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I will give Adams a tiny bit of credit, and I mean tiny, when he fired Granato for whatever reason you can call it because I remember he did at least put some of the responsibility of the team's poor performance on himself as well as on the players back then. Well if Adams truly wanted to take some of the responsibility for his performance, then he should take some serious responsibility for his atrocious overall performance ever since being hired and RESIGN immediately.

Excellent question. Win every game they can. PA will argue against this, but this team SHOULD win in Calgary. Additionally, they might win in Vancouver; they should be able to win in Seattle, but until they ever finally beat them will always expect that to be an L. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll make that one a moral victory by only losing that one in OT. Know it won't happen, but would really like to see a bloodletting in the hockey department on Boxing Day (or whenever the roster / personnel freeze ends; and realize the FO and coaches don't get holiday job protection; but waiting 3 extra days to can them won't make any difference on this hockey season and if it lets folks have a good holiday with their families, why not). Find out what you have should Leone be the interim coach. (Or heck, let Appert be the interim coach to prove just how friggin' bad he is and keep him from getting the promotion to the job full time. Nah, on second thought, he might have a Rolston dead cat bounce and we'd be stuck with him for the next 5 years. Better to not risk it.) Let Kekelainen take the reins. And whomever Terry's advisor is (he's bouncing ideas off somebody's noggin or getting input lo these many years) make sure he's the 1st one sent packing (Forton perhaps?).

You still do not have a shut down line on that 3rd line. Put Quinn back in and they can contribute on the score sheet. Doan - Thompson - Tuch Benson - Norris - Zucker Östlund - McLeod - Quinn Greenway/Dunne - Kozak/Krebs - Malenstyn The fourth line with Kozak at center was a good shut down line until he got hurt.

The same guy that is instructing them in HOW to play D is the same guy that was doing so when Granato was the coach. Granted, that guy's system when he gets adequate goaltending is actually GOOD on the PK (at least it has been through the 1st 1/3 of the season) which is something that wasn't apparent when he was getting below average goaltending. But it is, has been, and likely always will be horrible at 5v5. With Ruff only making 2 moves altering the coaching staff in 2 years (1 being demoting Ellis and elevating Appert, and the other being the canning of a S&C coach), totally get being disappointed in how they play in their own end, but when they're getting told by the same people what to do, it really is a bit on the Sabre fan side of things to expect anything different. Sure, hope for something different, but to expect it, so, so, very Sabrey. (And, yeah, had hoped things would change under Ruff and even expected them at the time he was hired, but since he didn't make any changes other than using line matchups when available at home, not much has changed. He does have them playing better to start games than his predecessor did, but even that's not a huge change this year as they're tied for giving up the most 1st goals of the game w/ the Phlyers. 18 times in 28 games.)

Fired as a scapegoat? He was fired for his record, and because his teams were one-dimensional, but he got little help in term of resources from Adams and Pegula.

Krebs was really bad last night. He wasn’t alone, but he did stand out to me.

So, we now have nearly 4 games of Norris and all of them have been with Thompson on his wing. They were great in the 1 adrenaline game and have been bad in the other 3. When things were going well prior to Norris getting back in the lineup, Ruff had said he saw Thompson as his 1C and Norris as the 2C. Realize the sample size of them together has been very small, but this team has played its way into not having the luxury of letting the 1st line have 10 or so games to find itself and gel. So, IMHO (and likely most people's here) the time has come for Ruff to break those 2 up. Thompson and Tuch show a lot of chemistry with each other. Doan has played with Tuch a lot and has reasonable chemistry with him. IMHO there's your 1st line. Norris and Benson should have chemistry together. And, in the adrenaline game they did. (But pretty sure Norris would've had chemistry with people from here that day.) What winger to give them? Options are Zucker, Quinn, Östlund (yeah he's a C, he can slide), and Greenway. Personally am giving them Zucker as he's the best of the bunch. Now, who to play on McLeod's line? For now, would give him Östlund and Greenway or maybe see what Kozak gives you at W. Actually would like to see what Kozak gives at W. Don't want Quinn on this line as am planning on using it predominantly as a checking line and Quinn doesn't fit that bill. That McLeod and Östlund can contribute some O would be enough in that department, at least on an initial looksee at what we have. Which would leave Krebs and Malenstyn wtih either Greenway, Quinn, or Dunne. Give it to Greenway when he's available and Dunne when he isn't. Quinn hasn't really played his way out of a job, but last few games he hasn't exactly played his way into one either. Doan - Thompson - Tuch Benson - Norris - Zucker Östlund - McLeod - Kozak Greenway/Dunne - Krebs - Malenstyn

What makes you believe that a skid would make that happen?

This team is just bad and there is no fixing it with the players/staff they have. Developing players in the NHL is an epically bad plan especially when you give them the Temu of coaching staffs. Unless there is huge influx of money and wholesale changes this offseason I think I’m done with the Sabres. There is no future for this organization under Pegula. He is fine using this team as a tax write off and keeping fans chasing the carrot with their bulls#it and they will always have fans believing it.

Good post.

Wow. One year. I really thought it was later in the season.

They signed Greenway for 2 years, two.

Sell. The. Team.

As a fan, here's where I'm at: Also sticking with the 1939 theme

One year ago today, Kevyn Adams told the world he don't know how to play ...

It is a shame that we've reached this point

"... where is Perreault?" "From now on, the Buffalo Sabres reason for for existence ... "

Stop making sense of the mess, a year or 3 yeah, I could agree, but if it hit double digits... Oy... Respect the opinion, but Fandom is at wits end. No offense.

Its not that I think they don't care. I just think they aren't good enough. Its not that I think Ruff is a bad coach, its just the things he is good at are not a match for this roster. He might be asking them to do the things they can't do. Its not that they totally don't have heart. If anything I think they have gotten better in that part of their game. I think its again, they aren't good enough. The roster isn't good enough, AND the parts that are good don't mesh well with each other. For me that is most of the failings of this team. IF they change the GM, coach, most of the front office, this team will not be good enough to go on a deep run magically. The new guys have to fundamentally change a large part of the roster. -Samuelsson should not have games where he is your best D-men when you have 3 other guys picked in the top 5 overall. -Tuch is a very good winger, but hes not a great one, is more of an analytics darling than how it translates on the ice, and I think he is STARTING to show a tiny bit of a sign of being past his peak because inconsistency is creaping into his game. -Tage is a premier goal scorer. Top 20 talent in the league. He cares, but his still set is NOT one where he can do it alone. He's not a superstar Alpha. -Dahlin is good, very, very good. But he isn't the McDavid of D-men. He's not a generational player. -Their goaltending is average (at best), probably below average. Every guy they have tried over the last few years. -I tried to convince myself Quinn was getting better. He's not. He's bad. A veteran journyman winger might not score as many goals (or maybe he would) but the team would be better with one of those guys instead of Quinn. He is a negative overall when on the ice. This team has some talent. They have some good pieces. But they have too few stars and no truly effective superstars. They aren't good enough, the roster simply hasn't been put together well.

There is another aspect to this systemic failure that I worry about: the persistent losing and being a part of an irrelevant team (from a player's perspective) having a demoralizing effect. I see it in the periodic spiritless play of Tuch, Dahlin and Tage and others. Players are not stupid. They can recognize what a quality organization is compared to a what a mediocre franchise is in the hockey business they work in. Unless they are stupendously obtuse (and they are not), they can recognize that they are stuck in a mediocre organization. You don't think that when they are watching the playoffs on their couches and see players they know participating in meaningful playoff games, they ask themselves: I would love to be on a team and be part of that playoff experience? I recognize that I often, to the understandable irritation of many, repeatedly blame this unreachable owner for the failure of this franchise during his ownership tenure. However, when a franchise has never gotten on a serious track yet continues to do what it has been doing without meaningfully attempting to get on another course, then that it is outright stupid and outrageous. This silent owner makes me angry. We deserve better.

It really annoyed me when Adams only got Timmins of all people and a minor league player for Connor Clifton PLUS what would have been the 39th pick (2nd round) in the draft. The Sabres are the 5th team Timmins has played for in the last 5 years. What could Adams have possibly seen in Timmins? Doesn't he look at past history?

Stay off the poppies , they are deadly

My apologies to Dahlin, he does have a heart, didn't mean to include him

Worst road team In professional hockey. Adams draft selections at forward so many gifs.