PerreaultForever

So I guess the positive on this is at least the Jets still suck. Sabres still have a shot at making the playoffs before them.

It does, but it might not. We are bad enough that I suspect we will be the trap game for many a team and we will be taken lightly and we will face back up goalies and mediocre efforts on many a night. This might give us the illusion that we are getting better as it has done in other years late. We might go .500 but even if we win 2 out of every 3 it won't be enough. A small winning streak here will just give false hope and maybe make Adams not get anything for his deadline UFAs. A better plan (which won't happen) will be admitting they blew it this year, make bold moves, big trades, and a different plan for next year. Some sort of claim that we have learned and we will get it right now. That is assuming Pegula does not do a mass firing and then it's obviously a reboot. I mean wouldn't it be great if instead of talking about Palm trees and whining about what couldn't get done Adams came out and said "I made some mistakes but I've learned from them. We got the mix wrong but we're going to fix it. Next year this will be a different team. The losing will stop." Wouldn't that be great (even if it's bs)?

I have seriously mixed feelings at this point. I mean I hate to lose (wish they did) and tanking is a bs strategy but there's very little about this team that makes me like them or makes me hopeful for them going forward. Guys like Cozens that I thought would be "workhorse" new leaders just aren't and there's just not much there to get excited about. We start to look half decent we will almost certainly still miss the playoffs with where we are unless several teams above us fall apart totally but it'll be enough to keep things as they are and "stay the course" and all that bs. We will be young again. Maybe even younger. Adams won't sign anybody of note. It'll all be the same next year. Sucking bad for this second half might (stress "might") get some changes made. idk. Pegula won't change. Just entertain me.

idk, we've had some pretty lazy players over the years. Drew Stafford jumps to the forefront of my brain right away. We seem to always have had some guys who were in the habit of taking nights off. Even some of the stars.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the free agents this year. Assuming it's Adams. I don't expect any of the UFAs to be back. Maybe Bryson, Jokiharju if they overpay him but that would be nuts to do that. The 3 RFAs are the interesting ones. I suspect all 3 will want substantially more than they've earned with their play and what Adams does with them will tell you a lot.

No, you can't just sit on the young core and wait. That's what they are doing, and it's failing, as it inevitably would. You need to be serious about winning and winning now. Winning every game and every night. This has to be the credo if you want to build a culture and that has to be what the young core sees and feels (and learns). I mean think about it in simple terms. We sit here, invested in the team and the history (if we are older) and we see they aren't serious about winning. We see the constant failure. We recognize the flaws in the organization and the ownership. It's all pretty obvious at this point. Now you're an 18 year old kid getting drafted into the NHL, Buffalo picks you. You think you don't see the same damn thing with the organization? Their agents know, they know, they follow the rules and realize they have to see it through for the money until they don't. Will any of them bleed blue and gold? Not a chance. Why would they? If a guy like Rick Dudley had been put in charge years ago we wouldn't be in this mess.

That guy was the pick I was most excited by. I have high hopes for him.

Ya, I don't see anything big happening. Eventually maybe we see if they promote Ruff or show him the door unceremoniously (I suspect it'll be the door) and Adams will unload a couple deadline bodies but really, nothing different and I suspect on average they play a little under .500 and we pick around 8th.

Wouldn't be a bad idea but then again he wasn't exactly making that happen in Detroit was he? I see that McLellan got 1 assistant at least and that's a difference to how the Sabres did it. The bar for losing acceptability is obviously higher there as well. I do wonder if the play by play guy retiring (and being tired of the losing) swayed the decision and it's timing a little. They are perhaps more press sensitive there. I would agree that Columbus perhaps has more young talent but they are still missing pieces too. What Detroit does have, since Yzerman thought he was closer than he was, is several mid level veterans who might be very attractive to playoff teams and so if he decides to partially tear that down he can likely amass quite a haul for them. I don't know if that would put them ahead of the Sabres or behind, but right now they are about the same. Both teams definitely on the outside looking in.

Because it's a small incestuous boys club and you never know who you will be working for in the future so they generally don't screw each other over that way. You become known as the rumor spreading guy and pretty soon you are blacklisted and never work in the NHL again. That's part of the problem hiring these rookies though. They haven't earned any respect yet either. Don't have the old school connections and can get fleeced in trades while they learn on the job. They make a "plan" and then 4 or 5 years later realize how idiotic their "plan" was, but by then it's too late.

You really think they will go with a zero head coach experience guy? I doubt that, that's Sabres style, not Rags.

islanders were bad and not doing much, that's definitely true. Sabres played with pace and their shots were accurate and when they get open ice (which they did) they can be an effective offensive team. It's possible that after the Bruins game, where the Bruins played poorly but did take away a lot of the ice and made it tough to work through, they felt they had to come out even faster and harder expecting the same thing, and when they got open ice instead they just took over. It was overdue and inevitable to happen eventually. Chicago is a bad dump and chase team so if they play fast the winning streak can begin.

They should spend the money and expand the team by one. Let Marty do the colour commentary, keep Kaleta, and let Rob play a Bissonette type role in the intermissions and pre and post being the loud mouthed joker and comic relief guy. He could give out awards, do hit of the night, the bad stuff could be Razor's Rejects, they could make it much more entertaining very easily. Sabres need to add as much entertainment as they can.

I saw this rumor too, but one would have to assume the broadcast team would know if this was true right? They would have said something. Marty made a joke about the Grinch guy in the stands being Rob in a costume and I cannot believe Marty would do that if Rob was off seeing his injured child. That would make no sense at all. But, objectively speaking, Marty was much much better in the role. Much better.

Well clearly the problem all this time was Rob Ray.

Basically the same game Boston showed. Likely a similar result but no reason they can't win it. They probably won't, but they should.

I guess they don't have any palm trees either.

I think they've waited too long. The season is over no matter what you do now.

Sure. Right. Not the kind of guy we want here. We need more little Swedes.

10-1 Washington would claim him and laugh their ***** off about that 2nd round pick they got for nothing.

Problem is we rush these kids, don't develop them properly at the AHL level, and when they have played too many NHL games they are no longer waiver exempt. I believe it's 160 games played in the NHL or 5 years as the cut off point for exemption. So I think Quinn can still be sent down but I might be wrong. (maybe IR time counts idk)

It's ALL of them. There isn't one competent guy among them. Ruff may be the only one who knows anything and he might be out of step and too old for the job. We need a clean sweep. Every single one of them.

and who's fault is that? Create a losing culture and of course they won't want to come. We weren't always on no trade lists.

Yes, but I put a lot of it on having the same management and the same assistant coaches. Ruff wasn't given a chance to completely overhaul it. He has been expected to work with the whole thing already in place. Do you really think Ellis and the rest of them suddenly changed and demand anything different? Problem is if they fire Ruff, it'll just be interim Appert. You know that's the plan.

Your memory isn't very good then but the latter part is correct, those teams all had veteran leadership.