Kruppstahl

I noticed this the moment the goal was scored as well. It looked very normal to me, but as the type of goal that is scored making it 6-1 with 1:32 left on the clock. You know, the goal that means nothing to the big picture and the players scoring it already know they have lost the game. But as you point out, there was still some decent time left and the gap was 2. My interpretation of it, as it happened, was that we were pretty solidly out-played 5 on 5 the whole night and it was simply the response of players knowing they were going to lose to a better team. The first 5-7 minutes of the 1st period looked pretty good for us, but for the posts we kept hitting. In reality, Washington came out very flat and needed some time to get their legs moving. Once they did, they took over the game and pretty much controlled it thereafter. We definitely would have benefitted from some better puck luck, but what's new? I just made a comment in the other thread about "culture" being an issue in Buffalo. My comments over there relate to your comments here with that half-hearted goal celebration. The entire situation is now bad enough that I don't know how to fix it, or what approach makes the most sense.

The lack of urgency is a huge problem for the entire team. Paul Hamilton has been tuning into this lately and questioning Ralph about it in the post-game PCs. Floating, "fly bys", literally coasting on your skates instead of taking strides, etc... Staal was brought in as some sort of veteran voice in the locker room showing people how to be a pro. Or at least I thought that was the plan. Staal is as big a floater as any of them! This discussion segues into a much broader commentary about what the over-arching problem is. I am not one to believe in "momentum" or "chemistry" or "culture" in sports. Bad players do not perform as well as good players and when the players get better, we will win more. That is sort of how I view it traditionally. But who can argue that there is *no* culture problem in Buffalo? It's like the unspoken word, once you get to Buffalo, is it's OK to give 7/10 and collect a pay check. Guaranteed contracts have created this mess for the league. But there it is. I think we have seen that the new age coddling type of HC isn't the answer any more than the old school disciplinarian. Of the two types, and if neither is going to work, I vote for the latter! At least make these kids work hard for their millions. I do agree that is the plan. It has been the plan since around the time we drafted Reinhart! And the players are good at it! They've gone through quite a few of them now.

First of all, the thread title made me laugh out loud, so thanks for that. Dahlin's development, or lack thereof, is becoming alarming. I think it is safe to say that already, he will *never* be in the discussion for Norris Trophy candidate. He's just not that caliber of player. Is there time for things to change? Yes, he's still young...but I don't see it happening. He's starting to remind me of Tyler Myers--we were all waiting for him to settle down and get back to the business of becoming elite. At a certain point, you realized it was never going to happen.

We are now with the Sabres where we were for nearly 20 years with the Bills: waiting for a change in ownership, and knowing nothing is going to improve significantly until that happens. The financial picture for this team is not good and Pegula has the Bills to focus on. I keep hoping that if things stay bad, he'll just sell the team. That is the path forward for Sabres fans IMO.

For some reason, Sabres fans consistently mention this idea of firing Ralph as HC, but retaining him elsewhere in the organization. I guess the idea is that he is intelligent and needs to be retained; he's just in the wrong job now. Where the hell does this come from!? Send his sorry ass back to the world of English football.

Just finished reading Ken's article. I agree with almost all of it and have been saying some of these things for years now. I'm all favor of making goalie equipment streamlined and small; I'm all in favor of making the net bigger, too. Heck, I'd be in favor of taking players off the ice, which would have the best outcome IMO. Somewhat related to this conversation is the fact that the NHL should *never* have allowed high tech stick technology and they should go back to wood tomorrow. Where they need hi-tech is in the goalie equipment, so that it can protect while being small and skimpy.

That's pretty radical. Purists of the game will hate this, but you know what is a fact? 3 on 3 OT hockey is wildly more entertaining and interesting than 5 on 5 hockey. Even with the teams playing "keep away" and constantly retreating out of the offensive zone to maintain possession, it's still way more interesting than modern 5 on 5 hockey. Why? With 3 skaters on the ice, you simply do not have enough bodies to defend your net, all the time, particularly if anyone makes a mistake. So it becomes critical *not* to make a mistake and positioning and attention to the game become greatly amplified relative to normal. That creates a tension and drama that for me, is really interesting to watch. And there is all kinds of room out there for great players to show you that they are great players. I find modern regular season NHL hockey to be borderline unwatchable. Wanna fix it? Get rid of some players! The NHLPA will LOVE this idea. LOL

Krueger's handling of Skinner, specially, is all you need to justify an immediate firing. I think Skinner will come back around when he is used correctly again...which is something Krueger seems utterly unwilling to do. The fans out in Edmonton warned us that Ralph was a stubborn SOB...they weren't wrong.

"I bought a cardboard cutout to honor my aunt who passed away. Can I come pick it up so she doesn't have to watch this anymore"

I have said from Day 1 that Hall will be gone prior to next season. This deal worked out really well for both parties, actually. It made sense and took advantage of some unusual circumstances that aren't normally present. Of course Hall is gone at the deadline; he always was going to be gone at the deadline. The only people suggesting otherwise are Sabres fans.

He has consistently shown, for a while now, that he's not a very good hockey coach. It's almost as if he had been ousted by the NHL fraternity and had taken refuge in the English Premiership.... LOL I liked Bergen's play! Give him more of a shot! PS: Montour is trash; I said he was trash the day we acquired him.

Perhaps the talent level of this team isn't as great as its fans think it is? Is that possible?

I just listened to his post-game PC. He seems like such a reasonable, friendly guy! He's in the wrong line of work, but he seems like a great guy.

It's *way* too early for this. I'm surprised to see Cuomo come down with this position, to be honest. There is nothing different about the general state of the world out there now than, say, 6 months ago. It will remain this way at least for this entire calendar year. Lingering effects of the pandemic will be around for a decade.

I can't find anything for the Borgen hit on Marchand, but I can offer up this beauty from PK Subban!

My point is that if he is "dinged up" it's no different than any other player in the league and he needs to play through that. If he is in fact "injured" he should not be playing.

Yep; home to Islanders. Assuming things don't get further delayed! He mentioned in the "chicklets" podcast that he took this past long off-season to really get his body/health right again, after dealing with some issues during last season. So he hit the ground running on full tanks this season. If he is hurt, it didn't take him long to re-injure himself. Of course that is possible, but I personally don't think he is "injured" per se.

I agree with you. If you are participating at this thread on a daily basis, you are probably into sports. There are a lot more people out there, though, who don't even think about sports.

Limited to 10% and of course those in attendance must get tested, jump through various hoops, blah blah...who would do that for this team at this point in time is mind boggling to me. PS: This is a terrible idea, unless you want to get COVID. https://www.radio.com/wgr550/sports/sabres/stadiums-and-arenas-in-new-york-can-re-open-beginning-feb-23

If only we could go back in time and take Steve Smith then, and his old partner Jeff Beukeboom!

I'm not on the team, Einstein. My opinion of what's going to happen from the outside has absolutely nothing to do with the performance of the team. By the way, I'm right. Let's catch up and compare notes when the season ends.

Their "staffers" if you will; the people who make the organization tick. The GM has had the same secretary for many years, for example. They don't need to rotate out everyone in the organization just b/c the GM or coach are new.

I suspect those who receive income from the operation of the league do not. I think it could be some time before we actually see another Sabres game. This reminds me of the "lowest point in franchise history thread." This is definitely as low (IMO) as the bankruptcy era. It's pretty horrible right now and it's not going to improve any time soon.

In the "franchise low point" thread, there is a link to a "spittin' chicklets" podcast with Eichel as the guest. In that podcast, Jack is asked what he thinks of Dahlin. The meatheads running the podcast love to talk over their guests, unfortunately, and Jack was just going to tell an interesting story when he was cut off. But his basic point was that he remembers the first time he saw Dahlin skate. He said "I thought I had skills...this guy really has skills." And he mentioned calling his father to tell him how amazed he was at the personal skill level of Dahlin just doing simple, skating drills out on the ice. That type of thing. He clarified that what he was talking about was just how *smooth* he is in everything he does. He said "The SWEDES just move a certain smooth way" and so on. He does complex things smoothly and makes them look easy was the basic thrust. It's going to take Dahlin time to put it together, and he's nowhere near his ceiling now....but in theory we have a multiple Norris winner on the blue line, for down the road. So if you want to get excited about something, think about that. I genuinely believe Eichel could be gone before this team improves, and the cornerstone of the good team, when it arrives, will be Dahlin, not Jack.

It would have been some time in the 2006 playoff run, when things were really looking good. Probably after knocking off Ottawa. We had advanced 2 rounds in the playoffs and it all looked pretty easy. I was too little to remember the Finals vs. the Flyers. I remember everything else in franchise history, and the best team we have iced was in 2006. I thought we had a solid shot at winning the whole thing that year. I never had that feeling in '99 even in the Finals against Dallas. I'd also point out we had awesome looking black uniforms in 2006 too! Now we are right back to the same ugly crap we iced in the '80s.