and only after that hire is made a new permanent coach (Appert or someone outside the organizations is picked) and the new GM picks his hockey people (Karmanos, Forton, Jakubowski, etc have to interview and are not guaranteed jobs) -Roster evaluation happens immediately after that hire. With Lindy in a role of 'president of hockey operations', and the GM he picks is someone who he agrees with, he can have input into a lot of the players seeing how he actually coached them. I would not do all of the above, but some I could live with.

Its a long video, but they touch on things from the Eichel deal all the way through today in detail....much of it is what we all talk about, but I thought it was interesting to hear from some guys outside of Buffalo.... I found the part from 5:30 on the most interesting. Touches on how the league still thinks some guys are worth more around the league than they probably are actually worth, and now would be the time to trade them. Also all of the guys seem to think Lindy was a Terry Pegula hire, not an Adams hire. "Lindy and Terry" are buddies was said over and over and they think Lindy was hired all along to take over as GM for Adams. Speculate that Lindy was hired to 'right the ship' but the reason he was only brought on for 2 years as a coach was his intention all along was to be moved upstairs.

That is one of the most laughable explanations I have heard. An inept dictator of a nation may not be the one pulling the trigger on the guns, but his lack of leadership or knowledge can be the reason for losing a battle or war. An terrible CEO may not be putting the rivets in to connect the bed to the frame of the truck, but he/she may be many times more responsible for the demise of a great automobile company. Stu inman didn't take a shot or make a pass on the floor for the Trailblazers anytime in the 1980's, but he did draft Sam Bowie when Michael Jordan was sitting on the draft board (and Bowie was NOT the consensus pick by others due to his injuries.) An excuse for an owner or other member of leadership (GM, team president) like the one you listed above is one of the laziest, shallowest, and mis-guided in all of sports.

I don't totally agree. When things are bad everyone looks bad, but if one (or maybe 2) parties are bad, then its going to reflect bad on everyone. Ruff may still be a good coach. Dahlin may be an elite player. There may be an assistant coach or two that are great. But their influence could totally be drowned out by the level of ineptitude around them. It likely isn't every phase. Its likely more phases than it should be, but there are probably some very good to great people in this organization that are no where close to being enough to make a difference.

If there is any truth to the rumors that there is interest in Cozens by other team and the Sabres are being called on him, there is no way at all I think of trading Thompson before Cozens.

I don't know, I seriously see 3-5 times a game that a less mobile QB would have been burried that Allen gets away from. And as far as run blocking...they are OK, keep in mind that with a different/lesser QB, the opposing teams would probably play the run a bit more, and you wouldn't have to have a spy on Allen either. I think those 2 things make the offensive line a bit less effective than they look now. When I watch the Bills, I just see Allen making plays, and setting up plays, and making things easier for everyone on the team, including the offensive line, than any other QB I have ever seen for the Bills. Its a waterfall effect, everything gets harder if he isn't there. Every single position on the team has a challenge to look as good as they do now without Allen out there.

The Bills are a function of Josh Allen, who is probably the best player in the league this year the the single position in all of North American sports that matters the most. Take Allen away and put in any of the other QB's in their recent history, and they probably struggle to be .500 team. No superstar playmakers on offense. An Offensive line that allows Defenses to get to the QB that is only saved by Allens mobility (put a statue QB back there and he'd likely be sacked 40+ times already). A suspect defense, imagine how many points they would allow if a lesser QB allowed more 3-and-outs?

Not to keep defending Ruff, but he did say it would take him time to get to know the players. He did say you can't just watch film, you have to see how they play in action and how they respond to situations. I'm not sure why he would make that decision when he openly admitted he didn't have a 'feel' for the team yet, certainly not through offseason meetings and just a couple weeks of camp.

In Lindy Ruff's press conference, he was asked about the Laine PP goal where he was wide open. He said they talked about that in the meetings with the player, they talked about staying in position. Yet Clifton shaded away from that side and Tuch was WAY over on the other side. If Lindy is not lying outright, and he says they went over that very thing, how does the next day, at the very beginning of the game, half of your PKers make such a critical mistake?

I think I'm ready for a Brett Murray sighting and maybe Kozak again in a Sabres uniform.

They aren't at the bottom of the league standings yet, they are still better than Chicago and Nashville. 30th out of 32 isn't so bad.

Tuch, Tage, and Cozens all have letters. Tuch seems to be one of the interviews after every game on TV, i'll give him a little credit for that. Why is it that it seems Tage and Cozens hardly ever do any interviews, at least televised ones, after the bad games? I swear I've seen Clifton do more tough interviews after bad games than Cozens and Tage.

If one didn't actually watch the game and only saw the score, its hard to take it as anything else other than a huge joke.

On a non-game related note but with response to what you are saying... For me this year has been the WORST year ordering stuff online and getting it delivered. Orders lost in transit. Deliveries days later than scheduled. Orders placed at night before bed, but next morning I get the email that it was canceled. All that has happened to me in the past 3 weeks. Orders scheduled to be shipped on one date, only to be delayed almost a full week. For me 'online shopping' this holiday season has been worse than even through the pandemic years.