jad1

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For the Sabres, the Stanley Cup has been replaced by the draft lottery.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.

It's year 2 of Adams/Granato. And it's 10 years of absolutely no expectation of this team winning. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. This might be a newsflash for Sabres fans, who's experience with continual losing has resulted in a form of Stockholm Syndrome, but the NHL isn't a developmental league. Continual rebuilds are the weakest move, not a fan's expectation that a professional sports team would challenge for the playoffs once every decade or so.

Skinner is the comeback player of the year for the Sabres. Ralph Krueger deserves a special place in hockey hell.

This team is terrible its own zone. Been that way for 10 years.

49 points in 56 games last season. Kanes issues don't include on-ice performance.

So after two years, Adams is on pace to match the 1st year results of the Sabres last failed GM? Climbing the ladder of success!

Nah, I enjoy gambling but I don't want to be on the side of the bet that requires the Sabres to lose games. I think the approach that the Sabres are taking is risky and flawed, but I would be ecstatic if I was proven wrong and the Sabres turn the corner as a franchise.

Rebuild the team through the draft. Remove 'problem' players through trades for future assets. Turn the short term focus of the entire organization to development. Promote guys to the big club based on speed and attitude. Sign veterens to short-term deals so that there are no impediments to the promotion of young players when they are ready. The focus is on future development, sacrificing wins now for wins later.

Sure, he seems like a stand up guy. But neither of those guys lost the fan base to the extent that the team has this year, and neither of them finished bottom five two years in a row (if the Sabres finish poorly this season). If the team can't turn it around this year, Adams' plan will have hit Pegula harder in the wallet that planned, with less on-ice success than promised, with greater fan apathy than anticipated. That might motivate Pegula to turn the organization over to someone with a better plan.

I think that the attendance is a lost cause, but also believe that the team can play better and have a stronger finish than bottom five. But to your point about trading Eichel, IF the Sabres finish poorly, and are sitting on the assets acquired by Adams at the end of season, Pegula could easily pull Adams and Karmanos into separate meetings and ask them where to we go from here? And if Karmanos gives the better answer, why wouldn't he be given the job? Why shouldn't he be given the job?

I can appreciate that. My opinion is that a bottom five finish, bottom of the league attendance means Adams gets booted. It's fine to disagree.

So things can turn around this season, but while they thought it was going to be bad, I doubt that they thought that the loses and attendance would be this bad. Traditionally, poor attendance for the Sabres would be around 12-14k per game. This year, that has dropped significantly. And while covid has played a role in this drop, TV ratings for the games are also significantly lower this year. I don't think the plan was to completely lose the fan base like the team has done this year. The "hard work" approach could be expected result in a record hovering around .500. Lately, the team's record has been significantly worse. So there's 'suffering' and then there's 'suffering.' Again, hopefully the plan grabs a little traction with improved goaltending and continued maturation of the young guys, and cameos from the future stars. But if things continue down the current path, it's hard to believe that those results were part of the plan.

I'm not mad. I just have an opinion based on what I've observed from Pegula and from sport teams in general and I'm sharing it on a message board. Does it you make you mad that I believe that there's a strong possibility that Adams might be fired if the losses and poor attendance continue?

Those were promotions, not reassignments for people who failed at their current job. If Pegula is looking for a new GM, he's not going to choose moving Adams up the ladder instead of firing him. This is the same nonsense that was knocked around with Krueger last year.

This is Adams 2nd season, that's fact. And the record book shows that Adams finished dead last in the NHL his FIRST season. He owns that, no matter the excuses that are made for him. Pegula has fired plenty of people after their 2nd seasons. And in each case he was right to do so. And again, Adams and Karmanos are two different people. They play the same game as long as it benefits each of then to do so. Hopefully by March, the Sabres have turned things around and are posting more wins, and the fans return and attendance trends up. Things will be OK if that happens. If that doesn't happen, though, and the losses continue and the attendance declines, look out, because we're in store for a patented Pegula blood bath.