Sabres at Capitals 7 pm MSG

[eman]

 Just for an FYI, Lindy Ruff’s NJ Devils are looking pretty damn good. Another win tonight. Not too shabby for an “old school” coach. Just sayin.

[DarthEbriate]

6 minutes ago, inkman said:

My favorite ditty 

Any time you get a chance to reference Mancini, take it.

[LabattBlue]

19 minutes ago, Let's Go B-Lo said:

I think we are stuck with Goofus for awhile yet.

Outstanding!   👍

[DarthEbriate]

3 minutes ago, dejeanneret said:

Krueger needs to be given an admin role and we need to bring in a HC that can use these players to their strengths and allow them to play fast and produce.

Nope. No admin role. Just fire him. Let GM Sheevyn complete his Order 66 takeover and choose his own coach. And assistant coaches.  If that doesn't do it... then you start moving anything that isn't named Cozens.

[Scottysabres]

There is no hope, all is lost.

The only path to take now is to trade everyone, the players, management, ownership, sabertooth, the anthem singer, the arena.

Trade it all.

[Claude Balls]

 

[Thorner]

I think it would be dangerous to advocate for a "sell everything off for picks" mode, if there's a chance of ownership listening, because it gives the organization the opportunity to sell the "future", which is something they've been clinging to for years. 

[DarthEbriate]

1 minute ago, Scottysabres said:

There is no hope, all is lost.

The only path to take now is to trade everyone, the players, management, ownership, sabertooth, the anthem singer, the arena.

Trade it all.

You may fire when ready.

[dejeanneret]

12 minutes ago, eman said:

 Just for an FYI, Lindy Ruff’s NJ Devils are looking pretty damn good. Another win tonight. Not too shabby for an “old school” coach. Just sayin.

Mind you Ruff was fired after starting 6-10-1 in a strike shortened 12-13 season coming off a 39 win - 89 point season.  Six seasons prior to that the Sabres earned 90+ points each year--four of which made the playoffs and two made the conference finals.  Not to mention his run in the 90's of playoff appearances and Stanley Cup.  We've been a wondering lost group ever since.

Krueger is 34-37-10 for 78 points. 

Edited February 19, 2021 by dejeanneret

[Scottysabres]

1 minute ago, dejeanneret said:

Mind you Ruff was fired after starting 6-10-1 in a strike shortened 12-13 season coming off a 39 win - 89 point season.  Six seasons prior to that the Sabres earned 90+ points each year--four of which made the playoffs and two made the conference finals.  Not to mention his run in the 90's of playoff appearances and Stanley Cup.  We've been a wondering lost group ever since.

I agree. I never liked the Ruff firing. Darcy? Sure, why not, new vision at the GM level, as long as it had experience with success. But Ruff was a decent coach, he wore his heart on his sleeve for this team, and it showed.

[Indabuff]

Exactly...

Edited February 19, 2021 by Indabuff

[Gatorman0519]

5 minutes ago, Scottysabres said:

I agree. I never liked the Ruff firing. Darcy? Sure, why not, new vision at the GM level, as long as it had experience with success. But Ruff was a decent coach, he wore his heart on his sleeve for this team, and it showed.

Darcy was a genius compared to the last 3 guys.  

[Scottysabres]

14 minutes ago, Gatorman0519 said:

Darcy was a genius compared to the last 3 guys.  

True, but I had no problem with Darcy being ousted. If, and yes, this if failed miserably, but if the person replacing Darcy had vision. For all of the griping about Tim Murray, one thing I will say, he had vision. He wanted a hard nosed, hard to play against, mix of vets and youth team that played fast and hard. Kane, Bogosian, O'Reilly, Scandella, when combined with Eichel, Reinhart, Risto, was, for better or worse, a vision. Mixing skill with hard nosed hockey players.

Yes, I realize he sold the farm to put that together, yes, I realize it didn't expedite the teams conference and division standing as quickly as was anticipated, and yes, I am full aware these owners, the Pegula's, are not interested in the reasonings behind the lack of progress. It's a perfect storm for failure imo. And that all starts with the owners. They are very well intentioned, they want what we want, championships. But they have made devastatingly bad decisions at the management and coaching level, and the results are directly what we have witnessed over these past 8 years or so. To myself in any event, this all comes back to the Pegula's. I remember reading these boards and PA put up "The Trial of Terry Pegula" thread. Not for nothing, but PA was correct in his assertion that meddling by these owners has cost this team. They can't seem to get out of their own way to achieve success with this NHL franchise. But once again, they are well intentioned, they did it right with the Bills. They need to hire a President of Hockey Operations, a successful league commodity that has done it before, and step aside and let that individual do what must be done, again, imho.

[spndnchz]

Hey Jack, want Botterill back?

[woods-racer]

The peasants have broken into the shed and have taken all the pitch forks and torchers, we're just hoping someone brought the matches.

[Thorner]

Don’t tar and feather me for this, but a little fun with the numbers while it’s still possible due to sample size being so small: 

Maybe the Sabres dropped 1 game early and 1 game after their outbreak due to being rusty relative to other teams, who were playing more recently. A reasonable possibility. 

Maybe because of the division alignment (barf - hate using this one) one of the OT losses becomes a W in the usual Atlantic. Reasonable, if arguably irrelevant. 

Our 4-7-2 becomes 7-5-1. That’s a likely playoff pace with, obviously, plenty of avenues for improvement. 

The optics are undoubtedly terrible, and after a few more games, the sample size won’t permit this type of wishful thinking, but I feel like I can point to it for the time being in the name of hope. 

Fool’s hope, yadda yadda. 

[Kruppstahl]

55 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

Nope. No admin role. Just fire him. Let GM Sheevyn complete his Order 66 takeover and choose his own coach. And assistant coaches.  If that doesn't do it... then you start moving anything that isn't named Cozens.

For some reason, Sabres fans consistently mention this idea of firing Ralph as HC, but retaining him elsewhere in the organization.  I guess the idea is that he is intelligent and needs to be retained; he's just in the wrong job now.

Where the hell does this come from!?  

Send his sorry ass back to the world of English football.

 

 

[SwampD]

So, when they want to have one of those players only post game meetings, do they just close the laptop?

[PerreaultForever]

1 hour ago, Second Line Center said:

Getting his resume polished and gaining some NHL front office experience, future Sabres GM Michael Peca is now overseeing Player Development for the Capitals.   

That's wishful thinking. Sabres will take one look at that resume and say "player development? never heard of that" and send him on his way.

Smart hire by Washington. Peca led and played the right way. If he can pass that on they're set. 

4 minutes ago, Kruppstahl said:

For some reason, Sabres fans consistently mention this idea of firing Ralph as HC, but retaining him elsewhere in the organization.  I guess the idea is that he is intelligent and needs to be retained; he's just in the wrong job now.

Where the hell does this come from!?  

Send his sorry ass back to the world of English football.

 

 

Same logic that thinks all this team needs is a coaching switch, cause we've never tried that. 

[Kruppstahl]

1 hour ago, Scottysabres said:

There is no hope, all is lost.

The only path to take now is to trade everyone, the players, management, ownership, sabertooth, the anthem singer, the arena.

Trade it all.

We are now with the Sabres where we were for nearly 20 years with the Bills: waiting for a change in ownership, and knowing nothing is going to improve significantly until that happens.

The financial picture for this team is not good and Pegula has the Bills to focus on.  I keep hoping that if things stay bad, he'll just sell the team.

That is the path forward for Sabres fans IMO.

 

 

 

 

[Shmuffalo]

I've lost all sense of optimism and can't even think of a ***** pun to describe my apathy.  It's all psychological from here on out.

[Shmuffalo]

Im not on the fire Ralph train, yet. We've been burning through coaches more than we've scored goals.  Something is structurally wrong with the organization.

[Shmuffalo]

Optimistic note: Hammer parlays on the under and puck line rest of the year.  I'll have like 30 season tickets.. wait.. no.

[DarthEbriate]

After next game we're 1/4 of the way through the season. Currently, Olofsson has 6 goals

Eichel, Hall, Reinhart, Skinner, and Okposo have combined for 6 goals. Reinhart has half of them.

[Broken Ankles]

2 hours ago, Thorny said:

 

Posting the I don’t care song, That’s not right!!! Your brother doesn't post that song.  Your father doesn’t  post that song. You’re like a crazy person.  Now get upstairs and put your big pants on.