Marvin

His last stint in Dallas was not as successful in the playoffs as it was in the regular season. I personally think that it was very suspect goaltending, but many in Dallas at the time blamed Lindy's system as being too hard for the goaltenders and defence to follow. (Sound familiar?) I also recall that he chafed under their GM. And, I think that has finished him as a head coach in the NHL. I can defend his playoff outings for a long, long time, but there is no point -- as you noted, no one agrees with me.

I would have been very happy with Lindy coming back. IMHO, he is one of the best combinations of strategist and tactician in the NHL. If I am going into a playoff series with Lindy as the coach, I always think that I have a chance because he is so good at finding flaws in the opposition's back end and for driving the other team nuts. I also love the way he is able to get under the opposition's skin and keep the press off of his players' backs.

I want to put up a small defence of Ted Nolan. Yes, he was not an X's and O's guy. (Nor an "Ex's and Oh's" guy.) But given what the team did during the pre-season warm-ups and games of the tank year, he did have a recognisable system, if loose. IMHO, it was a clear adaptation to the ice of the "ginga" football style (originally from Brasil, Argentina, and Chile in the 1950's) which has evolved into our possession game (and killed the European long-ball football style for International play): Defencive zone coverage was largely 1-on-1 with clearly defined spacing and zone hand-offs of responsibility from one player to the next. The hand-offs were defined in triangles (D-C-D, D-W-C, W-C-W) relative to the other team's structure. Break-outs and offencive zone movement were also defined by the same triangles. The definitely worked on passing in moderately sized triangles to advance the puck out of the zone from the boards. Several of the Eastern-European countries used this structure, probably because it was so much like possession football. In fact, it was obvious that the European players got it almost instinctively while North American players clearly had to ponder their options.

Oops. Yeah, sorry about that. Thanks for pasting a reference.

If he really is a Jurgen Klopp type of coach ("gegenpressing") and things work out with the line-up, this could make it look like 2005-6. I used to call that style from Ruff as the hockey equivalent of The Netherlands' "Total Football." It would be a combination of possession offence with an aggressive trap defence.

Maybe I should change my uname from the Bongcloud? I can't tell if this is genius or mere insanity.

Only if he has a brother Darryl and another brother Darrell.

Addendum: before the 2006-7 season began, an old friend of mine said that the references to Buffalo in the new Doctor Who did indeed refer to Buffalo, NY. I was hoping it was destiny...

Just think - that was before The Great Recession.

I posted in a couple of other threads why a good FA might sign here for reasonable money as well as why a good coach may come here. But let me go on a few that I think are the most important. I liked a bunch of your posts, but a couple I will emphasise are the recent drafts look WAY better than I expected, especially the later picks, and that a lot of the youngsters a looking like potentially solid NHLers. Believe it or not, I actually liked the play of the team overall before the trade deadline better than I liked it during Bylsma's reign. Unlike JBot, I think that the winning streak and the good play for a while afterwards was not a mirage. I firmly believe if he had replaced Thompson, Sobotka, Elie with Girgensons-Larsson-Okposo level players, then this team -- with all its other flaws up and down the line-up -- would have made the playoffs. They are my team, come Hell or high water. I had season tix during the bankruptcy. Nothing felt worse than wondering if I was never going to see them again. As bad as it feels now, at least we aren't there.

Don't any of the colleges in NYC or northern NJ have ice rinks? They would be the kind of size you would want for a league and be a heckuvalot cheaper. If I am looking at this from the NHL's point of view, I would think that strong US markets and the Canadian markets would be the best place to start. Other places where this could work would be in areas with a large concentration of women's collegiate hockey programs. In particular, the collegiate idea helps with placing teams in Western Canada. (Even then, the travel could be horrible.)

@SabresBaltimore Thanks for that information.

<joke>You mean a Sabres fan can be something other than a nattering nabob of negativity right now?</joke> I've heard some things of varying quality from sources around the PHWA and from my friends' contacts around the NHL. On the other hand, let me speak to the positives: There are still only 31 jobs like it. Pegulas are well liked for treating people well. General feeling that the young core mostly needs confidence to keep themselves from getting down. Overall feeling that even mere NHL quality in the line-up would have this team in the playoffs with decent coaching. At least two people in NHL management have said off-the-record that they disagree with Botterill and think that the overall play from before the Sabres fell too far from the playoffs was for real. Small line-up changes could have had this team in the playoffs even with Housley as coach. Fan base is loyal almost to a fault; this is particularly true on the road. Direct quote: "The Sabres 'travel well'." Lots of people around the league have a soft spot for the Sabres. This apparently goes back to the Knoxes.

I am starting to think it's going to be a former Sabre because no one else will come here.

Self-described "Never Trump" Conservative here. IMHO, if the Democrats want to win, I am in their target demographic. Socially liberal enough and willing to tolerate some government programs as long as national security is taken care of and someone takes the deficit more seriously than my party's allegedly "fiscal conservatives" do. You need to think of what Kristin Gillibrand was before she became part of the Democratic leadership. From my point of view, one of Hickenlooper, Klobuchar, Buttigieg, Booker, Castro, or even Harris would be acceptable.

Duly noted. I just remember "Conga line" from something like TSN's worst plays of the year. (IIRC, it was #2 behind the Edmonton Oilers "crease demolition derby".)

You are being overly generous. That was the first time I actually laughed out loud at the team during a game (The Conga Line).

FTFY, based on available evidence. ?

NHL - Buffalo (Aud, KBC), Boston (Garden), NYR (MSG), NYI (Uniondale), NJD (Meadowlands), Washington (Cap Center), Detroit (JLA), Pittsburgh (Civic Center), Philadelphia (Spectrum), Chicago (Stadium), Minnesota (Met Center), San Jose (SAP), Los Angeles (Forum), Anaheim (Anaheim Arena), Columbus (NWA) NBA - Buffalo (Aud), Toronto (MLG), Cleveland (Richfield), Milwaukee (Milwaukee Arena), Baltimore (Baltimore Arena), Detroit (Palace) NFL - Buffalo (Rockpile, Rich), Cleveland (Cleveland Stadium), Pittsburgh (3 Rivers), Cincinnati (Riverfront), Chicago (Soldier Field), Minnesota (Metrodome), Detroit (Silverdome), Indianapolis (RCA Dome) MLB - Toronto (Exhibition Stadium, Skydome), Montreal (Olympic park) I've seen numerous other sporting events and sports in general (Soccer, NCAA games at UMd and MSU), but I figure that gives you an idea of how I avoided depression when I was an undergrad and grad student.

If I were a free agent who feels undervalued, I might prefer Buffalo. What you would want is the Mike Peca model: someone in an organization that is trying to win now and who is buried behind established players for even 4th line minutes. He comes to Buffalo, gets to play a bit more, and POOF - he's one of the best 2-way players in the NHL.

Now if all the other completely unappealing candidates got hired as assistants, I could sleep much more easily...

One way for JBot to play defence is to do something tactical that could buy him an extra year of leeway - that would be to screw the Leafs and hire Keefe.

One point that is this survey does not account for is Buffalo expats boost the ratings of nationally televised games with the Sabres, even though they have been horrible for years. The Buffalo market is not that large, but the influence of the Buffalo Sabres is very large.

This is what I was wondering. His contract is up this year. He could expect a decent payday for a very good term. If he has a solid year for a defenceman with only the typical bumps and bruises (say, 70 games), how good would you feel about a 6x6 contract? That makes me wince because of his history.

I don't think so. Boston and Chicago were similar; they often had teams misjudging distances, times, angles, etc. If a team clutched and grabbed back in the day (you know who they were), they could make it almost impossible for a team to get any speed through the neutral zone. Similarly, the Sabres of the time would take a neutral zone turn-over, blow right by the vistors' defence, and be on top of the goaltender before anyone on the opposition could get their bearings straight. I always figured that this advantage is what made the Sabres almost impossible to beat at home, but did not translate well on the road in the playoffs.