JohnC

I'm listening to the game. After the Nurse score it sounded like an Edmonton dominated crowd. Is it?

The owner is inadequate. The GM is inadequate.The organization is inadequate. The coaching staff is inadequate. That is an overwhelming viewpoint that few would disagree with. I made the statement that I believe that Granato has done a better coaching job than Ruff. If you disagree, then disagree. That assessment doesn’t change the assessments in the other areas. My unequivocal position is that the owner is most responsible for destroying the franchise.

Everyone agrees that the roster is inadequate. No debate there. Maybe you disagree but in my view Granato has outperformed Ruff as a coach.

The simple truth is that Granato has outperformed Ruff as a coach with a lesser team. This team has regressed. What’s obvious is that the current coached is being tuned out by the resistant players.

You are not paying attention. Re-read what I actually said and not what you think I said. I acknowledged that TP has been successful with the Bills and Bandits. And I cited the primary reason is that he allowed competent people to manage the respective operations. That's the opposite of what he did with the Sabres. He inexplicably hired an ill-equipped and incompetent GM whose appeal was that he could restart another rebuild on the cheap and would be amenable to the owner's whims. Just as Dan Snyder was a failure as a football owner, Terry P is a failure of as a hockey owner. Isn't a generation of failure enough proof for you to recognize the stupendous incompetence of this silent hockey owner.

When Dan Snyder was "essentially" forced out as an owner and replaced by a new owner, the once moribund franchise was quickly revived. One of the first things the new owner did was form a committee made up of football and people from other lines of businesses to analyze the former contaminated organization. It resulted in restructuring the organization and providing a legitimate staffing search to restaff the organization. The revival was stunningly quick. Terry Pegula has become Buffalo's version of Dan Snyder, without the sleaze. He looked at the franchise as his toy to tinker with. Just as the Snyder owned franchise was a mocked and scorned franchise, so has the Pegula owned franchise become a mocked and scorned franchise. The Sabres have become the model of what not to do when managing a franchise. It's so sad and maddening.

Even without a "formal" consulting process the stubborn owner has the ability to talk to a myriad number of people in the hockey business and get some advice. It's not a secret that the owner has made some "mystifying" hires whose primary appeal is that they would bend a knee to his whims. Your last sentence in your post captures the essence of the problem: His willingness to do so and listen. So far, he has walled himself off to the outside. So, we get what we get, and continue to get what we got. I'm so tired of this stubborn owner who lacks the self-awareness of recognizing his glaring deficiencies. This is such a ridiculous situation!

No one can force him to do anything. But even a silent billionaire recognizes the difference between success and failure. He can't fake his record in a business that keeps score with wins and losses as the metric. Even Terry P. recognizes that. Is this stubborn guy receptive to outside advice? So far, he has not. However, the hope, fanciful as it may be, he has to come to the realization that what he did with the Bills and Bandits, having knowledgeable people run your sports franchises is the better route to take from a competitive and financial standpoint.

The Cozens evaluation is going to be interesting now that he is in different environment. If he becomes an effective player with his new team, then that would be an indictment of the franchise that he left. There is no question that Cozens was playing under stress, and the pressure was getting to him. If he turns it around and becomes a factor for his new team, then that is a commentary on the franchise he left.

He could try to "influence" the silent owner to bring in experienced NHL hockey people to analyze his failed organization and give him some outside advice as to how to better restructure and re-staff this failed franchise. When your franchise has become the most mocked and player scorned franchise in the league, there has to be a realization that how you as an owner has operated has hideously failed. Stumbling is part of the cyclical business. However, stumbling for almost a full generation is outside the normal. The league certainly has a stake in reviving a comatose franchise.

It doesn't matter how Norris looked. He's now stuck in the muck of mediocrity while Cozens has been liberated. Cozens will thrive in a healthy environment while Norris will be contaminated in his new toxic environment. The abnormality of this sick franchise has become its normal.

Do you know how a Sabre player can play in the playoffs? Get traded! Case in point: Cozens will be in the playoffs and Norris will not be.

Of course, Terry P is a terrible public speaker. That's evident to all. However, that doesn't mean that he can't communicate his feelings and intentions through surrogates. As far as owners of pro franchising expressing dissatisfaction about the failing state of their respective franchises, it happens all the time. It's the norm, not the exception. If they have to do it through surrogates, then they do so. It demonstrates to the fanbase that they are aware of the situation and that the status quo is unacceptable. When a franchise has been flailing for a generation, the period when he bought the franchise, then there should be some expression and demonstration that he is attempting to remedy the situation. He hasn't done that. Not even the minimum. He bought a public product. What did he expect? The Wizard of Oz behind the curtain act? There is a responsibility that he at least communicates in some fashion that he is aware of what is going on and that he cares. This silent act makes no sense. I'm tired of this silent billionaire owner and the damage he has done to this franchise and hockey market. The situation and his odd silent behavior are ridiculous.

Are the Sabres in the middle of a collapse? I can't say. That in itself is a testament to their inconsistent and erratic play. What is the owner going to do? Who knows? He doesn't publicly speak. That in itself is weird. There are plenty of platitudes that his PR staff can prepare for him to say or allow someone else to say on his behalf. Is the owner apathetic? Is he mad? Is he involved in the hockey decisions or not? Who knows! At least in the Wizard of Oz it is finally learned who was behind the curtain. Here, we don't know who or what is going on behind the scenes. It's an oddly run operation from an ownership standpoint. I would be receptive to consider Karmanos and Leone for the key jobs in this flailing franchise. I doubt that it will happen because it makes too much sense for this oddly run franchise.

Of course, nothing is guaranteed about Adams employment status. However, if I were a betting man I would place my bet on the owner sticking with the current GM, unless there is an end of season collapse. Assuming that he remains on the job, the next obvious question is what moves will be made in the offseason to shake up the roster or will he stand pat? I really don't know what the upper staff is thinking and considering. What's bothersome to me regardless of what the roster makeup is, it seems that the players are not responding to the coaching. That's troubling. There is a lot of talk about shaking up the player room. Maybe there should more discussion about shaking up the coaching room. They are not getting through to the players.

I made this point on another thread that the players were not listening to the coach, and the coach was not holding the players accountable for their undisciplined play. Compare this to Tampa when Kucherov, a veteran player associated with the cup teams, made a sloppy play along the boards where JJP got the puck from Kucherov and scored off of that mistake. This happened near the end of the second period. Tampa's coach, Cooper, benched one of their best players for the rest of the period. The player got the message and played well the rest of the way. This was an example where the coach was not going to tolerate lackadaisical play and the player was receptive to the disciplinary message. Contrast that to sloppy and undisciplined way the Sabres usually play! What's apparent is that coach is being tuned out and the players continue on with their sloppy play. The unacceptable has become the acceptable. That's one of the reasons why this team is where it is.

Still a resolute no for me. The Sabres are now a mocked franchise. Do you think that he wants to finish his impressive career here in the clown show? I doubt it.

Zucker is one of the few players who plays a tough brand of hockey and offers some net presence on offense, especially on the PP. A 2 year deal is reasonable; a 3 year deal would have been problematic. This team needs veterans who wants to be here. I'm fine with it. Not a major move but a solid move.

If this comes close to being an even trade, then I'm fine with it. This team needs a shakeup. It was obvious that Cozens was playing too tightly and stressfully. Moving Cozens was the right thing for the player and for the franchise. I wouldn't be surprised if with a fresh start Cozens becomes a much better player with his new playoff pursuing team. I wish him the best.

Getting Marchand in a trade would make no sense for us. He's a veteran player who's clearly on the downside of his career. We would have to take on a hefty salary and give up assets for a player who is in his fading career becoming a less significant factor. This is the type of transaction for show that our clownish organization would do just to demonstrate that it is doing something to remedy a dismal situation with PR stunts. Marchand has been an instrumental and iconic player for the Bruins, a consistently good franchise. The organization would not disgrace itself by sending this iconic Bruin to this buffoonish organization in western NY. He deserves better treatment. If the Bruin organization would trade him, it should be to a serious organization. That's certainly not the laughable Sabre organization. An absolute no for me!

In the Tampa game, Kucherov lazily lost the puck to JJP who then scored. The Tampa's coach then sat out Kucherov, one of their best and longest tenured player, for the rest of the period. He got the message. When the third period began he was back to form. That's coaching. What's obvious is that the Sabre players are not listening to Lindy. Sloppy play represents Sabre play. This team and franchise need a major shakeup. Our silent owner needs to act like a serious owner instead of an apathetic owner. The state of affairs is embarrassing. He remains silent.

On the ESPN broadcast they made a comment that he is a candidate to be traded. I don't know if he will be traded but it is apparent from regularly being out of the lineup that he will be moved with peanuts in return. I'm sure that he will be relieved to get out of this cesspool of a franchise.

The GM made an assumption that the young players you listed would continue on an upward trajectory and become the new core. The problem was that the listed young guns were prematurely assigned roles that were beyond their development. Not only was it a mistake from a team standpoint but also from a developmental standpoint for each of these players. Right now, it appears that Kulich may be our best prospect. But even if that is the case, he's not ready enough to be on a top two line. The bottom line is that the GM had a plan that was too accelerated/ambitious for the prospects he was counting on. He made a miscalculated bet and lost at the table. The end result is that he sunk the team in the process. And to make things even worse, the young players that he was counting on have severely been devalued so that in a trade the return would not be sufficient enough to get an adequate return. When you have a checkers player playing in a chess game predictably you lose.

I don't know if you made your comment in jest or not. But what I can say is that if the silent and obtuse owner would have selected Karmanos to be the GM instead of making the weird hiring of the ill-equipped person he did hire, it would have made more sense. It's obvious to all that the KA hiring was due to his plan to cut costs by starting over in accordance with the owner's desire to cut expenditures. Five years later, the predictable outcome is realized with this farcical franchise anchored to the bottom of the heap. It's an embarrassing and a disgrace. The best thing that the owner can do to revitalize this moribund franchise is to sell. I've had enough of this billionaire fool!

Sometimes the explanation is not complicated: an excessive supply of hubris distorts one's judgment.