Ralph Krueger needs to go - like yesterday.

[DarthEbriate]

Back from: GDT: 1/15/21 7pm ET Washington @ Buffalo - FREE GAME ON NHL.com

On 1/15/2021 at 7:10 AM, DarthEbriate said:

I hopped a transport after Hall made it 1-1 last night and only got radio messages from then on out, but it sounded like a haphazard preseason game... which is to be expected, honestly. Except for one thing that stuck out at me.

Rob said on the broadcast that Coach Krueger said to paraphrase "just go out and have fun" and he wasn't going to do much "coaching", and that now during a break having just given up a goal he was doing more "coaching", I guess meaning yelling or gathering everyone together at the bench or whatnot.

But that is alarming. This is a 56-game season all intra-division. Going out and just having fun can be a useful message, but you need haste. If ever there was a season of "go out and attack and start fast, be relentless on the puck, set the tone" this is the season for it.

I knew I didn't like this when I heard it. But... it's nearly two months later. Has he been doing much "coaching" these last games, either? Are they still just going out and having fun?

 

[bunomatic]

Listened to an interview with Yannik Hansen about Thatcher Demko and he said in effect that you can’t win in this league if your goaltender isn’t the best player on the ice. Thats maybe a bit of a stretch but I agree. Everything starts with having a capable goaltender at this level. You don’t have that you might as well turn the net around. Also, is Ralph still here ?

[Derrico]

1 hour ago, Eric in Akron said:

I think he is an okay backup.  If you remove the first game played (1/14) where the team seemed to sleepwalk through that whole game and he had a .815 sv% then that certainly adjusts his overall sv%.  Again, I'm taking the subset up to Ullmark's injury and the post COVID pause debacle:

1/18 - .955

1/19 - .950 (back to back)

1/31 - .889

2/16 - .913

2/25 - .840 (replaced Ullmark) This is the game that the wheels started coming off.

Again, he is an okay backup.  The team's problems go beyond goaltending - it's a problem but is not as big of a problem as the system is, IMHO.

Holy small sample size batman.

 

He had an .898 SV% over 31 games last year and .883 over 9 games this season.  Those are terrible numbers.  Even for a backup.

[Derrico]

21 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Dude, if you don't think it is significant that your top six is pacing to be outscored by 40 goals! at even strength, I don't know what to say.

I think we're all saying the Sabres are terrible but for different reasons.  The point I'm trying to make is even if our top six weren't being paced to be outscored by 40 goals, we still would not be near a playoff spot.  Albeit we would atleast get a little entertainment.  The forwards suck but atleast going into the season I didn't think they would suck this bad.  Adams ought to have known his goaltending would be playing about what they are which is not nearly good enough. 

[PerreaultForever]

8 hours ago, Billznut said:

The Pegulas couldn’t convince anyone worthwhile to take the job after Housley. Even their money meant nothing. That’s how we ended up with Ralph in the first place, no one wanted this job. I don’t see how it’ll be any different this time. And if Eichel is gone, the job is even more daunting to any prospective coach. 

Was there any actual evidence of this or is it just speculative? 

As far as I know the attitude was just some sort of admiration for the Toronto model of new and forward thinking (which is all bs, but that was and maybe still is their view). I'm not sure they asked any veteran coaches at all. 

[nfreeman]

Well, I think we have no choice but to conclude that RK is here for the rest of the season. 

Best case: 

- Eichel sits out however long is needed for him to get back to 100% and looks great upon his return.

- KA gets reasonably good value at the deadline for Staal, Montour and the other pending UFAs.

- KA does not panic-trade Eichel or Reino.

- Between now and the summer, KA hires Rutherford or someone similar as senior adviser and builds out his staff with high-quality AGMs and scouts.

- KA, with his bolstered management team, brings in Boudreau, Brind'Amour or other established winner as HC early in the offseason.

- The 2021 NHL draft is postponed until 2022 (which I've read is pretty likely as there hasn't been enough junior hockey this season to evaluate the prospects), so the Sabres aren't rushed into bad drafting/trading decisions.

Oh boy that's alotta moves they need to make correctly.

[USMCSnyper]

Rutherford suggested HCRK to the Pegulas. no thanks.

[Thorner]

1 minute ago, nfreeman said:

Well, I think we have no choice but to conclude that RK is here for the rest of the season. 

Best case: 

- Eichel sits out however long is needed for him to get back to 100% and looks great upon his return.

- KA gets reasonably good value at the deadline for Staal, Montour and the other pending UFAs.

- KA does not panic-trade Eichel or Reino.

- Between now and the summer, KA hires Rutherford or someone similar as senior adviser and builds out his staff with high-quality AGMs and scouts.

- KA, with his bolstered management team, brings in Boudreau, Brind'Amour or other established winner as HC early in the offseason.

- The 2021 NHL draft is postponed until 2022 (which I've read is pretty likely as there hasn't been enough junior hockey this season to evaluate the prospects), so the Sabres aren't rushed into bad drafting/trading decisions.

Oh boy that's alotta moves they need to make correctly.

I'd love all that but as for the draft 

 

[That Aud Smell]

1 hour ago, PASabreFan said:

Unless all the Kim talk has prejudiced Judge Smell.

[Thorner]

Also like that he says January or 2022 lol 

[Cheektorado]

Sabres 5on5 is abysmal.  Franchise history bad.  This fact alone shows the RK is not the answer.

Sabres 16 points is the basement.  If the PP and PK were league average instead of above the point total would be somewhere around 12.

Discussing which aspect of the 5on5 is worse in paramount to asking "Would you want a punch in the nose or a kick to the balls".

I don't ask much from Terry and Kim Pegula but after 50 years of fandom and the results so far this year they have to do something.

I'm begging you two to fire RK NLT 19th of March.  If RK is behind the bench when the fans come back you deserve what you get!

Rant off.

Edited March 10, 2021 by Cheektorado

[Kruppstahl]

 

[steveoath]

*sigh* is he *sigh* gone yet? *sigh*

[LGR4GM]

3 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

We may have an opening in our fantasy baseball league.  Interested?

I barely follow baseball so gonna pass. 

Let me put this in perspective. The tanking/rebuilding detroit redwings have the same point percentage as the Buffalo compete for the playoffs Sabres under this clown and yes Krueger is a clown. 

[Brawndo]

 

[ubkev]

Are they losing more money by keeping him? That's my question. 

We probably will win a couple more games this season just on luck. But what if they brought in a coach who could actually coach and what if that coach taught the team how to play hockey for the reminder of the season, and with that knowledge, they scored some goals and won a few games? That might go a long way in generating future revenue. 

[WildCard]

12 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

 

Who's even in college hockey that would be ready for the pros yet?

[Randall Flagg]

Sabres fans are always quick to edit wiki lol

[LGR4GM]

12 minutes ago, WildCard said:

Who's even in college hockey that would be ready for the pros yet?

A bunch of those college coaches have been head coaches for years at their programs. 

[WildCard]

1 minute ago, LGR4GM said:

A bunch of those college coaches have been head coaches for years at their programs. 

Are any of them particularly interesting? Or have any NHL experience?

[Brawndo]

1 minute ago, WildCard said:

Are any of them particularly interesting? Or have any NHL experience?

Bob Motzko is from University of Minnesota-Casey and he coached Borgen at St Cloud

Nate Leaman from Providence as well. He was brought up in 2019 in connection with Buffalo. He coached Bryson in college 

 

[Randall Flagg]

I don't want a college coach.

Also, that Boudreau clip was one in which I was fearing the worst, but listening actually made me think he was at least making a joke about the fact that the Sabres are an interesting follow because of how they might pertain to him...but of course I may just be hearing what I want to hear

[Kruppstahl]

50 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

 

If Jeremy White is implying that Boudreau was laughing at the Sabres organization and therefore would not consider working here, I totally disagree.

I wouldn't spend 10 seconds analyzing his broken up phone call, but if he was offered the job and appropriate salary, of course he'd come here.

He isn't going to get offered the job; Ralph isn't going to get fired.

Why the F not!?  

That's where the conversation should be right now, not on Boudreau. 

 

 

[Drag0nDan]

2 hours ago, Derrico said:

Holy small sample size batman.

 

He had an .898 SV% over 31 games last year and .883 over 9 games this season.  Those are terrible numbers.  Even for a backup.

I agree - he went 3 months without a win last year.  The wheels basically came off after the hot start last year, hes 7-26 since and his sv% since 10/22/2019 is .879.  Which puts him in easily the bottom 3-5 of all goalies in the NHL - starters or backups.  

Edited March 10, 2021 by Drag0nDan

[Thorner]

They cannot seriously hire someone with no experience again....