Friday 3/5: Adams to Speak to Media at 4:30

[Andrew Amerk]

36 minutes ago, gomper said:

If you think Bulldog is a credible broadcaster, then I really don't know what to say. All he does is regurgitate others opinions. How one can be in the same job for 25 years and not get better is really amazing. 

Again, he calls himself Bulldog. That’s all you need to really know. 

[SwampD]

1 hour ago, gomper said:

If you think Bulldog is a credible broadcaster, then I really don't know what to say. All he does is regurgitate others opinions. How one can be in the same job for 25 years and not get better is really amazing. 

I like him. I think you are wrong. When he and Sal are on together, you really get a sense of his sports knowledge, and it's not just regurgitation.

He defers to Shopp, but they have their thing. I don't hate that either. 

 

[Kruppstahl]

47 minutes ago, SwampD said:

I like him. I think you are wrong. When he and Sal are on together, you really get a sense of his sports knowledge, and it's not just regurgitation.

He defers to Shopp, but they have their thing. I don't hate that either. 

 

My complaint with Bulldog is that he struggles to physically speak, not so much the substance of what he says.

His stammering is so bad, he can be unlistenable at times.

He is also an expert at talking for long stretches while saying absolutely nothing.

I mean that seriously.  He speaks in a very round the bout kind of way.  I assume that is from having to kill *FOUR HOURS* of air time a day for many years.

People don't realize how difficult that is !

 

[LTS]

22 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

There is a thing called the interim coach.  If he is waiting to dump RK until he finds the next permanent coach, then he isn't going to do anything until after the season, because he has no idea who will be available until that time.  If he is going to hire Claude Julien then he can do that now and no reason to wait.

While 21 games for this season is short, there is plenty of evidence that it wasn't working last season.  Jack's "breakout" came from a career year shooting % of 15.9% versus a career % of about 10.  Hall's MVP year had a similar shooting % jump over a his career % of about 10.  These aren't breakouts, just aberrations.  

Since RK took over last season the team has had 6-7 significant losing streaks including 3 streaks of 0-5 or worse.  In year two of the system, if it worked, the team should be better and isn't. It's worse.  

Besides Jack's "breakout" last season, almost every skilled player has taken a step back under RK including Skinner, Sheary, Vesey, KO, Erod, Montour, Miller, Dahlin, now Jack, Hall and Staal.   The only real exceptions are VO, who is really a PP specialist, and Samson who is a duck and can swim in any system, but even he is struggling now.  

There honestly isn't anything left to evaluate.  This press conference should have been to relieve him of his duties.  

The interim coach is usually an assistant and on this group of coaches it's logical to assume they are part of the problem since Krueger already said he leaves the X's and O's to the people with more knowledge.

Stupid action is making a change when it will have no benefit or bearing on the long term outcome.  In your scenario you're saying spend $1000 now to make yourself happy and screw the fact that I won't have the money to pay that bill later.

Everything you project in your posts is that you welcome rash decisions that may have mediocre short-term benefit but ultimately not really improve anything or lead to worse situations later on.

18 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

How is leaving RK in place for the remaining 30+ games going to make things better?  Ted Nolan and Ron Rolston could do a better job at this point.   My guess is the rookie Amerks coach would do a better job. 

And here is Exhibit A.  Ted Nolan and Ron Rolston could not do a better job at this point. 

Just a point: if a response is going to include how this team is a suffering mess worse than when they were coached by those two, please also supply evidence of how you care comparing a season where the Sabres have only played 6 teams, 3 of whom would be considered near the top in the league, as opposed to a normal season where they'd have more games against lower opponents.

[Weave]

20 minutes ago, LTS said:

 

Everything you project in your posts is that you welcome rash decisions that may have mediocre short-term benefit but ultimately not really improve anything or lead to worse situations later on.

Wholly agree.  The volume of calls for rash decision making is surprising.  Especially among those who were the loudest when complaining about prior GMs rash decisions.

Make the move when the right replacement is in hand.

[LTS]

1 hour ago, Weave said:

Wholly agree.  The volume of calls for rash decision making is surprising.  Especially among those who were the loudest when complaining about prior GMs rash decisions.

Make the move when the right replacement is in hand.

Absolutely.  

Sometimes you make a choice and it doesn't work out. All you can do is learn from it and hope to not repeat it. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes you have to be patient and accept you can't take action despite wanting to take action. You have to wait it out, because the actions you have available all have strong chances of making things worse, either immediately or in the near enough future to matter.

The lack of taking action does not mean one is in agreement with the situation. Only that they believe the right action to take does not yet exist.

I think it's better to think of the possible actions and see what's reasonably possible rather than just yell "Do something."

[Thorner]

8 minutes ago, LTS said:

Absolutely.  

Sometimes you make a choice and it doesn't work out. All you can do is learn from it and hope to not repeat it. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes you have to be patient and accept you can't take action despite wanting to take action. You have to wait it out, because the actions you have available all have strong chances of making things worse, either immediately or in the near enough future to matter.

The lack of taking action does not mean one is in agreement with the situation. Only that they believe the right action to take does not yet exist.

I think it's better to think of the possible actions and see what's reasonably possible rather than just yell "Do something."

I think some of the understandable angst stems from the fact that, even in years where there was plenty of opportunity for a season to be salvaged, this organization has continually shown themselves unwilling to upgrade and supplement this team in season. 

I understand the idea of not doing that now, but sometimes I think people want to see in-season action just to believe it's still actually *possible*

They never seem to act in a timely fashion and taking their time hasn't borne out any kind of positive result thus far. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

Now that we have pissed away 2 more games, can we all agree that the evaluation period has come to an end?  KA do everyone, including RK, a favor and let him go. 

That stupid press conference should have been to announce RK’s firing and naming a replacement. 

Edited March 7, 2021 by GASabresIUFAN

[Thorner]

3 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Now that we have pissed away 2 more games, can we all agree that the evaluation period has come to an end?  KA do everyone, including RK, a favor and let him go. 

That stupid press conference should have been to announce RK’s firing and naming a replacement. 

Maybe KA did it for the opposite reason we thought: not to give the players a chance to save Ralph's job, but to see if the players revealed themselves to have been capable of a better effort all along, and thus selling themselves out inadvertently. 

Well, they didn't. 

[nfreeman]

Serious question:  KA must have a list of potential coaches he wants to replace RK, with a ranking of his preferences, right?  And if the guy at the top of his list is currently working for another team (like, say, Brind'Amour, whose contract is up after this year and who works for a major cheapskate owner) -- should KA replace RK with himself or other interim coach and then wait until the end of this season to bring in the "permanent" new coach?

IMHO, they would be better off hiring Boudreau or someone similar ASAP, so KA can see what each player looks like under the new coach, and the team can start learning the new system.  It also gives them a better chance at improving their image around the league and keeping Eichel.

Of course, if TP has decided to hire another senior hockey guy, that move should probably happen before they hire a new permanent coach.

They are in a real pickle now.  I sure hope KA can navigate them through this.

[GASabresIUFAN]

2 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

Serious question:  KA must have a list of potential coaches he wants to replace RK, with a ranking of his preferences, right?  And if the guy at the top of his list is currently working for another team (like, say, Brind'Amour, whose contract is up after this year and who works for a major cheapskate owner) -- should KA replace RK with himself or other interim coach and then wait until the end of this season to bring in the "permanent" new coach?

IMHO, they would be better off hiring Boudreau or someone similar ASAP, so KA can see what each player looks like under the new coach, and the team can start learning the new system.  It also gives them a better chance at improving their image around the league and keeping Eichel.

Of course, if TP has decided to hire another senior hockey guy, that move should probably happen before they hire a new permanent coach.

They are in a real pickle now.  I sure hope KA can navigate them through this.

We have been discussing KA as coach for the remainder of the season in various threads.  It makes sense on many levels.  KA needs to know who the players are and what they can and cannot do before hiring a new coach.  He is also likely on a tight money leash.  Making himself the coach costs the organization nothing.  

[thewookie1]

4 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

Serious question:  KA must have a list of potential coaches he wants to replace RK, with a ranking of his preferences, right?  And if the guy at the top of his list is currently working for another team (like, say, Brind'Amour, whose contract is up after this year and who works for a major cheapskate owner) -- should KA replace RK with himself or other interim coach and then wait until the end of this season to bring in the "permanent" new coach?

IMHO, they would be better off hiring Boudreau or someone similar ASAP, so KA can see what each player looks like under the new coach, and the team can start learning the new system.  It also gives them a better chance at improving their image around the league and keeping Eichel.

Of course, if TP has decided to hire another senior hockey guy, that move should probably happen before they hire a new permanent coach.

They are in a real pickle now.  I sure hope KA can navigate them through this.

He may very well want to bring Brind'Amour here, in that case I would fire Krueger and let Ellis just run the team until the end of the season. Otherwise go get Gallant and let's get it going again. Finish the year strong. 

[Randall Flagg]

IMO we shouldn't get our hopes too high on Brindamour specifically 

[Curt]

16 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

IMO we shouldn't get our hopes too high on Brindamour specifically 

Agree.  I have a hard time believing that’s even a possibility.  Isn’t it likely that Carolina keeps him?

[Randall Flagg]

30 minutes ago, Curt said:

Agree.  I have a hard time believing that’s even a possibility.  Isn’t it likely that Carolina keeps him?

That and I think there's little reason to believe he would consider Buffalo if he did want to test the market 

[Carmel Corn]

39 minutes ago, Curt said:

Agree.  I have a hard time believing that’s even a possibility.  Isn’t it likely that Carolina keeps him?

 

8 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

That and I think there's little reason to believe he would consider Buffalo if he did want to test the market 

As our Sabrespace friend Darth might say "Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field landing Brind'Amour is approximately 3,720 to 1.

[JoeSchmoe]

Given what we know about this team between the tank years and now, I think Dan Bylsma deserves a retroactive Jack Adams for putting up 81pts in the post tank year. 

[pi2000]

3 hours ago, JoeSchmoe said:

Given what we know about this team between the tank years and now, I think Dan Bylsma deserves a retroactive Jack Adams for putting up 81pts in the post tank year. 

..and 78 points the following year when Eichel was injured the first half of the season.

He benched Reinhart in Columbus because he was late for a team meeting... he held the players accountable.  Then a 20 year old ran him out of town.   He got a bad rap here too, but IMO he was by far the best coach they've had since Ruff.    

[Andrew Amerk]

On 3/6/2021 at 11:47 PM, SwampD said:

I like him. I think you are wrong. When he and Sal are on together, you really get a sense of his sports knowledge, and it's not just regurgitation.

He defers to Shopp, but they have their thing. I don't hate that either. 

 

Again, he calls himself Bulldog. 

Grow up. Just be Schopp and Chris. 

Edited March 8, 2021 by Andrew Amerk

[SwampD]

5 minutes ago, Andrew Amerk said:

Again, he calls himself Bulldog. 

Grow up. Just be Schopp and Chris. 

I would bet money that he doesn't call himself Bulldog.

[Andrew Amerk]

1 minute ago, SwampD said:

I would bet money that he doesn't call himself Bulldog.

So he’s just Bulldog when he’s making money?

So nobody calls Snoop, Snoop? They all call  him Calvin?

[SwampD]

1 minute ago, Andrew Amerk said:

So he’s just Bulldog when he’s making money?

So nobody calls Snoop, Snoop? They all call  him Calvin?

Other people call him Bulldog, like radio program managers, people who call the show, PR folk,… you.

Again, I would bet money that that he doesn't call himself Bulldog.

[erickompositör72]

1 hour ago, Andrew Amerk said:

So he’s just Bulldog when he’s making money?

So nobody calls Snoop, Snoop? They all call  him Calvin?

I feel like you're having trouble grasping the concept of a "stage name." It's actually quite common for performers across the globe

[PerreaultForever]

You know if they fire Ralph right now they'll just put one of the assistants in as an interim for the balance of the season so won't make much difference unless you think Steve Smith can coach............or Granato? Not sure who would be top of the food chain. Not gonna matter. 

[Kruppstahl]

On 3/6/2021 at 1:01 PM, IKnowPhysics said:

Good presser.

 

It's good to hear verifying testimony that the GM's extremely pissed, completely empowered, and seeing the same problems as the rest of us.

It also sounds like the GM's constantly working solutions and is being proactive going into the trade deadline.

He knows, probably from his player experience, who is willing to do the job and who isn't.

I can't get a good read on what he's thinking on Ralph- they need to work as a team so he won't throw Ralph under the bus, but he's also constantly evaluating Ralph's performance (which can't be good for Ralph).  I think he's atrributing the failures more on the players than the coach, but I think he's keeping his criticism of Ralph to himself and weilding the team's performance as a the metric.

If KA is as pissed at it he wants us to believe, I think we're looking at significant player trade (not Eichel) and a possible, but not certain, coaching change.  To that, I think he may trade players pre-deadline and give Ralph a renewed trial period with the new players until the end of the year.

If Adams was being honest, has the authority he claims to have, truly will not stand for excuses, and is truly "pissed" about the situation, Ralph would already be fired.

The fact that he isn't suggests we don't know what's really going on over there.

Let's see if Ralph gets fired on Monday 3/8/2021.

Or even this week.

This will be an interesting discussion if he's still here in a week.