PerreaultForever

Another thing I don't understand is this statement that Kulich "might get scratched" and he has to be better. He's a 21 year old kid. Why is he being publicly shamed? Ya, he has not been good, but he's a 21 year old kid. They never did this to Quinn or Peterka or Cozens. Not this early. Not like this. You really think that's how you build a culture where players want to be here? If I'm Kulich I'm heading the Peterka route first chance I get. and just to be clear, I'm not saying that he shouldn't be scratched, just that they shouldn't have announced it as he might be.

Well that's just it though isn't it? On other teams players are held accountable. There are veterans that set the level of expectation for the new players and players have to buy in. Cultures live and die with their veteran leadership. The Adams idea of "growing together" is like putting everybody on a ship and saying "Okay guys, figure out how to sail it". How can a captain be expected to know how to navigate these things when he came in here from a foreign country at the age of 18 and has never experienced winning in the NHL? That's not to say it's his fault in any way, but there simply is little to no veteran leadership on this team and hasn't been for a really long time. People talk about Tage's comments and again, it's not all on him, but the comment is flawed and wrong. It's so called positivity and "I don't want to dwell on the past" and "it's only 3 games" and that's just loser talk. The comments should all be we sucked, I sucked, we have to work harder and be better. The so called leaders have to lead on the ice and drag others into the fight, but there's literally no fight in this team. Ruff has no answers because they simply aren't doing what he tells them to do. He can't coach these players as a group. I don't think anyone can. They've assembled a bunch of guys who just play for their money and don't care. The standard should be about winning but in Buffalo it's "who cares, I can just get traded away and then care if I have to".

You like that for memories go back a little further and remember this:

Cozens is 3C in Ottawa. He might bump up with Tkachuk injured but before that he was bumped down below Pinto. Honestly though I don't think Ottawa cares all that much. From their perspective they managed to dump a gimpy player on a big contract. If they end up trading Cozens away at some point it's still a win for them. That second might even be a big deal the way we are going. It's weird to see the Sabres being talked about this much from the usual hockey talkers this early. They are usually ignored or get minimal coverage. It just all feels so much worse than it usually does and this stuff doesn't help ease that.

That would be my fear. Adams gets moved into some sort of advisory label and Jarmo becomes interim GM and that's the public optic, but in reality it'll still be the same people in committee style meetings with Terry still voicing opinions. As far as the bills goes I don't follow them closely enough but I doubt they fire anybody. Not yet anyway.

We have 2 top 6 forwards. Tage and Tuch. Two young potential top 6 forwards but in over their heads at this stage of their career in Benson and Kulich. Zucker and McLeod are third liners playing above their place. Occasionally they play like top line players but really should be on a third line. Norris I guess is a top 6 forward but he's broken. Thus he's useless and nothing but a big piece of the cap wasted. The rest of the forwards are a big pile of whatever. Maybe Doan can still be something but that's just a maybe. That's cold reality.

Some enterprising Sabres fan needs to make a version of this Bears shirt

Yup, that's it. Pegula has to step away fully and give it to someone. He won't, but he has to. This is why I assume it'll be Jarmo. He's already here. You can argue that he didn't get it done in Columbus, but at least he's an experienced GM and hopefully learned from the mistakes he made there. But if they don't fix the culture nothing will change. The lack of effort and the lazy plays resulting in giveaways show you that the culture is totally broken. There is no excuse for that and those people need to go. The standard has to change and the bar of acceptability has to be raised. Not having a competitive camp started this. Merit didn't earn you a job on this team. All jobs were predetermined. That sends a bad message. Now you see Ruff will bench Kulich because he's not performed to last year's level. Oh my, what a shock, a young kid given too much too soon having a drop off. That never happens. So sure, Kulich should be down the line up but he's a kid. Admit you put him in a bad spot. It's your fault not his. Meanwhile Quinn, who has performed even worse still plays and he's older and has had more time to figure it out. So what does that say to them? It's all broken.

They do, and in this case you'd be bad, but it's the only way to reset the culture. You'd have a bunch of AHL vets and hacks to start but you could build the hard to play against lunch bucket type thing and then begin inserting young talent to that base, It would take years but how else are you getting out of it? EVERYTHING has to change. Bandaids and one guy here or there won't get it done. All the guys stuck in this and all the slackers have to go to make it different.

I hear you but since he's here I see that as the obvious hire for Terry. What other experienced hockey guy would take the job? Cliff Fletcher? Brian Burke? Hextall? Nobody out there on the unemployment line I'd hire as GM. But this is why I said in the other thread Give it over to Jarmo and let him hire Torts as coach (just like Columbus). This is not because I think Torts can take us to the promised land but I think maybe, just maybe, he could change the culture and do the "subtraction" phase. EVERYTHING needs to change and that's the sort of shock to the system it might require. and it is correct.

and The Hockey Guy ranked them 32nd in his early season power rankings 🙂 32 Thoughts today led off with Buffalo talk and the suggestion even Ruff has checked out already. Season is over. The one thing TP did do was set himself up for an easy hire upon firing. Jarmo would take the GM job and he's already on the payroll. You know it's coming, it's just when and how. Will it matter? who knows. can't be much worse.

There is nothing to indicate it could be anything in even 3-4 years. It needs a complete reset, like an expansion team. Every single person here gone and a full reset with a new philosophy that will then take several years to build.

Dahlin has done this in other years too. They are already breaking from any semblance of a real system. It's the earliest this has started so far, but it happens every year. The team concept breaks down and individuals overplay and make mistakes. It'll get worse if things don't take some sort of radical turn but I doubt it as they just seem checked out already.

I'd kind of agree but I also see the other teams taking them lightly, back up goalies, trap games, teams thinking easy win taking place AND Sabres free and loose so scoring and not defending like they like it. Guys like Quinn might be happy. You never know. I certainly don't hope it happens as I think Appert is garbage, but the fact he's still here makes me think he's Pegula's golden boy chosen one. Myself, I'm putting Jarmo in charge of everything and then I'm hoping he hires Torts to bag skate them into oblivion and then cut ALL the crap out and then start from scratch. I see no other viable idea.

Three games in feels like the season's over already. Even Dahlin fell apart today as he's back to his try to do everything mode where he gets caught out of position and gives the puck away as well. Stats don't matter, they were never in this game. So why'd they claim this goalie from St. Louis if they aren't going to play him? I'm not blaming Lyon for anything, he was fine, but he's not an every night goalie. Never has been, and rolling him out every night is madness. They will burn him out this way. Dumb imo. I did like Dunne better on the 4th line than Geertson. For all the talk of how great Doan has been he's not a top liner. There's an unfillable hole there. This team literally has nothing to offer. Positivity is just nonsense. This is the WORST they have looked since the tank.

Oh yes, I was just responding to your sentence that said "pummel Zadorov" to point out the outcome would not necessarily be a one sided affair. The concept of vengeance for the hit on Power is another matter. From what I've seen from Geertson so far is he's a non factor. IF Geertson was using his body, if he hit a Bruin into the bench, maybe then you'd see a Bruin response. Pretty sure you would actually from Jeannot, or Zadorov, maybe Kastelic, but there'd be a response. But Geertson plays passively and ineffectively so why bother with him? Ruff knows the Sabres are soft and he's hoping they play bigger with a guy like Geertson around, but so far they don't. Maybe Krebs does and maybe Benson will, but overall they just aren't that sort of player and that's what we have, a bunch of Jack Quinns. Some of them look like they've already checked out. Geertson is just Ruff trying to redo John Scott. They'd be better off with Dunne in my opinion because, although he's not as heavyweight, he plays a more complete and effective 4th line game.

Puck battles has been the issue for years. They are soft, they quit on plays, they won't battle hard, they won't pay the price. It's not a coincidence that in Bruins discussions they often get to "Mittlestadt doesn't battle hard enough I'm worried about him" and he's actually getting better but is still the most Sabre like. Jokiharju seems to have grown a pair and that might be because he's playing beside Zadorov. To the last sentence would Geertson pummel Zadorov? Chara handled him in his old age. Zadorov isn't Chara, but he's younger and he fights pretty good: Zadorov holds his own against Olivier (who I think is the best fighter in the league): But Zadorov was smart. Why fight a loser fourth liner? The chirping was hilarious.

lol

Oh that's okay. @Thorny already disagrees with almost everything I say anyway. see.

I remember a quote from Terry (or possibly at that time it was Kim when she was still involved) that had them saying they felt the mistake they'd made (for that season) was listening to or trusting the "hockey people" too much and a short while after that we got yes man Adams and all the great decisions we have gotten. Since then we've also seen video with behind the scenes stuff and Terry on the phone or in the meeting and talk that he's "involved" or "cares" as they spin it. "No real point in arguing it in my opinion, it seems kind of obvious who is in charge.

Adams told Terry nobody wanted to eat lunch with him so he hired him a "friend". Lyon was good. Dahlin was good. Rest of the team? Not so much. That should have been a blow out in the first but with Lyon playing well and the Bruins general inability to score goals it stayed a hockey game. I imagine there's a stat somewhere for this but if you counted puck battles and board battles how many did the Sabres win? I'd guess less than 5%. Just pathetic. Team will never win playing that way. Bruins weren't even hitting. Geertson's a joke. Sure, I like a tough guy as much as anyone but he does nothing outside of asking for a dance partner. Doesn't really hit, doesn't really dig or get in front. He's ballast. You have to wonder about the coaching and mindset of this team though. Clear entry on the PP and Thompson shoots from inside the blueline. Who else does that?? The point of any PP is to carry the puck in, set up all 5 and move the puck around for a good shot. That sort of thing is just dumb and they should know better by now. I don't get it. I really don't. Just blatantly bad. You can see the Bruins aren't as good as their record, but you can also see the structure and controlled play, the coaching, and the system with players supporting each other. Sabres? Just a bunch of perimeter possessions and individual play as usual. This team is garbage.

No, I don't think they care about win/lose. All he cares about is franchise value and that's what the owners care about as well. It's all tv contracts and revenue streams for Bettman. Who wins is irrelevant. They can pivot the narrative quickly if someone surprises.

Ya, he does, fully agree, but he won't. Ruff will be fired (possibly kept in an advisory role) by Christmas. Appert will be named interim head coach. Sabres will play loose and open and do a little better and interim tag will be removed in the off season just like it was with Granato. Adams will be fired or possibly elevated into a different role and Jarmo will be given the GM job. Everyone will remain where they are, chairs are shuffled, no extra pay outs and the impression of a new era. Terry will still sit in on meetings and meddle and maybe even more as he decides to "fully commit to the Sabres" or some other spin. That's my prediction. Not what I'd do, but that's my prediction in what Terry will do.