Pimlach

Yes. If you have been following closely since TP took over you would have seen the meddling and heard about it. If you know any former Sabres, former coaches, or employees you might believe it. The guy blew it right out of the gate, starting with Lafontaine and almost every move since. He is now past the massive interfering he did with the Sabres in the early days. Since he shut them down at Covid, and fired Boterill for not following his new plan, he has this team in a slow rebuild autopilot. He installed Adams, a guy with ZERO NHL hockey operations experience, to run his efficient, economic, and effective policies - we have not yet seen the effective part of this plan BTW. I don't really care what you believe either. You can question me, that is fine. He runs the NFL team differently because Beane and McDermott really do run the Bills and they keep him at bay. They like him, and he likes them, and they are winning - so you keep on keeping on. Terry gets to go into the draft war room and be with the boys. He gets to say, "I like Josh Allen the best", and that is ok. Because Beane makes the picks. You can believe what you want. You can think because a guy makes billions in energy that he can run a hockey team. I don't see that correlation and 14 years of watching him in action tells me a lot. I cannot think of anyone that he hired to run the hockey operations side that had the right experience, and the track record to do the job. All of the GMs since Darcy have been very young and first timers. Murray is out of hockey, never to be heard from again. Boterill is back with his old boss and working at the same level he was before he took the Sabres GM job. He is one of 3 AGMs in Seattle btw. Adams had the least experience of the three. Why do you think he hires these young dudes? Why do senior level men like Trotz, Boudreau, Berube, Gallant, etc, not get a call to help in some manner?

Adams does not take ownership for the state of the team, so neither does Granato, so neither do the players. I am so tired of hearing that they are not the cause for the drought. The current FO, the current coaches, and the current players are as big of contributors as anyone else. This is the exact opposite approach that McDermott and Beane took. The Sabres are clueless from top to bottom.

Why do you blame the city? Buffalo has been a great hockey town in the past (long past) and players have enjoyed playing in Buffalo and living in Buffalo. That was when they had good ownership. The Sabres organization started to get a very bad reputation around the league when they dismantled a President's Trophy team because then owner Golisano did not want to pay the players. The bad feeling about Buffalo around the league started then, because ownership showed no commitment to winning, even when they had the pieces to do so. Pegula was supposed to be the savior and he came in loaded with false bravado, bragging about his money, and making stupid claims that he could not back up. He has proven to be a fool with money, and ironically today he runs the team on a tight budget. Pegula's big problem was not hiring the right people right from the beginning while listening to his Pittsburgh and Penn State buddies. LaFontaine was a terrible choice as POHO who made more terrible choices with Murray and Nolan. Since then Terry has just made mistakes upon mistakes. Putting his wife in charge being a massive one. He is now gun shy and surrounds himself with much younger yes men. The Sabres have had great ownership just once - that was under the Knox's. That is the era were the greatest moments, the best memories, and the majority of the best players come from. Back then Buffalo had no trouble attracting and keeping good players. Buffalo is not the problem, but being a small city and having very bad winter weather is going to work against attracting modern players, I get that. But there are plenty of players that prefer small cities and that come from winter climates. Winning is all it takes. Commitment to win and run a classy organization. It starts at the top and the Sabres ownership has been below par since the Knox Family sold the team. Even when the Rigas and Golisano teams found success on the ice, they also had issues with they way things we managed. It is not the city that is the problem. It is 100% Terry.

To tell Tage to win the draw with a clean "laser shot" on the net that goes over the goalie's shoulder and into the net with 0.1 seconds left - and provable on replay.

That will not happen. When you replace the leader you don't leave him around to be 2nd fiddle. Not in any business.

They won't let him. Beane allegedly has a no interference clause. They do let him play the boss on draft day. He sits in the war room and gives opinions.

Adding those "leadership character players" is not staying the course. Adams has showed no ability to add those kind of players - Stahl didn't want to help us, Hall could not help us, EJ and Anderson were expired players on an empty tank. The Mitts-Byram trade just got us younger and gave us another 21 year old kid to cover up for - Byram is not yet a first pair guy either. Paired with Joker, they make up a very weak 2nd pair that gets exploited. So far he has drafted 3 good NHL players - Quinn, Peterka, and Benson - all still learning their way. He made one good trade to fill a need (Greenway for a #2), and he made one good UFA signing (Clifton). Everything else he did is a big nothing. Maybe a few more prospects will develop, making the team younger still, but the roster is completely devoid of men that play the game the right way and know how to win. So stay the course? There are some good building blocks. I say bring in a better coaching staff at the minimum. Prefer that Terry brings in an experienced hockey man (POHO) to put over Adams. Then Adams can concentrate on contracts and the draft. Let the POHO fix the roster (handle the pro personnel) and find a coach. My trust in Adams to make all the right moves is waning.

Pegula has been dinged around the league for hasty firings of coaches and GMs. He is sticking with DG and Kevyn, in part to show the league stability. He has a knack for doing the wrong things, no matter what his decisions. I was critical of this roster from the very start of the season. Critical of the lack of moves, critical of the prolonged training camp, critical of the extended tryouts in October and November. This team was never really ready to contend for anything. One silver lining is UPL. No doubt that if UPL was still playing at Tokarski/Dell AHL levels we would have overplayed and ruined Levi. Take away UPL and they are a bottom 5 team again. The Mitts trade? Still to early for a final grade but right now it looks like we created a big hole and failed to fill a big hole. All we need next is for Byram to not sign an extension and force a trade at the deadline. Then we end up with a 2nd rounder for Mitts - I see that coming. Unless of course Byram likes the Sabres country club and decides to stay.

The Stars clearly play faster and with way more structure, they are the better coached team. I didn't see the first 7 or 8 minutes but what I saw was more of the same from the Sabres. The bottom 6 is very poor. The defense does nothing to support UPL around the crease. The combination of Joker and Byram is especially soft. Does Bo Byram really look like a first pairing defenseman? That fantasy is over.

The problem with the Sabres is not size. It is experience and the way they play.

According to Torts, we lost again, but we still have balls.

So sad to read these pages. I hope Kevyn comes up with something better, and soon.

Dallas PK dominating the Sabres. No match.

The Sabres better wake up and score on the PP.

Stars PK stifled the Sabres. Sabres did ZERO.

It’s not funny because they drafted Rosen, Savoie, Kulich, and Östlund in the first round - all centers. Will any be NHL centers? wingers?

With Mitts gone we really have to improve on Cozens, Krebs, and Jost at center. They are thin up the middle.

Ok. That evens it up. get back to work. They are slacking and still in it.

Skinner scored. It will be reviewed.

My eyes and experience told me that. Thanks for the data. Please share it with Granato and his defensive assistant coach.

He may be wearing out but the Stars are all around the crease and in the slot. They seem to live there. UPL might need to get some Billy Smith in him. Billy would use his stick to clear the slot. Ah, the good old days.

The Stars are camping out in front of the net. Three deflection tip ins. One called back.

10 and 4 are not good together.

Spooner (top left) and Doohickie (top right), of the Muscle Schoals Swampers - preparing for a recording session.

Byram skated with the puck to his corner and gave it away. WTF