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

[PromoTheRobot]

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

UPL has allowed 11g on his last 39 shots.

Stats never tell the whole story. Look at every one of those goals and I'll show you a Sabres player doing something stupid that led to that goal.

[Thorner]

4 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

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. 

That, and the fact he’s not an nhl goalie 

[MISabresFan]

5 minutes ago, Thorner said:

That, and the fact he’s not an nhl goalie 

It's a Ruff defense,

[Thorner]

Just now, MISabresFan said:

It's a Ruff defense,

It’s more than one thing, yes

[Pimlach]

1 minute ago, LGR4GM said:

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. 

Good leaders are constantly evaluating themselves and their organization.   They set goals and they hold themselves and others accountable to reach them.  They are proactive in the management of their teams performance, not passive or reactive.   The Sabres have to get rid of the win later mentality.   That starts with Terry. 

Terry's stated goal was "winning Stanley Cups" and he lost his mojo on that goal when he fired Regier to tank and then win later.  

Adams goal for the past two seasons was publicly stated to be "playoffs".  The team got worse each season, some of his core players have regressed badly. 

There is no reason to keep Adams around for one more try.  There is no reason to believe that Lindy and Appert are making a positive impact either. 

Is Terry capable of finding the right POHO to build a winning organization and reset the culture to win now?   

 

[MISabresFan]

Just now, Pimlach said:

Good leaders are constantly evaluating themselves and their organization.   They set goals and they hold themselves and others accountable to reach them.  They are proactive in the management of their teams performance, not passive or reactive.   The Sabres have to get rid of the win later mentality.   That starts with Terry. 

Terry's stated goal was "winning Stanley Cups" and he lost his mojo on that goal when he fired Regier to tank and then win later.  

Adams goal for the past two seasons was publicly stated to be "playoffs".  The team got worse each season, some of his core players have regressed badly. 

There is no reason to keep Adams around for one more try.  There is no reason to believe that Lindy and Appert are making a positive impact either. 

Is Terry capable of finding the right POHO to build a winning organization and reset the culture to win now?   

 

He did it with the Bills, needs to find that person to take the reigns.

[sabremike]

5 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

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. 

Coming into the season the big issue with Rochester was that they were a very, very, very, VERY young and inexperienced team (even by NHL standards) just like the parent club. Leone came in and has them top of the AHL while playing in the league’s Division Of Death. And it's the safest bet imaginable he and his staff will never get promoted to the parent club.

[PromoTheRobot]

Why no outage over how the Sabres played the last 30 seconds of the Lightning game? Allow me to break it down.

Man advantage, 6 on 4, another penalty is called. What you want to do is get a whistle so you can have the most time with a two-man, or on this case a three-man advantage. But no. Instead the Sabres keep skating with the puck like you would on a normal delayed penalty where you pull your goalie. BUT THE GOALIE WAS ALREADY PULLED!!!!

Okay, not smart. But you did get a whistle with 17 seconds to go. Now, if you win the face off, you want to shoot immediately and send all your extra skaters to the goal. Oh, but we are taking about the Sabres here. What they do after they win the face off is pass the puck around the perimeter until time expires!!! 🤦‍♂️ No shot on goal, no crashing the Lightning net. OMG how did these players reach the NHL with so little hockey sense??

[HumanSlinky39]

1 minute ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Why no outage over how the Sabres played the last 30 seconds of the Lightning game? Allow me to break it down.

Man advantage, 6 on 4, another penalty is called. What you want to do is get a whistle so you can have the most time with a two-man, or on this case a three-man advantage. But no. Instead the Sabres keep skating with the puck like you would on a normal delayed penalty where you pull your goalie. BUT THE GOALIE WAS ALREADY PULLED!!!!

Okay, not smart. But you did get a whistle with 17 seconds to go. Now, if you win the face off, you want to shoot immediately and send all your extra skaters to the goal. Oh, but we are taking about the Sabres here. What they do after they win the face off is pass the puck around the perimeter until time expires!!! 🤦‍♂️ No shot on goal, no crashing the Lightning net. OMG how did these players reach the NHL with so little hockey sense??

Got lost in the maelstrom of ***** from the rest of the last 30 minutes? Plus, I think we're just conditioned to expect our special teams to be an absolute ***** show at this point. Not excusing it at all, I think that it's just not surprising. I had zero expectation that they would score 6-3. None. That's how much our power play sucks. I was just shocked they didn't allow another ENG.

[HumanSlinky39]

12 minutes ago, MISabresFan said:

He did it with the Bills, needs to find that person to take the reigns.

Sadly, I think that's a strike against the Sabres. Seems to me, the Bills are Terry's "favorite son" and as long as they're doing well, the Sabres are the rat bastard black sheep of the family. No urgency to be better because he already has a successful franchise. I could be way off base, but that's the impression that I get.

[inkman]

20 minutes ago, MISabresFan said:

It's a Ruff defense,

More like rough defense, amiright?  

[Sidc3000]

1 hour ago, Thorner said:

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

No expectations would be part of culture. Fragile psyche is losing 13 straight games because your captain is out. That is probably youth. I think culture is more of the problem than them being mentally weak 

Edited Friday at 03:11 PM by Sidc3000

[LGR4GM]

33 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

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. 

I hate this argument. It basically implies goalies are all the same and the good ones just don't have to deal with defensive zone breakdowns. All teams deal with zone breakdowns and we could argue that UPL deals with more but at 5v5 we know that isn't really true. UPL hasn't been making saves and his gsax numbers reflect that. We could argue that his defense is not helping much and I would agree but he also isn't helping much. Both things can be true, the defense isn't good enough and UPL isn't good enough. Goalies are paid to make saves and he doesn't get a pass on that because some of the saves have been harder to make. 

22 minutes ago, sabremike said:

Coming into the season the big issue with Rochester was that they were a very, very, very, VERY young and inexperienced team (even by NHL standards) just like the parent club. Leone came in and has them top of the AHL while playing in the league’s Division Of Death. And it's the safest bet imaginable he and his staff will never get promoted to the parent club.

What's Leone's background?

[DarthEbriate]

3 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

What's Leone's background?

Card player, Green Bay Gambler, scum. You'd like him.

My biggest fear for him was his affiliation with the USNTDP, which makes him just another in the long line of Sabres U they've had on staff since Pegula took over. But, he's got a very skilled forward group going (Prospal) and baby defensemen (Paetsch) going well, and has the benefit of a top-10 AHL goalie.

I'm not sure where they'd be if Levi was in the NHL, Reimer had not been reclaimed, and they were rolling Sandstrom and Houser all season.

[Thorner]

11 minutes ago, Sidc3000 said:

No expectations would be part of culture. Fragile psyche is losing 13 straight games because your captain is out. That is probably youth. I think culture is more of the problem than them being mentally weak 

I agree. We aren’t drafting mentally weak players. This is all nurture 

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, PromoTheRobot said:

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. 

UPL has not been great but he is on a island much of the time.  The way this team plays with a lead is criminal, but he has been missing on some "expected saves" to often too.  His confidence is down and he is probably getting sick of the poor support.  

Trading him and "hoping" that Levi is ready would be repeating past mistakes.  If Levi beats him out, then the team just got better, lets try that method.  I would love to see Levi plays so well that internal competition forces UPL has to up his game or became a tradeable asset.  

It is similar to Kulich, who was called up and earned a spot, eventually working his way to the first line and PP2.  

 

 

[Big Guava]

11 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

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 

Please...we keep making excuses for why the goalie lets in God Awful goals that have no business going in far too often.

Trying to say Hasek would have the same numbers is the height of nonsense.

11 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Stats never tell the whole story. Look at every one of those goals and I'll show you a Sabres player doing something stupid that led to that goal.

And at least 3 of them were terrible goals 

[PromoTheRobot]

55 minutes ago, Big Guava said:

Please...we keep making excuses for why the goalie lets in God Awful goals that have no business going in far too often.

Trying to say Hasek would have the same numbers is the height of nonsense.

And at least 3 of them were terrible goals 

We will just have to disagree.

[Big Guava]

30 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

We will just have to disagree.

The second you said Hasek would have the same numbers your argument was DOA to me.

[PromoTheRobot]

10 hours ago, Big Guava said:

The second you said Hasek would have the same numbers your argument was DOA to me.

You are oblivious to the impact the other skaters have in goals allowed.

[JohnC]

22 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Why no outage over how the Sabres played the last 30 seconds of the Lightning game? Allow me to break it down.

Man advantage, 6 on 4, another penalty is called. What you want to do is get a whistle so you can have the most time with a two-man, or on this case a three-man advantage. But no. Instead the Sabres keep skating with the puck like you would on a normal delayed penalty where you pull your goalie. BUT THE GOALIE WAS ALREADY PULLED!!!!

Okay, not smart. But you did get a whistle with 17 seconds to go. Now, if you win the face off, you want to shoot immediately and send all your extra skaters to the goal. Oh, but we are taking about the Sabres here. What they do after they win the face off is pass the puck around the perimeter until time expires!!! 🤦‍♂️ No shot on goal, no crashing the Lightning net. OMG how did these players reach the NHL with so little hockey sense??

I made this point on another thread that the players were not listening to the coach, and the coach was not holding the players accountable for their undisciplined play. Compare this to Tampa when Kucherov, a veteran player associated with the cup teams, made a sloppy play along the boards where JJP got the puck from Kucherov and scored off of that mistake. This happened near the end of the second period. Tampa's coach, Cooper, benched one of their best players for the rest of the period. The player got the message and played well the rest of the way. This was an example where the coach was not going to tolerate lackadaisical play and the player was receptive to the disciplinary message.  Contrast that to sloppy and undisciplined way the Sabres usually play! What's apparent is that coach is being tuned out and the players continue on with their sloppy play. The unacceptable has become the acceptable. That's one of the reasons why this team is where it is. 

Edited 23 hours ago by JohnC

[Big Guava]

44 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

You are oblivious to the impact the other skaters have in goals allowed.

No, I just don't equate an average at best goalie with the best who ever played the game and think they would get the same results.

Would be like saying Trent Edwards would have the same impact as Josh Allen if the players around him weren't as good. Makes zero sense.

Edited 23 hours ago by Big Guava

[PromoTheRobot]

14 minutes ago, Big Guava said:

No, I just don't equate an average at best goalie with the best who ever played the game and think they would get the same results.

Would be like saying Trent Edwards would have the same impact as Josh Allen if the players around him weren't as good. Makes zero sense.

Here's the problem. You're judging UPL by the end result, not by the factors that lead to that result. You simply don't believe that bad defensive play leads to more goals. You expect a goalie to just stop everything no matter what. It doesn't work that way. 

Josh Allen is one of the best QBs ever. But the Bills still try to surround him with quality players. Why is that?