jad1

She's in the general neighborhood of those higher notes. What season of Canadian Idol did she win?

The stadium looks craptacular.

This pregame show is the worst.

Keep Olofsson. The young guys coming in next season are going to have their ups and downs. Having Olofsson as a scorer can help their transition, and take some pressure off them. If the young guys mature quickly, Olofsson's contract will still be tradeable next year or the year after. At this point, if Anderson wants to play another season, I'd keep him too. The team rallies around him and he enjoys playing with the young guys. These two guys are more important to the team's development arc right now than mid round draft picks.

Yeah, Krebs one of the last guys on the roster to be worried about. When he hits 23 or 24 he's going to be elite.

Well the Sabres did have the lead most of this game, unlike when he was...

That goal he scored, though. Hasn't scored in 16 games, but hits the zone with speed, bangs his stick on the ice calling for the puck, and then backhands the puck top shelf. Against his old team, nonetheless. He's got some growing to do, but he has the confidence to be a good one.

Awesome job! Now win the next one!

The was an impressive EN goal!

Don't let up!

That's what we've been waiting for!

Hutton with a seeing eye goal. Ironic.

Shoot Tage. Shoot.

Sabres are destined to be screwed over by Huttons.

Young guys do that. At least it's not a hot potato deal. He does have pretty good possession skills to build on.

Like to see Thompson step up thus period.

Timing is about right for the Leafs.

Sabres need to use the energy from the crowd and steal the 3rd. Winning this game would be a force multiplier in the young players' development.

I don't know about that. Todd McLellen is mid-range NHL coach, but against Buffalo he put his team into 1-3-1 trap after gaining the lead and snuffed the Sabres out. It's not a great coaching decision, but it is a competent one, and his team walked away with two points. It was a coaching decision that didn't depend on the superior talent of his roster. Again, nothing spectacular about his coaching, but the Kings are now 3rd in the Western conference after missing the playoffs the last few seasons thanks to emerging talent and competent coaching. Granato has mentioned a few times that he is not a fan of the trap, which is fine, but the Sabres have a terrible record when playing with the lead in the 3rd period. Would playing a trap with the lead help the team win games? Would it stunt their development? The team also has poor net-front presence and struggles covering the defensive zone. You don't need top level players to be more assertive in front of your own net. You don't need Power in the lineup to play better positionally in your own zone. Coaching should be able to address these deficiencies. These are a couple of areas where Granato's in-game coaching can be questioned (there are more). Not saying that he's the reason that the Sabres are not a playoff team (obviously talent is), but with better coaching, this team should be able climb out of the bottom 10 in the league. In the end, it's great that players like Thompson and Dahlin and making progress in their development under Granato. It's also promising that Skinner and Okposo have revived their careers playing for him. But if Granato can't translate those improvements into wins because the team can't protect a lead or clear their crease or cover their zone, he's not going to make it as an NHL coach.

Bunch of Sabres standing in front of their own net, doing nothing.

Not a playoff contender yet 😄. Ya think? Team has lost 322 games the last 7 years. They are the literal definition of insanity.

For the Sabres, the Stanley Cup has been replaced by the draft lottery. Been that way for years.

It's taken Thompson and Dahlin 4 or 5 years to achieve their current success. You can also throw Mittlestadt into a similar development arc. Hasek, Miller, and Ullmark were all older than 25 when they became NHL starters. UPL is 22, I think. All these young guys deserve time to develop, and the Sabres are doing the right thing giving them that time. But, if the plan is to sit and wait on these players' development while doing nothing else, this franchise could be waiting 4 or 5 more years before challenging for the playoffs. In addition to drafting and developing talent, an NHL GM has to be able to ice a competitive team night after night. An NHL coach's main focus has to be on winning games, and not developing 19 and 20 year olds for the team to be successful. Adams needs to have more of a plan than the rookie calvary coming to save the day, because based on the normal development arc for NHL players, that day is going to be a long time away.

Don Granato coaching statistics: 2020-2021 Buffalo Sabres HC GP: 28 W: 9 L: 16 OL: 3 PTS: 21 PTS%: .375 2021-2022 Buffalo Sabres HC GP: 52 W: 16 L: 28 OL: 8 PTS: 40 PTS%: .385 Official NHL stats to prove that this is year 2 of Granato's stint at Sabres coach. So if you want to spin this in some way to justify some kind of narrative about how games that Granato coached don't really count, fine, we can debate those excuses. But the fact is that this is Adams and Granato's 2nd year. And from a quick observation of the results, their 2nd season looks surprisingly similar to their first "INTERIM" season.

They were both in the organization last season in their current roles. Granato was hire mid-season, he has W's and L's attached to his name last season for the Buffalo Sabres. Every coach and GM should be accountable for their record. Regardless of the spin, it's year 2 for both of them.