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Yes, if it’s a complementary goal it’s not THE goal and that is what I am saying was necessary. You aren’t disagreeing with me you are just starting your posts with “no” for some reason

Good for Tage. Glad USA finally broke through.

It does come with an asterisk, but it's the same one that this tournament comes with EVERY year, so good on Thompson for playing really well against the best of the players that play in Europe through the winter and a handful of really good NHLers. There's a reason Europeans care way more about this tournament than Canadians and Americans care about it.

I’d say today buried the last excuse for not bringing in a goalie, but who am I kidding?

Again, no, he didn't say the goal was to "probably" make the playoffs. It was the complementary goal to the the goal of perennially contending for the Stanley Cup and it was making the playoffs. Meaning, he wasn't going to sell off large chunks of the future to make playoffs happen. You can say then playoffs wasn't a goal, it was merely something he hoped would happen; but personally don't believe that was the case. (Sorry, kind of skimmed over the paragraph where you essentially agreed with that.) And again, believe his and Granato's hubris about that 91 point season is what doomed the next one. And that's how he managed to sell to management to punt Granato without anyone else going. Personally, still not understanding how Adams didn't take a fall THIS off-season. But there was A firing after the expectation of playoffs was not met. (Agree 100% there should've been more and am as frustrated as any (maybe even moreso than most) that there has been NO accountability THIS off-season; but you can't say there were no firings when the HC was in fact relieved of his duties when they missed the playoffs when the playoffs were the ST goal.) And, yes, the focus SHOULD have been on the playoffs more so than it was. The issue, and the one we ALL get to suffer for is, am 95+% certain that Adams sold Pegula on he (Terry) and Regier having been on the right track when they went for the tank but that Murray's rushing the rebuild is what caused the suffering to remain on a continual loop. And the Kevyn plan included (quite wrongheadedly, as they refused to weaponize ANY of their capspace the past 4 years) keeping cap for the home grown talent that would earn raises pushing them organically to a cap team and only trading away youth for players that would still be fitting into the long term vision of what the team is/ was becoming. So, though the ST goal WAS the playoffs, Adams little plan had set up constraints that didn't allow for veering from the plan even when a modification to the plan was warranted. The ST goal was secondary to the LT goal. Now, personally don't know if the playoffs were a Pegula goal. Am suspicious that it isn't nearly as high on his priority list as it was/is for Adams. Expect he still believes in that vision that Adams sold him after tagging along on the out of town trip back in the '19-'20 season which is likely the biggest reason that Adams still has a job after 5 failed kicks at the can. And heading into that off-season personally wanted to see a lot of things happen, pretty much none of which did, which would've made it extremely likely they'd've needed a lot to go wrong to not make the dance rather than staying where they ended up with needing a LOT to go right to make it. And with Quinn breaking in the off-season, they already knew at least 1 of the things they'd banked on to go right wouldn't. And, neither here nor there, knew the Sabres had made the wrong call in choosing Botterill over Zito back when a successor for Murray was needed. Hadn't realized Zito didn't take the Swamp Cats job until about 5 months after Adams had been hired to replace JBots. The Sabres actually had another opportunity to make the right decision and didn't make it then either. This off-season is soooo truly beyond frustrating.

I didn’t see Adam’s give Levi a 5-year $25M contract He absolutely overrated Levi, but it was symptom, not cause. It certainly wasn’t the only swing and miss and it’s not the only reason he’s failed to build a playoff team. He banked a numerous youngsters to get good. Most of them haven’t.

I was laughing today seeing disgruntled Philly fans (they hate everything) suggesting they'd feel like they got the dud ex Flyer when Brind'Amour gets fired. Maybe this is what Boston's waiting for. 🙂

Really quickly, I want you to look up Bennetts size and Marchands and get back to me.

*So, in the end, a drastic failure of both execution and concept. The proof is in the macro statistical pudding. The 78 point average for 5 seasons, that sort of *drastic* failure (we haven’t just missed we’ve generally missed badly) is the natural result of poor planning AND poor execution. like I always say with the tank, they made their own degree of difficulty for the actual rebuild after the fact way harder by enacting that strategy. Adams refusal to prioritize the now, the “floor”, the unwillingness to put the team in a place reflective of a GM who feels his team MUST make the playoffs, a team with, perhaps, a little standings points breathing ground rather than always being in “if eveything goes right mode”, leads to rosters against the 8 ball with question marks from day 1 that look really bad when they DO fail.

My only hope at this point is they are waiting to bring Dudley in and he is going to be bad cop and 💩can everyone. Ofcourse none of that is happening but it’s the only hope I have left.

“Believing you can make the playoffs” is NOT the same as making it your priority and this is a distinction I will gladly, continually hammer home. It’s the crucial distinction. I do not care if Adam’s believed the 91 point team would probably make the playoffs the next season. Probably doesn’t scratch the surface of good enough when a THIRTEEN (13) year drought is on the line we, as a fan base, deserve so, so much more than that. Probably isn’t good enough. You folks deserve better you truly do. The team HAD to make the playoffs that year. Let alone this year. it wasn’t THE priority. It’s just what Adams thought would likely happen. As the natural symptom of the unfolding of his long term plan.* Like to win / hate to lose? It wasn’t about NEEDING to make the playoffs. Not at all. We deserved NOTHING less. the FOCUS should have been on playoffs, in 2024, being *the* priority. It was not. And it was not this year either. “Actions speak louder than words” for a reason. Budget spending. Youngest teams. NO FIRINGS. How can one possibly argue there was any form of expectations if no one is accountable to anything?

And that’s not hindsight

Does not matter. It needed to be THE goal. And if you enter into a season as the youngest team in hockey with a bottom 10 pay roll, it cannot be, in good faith, your priority You can call it “missed warning signs” all you want but not everyone missed them I did not miss them I don’t need to change my opinion now because I was right for 5 years: they haven’t prioritized winning in the now since they shipped out Finkle and Einhorn

Kevyn Adams is an unimaginative loser who espouses a losing excuse filled narrative to explain his incompetence and complacency.

India themselves claiming Trump had NO PART in the ceasefire, saying he is a liar.

No, his being BAD at his job doesn't change that the timeline WAS Dahlin. He fully bought into the 91 point team taking a step forward. He thought they were better than they were. But that IS the Dahlin timeline. Playoffs was a goal in '23-'24. He flat out NEVER would say that publicly prior to that. It was always building a team in house that would eventually continuously / annually be a contender for the SC. And personally, REALLY wanted to believe it was possible. And, in hindsight, ignored huge warning signs that summer like wasting the preseson on figuring what callup would be the replacement on the top line should injuries strike rather than heading into October desperate to get wins before everybody else settled in to what they were. Or not doing anything at all to replace Quinn's anticipated production when they knew he wouldn't be available for a couple of months.

Not a big moment here but a big moment elsewhere. Great thing for Tage

I have Zero percent faith that this organization as constructed head to toe will find any success moving forward. Why Pegula has trust in this group is beyond me. They desperately need an outside, seasoned voices in positions of power.

The team needs to have 2 legit NHL goalies in the fold this fall not named Levi if UPL is still on the roster come October with one of them having enough of a pedigree that he COULD be a legit #1 (and ideally at least 1 of them would be expected to be better than Reimer in a starting role); or they need to have a true legit #1 (think Demko) with UPL or Levi pencilled in as the backup. They CAN NOT roll into the season with UPL and Levi as the 2 goalies. And personally still believe in Levi; but he needs to earn whatever he gets this year. Almost positive he can still be sent down without clearing waivers. That should be where he's pencilled in and if he forces their hand into something different; well that's a good thing. Also, personally expect that Kulich will make the roster out of the gate this season; but would really like to see 2 more F's brought it to put him in the position of needing to beat a legit NHLer out in camp to not have to start the year in Ra-cha-cha. It was an indictment of the team assembly that a rookie was the #1 C for large stretches.

Florida heat is the worst. Players are fortunate enough to get out before the worst of it, but I'd take a winter in any NHL city (except maybe Winnipeg) over a summer in Florida. Anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon line is too much to be honest. If I could live anywhere in North America, give me the Adirondacks. A real winter with snowboarding and ice fishing, all the lakes in the summer, and endless hiking in the fall. I just wouldn't leave the house during the Mother's Day to late-June bug season.

No, he SHOULD have been on the Dahlin timeline - that was the no brainer that he hasn’t properly addressed the team during this 5 years proves he didn’t believe himself to be A huge portion of his “mistakes” is lack of action The lack of prioritizing winning. The lack of a timeline that includes winning in the now we still doing this ?

No, he was on the Dahlin timeline. That he hasn't come close to elevating the team now that Dahlin's time is NOW doesn't change that. And, yes, mistakes he made are what pushed the team's timeline out beyond Dahlin's. And, yes, he really should have been relieved of his GM duties as soon as the last player was done autographing "the shirt off his back."

It's not a mistake. They tried. They just are not able to punish them.

Absolutely not. The bias of the league will be on full display, too. Double the penalties for Florida each game will be the norm.