mjd1001

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.

Sabres vs Toronto on Friday, followed by Sabres vs Bruins on Saturday. When the Schedule came out, many of us would circle that weekend and say "THOSE 2 days in a row are what I'm looking forward to!" Now....ehhhhh...maybe not.

Those 2 are the 2 at the top of my list of who I would want moved the least. I think Dahlin is just so good when he is on and not injured. And Tage, same thing when he's healthy he's an elite goal scorer, a guy that scores at a 40-50 goal pace. He's not a complete player I know that, but whenever I listen to out of town broadcasts or radio shows, I like having a guy on my team that people from other cities kinda fear. But yeah, something has to change. The message Pegula gave yesterday is could not be any worse if someone wrote a script than what this fan base needs to hear. I think its been one of the more active onces in recent memory, certainly for a non-weekend.

I was thinking the same thing when I wrote it. I watch the games myself most of the time. I'm quiet, I'm not even the guy that jumps up and cheers after a big goal..I just sit and watch. But put my wife next to me, and I'd be jumping up and looking at her saying...Did you see that! THAT is what I was telling you about ealier! do you see what I mean now?!?

The problem is, what is monumental move and what isn't? I think Cozens is prett awful, and trading him would be both a minor move (because he isn't that important to the team) but a good one at the same time. Yet there are others than when I bring up moving Cozens think I'm crazy, how can you trade a guy who should be and will in the future be one of your top stars? I think if you make a move, then make a move and start fixing things right away. You dont' change the front office unless there are major problem, and if there are major problems, roll up your sleeves and get to work fixing them right away.

This message board/forum being availble helps alot. I don't think there are many actual people that would want to sit next to us and hear us talk about the things we get to post on the forum during games.

I would not be totally against it, but he needs more autonomy than any other sabres Gm has had in a while, and I'd want him to have the ability to clear out any of the leftovers from the prevous regime and hire from scratch.

Sometime in the future, someone will put together an innocent video on youtube that talks about embarassing moments in sports, maybe it'll get a few thousand views. The guy who makes that video will not have it focusing on 'on ice' blunders, but more indiviual moments where the wrong thing was said, where something was done that was so innappropriate that it will go down in a book of bad moments in sports history. I think the story of Pegula coming up to Montreal, Saying what he did to the team, and then having this game be the response...THIS will be on that guys video.

There is one thing that is a minor thing in the big picture, but I think about every few days with regard to this team. Lindy in the past always had a heavyweight/tough guy/enforcer. In an interview with Rob Ray in the offseason, he talked about the value of having that type of guy on the roster. I forgot who he was talking to, but in the offseason he intereviewed with someone else and he said the same thing, there is a value to having a guy like that. He had McDermid in New Jersey last year for that role. If Lindy has always had a player like that, including his last year in New Jersey. If he spoke openly about the value of having it at least 2 times this offseason, why have the Sabres not gone out and found SOMEONE like that?

The part about Karmanos is my main point. This is probably a pipe dream, but maybe Pegula told the team that to calm down any rumors and right now, this very day he is starting a search for a GM and will ask that GM to put together his entire hockey department. In a few days or a week, he'll announce the changes. No one stays. No chance of the same ideas, the same group-think from before because everyone will be new. I know, that is probably not happening.

So lets see. You are a desperate team. You are playing the worst team in the conference. That team is one of the worst defensive teams in the league. You get 4 powerplays. You have a partial 5 on 3 powerplay. And it is more than half way through the third and with all of that, you still don't have even 20 shots on net.