‘”What I love about Ras the most is he’s one of the most competitive guys on the ice,” Sabres defenseman Jake McCabe said. “He doesn’t – guys start hitting him or chirping him throughout the game, it just elevates his game to another level. He has this compete and drive that really is going to continue to take his game to the next level and the next level after that.”‘
Archives for May 2020
It’s a big loss for this Sabres core to not take first playoff step against Penguins
‘The Hail Mary of new life in a sudden 24-team tournament wouldn’t cause the sort of civic celebration that Andy Dalton’s fourth-down pass in Baltimore prompted among Bills fans on Dec. 31, 2017. But it would count nonetheless and this team wouldn’t hear about tying the NHL record of 10 straight years out of the playoffs ad nauseum come next season.’
Quick Shifts: Anger, pain, trade speculation swirls in Buffalo
‘No matter how Herculean his efforts, Eichel’s task has been Sisyphean. The boulder rolls back down the hill. Listen below. This is feeling like rock bottom, or darn close.’
Sunday’s Rochester Coverage
5 takeaways from Sabres coach Ralph Krueger’s end-of-season press conference
‘”I’ve got to be better,” Krueger said during his end-of-season Zoom conference call with reporters Friday. “I’ve got to be better as a coach. I’ve got to be better as a leader. That’s where it starts. And then I have to drive that into the people around me. I have to drive it into the staff, into our high performance staff, into our players and that’s how we will build a winning culture for all, no matter how you judge it.”‘
Sabres’ Ralph Krueger says it’s ‘healthy’ for Jack Eichel to vent about losing
‘“Our core has a youth that they’re willing to reach for higher standards. … I like the anger. I have no problem with people outing frustration on the past. But then let’s move that conversation forward real quick and let’s figure out what we’re going to do about it.”’
Krueger knows there’s pain and anger, but feels ‘so many positives’ after Year 1
‘”We don’t think after these 11 weeks that there’s one player who isn’t embracing the journey. That’s how I sit here after one year. Encouraged by a lot of signs, encouraged by the buy in, encouraged by the culture we’re evolving and growing into and the habits that are forming. But we’re extremely disappointed with our placing after a season that saw us quite competitive on almost every night, and yet we fell much below the mark that we set. May that pain and may that disappointment help us grow.”‘
Reinhart not worried about his next contract
‘”I think at this point, you’ve got to take a lot of the positives and a lot of things that have gotten better for us this year,” Reinhart said. “We know it’s not what we ultimately wanted, a disappointing ending, for sure. However, all we can do right now is focus on the things that went well and really try to utilize this long offseason to our advantage. It’s all how you handle it and all how you prepare the best way you can, and [the way we] utilize the extended offseason it’s going to come back even stronger.”‘
Krueger believes disappointment from this season will help Sabres down the road
‘”If we’re going to be angry and complain about the past, we need to work extremely hard right now because the only people who are going to change it is us, we have the opportunity to change it.”’
Ralph Krueger hopes Sabres channel this year’s frustration into results next season
‘“That there’s pain and anger and that Jack [Eichel] is at the lead of that, that’s a really good sign and it’s very healthy and it also shows that our core has a youth that they’re willing to reach for higher standards. They’re willing to reach and now we need to do the work,” Krueger said Friday on a zoom call with reporters.’