Marvin

Staal was a 1C last year. It is hardly unreasonable to expect that he could be a 2C here. IMHO, if Staal couldn't make it work with RK, then no one short of the a clear 1C could.

I keep thinking that, regardless of what we get as a replacement, there are a few things that have to happen by the end of the season: 1. Improved positional awareness for teammates and the opposition -- both in coverage and attack 2. No lollygagging on the way to the bench 3. Improved ensemble play -- particularly improved passing and communication 4. Greater tenacity in puck races and puck battles 5. On offence, people get to the slot and other dirty areas. 6. On defence, no one is uncovered in or near the slot. Ever. 7. Less passive mindset. Drat it, is that a lot. And this is all basic stuff after skating, stickhandling, and shooting.

This is the insight I have been trying to work out! Now I get how the players initially reacted to him relative to Housley and why it has been such a plunge downhill since then. Thanks, dudacek. 🙂

They took pity on us?

Dear GM Adam's, Please see if Taylor is willing to be the interim coach. Signed, me.

Welcome. And ditto

If money is the motivation, then I have a way that RK might be gone sooner. How is this for false hope: season ticket holders essentially decline to waste their money when the KBC opens for fans. If they don't can him soon, then they might as well forget making the playoffs for 5 more seasons after this one.

Same here. And I hate saying that. IMHO, Kreuger has to go no later than the end of the road trip for the Sabres to have a chance of hinting at implying at sniffing a whiff of what could maybe be a fraction of a modicum of a smidgen of credibility by the end of the season.

Sentence by sentence: Just because someone does not hate the Pegulas does not mean that s/he loves incompetent insanity. I don't hate them at all. They seem quite personable and about as good as I could expect anyone -- just not running a hockey franchise. If the Pegulas only cared about money, this team would not be in Buffalo. I will agree that not acting quickly, accepting that they created this mess, and fixing this proto makes them look like incompetents at running a hockey team. I can't offhand think of anyone defending how the Sabres have been run in the past decade. You are right: they got lucky with the Bills. Next time you are downtown during lunch and order from the food trucks, you might run into one of the Pegulas, KA, or other high-ranking visible members of the organisation. Do what I did: say something. I spoke with Kim once about how much I hated the tank after it worked. I told Tim Murray how much I appreciated his father and his uncle allowing me and some coaches from UMd to sit in on the Washington Capitals' and Baltimore Skipjacks' practises as well as meet with them before and after practise. I spoke with one of the daughters about her hopes for the family's ownership. I told Terry how I hated the lack of movement from Botterill when the Sabres were sliding out of playoff position in 2019. If you are polite, you can really engage them and get some answers -- even if you don't like what they tell you. IMHO, you opinion about how clueless they are about certain aspects of hockey management are well-founded. And if the are not occupied, they always answer questions from regular fans in line with them when they are treated the way everyone else is treated.

I wonder if KA is self-aware enough to hire an assistant who really is the GM and have that guy hire the Coach while he does the hard part of keeping the Pegulas at bay.

Chemistry is so underrated. We remember the 1996-9 and 2005-6 teams so fondly not just because they were good; we remember how committed they were to the system, the coach, the team concept, and to each other. We also remember that, aide from Hasek, none of the players were considered 1A players at his position when the season started and that both sets of rosters had question marks galore. Aside from Miroslav Satan, who on any of those teams would have been considered even 1B player heading into those seasons? No one picked either the 1996-7 or 2005-6 teams to even make the playoffs. That's why we dislike teams which are positionally unaware. We fume when players coast to the bench on a change. We hate that no one drives to the net. We yell when no one defends a teammate getting roughed up. We scream because they lose virtually every puck battle. I once agreed with the old assessment that the 1974-86 teams were generally soft. I have been watching games of them recently. Nope. They always has flaws, especially relative to the talent-minimising officiating of the era, but they were never deficient in the fundamentals of hockey or the basics of ensemble play.

In (dis)honour of the Sabres' play, I will be scooping and dumping cat litter during the game.

Yes, I do. We will certainly lose 1 of those players. I just wanted to know what out base is before anything happens this season. If I were GMKA, I would seriously consider protecting only 8 skaters off that list: Skinner, Eichel, Reinhart, Dahlin, Borgen, Bryson, and two of Jokiharu, Ristolainen or Olofsson. Thank God Cozens is exempt.

Unless I absolutely must trade them, I hold on to Eichel, Reinhart, Dahlin, Cozens, and my top prospects for dear life if at all possible. When I think of the off-season and the expansion draft, this is my base (I think 5 forward lines, 4 defence pairs, and 3 goaltenders): Cozens, Eichel, Reinhart, and Skinner are clear top 6 forwards; Girgensons, Lazar, Mittlestadt, Okposo, Olofsson (until his 5-on-5 play improves), and Thompson are in the bottom 9; McCabe-Ristolainen, Dahlin-Borgen, and Bryson-Jokiharu look like 3 solid pairs; Ullmark and Johansson are my goaltenders. We need at least three forwards who can at least spot play in the top 6. I think we can safely put Olofsson on line 3 and we can debate if Mittlestadt belongs here. We need at least 1 player of at least 2B quality for the 3 spots in the top 9. And they have to play a more hard-nosed game. I personally assume that injuries will being guys up from Rochester, but none of them look like immediate NHL top-6 material yet. That is the bare minimum which GMKA has to do by next season. And that is just to contend for a playoff spot.

I did my bit to summon Azal and bring the gargoyle Bok to life. What else can I do? Oh, I know: summon the Gorgan Melvin Belli! Hail, hail! Fire and snow. Call the angel; we will go. Far away, for to see. Friendly angel come to me

Does Staal still have his NMC? IMHO, all of Hall, Staal, Montour, Irwin, Miller, Hutton, and the entire bottom 6 by talent can be moved for picks. I need at least one current, quality asset (good prospect or gritty younger NHL-level player) for him. I only trade Reinhart, Cozens, Eichel, and Dahlin for gross over-payments. A new coach beforehand, interim or otherwise, who can lift the cloud over the team and at least make them all look like NHLers would help immensely.

This cuts two ways. Skinner should not have been playing with most of the players he has been on lines with since RK started. He really could stand to be on a PP just to get him going. He also should be scoring more. But he creates platinum opportunities which still don't go in. He plays with guys he does not trust to create rebounds for him or to finish chances he creates. Both he and RK share responsibility for his drought. I think we are quibbling over who gets a majority of the blame.

An interim coach who can up their trade value by getting everyone to play better would be an immense help.

NYI shot = 2 squats, NYI goal = 10 sit-ups. You don't want to send him to the hospital, do you?

So if Hutton is standard swiss, does that make our D Lorraine swiss?

This team has had times where they had a hard time executing passing, skating, and coverage over the last decade. But this season is orders of magnitude worse.

He was the top player in Minnesota last year. Maybe he fell off the cliff due to age.

Just musing: how much did having the LOG line help last year?

I can't get the thought out of my head that he almost did something drastic in a fit of pique, but talked himself back from it. When talking about the team, it was not GM speak, it was more player speak and fan attitude. When he talked about the job he has to do, it was GM speak with player attitude. IMHO, that implies that RK is done for and KA has started his head coaching search and is debating whether he should bring in an interim coach for the rest of the season. IMHO, he should do that now and clear the decks. Jack is clearly at the end of his rope. IMHO, benching Skinner did it. KA clearly disagreed with Skinner's benching -- but that now means Eichel probably needs cajoling to stay beyond this season. He is very upset that the players don't play like he does. Honestly, he sounded like he was pointing a finger at Staal and Hall, who should know better. Why aren't they able to help Jack -- particularly Staal, who was the Captain of a Cup winner.

I agree with the goaltending. However, we can't score 5-on-5. We are getting mediocre but not horrible goaltending. But our scoring is way, way down. How much does lack of confidence in the goaltending feed the scoring drought and vice-versa?