Pimlach

Yes indeed. I sure hope Adams turns out correct in the long term view.

100%. Contrast to Boston, who's team got booed after one lax home game. Montgomery said the fans are right and that they are smart and know what's going on. Marchand shrugged and said if we play better they will cheer. Even fans in Buffalo and several here at SabreSpace dismissed this as a nothing because the fans salute is "stupid". Maybe it is, but the players and coaches reaction was the exact opposite of what it should have been.

Yzermann in Detroit has been trying a different approach than Adams. Yzerman has not had great results yet either, but he is a bit closer than Adams. After stockpiling picks and acquiring some good young players (like Adams did), Yzermann then added decent goaltending (Husso and Lyon) plus many veterans with some tread on the tires (Perron, Fabbri, Copp, Sprong, Compher, Brindicat, Chiarot, Gostisbehere, Petry, etc). Contrast this list to Sabres who shopped in the $700K bargain bin to prevent blockers. The results are that Detroit is only 7 points better, and they missed the playoffs once again due to a late season slump, and a tie breaker. But more important, not all the pressure is on Larkin, Raymond, and Seider to carry the team - which they are doing anyway. I like Buffalo's young players better than Detroit's, Buffalo has more good looking young players, but Buffalo's overall mix is way wrong and has been for the past few seasons. Players like Perron, Sprong, Compher, Copp are so much harder to play against than Borg, Jost, Robinson, Olofsson, etc. Kane's decision to go to Detroit over home town Buffalo says something about what players around the league think. Hoping that Ruff's presence can help Adams to upgrade about 5-6 spots on the current roster. The team needs to get past their ~24 average age and join the NHL, were most teams average age is between 28-29 years old. I am so dam tired of watching boys against men. Adams so far is not helping his Core, and bringing in more 20-21 years olds is not helping them either.

Okposo was the best choice given what had on the roster for captain. Looking back we can say he was too tame a person to really make a difference with this young club. I think they needed a much stronger hand (refer to the booing and chanting reactions, the complaining about UPL/Levi, the slow starts and home record) Overall, I think the Captain role is being overrated here at SabreSpace. I am not looking for a transformation because of who has the C. Some teams have a guy like Barkov or McKinnon, but most do not. What do have going forward? Dahlin - best player on the team, one of the few fiery players on the roster, but still young, shows immaturity and erratic play at times, and has never experienced winning in this league. Tuch - would be the right age and right experience, not sure he has enough leadership influence, but he seems to do the little things that captains do. Cozens - too young and still very immature, not an option. Maybe in 4-5 more years. Z - not influential enough, the longest standing drought player should probably be moved along Tage - Maybe give him an A, we need a bounce back scoring season from him - giving him a C might add more pressure. Trade for a player that has been a Captain before - not out of the question for Ruff but not ideal either No C - share the role with three A's.

Maker ties it up.

I know. And his assistant coach job was based on being a player with a Cup. He managed Harbor Center but was also Terry and Kim's boy around the business side of things. He was assigned by the owners to help figure out what is going on within the team. There were stories about him going on a road trip with the team, even though he was not part of Hockey Operations. He basically provided Terry and Kim with his assessment of things under Krueger/Boterill. I thought Murray and Boterill had minimal qualifications, especially to take on a tank/rebuild. In some areas Adams has been good. Analytics and drafting seem to be a strength. Acquiring NHL level professional personnel has not been one of them.

You heard over an over from Granato, Adams, most of the players at locker cleanout, and now Okposo - you hear them speculate on what went wrong, you hear them say that they felt it and realized it it, but no one stepped up. But you NEVER hear any accountability. No one says they have to get better and hold their teammates to be better. Adams just wants the players to stay, "we want to be here", and not make waves. The players just want to be friends and have fun. It is still in the culture to expect to lose and to excuse it away. If they ever needed a trade for a Drury/Briere type its right now.

I recall reading about grumbling from some Sabres players when Levi came up from NCAA and was handed a job.

UPL was a key factor. Now those high danger stats are a problem with the entire team defense, including forwards, and including the face-off performances in our zone. I don’t think Dahlin regressed defensively, but Samuelsson did. They added Byram, which will lead to another considerable jump in pay for the blue line.

The Sabres are close right now. They needed better coaching. Let’s give Ruff a shot. They also need to replace 4-6 players on the current roster, depending on how much risk Adams will take. Past tendencies are that he doesn’t cover risks.

Kenny Linseman was also a major Rat. Butch Goring. Matt Barnaby.

Reinhart scores after Maurice inspired them with a spirited conversation.

So your saying he didn't win a Vezina Trophy?

I think my last paragraph is 100% correct. He has not earned anything. He is there because of time and the new coach. Those are the things keeping him in the job right now. Being loyal and following Pegula's demands are another factor in his favor. As we know, Boterill eventually refused to do that Yes, he brought in some good analytics guys and he seems to have drafted some decent prospects while dealing away Eichel, Reinhart, Risto, Montour. The loss of Linus and the subsequent handling of goaltending for 3 straight years has been a big problem. I made not one assumption either, it all there in the reality of what happened.

To the bolded: When Adams is having all of these "honest conversations with everybody in the organization" he is in fact getting opinions, and this technique is actually a method of soliciting them. We should all have learned by now not to take Adams comments to the press at full face value.

In what way has Adams earned the right? The "only missed by one point" season was Granato's coaching effort almost overcoming Adams poor effort with the roster. I do agree to giving him more time ONLY because this team still looks like a $hit show from the outside and all the change gets amplified when you lose. Plus he hired a new coach so he should be tied to him for awhile. Adams still looks to be a mile over his head as a GM, but who else are they going to get? The owner has huge trust issues with bringing in experienced and strong hockey leaders and he is not respected in the league. Adams coaching search sure raised a few eyebrows. He said one thing and he did another. He knows Lindy, they live in Clarence, Lindy helped give him a start, Lindy is a true Sabre, Lindy has credibility, Lindy is proven, ya da, ya da, ya da. He may have talked to a few candidates, but he never had serious interviews with any of the top candidates - Toronto is doing that now and actually bringing guys like McLellan and Berube into the building to talk, and taking more than 3 days to do this. Adams did the easiest thing he could do in hiring Lindy. You could have made that hire happen. Lindy could work out, and he might be enough to get whatever growth is needed to make them a playoff team. But Adams is still there because his time as a GM is not up yet, I do not see anything earned. His ascent to become an NHL GM still looks like a puzzling and desperate move, made by a billionaire couple worried about the family fortune in the face of a global pandemic. He has not proven or earned anything other than his ability to be Pegula's trusted yes man. His timer now moves on to season 5.

This is correct. ^ And I’ll add that people blaming Okposo for last season do not understand the role of a Captain. Wearing the C is not a free ticket to Adams office to advise him on trades and roster moves. The stories of Chris Drury calling for Satan’s removal are interesting, but far from the norm. Okposo was overrated as a Captain and a leader, but let’s not blame him for Adams and Granato’s failures.

Ruff will only be slightly better than Granato with the very same line-up. Maybe that gets them in the 8th spot but I doubt it. That roster right now is worse without a full season with Mitts. That trade might have brought in the better player, but they are weak at center, and their 2 best centers are both coming off of down seasons and must get back to what Adams thought they were. Ruff talked about the little things - winning key faceoffs, shutting down an opponent when you get a lead, being harder to play against - all of that means they better practice harder, play smarter and grittier, and the realization that they need to get some immediate help. Ruff will need to be helping with trades and FA signings. Vet players still in their prime want to win, they are more likely to listen to Ruff's message than to Adams.

O'Eichly.

Leaves are, and always have been, public enemy #1. Boston came next. Espo was an arrogant prick. Said negative things about the city, but he always made it to Sinatra’s for dinner and drinks, win or lose. Philly quickly displaced Boston on my hate scale due to the Cup, Bobby Clarke and the rest of the goon squad.

The Bennett goal was very questionable. I wish we had guy like Bennett. Big tough player. Florida has Ekblad, Reinhart and Bennett, taken 1, 2, and 4 in the same draft class.

Florida looking great.

E-Rod nice play.

Boston in trouble. Barkov is a stud.

Baseball is the only major sport in North America like you describe. They have two separate leagues and the AL and NL pennant winners get some regardless of the World Series outcome. In football losing the Super Bowl is very hard on the the losing team. The Bills 4 straight AFC Conference Championship were often overlooked and they were the butt of many jokes. It took about a decade or more for that to wear off. In the NHL no one remembers the Stanley Cup loser, or the Presidents Trophy winner for that matter.