PerreaultForever

I'm going to disagree. I love Cozens, but it wasn't that bad of a hit. It's unnecessary and cheap but nothing special. Happens all the time, you guys are just too used to watched hitless soft Sabres hockey. The Dahlin hit was worse imo. hit the knee. You hit a star (allegedly) player like that there should be responses up and down the ice. Nobody even pushed anybody on that one. We have zero leadership and zero team comradery. they're all just cashing pay cheques hoping to get out one day.

It's true. And really, they didn't actually do that much, it's just most of our games are so listless and hitless and just lacking in every aspect of the game that one push from behind and one knee on knee hit and that's all it takes. Bruins Caps or Islanders there's more hits in one period than a whole month of our games. We've just been lucky that we're so lousy those teams haven't felt the need to play physical with us yet. My guess is Pittsburgh felt pretty safe to try it out and Burke wants his truculence so why not try a little against the weakest link.

Well it was him or Dalton Smith. Choices had to be made. Can't believe we're bullied by the Pittsburgh Penguins. So sad.

So hire him as an assistant coach under a veteran head man. Everybody's on Kreuger (with good reason) but does anyone think any of the assistants are doing a good job? I don't. We destroy promising D men faster than Steve Smith can score on his own goal.

Wasn't it Mitts turnover that cost us the first goal or did I see the wrong number? It was a really bad play.

and the sad thing is it's Pittsburgh. They're not exactly the big bad Penguins.

Gambling on an unproven commodity yet again would seem foolish to me but they probably will.

Not sure that 14 seconds left quit thing matters but ya, they quit. Goaltending was atrocious tonight. Sportsnet goes straight to their highlight show after the clock runs out and their first words were "Buffalo Sabres......they stink" and that's pretty much it.

Maybe. Quenneville certainly gets some of that credit, but Florida also moved a lot of bodies out. Players I think Quenneville decided didn't fit the mold he wanted. That team is now built on more character first and skill second. It's a very different approach to us but you can see how they went from a team that lost but was hard to play against to a team that now wins. Ottawa will be the same. We need to do that too if we want to build long term success. Coach and GM have to be on the exact same page.

Well it's not surprising to hear they are "evaluating" and planning options with or without Eichel and so forth. You'd hope they were doing something, but the trick will be in moving from on paper plans/options to actual actions. This is where past GMs have failed to act or made the wrong decisions or panic signings. I'd actually hope they do a detailed in depth analysis (and put extra weight on character!) but if they wait too long, deadline panic might get us next to nada.

I've heard this wariness of the old boy network thing but I have to wonder where it comes from cause they haven't hired people from it. All our GMs were inexperienced guys. Very inexperienced. Coaches have not been the old guys available either. Quenneville was out there. Sutter. Others. We passed on them all. Murray did try to hire Babcock but we know how that went. If this team had actually looked at old-boys they would have snapped up Lamorello the minute he fell out of favour in Toronto. I think this thing is Pegula BS. What they really want, what they've always wanted, is people they can control and have influence over. And that's why we are where we are.

It would be great if nobody actually went. maybe then they'll finally get it.

Pretty sure Staal was just considered a one season placeholder for Cozens. Adams hoped for a little more from him obviously, but he was here to mentor Cozens and hold the spot for next year. The real problem oddly is this team was supposed to be stacked on left wing and it has turned out the exact opposite. Lots of money spent and very little return.

Don't forget we could be even worse if we trade off players at the deadline and most of our opponents will be in the hunt and harder to beat. We haven't even faced Boston or Pittsburgh yet. 10 wins is my guess.

The thing for me is we have too many D men around him who all have really bad habits and I have very little faith in our coaches based on how they've developed Dahlin and Jokiharju. He needs to be paired with a solid physical defender that he can learn from and grow with to be his best. We're not going to do it though. You can see it already. Since he's looking better than some he will be given too much ice time and not enough coaching. It's a vicious cycle this team is trapped in (at the moment).

Exactly. Almost zero chance we hire any new coach this season. Just an interim if they decide the timing of the optics is right to fire Ralph before the season's over or not. Just going to play the blame game and make promises for next year as usual.

Repurposed with new meaning then. I suppose the only reason rival teams aren't using them to mock us is we have no rival teams. Nobody takes us seriously any more.

It's not enough imo. He still needs more work on the defensive side of his game. I don't want him to become another Montour and with his size he really needs a proper pairing to be truly effective.

Was there any actual evidence of this or is it just speculative? As far as I know the attitude was just some sort of admiration for the Toronto model of new and forward thinking (which is all bs, but that was and maybe still is their view). I'm not sure they asked any veteran coaches at all.

Ya, that's what I was going to say. Get the job and then all you have to do is submit one piece of paper with "win" on it. Job done.

I disagree. I think you can get a seasoned coach, but you'd have to give him 4-5 years and some say in player personnel (i.e. he can decide which slackers he wants off the roster). Coaches have egos and I'm sure there is a few guys who will be sure they can turn it around given time and latitude.

Totally agree, Don't see them spending a dime right now. Forget a coach change, we don't even grab people off the waiver wire who could help this team. It's all a ruse they don't care about this season at all any more.

This is the third straight time we've done this. For some reason the Sabres, no matter who the coach or GM can't seem to figure out that D men require slow and steady development and aren't ready for big minutes right away. I suppose it comes from being so bad we get desperate and can't wait but it's just dumb. Borgen is ready now (pity he got injured) but we semi broke Jokiharju too and Bryson will be next. I like what he brings, but he's not ready and I can see it happening again. Such an idiotic organization.

That's true, but given the rumours about him wanting out they could have come out and said Eichel is nursing an upper body injury and left it at that.

better effort than most of our games. Johanson played well but I think he learned his shoot out skills from Lehner. Not much else to say.