GASabresIUFAN

No question Pegula should be blamed for how bad this franchise is, but the current mess is all Adams. He gave the contracts to Cozens, Samuelsson and Power. He re-signed Joki. He traded Mitts for Bryam. He has failed to make a move to upgrade his top 6 or top 4 D without hurting another area of his roster. He has failed to draft and develop any defensive D. He has failed to draft and develop a capable center or capable playmaker. He has failed to make any in season moves to support the team.

What more really needs to be said. The Sabres continue to be bad. Bad GM, bad roster construction, bad defense and no depth scoring. I’m not blaming the goalies or Lindy. They can only do so much with the mess Adams created with the skaters. The defense is leaving the goalies out to dry. Lindy has no one who can actually play defense and no playmakers to help guys like Cozens or Quinn. This team really misses Benson. I’m not sure it’s fixable in season unless Adams is able to make a trade for a real defender or two and someone like Zegras.

"Economic. Effective. Efficient." equals failure.

So the Sabres are struggling to score. I’m shocked. Another mistake filled loss.

As I’ve said for years Adams is incompetent and needs to be fired. Even Jbot and TM were able to swing deals to bring in real higher end talent why can’t Adams? Skinner, Kane, ROR and Montour to name four. In general I agree with a slow rebuild, but at some point the GM must throw his chips in to get the missing pieces his pipeline didn’t produce. Our pipeline didn’t produce enough defensive D or good centers. Add that he traded away a good center and it’s long past time to fill those holes.

Goal?

I just watch the video of Horvat’s breakaway, behind the play a Sabres actually hooked another Sabres with his stick and pulled him down to the ice. Crazy!

He has been equally as bad this season. Just watch the 1st and 3rd goals for the Panthers.

Our defense remains terrible.

This team would be better right now if KA had found the D version of Zucker and not re-signed Joki.

And look who is right behind him; Owen Power no less.

He is waiting until Adams is fired to come over.

This team needs a playmaking center and at least one stay at home D. Then again these needs haven’t changed since he dumped Mitts for Byram. This trade took away our best playmaking center and gave us a redundant LHD with a skill set we didn’t need. So here we are having to trade assets to replace a player we didn’t need to trade. I’d be thrilled with Zegras, but that doesn’t excuse Adams incompetence. He also needs to trade more assets to get the D he needs to clean up our terrible in zone defense. His re-signing of Joki was mistake here. He should have been traded for other assets and a legit defensive specialist acquired. Truthfully there is no way on G-d’s green earth that Adams can pull off even one of these deals before the deadline and doubtfully even then. He simply doesn’t have the skills necessary to make this team actually competitive. Sorry Lindy.

This is exactly what KA's rationale was and he figured one of his prospect would step up in the next year or two to make us forget about Mitts. The issue, like all KA decisions is based on assumptions that aren't based in reality. Cozens is not a playmaker. Cozens' shooting % outside of his big year are lousy. The biggest issue with trading Mitts was it eliminated the team's best forward playmaker with no one in the hopper to replace that skill set. PS. Our defense was and remains bad. They are still giving up way to many HDCA. They also struggle to clear the D zone when the opponent has a heavy forecheck. Power isn't physical at all (4 hits on the season) and he and Clifton are giveaway machines. Byram, for all his alleged offensive skill, has only taken 8 shots in 10 games, the lowest amount from all Sabres starting D. Clifton and Dahlin continue to take costly penalties. The truth about our defense is that they are a bunch of misfit toys. Lots of O skill and skating ability, but poor execution coupled with a complete lack of in-zone D skills are a huge negative for the team. How much better would this team be if KA had retained Mitts, still traded for McLeod, and then went out are traded for or signed a RHD stay at home D to play with either Power or Dahlin? We'd be better defensively, better skills at forward, and deeper at center.

Makar -7, McKinnon -5. Their issue was Georgiev in goal. He has a 4.62 gaa and an .822 save %. Casey -6 in the 1st 4 games as the Avs started 0-4 behind Georgiev's horrible play. Since then the Avs are 5-2 and Casey has 3g 7a in those 7 games.

About friggin time. Apparently Lindy reads this board.

I was trying to think of any moves (trade/fa) that actually made the Sabres better. I can think of many that made us actually worse or were a complete waste like signing Hall, E. Johnson, Comrie, Stillman, and of course Mitts for Byram. I also have a long list of meh or inconsequential moves like Pysyk, Reider, Kubel, Robinson, Lyubushkin, Lafferty, and Hinostroza. I also don’t like wasting a 2nd on Malenstyn who is on pace for 16 pts this season. Even moves like Anderson, who played decently for us, was a downgrade after Adams lost Ullmark to free agency. The McLeod trade is looking good so far on its own, but he is a definite downgrade from Mittelstadt. If we had to argue for the “good” moves, we are left with possibly Greenway and possibly Zucker and Clifton, but none have significantly improved the team. Clifton was actually a huge negative to start last season and Greenway is only finally showing value in year 2 here. Not exactly a stellar track record. For all those who are about to mention the teardown trades where we sent Eichel, Reinhart, Montour and Ristolainen packing, here is a look at those. The 1st 3 have all won a Cup with their new teams. From those moves we have a 1st line winger in Tuch, a 13th forward in Krebs, a backup goalie with potential in Levi, a top 9 forward in Greenway and some decent prospects that may (or may not) contribute to the Sabres in Östlund, Kulich, and Wahlberg. Right now, only Tuch is a consistent contributor 3+ years later. Would you trade Reinhart for Greenway and Levi? I’m note sure I would. Now add that Adams has never fixed goaltending after Ullmark left which is spotty again this season and never acquired proper partners for Dahlin or Power. What you have is the mess we have today where 10 games into the new season we are already looking for a big trade or two to fix obvious holes in the roster like a top 6 center and some stay at home D to repair on ice issues such as a lack of depth scoring, poor defensive play, poor special teams and spotty goaltending.

I find it interesting that some of the people who disagreed with my post also want trades to occur. My question is how can you trust Adams to fix the broken roster he created when he has a proven track record of being unable to evaluate NHL talent?

There is certainly a goalie issue, but in their defense the defense has been terrible. The 1st and 3rd goalies allowed in the Panthers game are clear examples for the issues with the defense. That said the Sabres are 3-2 when the goalies save 90% of the shot or better and in the two losses the Sabres offense failed to show early in the year.

Can we fire Adams and get a real GM before redoing the roster?

Not the way he is playing. The problem with Byram isn't solely his fault. He, like Dahlin, is a victim of Adams poor vision for the D group. Getting skaters who can move the puck is a fine idea, but getting skaters who move the puck, but can't play actual defense is not a good idea. Byram is in the second category and we already have Power as that player. If we really want to fix this team we need 1-2 D first D and a top 6 center. I don't think Adams has the skill set to see the problems with his roster or the ability to execute the moves to make those tough decisions. I'd start by trading Cozens and a prospect for a top 6 center.

The anchor in a tug of war is the participant that can't be moved. The anchor on the relay is the final runner just like dropping anchor on a ship at the end of a voyage. An Anchor in sports also can have a negative connotation as in that player is weighing the team down and that is how it was used in the OP. It's kind of like "goat." Before it got applied to Brady or Michael Phelps as the greatest of all time, calling someone a goat meant that the athlete blew an important play such as Bill Buckner.

To bad KA traded away a center for the failing Byram and then didn't get a top 6 center to replace Mitts as most of this board wanted.

It can also keep a ship from moving forward.

I hate to say this, but Quinn's problem is Cozens. Their games don't mesh IMHO. Despite claims on this board that he has playmaking skills, his highest and best use is that of a sniper. With Benson hurt, there is no one on the 2nd line capable of driving offense.