GDT: 3/31/21 Filthydelphia Flyers vs. Buffalo Sabres. TV 7:30 on NBCSN, radio WGR550.

[Figster]

1 hour ago, Curt said:

Do a GM thing and acquire a better player.  I’m guessing.

 Or how about a player thats just willing to put in the hard work it takes to succeed? (Call them up from the minors)

Whats the old saying, hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard

Edited April 1, 2021 by Figster

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 hour ago, SDS said:

I don’t really know what that means. 🤷🏻

You find guys like Briere and Drury who hold their teammates accountable (aka leaders) and then the GM trades, waives, leaves at a corner, the guys who don't respond.

You can see who really cares the last 3 games.  Mitts, Lazar, Bryson, Reinhart.  Hall not so much.  Montour looks like a different player under Girardi watch.  Dahlin actually carried the puck and created a chance in the offensive zone.  Take that RK.  

[gilbert11]

3 hours ago, klos1963 said:

One win does wonders for the outlook, doesn't it.  We are not close at all. Likely not as bad as we've shown, but we need work.

It was interesting to hear the national (NBCS) comments during this game.  They really like Bryson and thought the prior regime made a good pickup.  They also showed clips of the difference between Dahlin last season vs now.

[bunomatic]

55 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

I agree with this.

What's alarming about this is that Adams watches practices, he's around the team, he sees how RK is coaching these guys.... which begs the question, what took so long for KA to pull the trigger on firing Krueger?    

When Granato took over he knew exactly what they needed to do to get better.     The fact that KA didn't recognize this sooner reflects poorly on him.

The only thing I can say about KA s failure in letting RK continue the losses is KA was likely as taken by Ralphs snakeoil shakedown as the rest of us were. People have said fraud ( I might have too ) but I think Ralph actually believed his story enough that he easily convinced the owners, management and the fans. Of course he was in way over his head and the house of cards was bound to fall.

[Claude Balls]

1 hour ago, Hoss said:

Dougie Hamilton is good.

Yes, good. Not great like some people said he would be. Was sposed to be the next great Boston d-man. 

[NAF]

Put the league on notice. Nobody beats the Sabres 19 straight! 

As a side note this was the one game of the losing streak I bet the opposing team. Serves me right I suppose.

[Scottysabres]

9 hours ago, Claude Balls said:

Last time I heard Pierre praise a rookie defenseman, was him talking about Dougie Hamilton in Boston. He missed on that one, hopefully he's right about Bryson. 

I thought I saw Bryson hand Pierre a beach towel before warm ups 😛

[SDS]

6 hours ago, Figster said:

Ever hear the expression an honest days work for an honest days pay?

[North Buffalo]

7 hours ago, Doohickie said:

I kind of agree, but once he gets it, giving it to someone else is a thorny issue.  If he relinquishes it he can be labeled a quitter.  If it's taken from him he's a martyr.  I'm not sure it's really that important who wears the C but it can be a PR problem if he gives it up or loses it.

Tampa took it away from Stamkos so imo coach needs to do it.

[WhenWillItEnd66]

Interesting fun game to watch! I cannot recall how many good rushes that we had last night in the the total last year. Nice to see our defenseman joining the rush again too. The last 3 games are showing what we are capable of. We still get caught in our own end a bit too much and need to be harder on the boards, but it looks like current staff is pushing the correct buttons. RK made the old timer mistake of my way of the highway and got shown the highway cause he was too stubborn to play the hand he was dealt. Still believe we need to get more physical and get some players that "Play" big. 

[North Buffalo]

So Lazar is hurt?  left the game in the 2nd?

[Weave]

1 minute ago, North Buffalo said:

So Lazar is hurt?  left the game in the 2nd?

Good thing we have center depth.

[Curt]

16 minutes ago, NJhopelessSabresfan66 said:

Interesting fun game to watch! I cannot recall how many good rushes that we had last night in the the total last year. Nice to see our defenseman joining the rush again too. The last 3 games are showing what we are capable of. We still get caught in our own end a bit too much and need to be harder on the boards, but it looks like current staff is pushing the correct buttons. RK made the old timer mistake of my way of the highway and got shown the highway cause he was too stubborn to play the hand he was dealt. Still believe we need to get more physical and get some players that "Play" big. 

It seems that RK deployed the unusual pairing of being incredibly stubborn, while also not insisting that the players work hard.  He combined this with a slew of corporate jargon speech patterns.  The results were not great.

[LTS]

8 hours ago, Scottysabres said:

All the Sabres accomplished by signing Hall was to throw 8 million of Pegulas money away

They should have given it to me 😉

I mean, they are going to get some kind of draft pick for him.  So it was 8 million well spent.  🙂

[Torpedo Forecheck]

12 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

It's really odd. We are considerably faster than we were under Kreuger and it's hard to figure out why. I can't imagine Kreuger said "skate slow and don't move your feet" or could he have??? We still make some dumb passes and giveaways but we're definitely faster.  Strange very strange. 

Then again, the Flyers kind of suck. Vigneault looking like a poor coaching choice. 

Everything about Ralph was "patience", that just doesn't fly in hockey 100%. Yes there may be a time for it, but a much more important cultural aspect is lost by playing without any initiative.

[Brawndo]

7 hours ago, Hoss said:

Dougie Hamilton is good.

I wouldn’t hesitate to give him a Pietroangelo Type Deal should he hit UFA 

 

 

[Brawndo]

7 hours ago, pi2000 said:

I agree with this.

What's alarming about this is that Adams watches practices, he's around the team, he sees how RK is coaching these guys.... which begs the question, what took so long for KA to pull the trigger on firing Krueger?    

When Granato took over he knew exactly what they needed to do to get better.     The fact that KA didn't recognize this sooner reflects poorly on him.

 

[Brawndo]

Krueger’s Contract had a buyout at the end of this season, the Pegulas were waiting for that so they would save money

Edited April 1, 2021 by Brawndo

[Scottysabres]

17 minutes ago, LTS said:

I mean, they are going to get some kind of draft pick for him.  So it was 8 million well spent.  🙂

I'll take Expensive mid-round draft picks for 400 Alex.

And the answer is, former 1st overall Hart Trophy winner by 30.

Who is Taylor Hall.

 

[Torpedo Forecheck]

Good to see the streak end. Glad Casey scored (anyone still think we let him go in expansion draft for Borgen?). Ullmark makes a difference for sure. Ralph being gone makes up 90% of the difference the last 3 games. The "rope a dope-be patient" philosophy is gone and we are playing with some tempo (which we always should have been). Many of the guys look better and more comfortable. Jeff is a little ball of hate out there again! Makes me wonder what we could do with a healthy Jack and Cozens. Taylor Hall? man you're a mess out there.

[Gatorman0519]

Ralph really was that clueless. 

[Thorner]

10 hours ago, Nitro60 said:

ESPN article on the Sabres noted a NHL executive said they are not far off.  That is an indictment on the coaching and management than the on ice talent.  Stay healthy and the Sabres are a competitive team. RK was a horrible hire.  

Agree, and it’s not even surprising - he wasn’t really an NHL coach when we hired him. No season completed, and he hadn’t even been in the league in any capacity in years. Just a mistake. Wish him well. 

Glad you mentioned management too: we get a real NHL goalie in there and all of a sudden we are noticeably better and in games? It’s not just about the raw ability, either. Ralph talked of confidence endlessly - maybe, just maybe, having someone capable between the pipes helps that? So obvious. 

It makes me really worried Adams didn’t prioritize a back up goalie upgrade this past offseason. It’s really bad evaluation. It’s the main reason the season has been this bad. Just statistically compare the games with Linus, and without. 

It’s just gets more maddening over time, just an absolute boneheaded blunder by the GM 

Edited April 1, 2021 by Thorny

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, NJhopelessSabresfan66 said:

RK made the old timer mistake of my way of the highway and got shown the highway cause he was too stubborn to play the hand he was dealt. Still believe we need to get more physical and get some players that "Play" big. 

That first sentence is Krueger's tenure in a nutshell.  Maybe that worked for the Swiss in tournament play but it sure didn't work with the Sabres.

The second sentence, I see a difference already with the younger players, namely Mitts and Tage. Their board work is getting more tenacious and effective. 

[dudacek]

8 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Agree, and it’s not even surprising - he wasn’t really an NHL coach when we hired him. No season completed, and he hadn’t even been in the league in any capacity in years. Just a mistake. Wish him well. 

Glad you mentioned management too: we get a real NHL goalie in there and all of a sudden we are noticeably better and in games? It’s not just about the raw ability, either. Ralph talked of confidence endlessly - maybe, just maybe, having someone capable between the pipes helps that? So obvious. 

It makes me really worried Adams didn’t prioritize a back up goalie upgrade this past offseason. It’s really bad evaluation. It’s the main reason the season has been this bad. Just statistically compare the games with Linus, and without. 

It’s just gets more maddening over time, just an absolute boneheaded blunder by the GM 

I think the plan for this season — pushed primarily by Ralph — was "this team isn't that far away, patch the holes and we'll compete."

Everything that could go wrong did: The team was far away, your patches leaked, you neglected an important patch and we imploded.

It will be interesting to see how Adams resets: firing Ralph doesn't count, that was obvious; the rumoured front-office revamp, the start of the sell-off and the decision to play the kids count, how well does he execute?

But the big thing is the build: what kind of players does he go after; what kind of team will he put together?

What did he learn?

[Thorner]

8 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:

One of the games that reminds you we can play with teams and with some skill when we aren't playing timid, unconfident, and second guessing every move. I do believe that if the Covid break didn't happen, and Jack stages healthy, this team would have been ~25th or so rather than the worst in many years. 

And if we hadn't spent several consecutive seasons allowing insane stretches of losing hockey destroy the good things we had built, maybe it wouldn't have gotten to this point too. I do think that Jason's choice to sit on his hands after building critically flawed rosters created conditions that embedded in the psyche of a lot of these players 

It's easier to lose 14 in a row when you've seen your team go on insane streaks this time of year often 

Agree, and if we had a capable goalie in net, as we’ve seen statistically bear out with Ullmark. Even sans Jack. 

And goalie has a big affect on the first part of the bolded, too 

3 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I think the plan for this season — pushed primarily by Ralph — was "this team isn't that far away, patch the holes and we'll compete."

Everything that could go wrong did: The team was far away, your patches leaked, you neglected an important patch and we imploded.

It will be interesting to see how Adams resets: firing Ralph doesn't count, that was obvious; the rumoured front-office revamp, the start of the sell-off and the decision to play the kids count, how well does he execute?

But the big thing is the build: what kind of players does he go after; what kind of team will he put together?

What did he learn?

Goalie was likely to go wrong, from the beginning. 

I bitched about in on here all offseason and said it would cost us playoffs. Well, it didn’t cost us the playoffs - it cost us respectability.