Pimlach

You are not following me. The tear down and youth movement was a choice, not a need. When Krueger was fired the youth movement rebuild was not the only option, but it became the only option because of Pegula's EEE direction. The roster had Eichel, Reinhart, Montour, McCabe, Dahlin, Thompson, Ullmark, and others - there was more than enough there to build a playoff team Jason Boterill chose not to follow Terry's EEE direction and was fired. Enter Adams. Pegula was spooked by Covid and he chose to streamline his PSE business world (accept the Bills), and to cut all facets of the Sabres payroll, and to get the roster to the salary cap floor. Meanwhile the vets had no choice, most were moved out for draft picks and prospects. The big piece was Eichel, but even before that Reinhart was only given a one year extension. Once you decide you are going to be a cap floor team you just forced a youth movement. Right? So yes, I can crap on both Terry and Adams because they failed once again. They failed miserably at that. Maybe next year, right? But my comments are fair and I always try to be fair. Montreal, Ottawa, Columbus, and even Detroit have all passed the Sabres and their vaunted "prospect pool" and they had a youth movements too.

Fair points. 1. Who decided on spending under the cap the past two season when playoffs were the goal? I am going with Terry. 2. Who decided on hiring Lindy and retaining Granato's staff that is still on contract? I am going with Terry. Adams is accountable for his 5 years but Terry is still in there with the EEE bull$hit. Terry "drill another well" Pegula is still a big part of the problem Terry will always be involved, as he is with the Bills. But with the Bills, Beane has full control of Football Operations final decisions. And with the Bills on the cusp of a championship Terry appears to be smart enough to let McD and Beane run things. He just likes to be "in the room where it happens". Just from the two examples above, it is safe to say that Adams does not have full control.

Adams said he thought they were overconfident. He said other things to make you believe he knew he himself did not do enough. Not replacing Quinn was egregious. But they needed to do much more. As always, Adams failed with the goaltending. He started with a three headed monster. Then he handed the goalie job to Levi and that blew up the early part of the season and put them on a hole. UPL came on later to play good enough to earn the contact that is now in question. At the end of the season he threw Granato under the bus, and so did some the players by repeating Adams talking points - working harder, higher expectations, and more accountability - as if Grananto did not set high enough expectations, and maybe he didn't? You could see the duress on many of the players at the locker clean out when this was going on. What a terrible organization. Adams publicly blamed Grananto. Next he was going to do an exhaustive coach search for an NHL vet coach that would instill hard work and accountability. Only that search was already completed and Terry told him to fire Granato and hire Lindy. The search was a farce.

He was for a time. Terry used to talk fondly about his pedigree, and how he won championships in 3 Junior World Cups, and one in the NCAA, and maybe another in the AHL, and other such nonsense. He was smitten with his Pittsburgh connections too. When JBot said "no I cannot do that" that was it. Terry wanted JBOT to fire half the organization, including many rank and file long time working people, during Covid to help maintain his families "lifestyle". I think the House Yacht was just being delivered too. I am always going to respect JBot for that.

Remember what he did to Jason Boterill?

Which is the major difference between everyone that the Sabre's have hired and Sean McDermott. McDermott said he had to own drought to end it, even if he didn't cause it. Owning it is the start. The culture change was the first thing that he did. He constantly talked to players about about self improvement and accountability, about earning the right to win, and he did simple things like putting up signs to remind and motivate. He drove the message down their throats, and those that did not buy-in were sent away and replaced with those who did. Adams plan has always had the fall back of blaming it on youth, but next year will be better.

Agree that Adams bungled it after the 91 point season. He isn't off the hook at all. But Terry is the root cause if 14 years of failure. Adams has 5. I recall every NHL pundit saying the same thing during that 91 point season, the Sabres just needed to add goaltending, better defense, and a some veteran know how to a promising young lineup. But the next year they sat on essentially the same team, did not even replace the injured Quinn during the off season, which allowed 18 year old Benson to make the team. It was also the year that Granato was going to "teach defense" and install the defensive system. That seemed to just confuse them. Plus every team in the NHL knew how to counter them by then. It showed how over their heads both Adams and Granato were. Sadly, Adams and Lindy have done even worse.

Flags were raised at the hasty and exorbitant free agent singings of Ehrhoff and Leino. Flags were raised at hiring the concoction if Black, LaFontaine, Murray, Nolan, Battista, etc - all massive fails never to be seen again in the NHL. Flags were raised at the obvious gutting of the team and the blatant tanking. Flags were raised at the hiring of the young Jason Boterill, the inexperienced Phil Housley, and the washed up soccer coach Ralph Krueger Flags were raised when Eichel was injured and his medical treatment became the reason he was shipped out (even though it was not the real reason). Flags were raised when Adams was hired as GM and EEE was the plan. Flags were raised when Adams let the vets go (Eichel, Reinhart, Risto, McCabe, Montour and Ullmark) and committed to a massive youth movement and a salary cap floor team. Flags were raised when predictably that youth strategy failed, and the exhaustive coaching search for an NHL vet coach started and ended with old friend Lindy Ruff. As much as I do not like Adams as a GM, this is all on Terry.

Will Terry be in the Owners box?

Not if they win and play a good game. There will be fan salute and in the locker room fans will say "this season was unacceptable, we started to come together but it was too late, we cant keep digging holes, they will work hard in the offseason to get better". I would too. I would not throw it even in a bad loss. Never throw anything on the ice, accept a ballcap (not a Fedora). True. I don't recall Fan Appreciation Night being on the final game either. Seems like bad timing.

I predict another painful home loss. Lots of booing. I hope I am wrong. Alex Tuch Bobble heads will be the only positive of the night for the youth of Sabreland. I look at the young kids at the home games supporting the team and I feel bad for them. When I was young I had the expansion Sabres and they were bottom feeders for just two years but they came to play most every night, the team had some great young players, good goalies, some vets that really knew what they were doing, some scrappy guys that defended the team, they had a few crazy characters that were fun to watch, and of course a GM/Coach with presumably little to work with but yet he traded for Luce, Robert, Lorentz, Korab, and Guvremont. The lack of moves made by Kevin Adams, with all the capital he had is just criminal. Here we are 14 years of nothing but losing.

If that is true, and I bet it is, then Adams is worse than we ever thought. If it took hiring Lindy to tell Adams this then Wilford, Appert, Matty, and anyone related to strength and conditioning should all be released. The coaches should be released anyway based on their performance. The Sabres have had two workout warriors that I know of in the Pegula era. Eichel and Tage Thompson. Both have reputations for off season training. There should be more.

When the players in post game interviews continually highlight anytime something good happens, such as a response to a hit or winning a few games, it is a sign that playing the right way and winning are not ingrained into their expectations yet. They showed signs of getting it at times, but they lack consistency. They cannot stay the youngest team in the league once again and expect to win, so if next year we roll in Levi and Östlund along with Kulich and Benson it is going to another difficult row to hoe. Its clear we need better goaltending and a few more defensive minded defenseman that can move people and inflict some pain to opposing forwards, but we need to add a top 6 forward so that we push someone down a line and strengthen two positions. Critical off-season. I don't think the fan base can take much more.

I picked Completely Unacceptable. Enough is enough. Terry is not even trying. I want to pick 3, I am a loyalist and my fandom predates the Sabres existence, but I have to finally take a stand. I witnessed three miserable home games and a miserable road game, and I cannot take it anymore. No more tickets, no more merch. I want change.

Last time I saw Lucey was when he was working for the Flyers, it was still early Pegula years, he was at HSBC for a game (or whatever it is/was called back then). Way back then he would have welcomed a chance to come back to the Sabres. At that time the Sabres FO structure was confusing and was filled with Pegula loyalists. No place for guys like Luce and Dudley to help out making this team credible. As we talked about this other threads, most GMs have support from consulting executives in the FO to help shape strategy, weigh-in on needs, players, coaches, and what is going on in the league. According to the Lance interview (post palm trees), Adams does not have ithat kind of help, or want it. This offseason is going to interesting. Adams should be let go and the new GM should be given free reign on his staff, coaches, players. Not gonna happen.

Glad you enjoyed it, as much as possible anyway. What was the ratio of Leaves fans to Sabres?

Who is S&B ?

I’m betting none of that happens.

They quit once they were officially eliminated.

Magical numbers 100, 400, and of course 14

Pathetic defensive zone play. No one covers anybody.

So far Dougie is better overall. Sure hope Power’s ceiling is higher.

Luce and Ramsey. Best PK combo the Sabres ever had. Bar none.

Forwards making lazy passes, giveaways in our end are too common.

I’ve been watching, in and out. Kind of boring. UPL was good, kept us in. Sabres not getting shots off quickly enough. Extra passes, extra movs. Stolarz looking for his 9 straight shutout period in this arena. Unbelievable.