GDT: 9th Dec. Habs visit. CBC, MSG-B, TVAS, SN360

[FrenchConnection44]

9 hours ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

It's so frustrating, Skinner walked to the slot, got a call for tripping. You'd think someone would follow suit. Nope. 

This coaching staff is either unable to pass the message along or the players are not capable or willing to hear the message, either way, it appears it's time for another change. 

 

9 hours ago, KC Scouts said:

It is coaching....... it is coaching...... it is coaching

Many have been saying this for some time. It seems like we are one of the most poorly coached teams in the NHL in terms of having any defensive structure or offensive plan or consistency. And the victories we get are a product of other teams having an off night and we get fortunate in some wide open shots or the players themselves get frustrated over playing bad the prior couple of games so they come out and hustle for 50-60 minutes and the randomness of the games gives them a W. 

We have some weak spots in talent to be sure. And the goaltending is inconsistent and Levi should be at the AHL level. But if these players were well coached and bought into that coaching, and if the organization as a whole - at every level - had a well organized, cutting edge, and well structured player development system and large training staff that got the absolute best out of each player from a physical and mental development (particularly the off-season) perspective, I think the talent is there to be a much better team. And that is on Pegula. 

Look at organizations like the Braves or Dodgers in baseball (or even Rays or Astros). They have excellent organizational structure, generally large off field staffs even at the MLB level but all the way up and down (as opposed to 2-3 people in player development) (even though the Rays don’t have any money they keep putting out competitive teams), excellent analytic staffs and a great plan for development of each player. We need organizational improvement at most every level. 

Or look at the Bruins. In spite of generally drafting at the end of every round, they have been below .500 3 times since 1968. They have been .600 or better 14 times this century alone. 

The Sabres have been .600 or better 11 times in their history since 1970, and 7 of those were the decade between 1974 & 1984. Since 1984, they’ve been .600 plus 4 times. Between 1972 and 2000 we missed the playoffs only 4 times.  

Pegula has enough money that if he did it right, we could have a solid organization that tracked, assisted, and helped develop every individual drafted player at the AHL, and other minor levels and NHL level. He needs to find someone at the NHL level who knows how to run an organization to be the President of hockey operations and restructure the entire front office and developmental staff and give him the resources to do so. I am not saying fire Adams. He may fit in fine but Pegula needs to decide if he’s going to get things in place to be a consistent winner or not. 

[sabresouth]

Power and Levi will be fine. Unfortunately Power is going through the sophomore slump much like Dahlin did. We are putting way to much pressure on Levi to be a true number one goalie at this stage of his career. He will be a great goalie in the future IMHO but expecting him to be that in his rookie season is not reasonable. 

KA is doing a terrible job of management. We all know the areas of mismanagement. He is way to slow to fix problem areas.

Whoever is the power play coach should be fired immediately. The bills fired their offensive coordinator mid season, the Sabres need to take a lesson from them and get a new perspective looking at the power play.

[Wyldnwoody44]

12 minutes ago, FrenchConnection44 said:

 

Many have been saying this for some time. It seems like we are one of the most poorly coached teams in the NHL in terms of having any defensive structure or offensive plan or consistency. And the victories we get are a product of other teams having an off night and we get fortunate in some wide open shots or the players themselves get frustrated over playing bad the prior couple of games so they come out and hustle for 50-60 minutes and the randomness of the games gives them a W. 

We have some weak spots in talent to be sure. And the goaltending is inconsistent and Levi should be at the AHL level. But if these players were well coached and bought into that coaching, and if the organization as a whole - at every level - had a well organized, cutting edge, and well structured player development system and large training staff that got the absolute best out of each player from a physical and mental development (particularly the off-season) perspective, I think the talent is there to be a much better team. And that is on Pegula. 

Look at organizations like the Braves or Dodgers in baseball (or even Rays or Astros). They have excellent organizational structure, generally large off field staffs even at the MLB level but all the way up and down (as opposed to 2-3 people in player development) (even though the Rays don’t have any money they keep putting out competitive teams), excellent analytic staffs and a great plan for development of each player. We need organizational improvement at most every level. 

Or look at the Bruins. In spite of generally drafting at the end of every round, they have been below .500 3 times since 1968. They have been .600 or better 14 times this century alone. 

The Sabres have been .600 or better 11 times in their history since 1970, and 7 of those were the decade between 1974 & 1984. Since 1984, they’ve been .600 plus 4 times. Between 1972 and 2000 we missed the playoffs only 4 times.  

Pegula has enough money that if he did it right, we could have a solid organization that tracked, assisted, and helped develop every individual drafted player at the AHL, and other minor levels and NHL level. He needs to find someone at the NHL level who knows how to run an organization to be the President of hockey operations and restructure the entire front office and developmental staff and give him the resources to do so. I am not saying fire Adams. He may fit in fine but Pegula needs to decide if he’s going to get things in place to be a consistent winner or not. 

I would say Adams needs to go ASAP, a GM that gets excited over Irwin and Robinson and runs backs the same team as last year, is a GM that simply doesn't get it. 

He has made several blunders that are inexcusable as a GM, mainly, leaving our goaltenders on an island to starve. 

Pegula is clueless, and the fact he came out publicly and said their lifestyle matters more than results for the paying fans, that sealed the deal. Maybe if he was smarter, he'd realize that a good team brings in a ton of money, playoff revenue, etc... Oh and that he'd get more fans instead of alienating a whole generation with the most craptastic hockey I've ever seen in my life. Supported by the intimate futility of missing the playoff for 13 F*ucking years. 

After hearing the Botteril stuff and him meddling in huge decisions, it's no wonder that anyone with experience and autonomy would absolutley not work here. Instead we get a goofball nice guy that can't make a ballsy transaction to save his life. And he has no stress as he continues to run the organization into the earth's mantle. 

[sabresouth]

I'm still undecided on HCDG. You can only do so much with the players your given. KA has been an utter failure at fixing areas of need. I put most of the blame for the results thus far on KA.

[Norcal]

Looked like embellishment to me on the 5 minute penalty on Robinson. 

The guy waited for the hit then threw himself into the boards imo.

 That play changed the whole game and I'm not inclined to blame Robinson for it.

 

[Kristian]

I’ve never been in the “he was a great player, so he must be a great coach” camp. In fact, I think the opposite is often the case.

Thus, I shouldn’t mind Matt Ellis being a coach. But I do. I do mind. A lot.

Matt Ellis shouldn’t be a coach, not even at pee-wee level.

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, sabresouth said:

Power and Levi will be fine. Unfortunately Power is going through the sophomore slump much like Dahlin did. We are putting way to much pressure on Levi to be a true number one goalie at this stage of his career. He will be a great goalie in the future IMHO but expecting him to be that in his rookie season is not reasonable. 

KA is doing a terrible job of management. We all know the areas of mismanagement. He is way to slow to fix problem areas.

Whoever is the power play coach should be fired immediately. The bills fired their offensive coordinator mid season, the Sabres need to take a lesson from them and get a new perspective looking at the power play.

KA has the job because he will do what he is told.  True experienced Hockey GMs, or VPs of Hockey Ops, are going to say and do things Terry does not like.  
 

The PP is run by Matty Ellis.  Nuff said.  

58 minutes ago, sabresouth said:

I'm still undecided on HCDG. You can only do so much with the players your given. KA has been an utter failure at fixing areas of need. I put most of the blame for the results thus far on KA.

Granato looks like he peaked at this level.  Excellent player development guy.  Cannot install and teach the systems needed to win  in the NHL.  Despite all the talent on this team, hockey is a team game, and other teams know how to stop or contain whatever DG is teaching. 
 

Botton line is it looks like we peaked already with this GM and coach.  

[Pimlach]

5 minutes ago, Kristian said:

I’ve never been in the “he was a great player, so he must be a great coach” camp. In fact, I think the opposite is often the case.

Thus, I shouldn’t mind Matt Ellis being a coach. But I do. I do mind. A lot.

Matt Ellis shouldn’t be a coach, not even at pee-wee level.

Normally I would roll my eyes at this type of comment, but there is a body of work that supports he is not an NHL coach and has no business running the PP.  

The players on the PP are good enough to play shinny style hockey and still score at a higher percentage than they do under Ellis.  

[GASabresIUFAN]

There are certainly significant coaching problems with this team.  How our PP can be this ineffective with the talent we can throw at it is nearly impossible.  That's bad coaching.  Also DG's Home vs Away record.  Last year we were 25-13-3 on the road (17-20-4 at home).  This season is more even but still lousy (6-7-2 road, 5-7-1 home). There is a clear problem with this team at home.  DG has the last change and the ability to get the matchups he should want at home and we continue to fail at being even a decent home team.

Granato has failed to even try to bring any continuity to the lineup.  Yes, injuries have made this difficult, but seriously, how many games have we played this season with an 11-7 lineup?  Hard to build chemistry with some when you won't play with them again the next shift.

There is also a huge roster problem.  Maybe just maybe the young goalies are coming around.  Maybe.  We saw a similar strong play from UPL for 20 games last year until he fell apart, and Levi has played great the last two, but there is a long away to go before anyone would say we are even decent in goal.  

The defense remains a huge problem.  We have one reliable defender right now and his name is Dahlin.  The rest have good and bad games.  Power was awful last night.  Samuelsson wasn't much better.  

The bottom 6 forwards are and remain terrible.  Our center play outside of Casey is terrible.  DG has moved TNT to wing and Cozens hasn't recovered his game since the injury.  Krebs and Jost have been even worse.  

KA's big fix, Robinson, for the forwards, has been another player from the clearance rack.  His stupid boarding play gave Montreal a 5 minute PP.  So glad he's here.  

This club has the 2nd worst Pt % in the East and it's earned that lowly position.  Plenty of blame to go around. 

Edited December 10, 2023 by GASabresIUFAN

[Sabres Fan in NS]

They showed character coming back to earn the tie.

That said a team looking to gain the playoff for the first time in forever can't play like crap for 50+ minutes and then luck into a tie, especially against a team they are in the fight for playoff with.

[Norcal]

6 minutes ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

They showed character coming back to earn the tie.

That said a team looking to gain the playoff for the first time in forever can't play like crap for 50+ minutes and then luck into a tie, especially against a team they are in the fight for playoff with.

They played ok most of the night. The 5 minute penalty changed the entire game and represented both goals for the Habs. 

This wasn't a collapse from the get go like previous games have been. 

[Pimlach]

9 minutes ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

They showed character coming back to earn the tie.

That said a team looking to gain the playoff for the first time in forever can't play like crap for 50+ minutes and then luck into a tie, especially against a team they are in the fight for playoff with.

We outplayed them for the entire game right up to the 5 minute major.  We actually showed very little character by folding under adversity and giving up two quick goals within 14 seconds during that 5 minute stretch.  
 

We came back because we have better players.  We lost because we didn’t convert on the PP and they did.  

[SwampD]

1 hour ago, Norcal said:

Looked like embellishment to me on the 5 minute penalty on Robinson. 

The guy waited for the hit then threw himself into the boards imo.

 That play changed the whole game and I'm not inclined to blame Robinson for it.

 

It was a bullsh!t penalty. He pulled up and played the puck. If you want to give him 2 there, fine. Total bs.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

5 minutes ago, Norcal said:

They played ok most of the night. The 5 minute penalty changed the entire game and represented both goals for the Habs. 

This wasn't a collapse from the get go like previous games have been. 

 

1 minute ago, Pimlach said:

We outplayed them for the entire game right up to the 5 minute major.  We actually showed very little character by folding under adversity and giving up two quick goals within 14 seconds during that 5 minute stretch.  
 

We came back because we have better players.  We lost because we didn’t convert on the PP and they did.  

Thanks, guys.

I did not watch the game.  I was using two cans and a string to try to follow a terrible update on NHL.com out here in the Nova Scotian hinterland while being not even 30KMs (20 miles) from a fairly major Canadian city with 500,000 inhabitants.

[Norcal]

5 minutes ago, SwampD said:

It was a bullsh!t penalty. He pulled up and played the puck. If you want to give him 2 there, fine. Total bs.

That's the way I saw it

[Stoner]

16 minutes ago, SwampD said:

It was a bullsh!t penalty. He pulled up and played the puck. If you want to give him 2 there, fine. Total bs.

Playing the puck has nothing to do with it.

[DarthEbriate]

As I recall, the guy also got cut hitting the boards. To NHL refs, blood = more minutes.

[CallawaySabres]

I predict January 2025 is the next time these guys will win two games in a row.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

2 minutes ago, CallawaySabres said:

I predict January 2025 is the next time these guys will win two games in a row.

That's the Callaway we know and love.

(insert winkie thingie here)

[WhenWillItEnd66]

Unfortunately, this team is not giving anybody a reason to think that they are going to win more than one in a row.

[LGR4GM]

NSFW

 

 

[Pimlach]

24 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

Playing the puck has nothing to do with it.

Come on man. He practically stopped before he hit him and #50 is allowed to hit the man with the puck.  

The Hab did everything wrong. Everything you teach a kid about playing in a checking league this guy violated.  On top of that the guy froze and just stopped playing.  You don’t posses the puck for several seconds on the boards, then turn your back on the forecheck.   You take an angle to the puck and keep moving.  

The review  should have overturned the initial 5 minutes called, you could see no intent to injure, you see the hockey stop.  Instead they made it a game misconduct.  The guy wasn’t even injured  

Trash call.  Typical. 

Of course the Sabres being weak minded gave up 2 quickies.  

No doubt that the refs changed the entire flow of the game. 

22 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

As I recall, the guy also got cut hitting the boards. To NHL refs, blood = more minutes.

No he did not 

Edited December 10, 2023 by Pimlach

[Broken Ankles]

13 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

No, they lost because they refuse to play NHL hockey. No one, and I mean NO one, goes to the slot for the team. It's all perimeter trash. They have no idea when to shoot, they pass too much, they choke constantly. 

That statement is true on most nights but not last night.  The heat maps show the Sabres did go to the slot, and more than Montreal did but really were not rewarded.  As I noted last night, if Kyle, Jeff and Dylan can get the puck elevated it was 3-0 after the first.  But instead they all hit pads.  That’s execution.  I’m not expecting them to see repeat this type of game plan too often.  But against a smaller and weaker opponent I thought they dominated physically, especially in first and third periods.   Lasts nights loss could be blamed on an abysmal PP, Levi shitting the bed in the shootout or failing to close the deal when up close. 

 

[SwampD]

1 hour ago, PASabreFan said:

Playing the puck has nothing to do with it.

It’s the difference between 5 and 2, IMO.

[bunomatic]

The lack of a servicable PP to me is mind boggling. The players are taking the heat on this but they seem to be doing the same things that have gotten them no results. This is on ellis and a lack of confidence which can be fixed with a change in coaching. The coach obviously has no answers. If we continue to do the same things and get no results I have to think KA has his eyes on another shiny toy.