End of 23/24 season msg from this fan......."steady as she goes, stay the course".

[Scottysabres]

3 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

@Scottysabres i actually give you a ton of credit for going against the grain and starting this thread. 

Sadly, and I say this sadly, I'm in the acceptance stage. We all know Adams and Granato aren't going anywhere, at least not this coming season. So ***** it, I'm a die Hard for life, I'll embrace it, close my eyes, cross my fingers and cheer them on to win.

[shrader]

13 minutes ago, Night Train said:

Something like 64 less goals than last year..no heart many nights..

And yet they may wind up with a positive goal differential after that kind of drop. If whatever team they ice next year can start to score again, it could get interesting (relative to our recent expectations anyway).

[Night Train]

OMG..a lead ! 

 

[LGR4GM]

1 minute ago, Scottysabres said:

Sadly, and I say this sadly, I'm in the acceptance stage. We all know Adams and Granato aren't going anywhere, at least not this coming season. So ***** it, I'm a die Hard for life, I'll embrace it, close my eyes, cross my fingers and cheer them on to win.

We ride together, we die together, bad boys for life. 

[Wyldnwoody44]

But... The players like Granato. 

They like him so much that they are terrible for him. 

[bunomatic]

5 hours ago, ska-T Chitown said:

I, for one, like the Country Club atmosphere around here and don't want to do anything to jeopardize the free cucumber water in the lobby!

Do you own a spa? Lol

[K-9]

[Sabres Fan in NS]

I'm right with you @Scottysabres.

And @shrader nailed it.  This team has learned to play a tight defencive game.  With a return to a more reasonable amount of scoring the Sabres will be in a better positon to win more games next season.

They played well and have a winning record in the second half this season.  If they could have eaked out a few more points in the first half they would be in it  this season when 89 looks to be the 8th seed in the East.

[nucci]

8 minutes ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

I'm right with you @Scottysabres.

And @shrader nailed it.  This team has learned to play a tight defencive game.  With a return to a more reasonable amount of scoring the Sabres will be in a better positon to win more games next season.

They played well and have a winning record in the second half this season.  If they could have eaked out a few more points in the first half they would be in it  this season when 89 looks to be the 8th seed in the East.

Correct, if they could have won more games they would be in the playoffs, but they didn't and they are not. 

[Archie Lee]

17 hours ago, Scottysabres said:

.For as much as an overwhelming majority of the fan base want change, outside of maybe some asst. coaches, the roster is where that change will occur. There are real time improvements that have been made, and to not acknowledge them while our frustration grows just doesn't feel right.

1. Goaltending.......inside organizational growth has improved this position. No need to get in to the particulars, we all watch it.

2. Defensive corps.......improved, the 2nd half of season gaa says it all, and while it's a complete effort, the defense has improved.

3. Forward ranks........we all know the skill talent is there, need on ice leadership towards what some call grit, others call heart. For myself, it's called individual accountability from each player to dig down game after game to apply a full 60 min. effort. Leadership on the roster is critical for this in my opinion ad Donny can't throw on a jersey and join the in game action. Sure the coach can do some, make adjustments, hold players accountable, but it's the players that need to self police their own play imo.

So, from my view, we stay the course, continue to build the maturity of the roster, add those character leadership players in the off season and beyond. I'm very optimistic about this current teams future. I see an upward mobility in the standings in our immediate future.

"Steady as she goes, stay the course".'

Staying the course is the correct thing to do. But it doesn’t mean making no meaningful changes. Staying the course means you remain committed to the vast majority of your young core (Thompson, Tuch, Cozens, Peterka, Quinn, Benson, Dahlin, Power, Byram, UPL, Levi) and that you don’t “blow it up”. Staying the course doesn’t mean running back something that failed. There are many meaningful changes that can be made in an attempt to advance this team to the playoffs that don’t involve steering off the current course (coaching changes and adding veterans in key positions are the obvious examples). To not make such changes is to do the opposite of what successful and serious professional sports franchises do. 

17 hours ago, Scottysabres said:

Edited April 10 by Archie Lee

[K-9]

24 minutes ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

I'm right with you @Scottysabres.

And @shrader nailed it.  This team has learned to play a tight defencive game.  With a return to a more reasonable amount of scoring the Sabres will be in a better positon to win more games next season.

They played well and have a winning record in the second half this season.  If they could have eaked out a few more points in the first half they would be in it  this season when 89 looks to be the 8th seed in the East.

Sorry SF in NS, but a team that has learned to play “a tight defensive game” simply does not get hemmed in and dominated in their own zone as often as we do nor does it constantly have problems clearing the front of the net like we do. The Stars were just the latest example of that. Sure it was only 3-2, but I can’t attribute much of that to a good defensive performance. Currently, we have one top pair D man, one middle pair D man, and one third pair D man. The rest can all go and we wouldn’t notice the difference. 

[LGR4GM]

33 minutes ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

I'm right with you @Scottysabres.

And @shrader nailed it.  This team has learned to play a tight defencive game.  With a return to a more reasonable amount of scoring the Sabres will be in a better positon to win more games next season.

They played well and have a winning record in the second half this season.  If they could have eaked out a few more points in the first half they would be in it  this season when 89 looks to be the 8th seed in the East.

You're selling but no one should be buying. 

[That Aud Smell]

12 hours ago, Scottysabres said:

Sadly, and I say this sadly, I'm in the acceptance stage. We all know Adams and Granato aren't going anywhere, at least not this coming season. So ***** it, I'm a die Hard for life, I'll embrace it, close my eyes, cross my fingers and cheer them on to win.

Everyone is entitled to their own emotional reality. I sort of envy your feeling this way at this moment in time.

For me, I'm feeling exhausted by and exasperated with the Sabres. 

I'm sure I'll feel differently about them by the time September rolls around. And I don't need to proclaim now how I'll feel then.

But for now? I don't want to think about them. 

[SwampD]

16 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

Everyone is entitled to their own emotional reality. I sort of envy your feeling this way at this moment in time.

For me, I'm feeling exhausted by and exasperated with the Sabres. 

I'm sure I'll feel differently about them by the time September rolls around. And I don't need to proclaim now how I'll feel then.

But for now? I don't want to think about them. 

Apathy,… the worst insult.

[That Aud Smell]

2 minutes ago, SwampD said:

Apathy,… the worst insult.

It's a bad one, for sure.

But apathy can be overcome by the rekindling of a love that still exists. 

I think actual contempt would be worse. I get flashes of that occasionally (e.g., "I think I effing hate this team"), but it's not a feeling that endures. I think that the presence of Peterka and Quinn help keep contempt at bay.

[Stads]

I just listened to Don Granato on WGR. I was ready to criticize everything he said, so my take was certainly biased. He didn't show much emotion when asked about his feelings on playoff elimination. "We have 3 games left and need to play them the right way." Be pissed. Be raging like most of us are. Give me something.

He was asked about the constant poor starts to games. His answer to that was, and I'm paraphrasing slightly, "I feel like we were trying to score the first goal and that got us in trouble. Your mindset can't be to score every shift." Should the mindset be to give up the first 2 or 3 goals before you decide to start playing? It is infuriating to hear that he wanted them to play "safer" and not press too hard for offense.

He also didn't want to throw any players under the bus and wouldn't elaborate on what Tage Thompson meant by "the outside noise" affecting their play. After the interview was over, Jeremy and Joe made no comments on the interview whatsoever. Their first thought was "So and so NFL draft guy" has a new WR rankings list out.

[Goldseatsaud]

I heard the GR interview as well. I just think Don is a decent coach he seems to laidback and coddling for me. 

[Pimlach]

16 hours ago, jad1 said:

Chalk it up to Stockholm Syndrome.  

Posted this before, but Granato is 7th all time in most games coached with no playoff appearances.  Only 6 other teams in NHL history have been more patient with a coach's inability to lead his team to the playoffs.

Currently, Granato is the 6th longest tenured coach in the league. 26 teams have found reason to fire their coach since Granato took over in Buffalo.  Many of those coaches were fired after posting a better season than Granato did.

Not sure about the GM record, but my guess is that Adams is also high up on the playoff failure list.

It is not the norm for the fans of an NHL team to endure this level of ineptitude for this long from a coach or GM (not to mention from the overall franchise.

There is nothing new under the sun for another season of Adams and Granato.  

And this isn't coming from a place irrational impatience or hatred. By any NHL standard, Adams and Granato have worn out their welcome.

It's time to thank Adams and Granato for the pipeline and turn the team over to guys with a better plan on how to turn that pipeline into wins on a nightly basis.

How will Pegula manage to find these better candidates?  Same way he managed to hire Beane and McDermott.  Pure luck.  At this time though, I'm will to bet on pure luck over another season of Adams and Granato.

 

Pegula has been dinged around the league for hasty firings of coaches and GMs.  He is sticking with DG and Kevyn, in part to show the league stability.  

He has a knack for doing the wrong things, no matter what his decisions. 

I was critical of this roster from the very start of the season.  Critical of the lack of moves, critical of the prolonged training camp, critical of the extended tryouts in October and November.   This team was never really ready to contend for anything.   

One silver lining is UPL.   No doubt that if UPL was still playing at Tokarski/Dell AHL levels we would have overplayed and ruined Levi.  Take away UPL and they are a bottom 5 team again.   

The Mitts trade?  Still to early for a final grade but right now it looks like we created a big hole and failed to fill a big hole.  All we need next is for Byram to not sign an extension and force a trade at the deadline.  Then we end up with a 2nd rounder for Mitts - I see that coming.  Unless of course Byram likes the Sabres country club and decides to stay.  

 

[xzy89c1]

5 minutes ago, Goldseatsaud said:

I heard the GR interview as well. I just think Don is a decent coach he seems to laidback and coddling for me. 

all evidence points to him being a poor coach. Why do you think he is decent?

[Stads]

2 minutes ago, Goldseatsaud said:

I heard the GR interview as well. I just think Don is a decent coach he seems to laidback and coddling for me. 

I agree with that. I know the players like him, but there has to be a fire lit at the same time. I don't necessarily need a Tortorella to be yelling like a psycho all the time, but somewhere in between 

[SabresVet]

There has to be a sense of urgency and staying the course isn't that, particularly with so many players regressing.    

I have tickets to the game tomorrow.  I'm almost interested in going just to see how the fans respond at season's end.  

 

[Stads]

8 minutes ago, SabresVet said:

There has to be a sense of urgency and staying the course isn't that, particularly with so many players regressing.    

I have tickets to the game tomorrow.  I'm almost interested in going just to see how the fans respond at season's end.  

 

I think there will be plenty of disdain shown. The broadcast might be insufferable to watch with all of the positive spin being vomited out in waves

[That Aud Smell]

19 minutes ago, Stads said:

 He didn't show much emotion when asked about his feelings on playoff elimination. "We have 3 games left and need to play them the right way." Be pissed. Be raging like most of us are. Give me something.

By now, it seems clear that he is out of answers.

I apologize for repeating myself: He appears to be a gifted development coach who brings a very high emotional IQ to the job of engaging with player-prospects on a personal level. He appears out of his depth when it comes to being an in-season coach in the most competitive hockey league in the world.**

There's no shame in any of that!

The shame arises from management being content with a team that has consistently produced mediocre results over an extended period of time.

**Sheesh - can you imagine him as the head coach of a team in the Stanley Cup playoffs?! Aye, Caramba.

[Stads]

Just now, That Aud Smell said:

The shame arises from management being content with a team that has consistently produced mediocre results over an extended period of time.

 

This is definitely the overarching problem. They got suckered in with the progression last year and has clouded their judgment that this team is still not good enough. Send Don back to USA hockey. He has done the development part here. Thank you for that Meatballs. He is not ever going to be a "take to it the next level" coach. Find that person now or we're hitting 15 years on the drought for certain

[Goldseatsaud]

25 minutes ago, xzy89c1 said:

all evidence points to him being a poor coach. Why do you think he is decent?

His record  average coach