Doohicksie

His press conferences would be gold but otherwise I'm not a fan.

Yeah, I enjoyed his presser. He was on a team with a long history of success. I think he was just as sure as the rest of the Sabres that Buffalo would make the playoffs. It sounds like it was a slap in the face to him that they didn't. Watching the exit interviews and wondering which of these players will be gone in the fall. Skinner? Joki? Comrie? (okay, Comrie for sure), Olofsson? Krebs? Jost? Possibly all dead men walking. It wasn't an exit interview, but I watched Comrie's postgame from game 82. He knows he's done in Buffalo. It's kind of sad.

College hockey related, don't think a new thread is warranted. Apparently Ryan Seereiter from Orchard Park is joining the TCU hockey team here in Fort Worth... anyone in Buffalo know anything about him?

Would that have made the team play better? Honest question.

After hearing Tuch's take on Gallant, he's the one I hope we land. "I hate every team that's in the playoffs." Love that, Alex.

I think it's comparable to run versus pass in football. If you always try to carry it in, the other team defends that. To break that you dump it in and get their Dmen chasing the puck so they don't prevent zone entry. When the drop off because they're expecting the dump in, you carry it in. The two types of zone entries complement each other. If you only do one, the opposing defense will stop you. I think that's part of the reason the offense declined this year: They scored a lot on the rush last year. Opposing teams jammed up the middle to make that more difficult and the team never countered it until... late in the season where dump ins and forechecking worked. Go figure.

Nope https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolschram/2021/03/17/nhls-last-place-buffalo-sabres-fire-coach-ralph-krueger/?sh=7d6e07ce54a1

I think Kevyn picked the wrong center to jettison. Unfortunately he apparently decided when he signed Cozens that he was going to keep only two of the stud centers, and Casey, for whatever reason, was the odd man out. I don't understand the reasoning behind it other than Tage and Cozens were already locked up but Casey was on an expiring bridge contract. I've felt for at least the last season or so that you need a player like Mitts on the team- can play virtually anywhere in the Top 9 with very little drop off. When Tage got hurt late last season he took over the top line and they didn't miss a beat and even allowed Donny the luxury of bringing Tage back as a second line winger so he didn't have to step right back in at the top spot. I hope that, as some people have said, this trade wasn't in a vacuum and that Kevyn has a plan to replace Casey. But I'm not sure the team will be better off with Byram + Replacement Center than they would have been with Casey + the Dmen they had.

fify 😉

I don't really think I've "having" either of these things. I'm just trying to capture the sentiment of the forum. Overall I think everyone here feels that Donny was at his max, perhaps a little over his head, at the NHL level. There are some people here who feel the same about Kevyn, there are others who still think he's doing a good job.

This is the rub. Will he? Or is what you see all that Krebs will ever be?

So... Marty.

What is he suppose to do, put all the blame on the players and coaches and take no responsibility himself. Good leaders share in the blame and take responsibility. 🙄 The blame isn't as important as the solution. I think everyone on this forum would agree that Donny was a great guy, good at developing players, meh at game coaching at the NHL level. He had to go. The board is split as to whether Kevyn is capable of building a contending team. This has to be weighed against the pros and cons of giving Kevyn another year or two versus turning it over to someone new, which brings its own risks and may further delay the current build or event trigger a new rebuild. In simple terms, TPegs looks at progress (or lack thereof) to date, and has to figure out if Kevyn is part of the problem or part of the solution. He's given every other GM two coaching hires. Kevyn had the "penalty" of having to run the previous coach back at the beginning of his administration. Giving him one more coaching hire follows the TPegs pattern.

Okay I can deal with that.... so long as Kevyn doesn't have plans for him to play a significant role on the team next season, such as 3C. If he grows into that, fine, but Kevyn better have other options. But the ultimate check and balance I think will be the new HC. He will look at the roster with fresh eyes and let Kevyn know where the holes and useless players are. And I don't expect any significant moves until the new HC is on board.

I think Kevyn hopes he'll be the next Casey Mittelstadt. Maybe he's right but I'm not seeing it.

That was frustrating: They'd "safely" pass it back to the D pair who would then proceed to cough it up when opponents forechecked them. A lot of the time the Sabres D would have full control but would be too casual with the puck and eventually cough it up. The most egregious in this regard to my eyes are the Golden Boys: Power and Dahlin. It's like they think they are so good (arrogance again?) that they can draw the forecheckers in and then pass at the last moment. But the longer they wait, the more likely the forecheckers are to steal the puck away. Dahlin's gaff in Game 82 directly led to a goal against when the thought he was so good, he could carry the puck through a double team right in front of his own net. Dahlin *is* very good but he needs to be more conservative in his play deep in his own zone. Don't cut it so close. I know most here consider Bryson to be a scrub but late in the season one thing he did very well was quickly clear the zone and not mess around with the puck near his own net. Not fancy, but effective.

The things Chad dinged Kevyn for this year have largely self-resolved: Connor Clifton improved (albeit still only a 3rd pairing guy, but with the rest of the D that's not much of a concern to me) Erik Johnson is gone UPL is the clear #1 There is still an open issue about who #2 will be. Will Levi be ready, or does Kevyn need to bring in another NHL backup and let Levi work on his game in Rochester?

From the linked article, That's something I mentioned a day or two ago. When they *did* make a concerted effort to win the puck away from defenders in the Sabres offensive zone, they looked a lot better. It just didn't happen enough.

Right. I think a lot of people would consider moving Krebs to upgrade at center a "necessary" step, so the scenario I suggested would still be illustrative of my point.

I'm not sure large steps are required to get the team over the top. You don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. For instance, everyone bags on Krebs right now, but for number of NHL games played I wonder how his fancystats compare to those of Mitts at the same point in Mitts' career? We could trade him away right now as an accessory piece on a larger deal, but might Kevyn think he's the next player to blossom and trading him would be throwing value away? I mean realistically, if they think Krebs is on the same trajectory as Mitts play-wise, *and* he plays with more of an edge, *and* projects as being hurt less often, maybe Krebs is the right guy to keep. It's not so long ago that many here considered Mitts a bust. (I'm not saying I believe this is the case, just citing as an example of possible drivers behind who they keep and who they deal that are not readily apparent to fans.)

That doesn't mean TPegs vetoed anything or put Kevyn on a budget. It may mean that Kevyn looked at resources in minus resources out and decided that to get a player it would hurt the team too much, or that to acquire a player it would have too much of a negative cap impact, possibly in the out years.

Your remarks about Granato answers the question of whether a coach should use fancystats but doesn't really address the next level higher of are there fancystats for coaches themselves. I wonder how one would "normalize" coach performance to take into account roster of each team? For instance could one make the case using statistics that Torts should win Jack Adams for what he did with the crappy Flyers roster even though he didn't make the playoffs?

Because he's a part of the Pegula Family Syndicate. Once you're family, there's no going back. Because the Laffs love big contracts.