OrangeSeatVertigo

the US/Canada game was great.

who would want the job? what a crappy situation to plop into

Obviously, with the improved goaltending, they made a mistake in firing Granato and his go go go score as much as possible offense. they strategy probably works if the goaltending is good. win every game 7-5. works for me. Bring Granato style back. It will work now.

not sure there actually IS a path to avoid the ship sinking.. FAs won't come; trade targets will block any trade to the Sabres; the young guys have guaranteed contracts therefore top 10-12 guys aren't changing in the near term...

without the long term contracts, the players would have left in free agency. so at least the team controls where the player goes, not the player... I get it, that is small consolation, but WNY is a toxic NHL destination for players right now. not sure what the roster would be if the long term contract guys were not there... would be worse than it is now I would imagine. Not sure how to fix this/// letting go anyone who had a hand in screwing up the Eichel relationship would be the 1st step I would imagine. Can you imagine what Eichel says about this organization?

yeah none of this is about $$. Lindy has more than enough of that; he has stated this was his last coaching gig; so yeah this will be where he goes up to the front office and off the bench. He's a good hockey guy, but the roster is so young, light, small and soft that it needs to fitted out with tougher guys.

this is what i think happens. Ruff is his buddy and no coach will be able figure this out with this roster build. don't make Ruff the scapegoat. Scotty Bowman couldn't succeed with this baby faced roster. Time to do a Bills/2016-style reset. Trade away the AHL-level figure skaters and get tougher.

Yeah they're pretty much f'd with all the guaranteed contracts they've put out (not faulting them for it, as no FA will come to this franchise and all the players who can turn it around have no trade lists in their contract and B Lo is on all those no trade lists). So... it looks like this is akin to what McBeanes inherited with the Bills. They need to simply dump anyone in the front office responsible for the Eichel debacle plus the contracts of all the Marcel Dareus' of the world (those who won't go to the net, for example), take the hits and start anew. So a bunch of Eichel-type deals trading away the best figure skater talents (Quinn, etc) for tough guys. Become a tough team. So my guess is that Lindy takes Adams job and a new tough guy coach comes in. Go win games 2-1. The better FA talents in the league simply will simply not be willing to come to the Sabres for several years to come and all trades will be blocked by no trade contract terms. Pegs needs to see the similarities between his current hockey franchise and the Rex Ryan 2016 Bills; change it out from the top down and start over.

Just a bunch of young talented guys playing against teams full of veteran, solid NHLers. Looks like an AHL team playing NHL teams. It will be awhile before they grow up. The NHL draft (unlike the NFL draft) doesn't usually generate immediate solutions. NHL games are won by experienced, big, tough vets. Sabres are building that, but not there now thats for sure.

The Bills went through the same thing for more years and came out of it. Seems when you draft high in the NHL, there needs to be a generation talent there (Lemieux, Crosby, McDavid) not the Dahlins/Powers of the world, or else you just continue in mediocrity. Bills draft Rosen instead of Allen, and they still suck to this day. Not sure the owner has a lot to do with it, or has a ton of input to it. What does Pegula know about hockey? What would you expect him to know about hockey? His job was to save the franchise which was close to pulling out of town.. and he did that.

the better free agent with no trade clauses simply do not want to play for this franchise, similar to the Bills during the drought

...the goaltending is top 5 in the league. this team won't score many goals now that the offense has been reigned in , so get ready for boring 3-2 hockey games. would rather go back to playing wide open now that the goaltending is better, but I am doubtful that a Lindy team will be allowed to do that

all sounds good, but assuming the trade targets all have no-trade clauses in their contracts (you need to determine this first) none of them are allowing a trade to buffalo. simply not going to happen.. doesn't matter what the Sabres offer. gonna be awhile b4 this team is a destination any top player will entertain

I'm sure Tk has a no trade clause in his contract. and the last place any high quality NHL player will allow themselves to be traded to is the Sabres. the price is irrelevant. the player will simply say "no"

what rock star NHLer wants to spend the whole winter in WNY with a disfunctional franchise when you could go live in Vegas, Cali or Fla all winter with well-run contender franchises? Sabres will continue to have this problem and will need to grow their own talent, as the better established players all have no-trade clauses in their contracts.

Plus they now have two solid goaltenders and a solid top 4 defense. they didn't have any of that for the first half of the season. Its all timing. Ruff will look like a savior, but actually both goaltenders and several forwards grew up on Granato's watch plus Byrum was added; and Lindy will get the credit. Silly really and Granato will be forgotten. Whatever.. Granato is paid handsomely so no one is suffering.

His last gig in a familiar place. A little too cozy for my liking, but who the heck else (who's not from WNY) would want a job where you get to spend every winter in f ing WNY other than someone who already knows the area and therefore can get past the weather negative?? Players/Coaches, not easy to get them to B Lo i would imagine; B Lo must be on every rock-star players' "no-trade" list. Poorly run franchise in a highly negatively perceived (not valid, but real) area. Let's hope he can get them to the next level.

agreed. last season at this point, they went sideways for a month. I am assuming, if healthy, that does not happen between now and year end. Goaltending is better, that should make most of the difference. then they get Quinn back.

answer is undoubtedly no

Put 15 lbs of muscle on him (a half a dozen Sabres need this, btw) and give him decent linemates... then and only then can he be assessed. The first item he can control, the second, not sure that will happen. He probably is an throw in, in a trade for a top D with a team short on centers. Unfortunate, but whatever.

yes, you are. relax, no coaching revolving door please. Levi will plug the hole in goal and all will be well.

Let's see what we have in Levi for the remainder of the season and go from there. This ain't the year but goaltending will be a priority for next year. Hart will be there in 2 months.

Put him in the net. He has been the man in college, from everything I've read, he's the real deal, is mentally very good and can translate to the NHL right away. His d was lousy at NE, so seeing a lot of shots won't matter to him. Doesn't seem like the NHL level will affect him mentally, which is the big concern I guess.

I certainly don't