Housley Named Sabres Head Coach

[LTS]

I want Ted Nolan back. Nolan made sure everyone played hard and gave a good effort. Unfortunately, Murray screwed him over and wanted his own coach. Doubt we'll ever see Nolan back in Buffalo.

 

IMO, Housley should be given a quarter of the season. If the team still looks like they did this past year, then it's time for him to go. If the Sabres still look awful at the end of next season, then it's time to can Botterill.

 

 

Yep. Unless someone w/ much better credentials (regardless of whether they're actually better or not) becomes available, they can't fire Housley without creating additional issues. Too bad Quenneville wasn't foolishly cut loose by Chicago. He would've been a guy that could be brought in.

 

Let's see what Housley learns this off-season. Hopefully he comes back much better. (This year was a mixed bag. Though overall the season was a disaster there were positives as well.) I've remained primarily silent in discussions about Coach Phil because he was my all time least favorite Sabre player & wanted to give him at least a year once he was hired to see if there'd be a different appreciation of Coach rather than the non-appreciation of the player. (One would think that at SOME POINT in a 6 game series that he'd figure out Stephane ####ing Richer WASN'T wearing blue & gold. :censored:)

 

Figure it out this off-season & get it right.

 

 

Why are you big on Quennville?  Shouldn't a coach as great as he is have gotten his much more talented Blackhawks into the playoffs?  I'm serious about this.  I think he's a great coach but I wouldn't go dropping my current coach for him.  A coach is a piece of the equation and unless the new coach is a better piece of the equation than the current coach I wouldn't replace him.  I don't see how anyone can evaluate where Housley fits as part of the equation yet.  This team was not formed to win this year.  The youth was kept in Rochester, on purpose.  They filled the roster with guys who are looking for UFA contracts every year.  That's not a recipe for success and NO coach was going to win with this team.  Some coaches might have won more games, but it wouldn't have resulted in a playoff run.

 

Disagree. It was during the "tank" time and Murray got rid of all the good talent on the team. Even at the trade deadline, Murray traded away whatever talent he could so the Sabres would finish in last place. It would have been nice to see how Nolan did with the team the following year.

 

Nolan blows as a coach.  I can't even believe there's a discussion on it.  In the entirety of the International Hockey community the only people who believe Nolan can coach hockey are a few disillusioned Sabre Fans and Poland. 

 

Buffalo bills seemed to make changes until there found the right guys

 

How's that worked out for them?  They needed a fluke play to get into the playoffs and then laid a massive egg.  They've sucked for longer than the Sabres.  You might want to find a better example than a franchise that save for the Cleveland Browns has defined the word useless for the league in which it plays.

[Jsixspd]

 

 

 

How's that worked out for them?  They needed a fluke play to get into the playoffs and then laid a massive egg.  They've sucked for longer than the Sabres.  You might want to find a better example than a franchise that save for the Cleveland Browns has defined the word useless for the league in which it plays.

Amen - their one and only playoff game in 18 years was a complete stinkburger - they looked like a team that had no business even being in the same stadium with playoff caliber teams.  

 

They've clawed back to where they were, win/loss wise, when Pegula took over.   But I haven't seen enough success yet to embrace Beane and McDermott and shout out "Well done!"  

[PerreaultForever]

I don't blame any of the coaches, including Nolan. 

The failure of this team is solely on the GMs. Bad free agent signings and terrible drafts. Simple as that. 

It actually defies the odds as to how badly Murray drafted.

 

Anyone who doesn't believe it's all about bad drafts, count the number of decent players in the league that were drafted by the Sabres playing anywhere. Now compare that tiny number to any team that has drafted well. 

 

There isn't a coach in existence who could turn this pile of rubbish into a cup contender. Just got to hope JBot does better. 

[LGR4GM]

I have the conversation about Murray and drafting before right? Good, I'm done being that broken record.

 

Time for a Sabrespace vacation.

[SDS]

Just in case people want to revisit their initial reactions...

[...]

On 6/15/2017 at 1:16 PM, Randall Flagg said:

Here's a negative view from a Preds fan, taken from hfboards:

 

I wish him the best, I think he's a great guy and he'll definitely help the D-men. I think he'll be a pretty poor head coach though. The two facets of the Preds that he was most involved in other than working with the defenseman (power play and OT) were the two worst aspects of the Preds and he never seemed to be able to adjust at all.

 

Hmmm....

[GASabresIUFAN]

On 6/15/2017 at 1:34 PM, GASabresIUFAN said:

Good, I get to keep my avatar!

 

On 6/15/2017 at 2:06 PM, GASabresIUFAN said:

To Inkman, I don't think Nash D ever played soft.

 

To the Preds fan bitching about the PP, it was admittedly average, but was that a forward issue? Housley might simply retain the coach of the No.1 PP and then let things alone.

 

I love the hire, but admittedly 1st time NHL coaches rarely win the Cup during their first NHL HC job, but it has happened. (DD anyone?).

 

What I'm hoping Wowie brings to the Sabres is better possession play and better structure on D. I love watching the Preds and I can envision our top forwards in the roles the Preds had Johansen, Forsberg and Arvidsson. He also may be the best guy available to elevate the games of McCabe and Risto, while helping Antipin and maybe Guhle adjust to the NHL. If he can resurrect Bogo, all the better.

 

I find it interesting how quickly this has wrapped up. If not for the gambling issue, my guess is that Tocchet would have been the front runner, but character was clearly an issue for TP.

This is what I wrote 2 years ago when he was hired.  

I think he has improved McCabe and helped resurrect Bogo.  Risto may be un-coachable.  Our D structure, when they do I right, is better, but we still break down way to often and at terrible moments in the game.

All in all in remains a work in progress.

 

[jsb]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I think he has improved McCabe and helped resurrect Bogo.  Risto may be un-coachable.  Our D structure, when they do I right, is better, but we still break down way to often and at terrible moments in the game.

All in all in remains a work in progress.

 

This is where I have my major disconnect with you. It's not necessarily the Dmen that are bad but the team defense that  includes and is mainly the fault of the forwards.

Example, the Montreal game, Reinhart flubs a pass, doesn't hustle back and the Canucks are on a odd man rush SCORE, Casey doesn't take out the body, gets turned around, odd man rush SCORE, Bogo has the puck handler, Risto ties up his man, Eichel loses touch with his man, pass to Eichel's man, one timer SCORE,  Dahlin falls down in the corner, Sobotka (I don't know what he was thinking or doing) gets turned around, pass out to slot SCORE. None of those 4 that I can think of off hand are the D's fault but are the fault of the Team Defense falling apart by our supposedly best players (discounting Sobotka) for easy goals. You can add Girgensons who gets beat, takes a stupid slashing penalty and the Canucks score on the PP. Again none of them are the fault of the Dmen but of the forwards Fn up. 

I'm not saying we have the worlds greatest D but a majority of the issues are with the forwards making mistakes or not covering their responsibilities.

Edited March 25, 2019 by jsb

[GASabresIUFAN]

I don’t disagree that our forwards back checking is seriously lacking.  I was responding to my comments about Housley two years ago and what I thought was going to happen and what actually happened.

That said, our D need some serious work on getting the puck up and out quickly. Also it seems that every mistake we make in the last few months by forwards or D end up in our net. 

[North Buffalo]

31 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I don’t disagree that our forwards back checking is seriously lacking.  I was responding to my comments about Housley two years ago and what I thought was going to happen and what actually happened.

That said, our D need some serious work on getting the puck up and out quickly. Also it seems that every mistake we make in the last few months by forwards or D end up in our net. 

Some of that is on goaltending... Vaselesky regularly bails out Tampa, and Toronto has similar problem with goaltending but TO has lots of guys who can score.

Edited March 25, 2019 by North Buffalo

[Thorner]

5 hours ago, SDS said:

Just in case people want to revisit their initial reactions...

 

On 6/15/2017 at 11:33 AM, Thorny said:

Would have preferred Tocchet I think. Housley is a gamble, first time HC. But he seems better than some of the other candidates that had been floated (probably meaninglessly, seeing as how Tocchet was apparently the guy and never even got an interview).

BOY IS MY FACE RED

Edited March 25, 2019 by Thorny
Was also busted for being too negative for this post, in this thread, shortly after making said post

[SDS]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

 

BOY IS MY FACE RED

Kudos on dry-humping that tree trunk. Going out on a limb ain't for everybody....

[Thorner]

11 minutes ago, SDS said:

Kudos on dry-humping that tree trunk. Going out on a limb ain't for everybody....

You can keep making references to my manly parts all you want (what are we at now, 3 times in a few days?) with needless aggression, but I'm not actually going to leave the board unless you ask nicely. 

...Or at least not until I reach 10 000 posts. 

Edited March 25, 2019 by Thorny

[SDS]

1 minute ago, Thorny said:

You can keep making references to my manly parts all you want (what are we at now, 3 times in a few days?) with needless aggression, but I'm not actually going to leave the board unless you ask nicely. 

Or at least until I reach 10 000 posts. 

I have no idea what you are talking about...

[Thorner]

2 minutes ago, SDS said:

I have no idea what you are talking about...

I've punched myself in the "nads" repeatedly, and dry humped a tree, all in the span of a weekend. 

To be fair, that's kinda a slow weekend for me. But Arbor day is right around the corner, I suppose..

[inkman]

On 6/15/2017 at 4:57 PM, inkman said:

On 6/15/2017 at 3:11 PM, That Aud Smell said:

I'm not sure.

 

Didn't we start with the additional letters in order to disambiguate people from one another? I seem to recall some issue with TB being confusing -- Ted Black or ... who was it? Not sure.

 

And then GMTM was just natural.

 

Seems like, with Housley, it can just be PH. Nah?

That's Paul Hamilton

Just saying 

[Drunkard]

17 hours ago, Thorny said:

I've punched myself in the "nads" repeatedly, and dry humped a tree, all in the span of a weekend. 

To be fair, that's kinda a slow weekend for me. But Arbor day is right around the corner, I suppose..

Just avoid those slutty conifers. Pine sap is like the herpes of the tree world. 

[SDS]

17 hours ago, Thorny said:

I've punched myself in the "nads" repeatedly, and dry humped a tree, all in the span of a weekend. 

To be fair, that's kinda a slow weekend for me. But Arbor day is right around the corner, I suppose..

Both were just jokes.

[inkman]

4 hours ago, SDS said:

Both were just jokes.

Wait, so he's not supposed to punch himself in the nads or hump a tree branch.