IKnowPhysics

"Don't look at me. I think these people are completely nuts."

Yeah, I don't know the details of the interviews. I've alwayshad the impression that Darcy as a legitimate business professional, regardless of perceptions about his hockey accomplishments. Even in the best of times, I didn't think he wouldn't say never to firing a coach. That's probably because that was one of his first lessons on the job- dismissing the Jack Adams winner from that year.

Good thing we fired that guy.

This.

a) I doubt it. He'd probably have a long discussion about the direction of the team with the incoming GM, like he did with Pegula before signing his contract extension, but extenuating circumstances aside, he'd likely have stayed. b) I can't remember Darcy saying something exactly to that effect. Folks may have gotten caught up in the "coach for life" mentality Back on Feb 6th, Mike Harrington framed a lot of that up with paraphrasing and auxiliary quotes. That story was picked up and retold by a few national-level rebloggers, who speculated Ruff wouldn't be fired this year.

Perceptions of idiots. You think Ruff would be fired and turn around to publicly endorse Regier because he's a weasel? Regier has to be a business man in a super-competitive, cut throat business, operating in a position where he must hire and fire dozens of people when he's under intense public scrutiny. I think he's done a good job at NOT ###### everyone he has a business relationship with, and his long tenure is part of a testament to that. The Knoxes weren't dumb when they hired him. He's got a lot less weasel in him, if any, than many, many other professional sports GMs. Which is a pretty good ###### accomplishment, considering that all of the player agents he has to deal with are complete weasels. Every team sells themselves as a playoff team. There were lots of questions about the composure of this team before the season, but you chose to buy into it. I bought into it too, but I'm not being a baby about it. We were under financial restrictions. Doesn't matter how much money Golisano has if he's not willing to spend it. If you thought Roy was overpaid, go back and look at McKee's post-sabres contract. Regardless, go back and do the salary cap math to determine if we could've matched Vanek's offer sheet if we sign Drury ($7M+) and Briere ($5M+), nevermind that Drury didn't want to sign here at any price. Ted Nolan was feuding with the world-class franchise goaltender. Darcy wanted to give them one year to work it out. Darcy had the ball to offer a one year contract to the Jack Adams award winner because it was the right thing to do. When that didn't work, he had the other ball to let Nolan go (a terrifically unpopular move in the eyes of fans), and then he hired a coach that would take them to the Stanley Cup Finals two years later.

One of many reasons why nobody that's played for another team really wants to play there. Maybe they want DiPietro at GM but want to maintain the cap floor.

Thread title edited.

Lindy Ruff's final words: "If you wonder what I've been up to, I've been driving around from Tim Hortons to Tim Hortons, rolling up the rim right now." I'll miss that.

Buffalo Sabres HOF, for sure. Rafters? If coaching accomplishment is on par with player accomplishment, I think he's more deserving than Gare. If rafters are for player accomplishment only, then meh.

Regardless of how good Rolston is, tonight's game could be a god damned bus wreck. I think the only thing going for us is that we do have James Patrick, Teppo Numminen, Kevyn Adams and Jim Corsi. For you players out there, imagine trying to learn a new system with a new head coach in one practice, with a game about 24 hours after you were notified that your poor play got your extremely long-tenured coach canned.

I have an inkling that we let this roster pretty much ride for a few weeks while Rolston gets adjusted, that's unless Regier already had plans or unchangable desire to make moves before yesterday. For instance, I'm not sure I see Regier getting O'Reilly at some great expense/risk, because he's already tried to cause change at great expense/risk. But if the problems on the roster don't respond to the coaching change, then Regier better move them the ###### out.

I'm glad someone did it. If I still lived in the area, I would have done it.

I hate Laviolette so much. Please no.

This is so extremely relevant that Rolston should start wearing an eyepatch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOPl21EVhaU

Discussions with Rolston today, nothing announced yet.

To speculate about what went on behind closed doors, it seems Regier had discussions with Ruff before the season setting the expectations for playoffs this year. When those hopes started to go downhill, they continued to have discussions about how to turn the ship around. It sounds like the most recent conversations left Darcy with the impression that Lindy was running out of ideas about how to right the ship. The Sabres' play during which Winnipeg scored were bad, maybe some of the worst so far this season. The ship's taking on a ######ton of water. With the hopes for playoffs quickly being dashed and few answers from the coach about how to save the ship, Regier decided to wield the most influential tool an NHL GM has in his toolbox. From the standpoint of when to make the move, I think Darcy made the right decision. There's a lot of upside here. He obviously thinks Rolston has a good chance at being a good coach. The interim tag for the rest of the season will let us test that. If he's some sort of miracle, there is enough time to save the season. It also gives plenty of time to evaluate Rolston and other candidates. We also have the flexibility to interview and hire coaches BEFORE every team that didn't make the playoffs starts firing their coaches, if we so choose- we have the jump on the coach market.

Atrocious that this was Lindy Ruff's last game.

Here's hoping.

I hope I run across his path someday after he's completed a long, successful career. I'd like to have a beer with him and reminisce about the good times. The man's got stories to tell. "Cheers to Laviolette and Hitchcock being enormous pricks."

From Darcy's presser, it sounds like the (rest of the) coaching staff believe that Porter's been playing at a high level as a center in the AHL and can contribute on Buffalo's 3rd or 4th line. So they think he'll do more than McCormick, who respectfully has great heart, fight, sacrifice, and compete, but hasn't done ######. McCormick in the NHL this season: 8GP, 0 points, -2, 10PIM, 6 shots, 6:27 average ice time. Porter in the AHL this season: 48GP, 44 points, +8, 38PIM, 83 shots. For reference, Hodgson averaged 1.00 points per game in the AHL, Brennan averaged 0.97, Foligno 0.82. Porter's at 0.92.

"I don't make absolute statements. Never have, never will." Ha!

Ron Rolston Earns Chance at NHL Coaching job: http://www.nhl.com/i...id=nhl:topheads I don't think he'll be a character hard-ass like Darrly Sutter, but I'd really really like to see the Buffalo Sabres return to greatness with the "Hardest Working Team in Hockey" label we once had. Spent a lot of time with USNTDP (2004-2011). Career on his wiki: http://en.wikipedia....iki/Ron_Rolston