GDT: 2/23/2022 Sabres at Canadiens, 6:30 pm CT (that's 7:30 ET for you Buffalonians) MSG, WGR

[Pimlach]

8 hours ago, Taro T said:

 

Why would you delete the thread?

Removing it won't change the fact that the team played arguably its worst game of the season.

The combination of still getting the new coach "freshness" along with playing in front of fans in their own building for the 1st time in well over a month combined with the Sabres leader out with some illness (the flu?) set up for a truly awful outing.  But, is what it is.  Hopefully St. Louis doesn't embarrass them twice in a row. 😉

 

I am too lazy to look it up, but I wonder how many GDT’s have the words in bold in it.  
 

The Blues on Friday, ugh. I can’t remember our last win in St Louis. 

Edited February 24, 2022 by Pimlach

[Taro T]

17 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I am too lazy to look it up, but I wonder how many GDT’s have the words in bold in it.  
 

The Blues on Friday, ugh. I can’t remember our last in in St Louis. 

Can't be more than 25 or so. 😉

 

[eman]

1 hour ago, spndnchz said:

The return key called. It misses you. 👄

Can't help myself. The Sabres get me in a venting rage and I cannot stop!!! Must continue!

[Thorner]

Sabres record at home: 8-14-4

Sabres record on road: 8-14-4

An indication matchups aren’t being properly utilized at home? Non-relevant? 

[Thorner]

19 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

If you're only counting wins as success you're simply measuring losses. 

Individual players are improving but again, not enough talent, eakin needs to go, young guns are inconsistent. It's why I don't think we make the playoffs again next season. Gotta keep building talent and experience because 1 line can't do it all for 82 games. 

When looking at how development is coming along, at this point in the season to me it’s only Dahlin and Thompson standing out as having made impressive progress, for what that’s worth. 

Has the development when considering all players truly been up to the level we’d have wanted to see? Actually asking. 

Dahlin/Thompson/Skinner/Tuch are in a tier separate from the rest of the team, in general, I’d say. The rest has been varying levels of passable at best IMO

11 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

I will try one more desperate time to say this. The Sabres are at least another full season away from the playoffs because they are young, they are still short on talent, and they need a steady pipeline of mature prospects graduating into the system. It sucks, I hate it. It is however the reality of the situation at hand and firing Granato after one season or firing Adams after 1 season (it is 1 season of him in charge), doesn't change those underlying facts. We either can keep drafting well and build up to what a playoff team is, or we can panic after one of the most predictable years and hit reset on the 3rd plan we have started and set ourselves back another 3-5 years... again. 

You thinking 2024 is the earliest legit shot at playoffs, then? 

11 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

There was exactly one rebuild attempt before this one.  It failed because Tim Murray tried to take some shortcuts through free agency and trades. Botterill's tenure did not include a teardown. He tried to fix things on the fly.

So the answer to your question is one rebuild after the Eichel tank and one now.

I definitely count Botterill’s as a rebuild/retool - just not to the same extent as Murray/Adams, I’d say. The “tear it down to the studs for Dahlin” thing did materialize though, and Botterill reshaped much of the roster - which remains to this day. 

10 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Except it isn't. 

I agree on Granato but this is factually the second year of Adams being the general manager of the Sabres. Though he wasn’t implementing “the plan”, I’d wager an analysis of how he managed/moulded/shaped the roster and system last season, within the context of what he was trying to achieve, would still perhaps shed light on his overall aptitude.

Aptitude that is in many ways transferable to how he might manage THESE plans, in THIS context. 

Of course, how he manages HIS plan provides more insight, there’s no doubt about that. 

[Randall Flagg]

56 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Sabres record at home: 8-14-4

Sabres record on road: 8-14-4

An indication matchups aren’t being properly utilized at home? Non-relevant? 

Not sure how much there is to match up, usually our lines are some combination of copies - like two young kid lines that can play wild and can't play D, and two AHL lines that can't do anything. Combined with 3 defensive pairs that don't yet have it in them to consistently play solid defense

[Thorner]

5 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

Not sure how much there is to match up, usually our lines are some combination of copies - like two young kid lines that can play wild and can't play D, and two AHL lines that can't do anything. Combined with 3 defensive pairs that don't yet have it in them to consistently play solid defense

So not a comment on Granato but rather a bit of proof he doesn’t have much to work with relative to the league. I certainly buy that. 

[PromoTheRobot]

21 hours ago, jad1 said:

Don Granato coaching statistics:

2020-2021 Buffalo Sabres HC

GP: 28

W: 9

L: 16

OL: 3

PTS: 21

PTS%: .375

2021-2022 Buffalo Sabres HC

GP: 52

W: 16

L: 28 

OL: 8

PTS: 40

PTS%: .385

Official NHL stats to prove that this is year 2 of Granato's stint at Sabres coach. 

So if you want to spin this in some way to justify some kind of narrative about how games that Granato coached don't really count, fine, we can debate those excuses.

But the fact is that this is Adams and Granato's 2nd year.  And from a quick observation of the results, their 2nd season looks surprisingly similar to their first "INTERIM" season.

Number crunching means nothing. It ignores every influence at the time: injuries, roster, authority. While his coaching "stats" are part of the record, the fact is he wasn't the hired official Sabres head coach at the end of last year. There is only so much you can do as an interim. His tenure started this season. I don't know what else to tell you. He's not getting fired.

Edited February 25, 2022 by PromoTheRobot