Around the NHL 2021-22

[Marvin]

1 minute ago, Eleven said:

I thought we all kind of knew that but didn't really care because he was in a Sabres uniform and not destroying the team.  Cf. Duff, Dick.

I had heard that he was a dictator in the locker room when he first came here.  Then again, he had Cup rings and made the young guys take notice.  And the team got better.  So no one really cared because what he did worked.

[thewookie1]

Drury was a dick, but also backed up his dictatorship with his background and play on the ice. He practiced what he preached. Additionally he had Briere and others to balance it out. Telling a guy who’s French-Canadian to not speak French for interviewers is plain idiotic 

[Eleven]

3 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

Telling a guy who’s French-Canadian to not speak French for interviewers is plain idiotic 

He Rob Ray that?

[That Aud Smell]

7 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Chris Drury is kind of a dick and it's strange ppl haven't picked up on it. 

Ha - what? 

It is widely accepted that he is a grade 1 pr1ck and arsehole. Just the other day (in response to someone likening Tuch to Drury), I resurrected my standard cracks about him shutting off Brian Campbell’s boom box in the locker room, dragging players into the weight room after a loss, and mandating super bland pre-game meals. The guy is probably an all time best seller at the jerk store.

But for those 2005-2007 Sabres, his leadership was instrumental in building a Cup calibre team. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.

[K-9]

Chris Drury: The Intangible. 

[JohnC]

2 hours ago, K-9 said:

Chris Drury: The Intangible. 

I'm more aligned to your view than not. Players aren't weaklings. If Drury was so oppressively demanding and didn't apply his standards to himself, his teammates wouldn't have tolerated him. The locker room is composed a lot of personalities and intrigues. It can sometimes be fractious and sometimes fully unified. The locker room identity for one team is not the same for all teams. When you have a mixture of personalities and egos it usually works out to some acceptable accommodation. That's how it usually works in all workplace settings. 

[Weave]

I suspect Drury’s reign is responsible for Vanek face and the team crumpling like children when adversity struck. How he led was effective for him and a couple others and forced the kids along, but in no way prepared them for taking over that leadership when he left.

[SwampD]

52 minutes ago, Weave said:

I suspect Drury’s reign is responsible for Vanek face and the team crumpling like children when adversity struck. How he led was effective for him and a couple others and forced the kids along, but in no way prepared them for taking over that leadership when he left.

Chris Drury can ***** off.

 

Thats all I got.

[Doohicksie]

 

[Hank]

Professional athletes weight training and eating right. Clutch them pearls!

[woods-racer]

Covid 19 sweater makes me smile, a little humor for the past 2 years is not a bad thing.

The Johnny one is just stupid.

 

 

[Doohicksie]

I think they're both pretty funny.

[Broken Ankles]

On 3/30/2022 at 12:20 PM, PASabreFan said:

@That Aud Smell Think another LA Carson.

I'm sure Doohickie got it.

That is wild, weird stuff. 

[Flashsabre]

Winnipeg and Comrie crapping the bed in Toronto. Why did they not play Comrie in Buffalo and play Hellebuyck in Toronto?

And watching the Chicago- Florida game, Hawks might have an all time awful defence corps. Lomberg skates by their dmen like they were 2 pylons places at the blue line.

Edited April 1, 2022 by Flashsabre

[SwampD]

Barkov scored his second goal of the night in a thumping of Chicago.

The announcer, "The captain has a huge pair!"

😂

[SDS]

 

[LGR4GM]

11 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

Winnipeg and Comrie crapping the bed in Toronto. Why did they not play Comrie in Buffalo and play Hellebuyck in Toronto?

And watching the Chicago- Florida game, Hawks might have an all time awful defence corps. Lomberg skates by their dmen like they were 2 pylons places at the blue line.

Good. ***** that franchise and let it burn. 

[That Aud Smell]

23 hours ago, Weave said:

I suspect Drury’s reign is responsible for Vanek face and the team crumpling like children when adversity struck. How he led was effective for him and a couple others and forced the kids along, but in no way prepared them for taking over that leadership when he left.

This is an interesting insight. I will add: The younger players' inability to carry forward when he left was more a function of their own shortcomings -- not a proper leader in the bunch. But still - your point is a compelling one.

17 hours ago, Hank said:

Professional athletes weight training and eating right. Clutch them pearls!

Fair, fair. As for the weight training, I seem to recall it was when he would insist that players get in the weight room (after a loss, e.g.) that struck me as like *daaaaaamn*. The insistence that players consume lightly seasoned chicken and lightly sauced pasta with lots of easily digestible vegetables prior to a game mostly struck me as amusing, at worst, and very instructive, at best. The shutting down of the music is perhaps more emblematic of the kind of leader he was -- ultra serious, maybe even dour. But, like I said, there's many ways to skin that cat.* That 05-07 team does not perform at the level it did without Captain Clutch. No doubt about it.

*There's a story I heard someone (a player) tell once about Joe Thornton as a captain. The team had lost a critical game of some kind - maybe even in the playoffs? And they were on the plane back home (San Jose?). The plane was quiet. Some mix of fear, anxiety, brooding, anger, resentment, etc. And Jumbo Joe gets up out of his seat, cracks a beer open, and starts this speech in the plane's aisle to the effect of "f**k's wrong with you guys, eh?! never lost a f**king hockey game before?! lighten the f**k up!" he's swilling brew, chugging shoulders, and then he starts talking about some dumb play he made that led to a goal against in the game, then ribbing other senior guys for dumb stuff they did in the loss. The story ends with the team turning things around immediately after that plane ride. It's a great story about leadership on a hockey team. Many ways, like I said. And some captains are capable of different speeds, modes, styles. I do get the sense that Drury had one speed, one mode.

[That Aud Smell]

Edit to add: There's a player on the Sabres right now who I can imagine being effective with the sort of thing that Thornton did in the story described above.

[LGR4GM]

18 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

Edit to add: There's a player on the Sabres right now who I can imagine being effective with the sort of thing that Thornton did in the story described above.

Krebs? Or Tuch? Or Cozens?

[Curt]

19 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

Edit to add: There's a player on the Sabres right now who I can imagine being effective with the sort of thing that Thornton did in the story described above.

Yup, Vinnie Hinostroza for captain!

[thewookie1]

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Krebs? Or Tuch? Or Cozens?

My guess would be Tuch based on his upbeat personality but also willingness to tell a player to shape up in a civil manner. (I remember someone mentioning this happening earlier this year)

[sabremike]

On 4/1/2022 at 8:47 AM, That Aud Smell said:

Edit to add: There's a player on the Sabres right now who I can imagine being effective with the sort of thing that Thornton did in the story described above.

[Broken Ankles]

https://www.nhl.com/video/c-11179555

Zegras goal against Arizona. 

Edited April 2, 2022 by Broken Ankles

[Norcal]

I don't think the Coyotes appreciated the Zegras goal