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Posted

^^^ Yup - the pecuiliar, dysfunctional org structure the Pegulas have saddled their teams with might work great for making family vacation decisions, but the results clearly suck for competitive sports teams.

BTW, there's been much ado about the Sabres' 'resurgence' after New Years.  I just reviewed the record for January- if the Sabres lose tomorrow in regulation against the Habs, they'll have earned 14 points in 14 games in January.  1 point per game.  That's basically what they achieved over last season.   And that's with Eichel, O'Reilly, Ennis, etc.  It may be better than December, but 'better' is a relative term.  

82 points on a season is still stinkburger hockey, and doesn't show much improvement from 2015 to 2016.   

Posted

^^^ Yup - the pecuiliar, dysfunctional org structure the Pegulas have saddled their teams with might work great for making family vacation decisions, but the results clearly suck for competitive sports teams.

 

BTW, there's been much ado about the Sabres' 'resurgence' after New Years.  I just reviewed the record for January- if the Sabres lose tomorrow in regulation against the Habs, they'll have earned 14 points in 14 games in January.  1 point per game.  That's basically what they achieved over last season.   And that's with Eichel, O'Reilly, Ennis, etc.  It may be better than December, but 'better' is a relative term.  

 

82 points on a season is still stinkburger hockey, and doesn't show much improvement from 2015 to 2016.   

I'm having a Monday......thanks for making it worse.

Posted

Mike Harrington was on a podcast and the subject of Bylsma came up.

 

He mentioned that after they lost out on Babcock that the Sabres wanted to win the press conference and hired him because he won a SC. He also mentioned that his colleagues in Pittsburgh are seeing the same patterns such as constant line tinkering, the removal of Eichel from the PP against Carolina for and that the players are complaining they are too slow and not moving around much.

 

He also stated if Crosby liked DB he would still be The Pens Coach

 

The biggest point is the fact that the road to the ECF goes through Toronto and Babcock. With the talent being almost equal, advantage Toronto as of now, does anyone believe that Bylsma can win a seven game series versus Babcock? Keeping in mind that he does not have 87 and 71 like he did in 2009.

 

He believes DD will be gone by 1/1/18

Posted

If we keep him over the summer into next year, we're just throwing another year down the drain. At that point we'll be nearly 10 years into a playoff drought

Posted

Chris Parker mentioned there are rumblings of disconnect between the players and Bylsma, that should be enough to get something done, particularly if Julien is available.!

Posted

Chris Parker mentioned there are rumblings of disconnect between the players and Bylsma, that should be enough to get something done, particularly if Julien is available.!

Who is that? 

Posted

I am all for moving on from DD but I'm curious from the pro-Julien crowd on what makes him more desirable? Like DD he too benefitted from a very solid team (Chara at his prime, Tim Thomas playing out of his mind) in the championship year. He currently has a team with Tuuka Rask (legit starting goaltender), Bergeron, Marchand, Pastrnak, Krejci, Krug and an aging Backes... yet he is struggling to win. What will he bring to us? I want to believe.

Posted

^^^ Yup - the pecuiliar, dysfunctional org structure the Pegulas have saddled their teams with might work great for making family vacation decisions, but the results clearly suck for competitive sports teams.

BTW, there's been much ado about the Sabres' 'resurgence' after New Years.  I just reviewed the record for January- if the Sabres lose tomorrow in regulation against the Habs, they'll have earned 14 points in 14 games in January.  1 point per game.  That's basically what they achieved over last season.   And that's with Eichel, O'Reilly, Ennis, etc.  It may be better than December, but 'better' is a relative term.  

82 points on a season is still stinkburger hockey, and doesn't show much improvement from 2015 to 2016.

 

Not sure tha is correct. A loss tomorrow would be 15 pts in 13 games, which would extrapolate to ~94 pts for the season.
Posted (edited)

Byslma's deal in total is for 5 years. Does anyone really want this guy for 5 freaking years? How the hell did Murray / Pegula convince themselves that this was a good contract?

 

I may be completely wrong, but I feel like the term on a coach's deal is irrelevant. They seem to always be with their team for less than the contract length (canned), or longer than the contract length (extension for good performance). I don't often see teams mutually part ways at the end of a contract.

 

Coach of the Bruins.

Zing!!

Edited by Thorny
Posted

Not sure tha is correct. A loss tomorrow would be 15 pts in 13 games, which would extrapolate to ~94 pts for the season.

Yup - you are right.  We had 15 points in 13 games.    

 

January brought us up to a 1 pt per game average - 49 points in 49 games, or an 82 point season.  82 points in 2017 vs 81 points in 2016 would equal major fail, IMHO, with all the money spent.   Hopefully we can at least make a run at a WC spot (we're about 7 points behind right now)  so the season isn't a holding pattern season.  

 

 

Posted

Toronto now has 3 first year players, Matthews, Nylander and Marner, land rookie of the month this year.  First NHL team to ever pull that off.  Yeah, I understand the situation has to be there.  Having a young team w/ a decent number, not sure how many Toronto has going, of rookies.  But it does go to show Babcock is destroying Bylsma in the coaching department.  I'm not using the Sabres roster as a comparison.  Well, in certain way I can.  Their youth is out playing Buffalo's.  Please kick Bylsma to the curb at seasons end. 

Posted (edited)

Toronto now has 3 first year players, Matthews, Nylander and Marner, land rookie of the month this year.  First NHL team to ever pull that off.  Yeah, I understand the situation has to be there.  Having a young team w/ a decent number, not sure how many Toronto has going, of rookies.  But it does go to show Babcock is destroying Bylsma in the coaching department.  I'm not using the Sabres roster as a comparison.  Well, in certain way I can.  Their youth is out playing Buffalo's.  Please kick Bylsma to the curb at seasons end. 

 

Toronto's 3 star rookies were drafted the last 3 seasons: Nylander 8th - 2014, Marner 4th - 2015, and Matthews 1st -2016.  They let Marner and Nylander develop before bringing them up and are benefiting from it now as well as Matthews playing pro in Switzerland last season.

 

Our last 3 years we drafted Reinhart 2nd -2014, Eichel 2nd -2015 and Nylander 7th - 2016. Our 3rd top end forward is in the AHL and will be next year as well.  Also we lost Eichel for the 1st 3rd of the season.  They have also had a stable group of D this season with 6 players having played 40+ games.  We have had 3, and one is McCabe who is now out indefinitely.  In fact, we have only had our 6 starting D play 4 games together since the start of the November and only 11 for the season including 7 games in Oct in which Kulikov tried to play through his injury.  Also Bogo went down again last night.  

 

I do agree that Babcock is a better coach, but I don't think this mess is Bylsma's fault. The mess is GMTM's fault because he is the one who destroyed our D depth in both the NHL and AHL. DD has played more up tempo in recent games and the team, despite the mess on D has been playing "better." I'd like to see what DD can do with a healthy roster which has at least 4 good NHL D instead of 2.

Edited by GASabresIUFAN
Posted

Toronto's 3 star rookies were drafted the last 3 seasons: Nylander 8th - 2014, Marner 4th - 2015, and Matthews 1st -2016.  They let Marner and Nylander develop before bringing them up and are benefiting from it now as well as Matthews playing pro in Switzerland last season.

 

Our last 3 years we drafted Reinhart 2nd -2014, Eichel 2nd -2015 and Nylander 7th - 2016. Our 3rd top end forward is in the AHL and will be next year as well.  Also we lost Eichel for the 1st 3rd of the season.  They have also had a stable group of D this season with 6 players having played 40+ games.  We have had 3, and one is McCabe who is now out indefinitely.  In fact, we have only had our 6 starting D play 4 games together since the start of the November and only 11 for the season including 7 games in Oct in which Kulikov tried to play through his injury.  Also Bogo went down again last night.  

 

I do agree that Babcock is a better coach, but I don't think this mess is Bylsma's fault. The mess is GMTM's fault because he is the one who destroyed our D depth in both the NHL and AHL. DD has played more up tempo in recent games and the team, despite the mess on D has been playing "better." I'd like to see what DD can do with a healthy roster which has at least 4 good NHL D instead of 2.

 

Murray *may* (I'm not conceding the point), but DD has destroyed the offence. If the team is going to lose, I want to see losing 5-4 games.

Posted

Murray tried to fix the offense and in order to do that in a timely manner some D had to be moved. 

 

What options were left?  Keep the draft pick and use it I suppose.. no idea if that "D" would be in Buffalo at this point.

 

I do think Bylsma is killing the team however.  They have the ability to be better but they struggle in their own end far too much.

Posted

. The mess is GMTM's fault because he is the one who destroyed our D depth in both the NHL and AHL.

You keep beating this drum.

 

Murray has basically swapped:

Myers, Zadorov, Pysyk, McNabb, McBain, Ehrhoff and Sulzer

For

Bogosian, Kulikov, Guhle, Franson, Falk, Fedun and Nelson

 

He hasn't improved things but swapping for is hardly "destroyed"

 

What am I missing?

Posted

You keep beating this drum.

 

Murray has basically swapped:

Myers, Zadorov, Pysyk, McNabb, McBain, Ehrhoff and Sulzer

For

Bogosian, Kulikov, Guhle, Franson, Falk, Fedun and Nelson

 

He hasn't improved things but swapping ###### for ###### is hardly "destroyed"

 

What am I missing?

 

After all the years of Reiger *never taking a chance* to make the team better I don't see how shipping out our dead weight in hopes of someone else's dead weight working for us is/was so horrible.

 

Other than Lehner, I have no ill feelings with his trades.

Posted (edited)

Nothing - basically the defense hasn't improved under Murray.   Likewise, goaltending is about the same.

 Offense certainly has improved (but they were intentional tank teams so it could only get better) but Bylsma's suspect coaching keeps them from achieving their full potential.  But since GMTM keeps saying how wonderful Bylsma is, and seems content and happy to be on an 82 point pace,  I am starting to blame the whole thing on GMTM.   There needs to be hunger - there needs to be fire - there needs to be passion for excellence - excellence performace needs to be standard, and standard performance needs to be considered substandard.  That's the way that a team reaches the championship - and it needs to come from the top down.  

Edited by Jsixspd
Posted

Nothing - basically the defense hasn't improved under Murray.   Likewise, goaltending is about the same.

 

 Offense certainly has improved (but they were intentional tank teams so it could only get better) but Bylsma's suspect coaching keeps them from achieving their full potential.  But since GMTM keeps saying how wonderful Bylsma is, and seems content and happy to be on an 82 point pace,  I am starting to blame the whole thing on GMTM.   There needs to be hunger - there needs to be fire - there needs to be passion for excellence - excellence performace needs to be standard, and standard performance needs to be considered substandard.  That's the way that a team reaches the championship - and it needs to come from the top down.  

 

It being Murray's fault is honestly the best case scenario. Worst case is Murray doesn't want DB but Terry and Company are making the decision and want to keep him because of his Pittsburgh fetish and the fact that he's won a cup. In that case we're stuck with him until Terry is ready to change and he may not want to do that after all of the previous firings for the Bills and Sabres.

Posted

It being Murray's fault is honestly the best case scenario. Worst case is Murray doesn't want DB but Terry and Company are making the decision and want to keep him because of his Pittsburgh fetish and the fact that he's won a cup. In that case we're stuck with him until Terry is ready to change and he may not want to do that after all of the previous firings for the Bills and Sabres.

 

Dan being here half way through next season because it's not Tim's call is worst case.

 

I was really  hoping Dan wasn't coming back after the AS break. Now I'm hoping it's right around the time we are *officially* out of the playoff hunt.

Posted

Dan being here half way through next season because it's not Tim's call is worst case.

 

I was really  hoping Dan wasn't coming back after the AS break. Now I'm hoping it's right around the time we are *officially* out of the playoff hunt.

 

I'd consider us lucky if we can shitcan DB by mid point of next season. I've got a bad feeling he'll get even longer than that as long as the team hasn't totally checked out on him. Unfortunately that means we've completely wasted the ELC's of both Eichel and Reinhart but that's what happens when you hire a resume. He claims to have studied the game and where it's evolving on his year off but seems to coach like it's still dead puck era.

Posted

I'd consider us lucky if we can shitcan DB by mid point of next season. I've got a bad feeling he'll get even longer than that as long as the team hasn't totally checked out on him. Unfortunately that means we've completely wasted the ELC's of both Eichel and Reinhart but that's what happens when you hire a resume. He claims to have studied the game and where it's evolving on his year off but seems to coach like it's still dead puck era.

 

Our only chance is season ticket holders.

 

If nobody buys them, then we got a chance that the Sabre's Brass will need to show off a shiny new toy to get them back. Hopefully it's a new coach.

Posted

Our only chance is season ticket holders.

 

If nobody buys them, then we got a chance that the Sabre's Brass will need to show off a shiny new toy to get them back. 

That would be the Russ Brandon contribution - don't forget -  the "marketing genius" lurks behind the scenes, pulling strings. 

 

That's basically why the Bills hired Ryan, and took a nose dive - old Russ worried about those ticket sales - and knew Ryan's hire would help in that regard - no consideration of whether the Bills were gonna get better or worse, playwise.  

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