Pimlach

These Euro trips should be given to the better and more veteran teams. The Sabres needed to stay home and work. This group has a lot to learn. The season is a long one. I still think they can be competitive. I’ll be there on Thursday and I hope the crowd is behind them.

The guy is 64. He just spent over a week on the road in Europe. He was probably tired. This surprises me. Several have said that Buffalo never reached out.

It not a matter of trust for me, its experience. He could have played in Rochester and in Buffalo, which helps him and the entire organization. It would have been ok to start him in Rochester and give him a lot of work. But I guess they will go with Levi as the 2 and if he plays even with UPL, or better, then they can deal with the contract stuff sooner rather than later.

I hate to give up my prediction that they make the playoffs this year and that Ruff fixes a lot of problems. Its only two games. So I will die on the Hockey Battlefield and predict 95 points and a playoff berth.

Bye bye NAK. We hardly knew ya.

Like all of his other seasons so far. Why not start Levi in Rochester? Why, why, why?

What would be a more lucrative media market? It is a miracle that they get any fans to come to the games at all. Put this franchises record under Pegula in any new market and the team would die in 5 years.

Why was Allen running out of the pocket so much? The OL was collapsing around him and no one is open. He has the worst WRs in the NFL right now. Especially with Shakir out.

They were terrible. Almost never open. Yes. So far the veterans Samuel, Hollis, and Valdes Scantling have been terrible. None of them are starting caliber NFL receivers. We did not replace Diggs and Davis. Josh Allen will suffer because of it.

I am working as a consultant in my retirement. Terry trusting a consultant only adds to his problem of trusting a GM. Terry has to find someone good, honest, and worthy of the NHL GM position, a Brandon Beane style of hockey GMs would be nice (if there is one). Then he needs to back away and completely trust him. Even if he uses bad words and things like that. The job of a consultant is more about explaining the possibilities … both the risks and the opportunities.

Bills game says a lot about the coaches not having a feel for the game. McD is often conservative and has been criticized for counting on the defense when he has Allen. Today he gave the offense 3 shots. Draining their timeouts is a sound strategy. But playing to win means just get a first down. The play calls were perplexing for a team that needed 10 yards to force OT. They failed. So he gets criticized for being the opposite of his norm this time around. Add this to his game management record He was agressive on a 4th down early in the game and we scored on that drive. Josh Allen is working with garbage. We are seeing a bad trend on the offense. We need guys that can get open. Beane better try to trade for an upgrade - Samuel, Hollis, Valdes Scantling are all pretty bad - they are not starters, and not even good backups Without Shakir, who is a good slot #3, we have nothing at WR.

He is only $7M under the cap so that part of EEE is finally fading away. That $7M will go toward keeping our current young talent though, Peterka, Quinn, Byram, … What is TP willing to pay a coaching staff and his FO? That is another part of it that we don’t see, and he is still paying Granato too. Why does Adams accept the situation? He has no choice. Boterill quit but I can’t see Adams doing that.

I have no problem with Lindy Ruff. He deserves our respect, he earned it with his play and with his coaching record. I have a problem with the Mickey Mouse way that Adams and Pegula run this franchise. They lied about the "exhaustive coaching search" and stuff like that only leads to more lost credibility around the league. Adams solutions to roster building over 5 years has been frustrating, focusing on one thing at a time and missing the big picture. Simply put, he fails to make the team better with his trades and moves. What has he done: 1. Traded vets, stockpiled draft picks, played young players that "want to be here" 2. Develop young core, added more prospects, bring in no veteran "blockers", got no legitimate goalie help 3. Signs young unproven players to long term deals. Teaches defense next year, signs a few lower tier F/As, watches the team regress after one promising season while being $20M under the cap -and admits it publicly. 4. Replaces coach with no coaching search. Replaces bottom 6 with lower tier F/A's. Does not address the loss of Mitts/Skinner in the top 6, starts the season $7M under the cap. During his watch he traded 2 very good centers in Eichel and Mitts and he drafted a bunch of centers, and still none of them are even close to Mitts in their overall game, let alone at the level of Eichel. Eichel wanted out, and I suspect that TP wanted him out, so I get that. But the Eichel thing left another big scar on the franchise. He also blew the extensions on Reinhart (Stanley Cup) and Ullmark (Vezina). So if Ruff cannot fix this group what happens next year? Adams gets this season to make the playoffs. If they fail, he should go.

Amen. This usually works doesn't it? With the current team and prospects that we have right now a good GM could make them competitive in ONE YEAR.

I voted yes the first time, so I will stick with it. To change after only 2 games would be ah, uhhmm, unPunch-like.

Pegula has made numerous “fatal errors”. You don’t blow 13 years with one bad move. This has been a comedy of errors and a case study on how NOT to run a hockey team. It started with his childish “reason for existence” speech. It was really heightened by the misguided hirings of LaFontaine/Murray/Black and the band of disjointed strap hangers. It peaked in the tank years with fans booing wins and Murray trading goalies that gave us any chance of winning. They brought in bad actors and troublemakers to lead our young players. They literally traded away every player that cared about the crest on the jersey. It continued during the Eichel years when no players would come here. Before the Eichel trade there was the O’Rielly trade. A real hockey player tired of losing and Pegula demands his trade. Pegula should have listened to what was being said, instead he forced a lopsided trade and watched ROR win a Cup and an MVP. Pegula put his wife in charge and he gave us the hirings of Boterill, Housley, and let’s not forget the clueless Soccer Coach. After that there were more firings, and the actual gutting of the rank and file employees, and the creation of bizarre EEE policies that only a stooge of a GM would follow. Enter Adams, his band of prospects and $700k players - these kids know a lot about a lack of leadership and dysfunction. Then there was the coaching search that never really happened. Some excellent coaches were out there that said “Buffalo never called me”. Adam’s lied to us once again. He talks playoffs and is $7M under the cap, saving money to pay more unproven prospects. Pegula has made so many errors that his dysfunction has now become normal.

The Bills will rise up and win. They are missing a lot of players due to injuries but I feel a weird game coming, one that goes our way tomorrow.

I need to see more. I’ll be at the a home opener so I can watch everything better. He had some good play last year for the first week. Then not so much. Looking for him to make us better back there.

Agree on Clifton. Agree on Byram. So far he is not impressive but I'm willing to watch more before I say he sucks. Looking at the top 6 you have to agree that the loss of Mitts as a really dumb move. Willing to give McLeod and Maltenstyn more time, two games is way to short to evaluate them. As for Tuch, I am happy he responded but he really didn't do anything. He fought Brady Tkachuk better than this guy. Benson is hurt, so is Peterka, and so is Abe Kubel. We will get to see Krebs, Rousek and Kulich now - oh boy, three minor leaguers injected into the lineup. Zucker? I don't think I heard his name in either game. The $5M that Adams wouldn't give Mitts in what we are paying Zucker. Once again, Adams looks to be over his head.

I think the senior advisor is out of scope, he is the head coach. He made be an advisor to Adams, but not to Terry.

Joki is the poster boy for "same as it ever was". Decent 3rd pair guy but we use him in the top 4. I look at the roster construction and he is like Power and Byram. Do we need 3 of them?

Hmmm. I cannot see Lindy bad mouthing Adams to Pegula. Adams is his boy, and Adams lets Terry be Terry. Terry fired Lindy once, and he will do it again.

Well it took about 800 years to reach its peak. That was after centuries of growth by conquest and the development of some pretty good engineering.

This is really becoming more of a reality, our top 6 is not very good. In the off season I pushed for getting a real 2C and pushing Cozens down to 3C. Cozens is a 3C, if he is a C at all. TNT is a 2C or maybe a winger on a first line. Tuch is not a first line player. For all of the drafting of centers by Adams, we still do not have a top 1C on the roster.

Maybe, but he lit up a defenseless player and the Sabres response was close to ZERO. Tuch did not throw a single punch. This team is so unlike most of the teams in the league.