GDT: Sabres @ TB Lightning 3/6/2025 7:00 PM ET; ESPN

[PromoTheRobot]

I don't want to see any UPL bashing. There is no goalie who could play behind this team. Opposing players can get behind our defense with ease and no one does anything. Every goal tonight was a Lightning player in alone on UPL.

 

And who drew up that 6-3 power play? You have 17 seconds and 3 extra skaters. How about shooting and sending players to the goal instead of passing it along the perimeter until time expired!! Ponderous!!

1 hour ago, Big Guava said:

 

Also UPL is trash...they need to trade him for a bag of picks and get out of that contract 

I guarantee you send him to a decent team and UPL wins a Vezina. It'll be Linus Ullmark 2.0.

[GoPuckYourself]

UPL played behind the same crap defense last season in a contract year and was fantastic. It seems like everytime they get paid they become content which was always the worry with UPL since he only had a stellar 2nd half of the season. It wasn't all on him tonight but he has been mediocre all season long when we needed him to be last seasons UPL.

[Big Guava]

54 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

I don't want to see any UPL bashing. There is no goalie who could play behind this team. Opposing players can get behind our defense with ease and no one does anything. Every goal tonight was a Lightning player in alone on UPL.

 

And who drew up that 6-3 power play? You have 17 seconds and 3 extra skaters. How about shooting and sending players to the goal instead of passing it along the perimeter until time expired!! Ponderous!!

I guarantee you send him to a decent team and UPL wins a Vezina. It'll be Linus Ullmark 2.0.

 

Ullmark had very good numbers here, he was just always hurt.

His worst save percentage with us was .905 and average was .912.

UPL had a season of .892 and somehow an even worse .890 this year. Career average is .900.  Those are not NHL numbers. They might not even be AHL numbers.

Edited Friday at 05:40 AM by Big Guava

[Pimlach]

8 hours ago, Carmel Corn said:

Surely you are kidding, right?

[Pimlach]

7 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Some nice snipes by the skilled forwards but Tampa owned the front of our net like they almost always do and thus the result. It was not UPL's fault, it was the D, Byram was absolutely horrible in this one. Clueless. 

Ruff should put the Cernak block on a loop and show them how it's done. We got anybody like that? No, no we do not. 

Interesting to listen to the ESPN guys saying "somebody has to step up and help the captain there" in those scrums several times. Very telling. Very obvious. 

Greenway hurt already? That would figure. idk what Adams is doing travelling with them at the deadline but I guess phones go anywhere. Still, I'd have expected this to be an in the office couple of days. Whatever. 

Vacation time in the land of palm trees and low taxes.  He even wore a suit. 

[mjd1001]

1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

Vacation time in the land of palm trees and low taxes.  He even wore a suit. 

Adams is in Florida so its a chace for Adams and Pegula to be together so they can re-assure the team that no one will be dealt...or if someone is Adams and Pegula can be there to console the rest of the team and make sure they feel comfortable and good and not feel any undo-pressure or anything like that.

Edited Friday at 12:49 PM by mjd1001

[Pimlach]

8 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

I don't want to see any UPL bashing. There is no goalie who could play behind this team. Opposing players can get behind our defense with ease and no one does anything. Every goal tonight was a Lightning player in alone on UPL.

 

And who drew up that 6-3 power play? You have 17 seconds and 3 extra skaters. How about shooting and sending players to the goal instead of passing it along the perimeter until time expired!! Ponderous!!

I guarantee you send him to a decent team and UPL wins a Vezina. It'll be Linus Ullmark 2.0.

The UPL bashing is lazy.  Looking at his stats does not tell everything.  He was better last year but so was the team.   He keeps them in games, and they choke right in front of him.  Lindy’s Alamo, which he calls teaching them how to close a game, is the big reason for  the many 3rd period collapses.  

Team defense is most disappointing this season. Lindy was supposed to teach a two-way game and accountability.  I see nothing of the sort.  

Edited Friday at 01:34 PM by Pimlach

[Sidc3000]

The problem with the team is the culture and their fragile psyche, plain and simple. 

[Thorner]

4 minutes ago, Sidc3000 said:

The problem with the team is the culture and their fragile psyche, plain and simple. 

That’s youth 

[LGR4GM]

54 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

The UPL bashing is lazy.  Looking at his stats does not tell everything.  He was better last year but so was the team.   He keeps them in games, and they choke right in front of him.  Lindy’s Alamo, which he calls teaching them how to closea game, is the big reason for  the many 3rd period collapses.  

Team defense is most disappointing this season. Lindy was supposed to teach a two-way game and accountability.  I see nothing of the sort.  

Yea, Lindy and Wilford both need to go. UPL also isn't playing well, that's a fact. 

[Archie Lee]

5 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Yea, Lindy and Wilford both need to go. UPL also isn't playing well, that's a fact. 

I agree. UPL needs to play better. I think his confidence is damaged right now. I think a big part of that is Ruff’s system. Progress is on hold until Adams and Ruff are inevitably fired. 

[Thorner]

What letter score would you give the goaltending overall in the 5 seasons the team has played under Adams? 

[LGR4GM]

UPL has allowed 11g on his last 39 shots.

[LGR4GM]

9 minutes ago, Thorner said:

What letter score would you give the goaltending overall in the 5 seasons the team has played under Adams? 

F, no consistency and Adams hasn't fixed the position. 

Edited Friday at 01:17 PM by LGR4GM

[Pimlach]

34 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Yea, Lindy and Wilford both need to go. UPL also isn't playing well, that's a fact. 

I would not complain if Lindy and his entire staff get replaced, but I would hate just turning it over to Appert. 

UPL showed us his "A" game last season and even in spurts this season, but we are no longer seeing his best play, I can agree to that.  Dumping UPL for Levi and another TBD backup is probably a mistake.  It is just more "no blocker" mentality. 

Levi would have been ruined playing behind this team this season, moving him to the AHL was one of the few smart things that the Sabres did. 

Fix the defensive game and let Levi push UPL.  It needs to be a competition to determine who should be the #1.   If Levi turns out better that is fine.  If UPL gets his game back because he is being pushed that is even better. 

Fans here calling to dump UPL for Levi have not learned a thing from the past.   

[phil_soisson]

What a POS owner to let things drag on this long with this dysfunctional FO.  He doesn't care one bit about the fans.

[JohnC]

In the Tampa game, Kucherov lazily lost the puck to JJP who then scored. The Tampa's coach then sat out Kucherov, one of their best and longest tenured player, for the rest of the period. He got the message. When the third period began he was back to form. That's coaching. 

What's obvious is that the Sabre players are not listening to Lindy. Sloppy play represents Sabre play. This team and franchise need a major shakeup. Our silent owner needs to act like a serious owner instead of an apathetic owner. The state of affairs is embarrassing. He remains silent. 

[Sidc3000]

1 hour ago, Thorner said:

That’s youth 

I respectfully disagree. Being young they should be open to change. It’s usually veterans who resist change. What the problem is, Adams has given them the keys to castle and the players feel that they are in charge. Now they feel that they know best and no coach or GM will tell them how to play the game. Paul Hamilton said on The Jeremy and Joe show that they don’t listen to their coaches. 

Edited Friday at 02:05 PM by Sidc3000

[Thorner]

1 minute ago, Sidc3000 said:

I respectfully disagree. Being young they should be open to change. It’s usually veterans who resist change. What the problem is, Adams has given them the keys to castle and the players feel that they are in charge. Now they feel that they know best and no coach or GM will tell them how to play the game. Paul Hamilton said on The Jeremy and Joe show that they don’t listen to their coaches. 

The fragile psyche you speak of is a product of youth being brought up in an environment with no expectations 

[Archie Lee]

30 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I would not complain if Lindy and his entire staff get replaced, but I would hate just turning it over to Appert. 

UPL showed us his "A" game last season and even in spurts this season, but we are no longer seeing his best play, I can agree to that.  Dumping UPL for Levi and another TBD backup is probably a mistake.  It is just more "no blocker" mentality. 

Levi would have been ruined playing behind this team this season, moving him to the AHL was one of the few smart things that the Sabres did. 

Fix the defensive game and let Levi push UPL.  It needs to be a competition to determine who should be the #1.   If Levi turns out better that is fine.  If UPL gets his game back because he is being pushed that is even better. 

Fans here calling to dump UPL for Levi have not learned a thing from the past.   

I agree with this. 

I'm starting to see the argument for Adams and Ruff forming:  UPL is bad and if we just had better goaltending we would have been in it.  It is basically the excuse that has been used for Ruff's failures since he left Buffalo the first time.   

[HumanSlinky39]

54 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

UPL has allowed 11g on his last 39 shots.

[HumanSlinky39]

43 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I would not complain if Lindy and his entire staff get replaced, but I would hate just turning it over to Appert. 

UPL showed us his "A" game last season and even in spurts this season, but we are no longer seeing his best play, I can agree to that.  Dumping UPL for Levi and another TBD backup is probably a mistake.  It is just more "no blocker" mentality. 

Levi would have been ruined playing behind this team this season, moving him to the AHL was one of the few smart things that the Sabres did. 

Fix the defensive game and let Levi push UPL.  It needs to be a competition to determine who should be the #1.   If Levi turns out better that is fine.  If UPL gets his game back because he is being pushed that is even better. 

Fans here calling to dump UPL for Levi have not learned a thing from the past.   

If they were to do this, that might really be the last straw for me that causes me to just walk away. I thought Lindy was a lazy, safe hire. Hiring Appert on the heals of Lindy would be the laziest hire possible.

They 100% need to move on from Adams and, honestly, probably need to move on from Lindy, too. Then, there needs to be a 100% break from the status quo, which means a clean sweep of the executive and operations branches of the team. This dead ass organization needs fresh blood and to be rid of anybody with the stink of this organization on them. Then, an experienced external POHO needs to be brought in to rebuild the organization top-down.

Sadly, that would be a lot of work, and I just don't think Uncle Terry gives enough of a damn to do it. So in the unlikely event he does move on from Adams, I fully expect an internal promotion and if Lindy is fired (not bloody likely) or steps down (maybe?) I'd wager your new HC is Appert. Wouldn't surprise me to see them kick Lindy up to GM or POHO. Neither of which I'm interested in. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Edited Friday at 02:17 PM by HumanSlinky39

[PromoTheRobot]

8 hours ago, Big Guava said:

 

Ullmark had very good numbers here, he was just always hurt.

His worst save percentage with us was .905 and average was .912.

UPL had a season of .892 and somehow an even worse .890 this year. Career average is .900.  Those are not NHL numbers. They might not even be AHL numbers.

Do people not see what happens before the goals? The utter clown show of defense the Sabres put on? Dom Hasek would have the same numbers as UPL. The Sabres haven't a clue how to defend in their zone and other teams know it and exploit it 

[LGR4GM]

10 minutes ago, HumanSlinky39 said:

If they were to do this, that might really be the last straw for me that causes me to just walk away. I thought Lindy was a lazy, safe hire. Hiring Appert on the heals of Lindy would be the laziest hire possible.

They 100% need to move on from Adams and, honestly, probably need to move on from Lindy, too. Then, there needs to be a 100% break from the status quo, which means a clean sweep of the executive and operations branches of the team. This dead ass organization needs fresh blood and to be rid of anybody with the stink of this organization on them. Then, an experienced external POHO needs to be brought in to rebuild the organization top-down.

Sadly, that would be a lot of work, and I just don't think Uncle Terry gives enough of a damn to do it. So in the unlikely event he does move on from Adams, I fully expect an internal promotion and if Lindy is fired (not bloody likely) or steps down (maybe?) I'd wager your new HC is Appert. Wouldn't surprise me to see them kick Lindy up to GM or POHO. Neither of which I'm interested in. Lather, rinse, repeat.

If they were smart, the day after the season ends, do exit interviews and collect all that data. Then 1 week later, fire Adams and the coaching staff. Bring in a new POHO and tell him to evaluate the current employees in hockey ops. That would give them a couple of months of playoffs to evaluate what you have and then decide who stays and goes, so when summer opens and all the coaches and execs around the league are available, you can start bringing in who you want to fill holes. 

If I did this. I would talk to analytics first and figure out what they are doing and who won't listen to them. I would then find out why the ppl who aren't listening to them don't. It is valuable to have the analytics and non analytics perspective. Then I would move rapidly to assemble a team of 3-5 people to help me go through the rest of the org telling them that if I get a whiff of them using this as an opportunity to use personal beefs to get someone gone they will be gone faster than they can say palm trees. Logical and cold the process should be. It would take months. You'd have to understand who does what and why. You would have to understand how decisions are made and who can't handle the change. 

In short, you would need a real leader (not calling myself that, I did a self insert for writing purposes) who can summarize all the knowledge, reach a conclusion, and then have the conviction to execute that conclusion AND reflect on it later to make sure it was correct. Adams never questions his plan, draft and develop and want to be here. He never allows for imagination or deviation. He's a poor general. 

[PromoTheRobot]

2 hours ago, Pimlach said:

The UPL bashing is lazy.  Looking at his stats does not tell everything.  He was better last year but so was the team.   He keeps them in games, and they choke right in front of him.  Lindy’s Alamo, which he calls teaching them how to close a game, is the big reason for  the many 3rd period collapses.  

Team defense is most disappointing this season. Lindy was supposed to teach a two-way game and accountability.  I see nothing of the sort.  

Thank you. I thought I was the only one seeing this. Goaltending is not an individual function. It's the job of the other 5 skaters to take away shots so your goalie only has to focus on one or two threats. The Sabres are totally useless defending their zone. They "get into position" but opposing players can slip behind them with no resistance. Byram has been the worst lately. There's a reason why Devon Levi is on fire in the AHL but turns into a pumpkin with the Sabres. 

Edited Friday at 02:35 PM by PromoTheRobot