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For the record, I never thought of him as the throw-in and the fact he is playing better than Kesselring underscores the fact that he wasn’t.

He made the Kessel Run from the Sabres in less than 8 parsecs games played.

And someday, maybe, one of the offspring of the Eichel trade will help the Sabres reach the playoffs.

Yes, except that the PP is a complete disaster and shouldn’t be. Can’t really blame that on injuries. A good PP would go a long way, of course as soon as it gets fixed the PK would probably start to falter

Does anyone else besides me think that if we weren't down our 3, 4, 5, and 6th F and Dahlin was actually able to be Dahlin, that we'd be in a playoff spot right now? The only one I could maybe fault the team for is the #3 being down given his long injury history... Though are we any better with Cozens playing? It's true that the reasons for firing everyone go way back prior to this season, so there's that, but I kind of think this team when healthy could be good. Unfortunately, we'll be way too far back for it to matter if we ever dinger everyone back

They might've. At any rate he seems to be significantly better than Appert. (Not that that's saying much.)

Did the organization finally hire the right guy. I'd rather have Leone than Appert be heir apparent to Ruff

Injuries have us putting out two 4th lines and the second 4th line played like a 5th line, the matchups are rough and it will be worse against the Avs. The 3rd D pair was like a 4th D pair. Keep in mind that Kesselring had two NHL seasons, 156 games, prior to coming to Buffalo so he is not an established NHL veteran on defense. I see some little things that I like, but I am still waiting for him to impress me. 7 games and 0 points so far.

Man, imagine being Matt Ellis and waking up every day employed. Incredible.

Unless it goes further south, I don't see a in season change. Not publicly. I could see Kekäläinen making the moves at the deadline with Adams as the figurehead but I don't think we get an in season firing.

Seems fairly obvious that Analytics is not used for every pick. Bedowski shows us that. Kleber shows us that. If you want to know what drafting using analytics looks like, look at Carolina. Jerry Forton might listen to analytics for the 1st round but he's clearly looking for "player types" after that. It is why all the RHD we draft later seem to have the exact same profile. My point is the scouting system in Buffalo is brutally flawed. Doesn't help that Adams gives 2nd round picks away for Malenstyn and so he can get Josh Norris and Bernard-Docker who he didn't even sign.

Many scouts have been released over the years. Adams gutted the scouting department as part of EEE, then he added to the staff later. The Sabres rely heavily on analytics and that is headed up by Sam Ventura. They have a guy named Jerry Forton, recently promoted to AGM, that is also heavily involved. None of this means that GM doing to drafting has to listen to the scouts. The scouts provide inputs but they do not select the players. The buck should stop with Kevyn Adams. Its lonely out in space ....

Him and Vinny seem to get it. Prospal last year basically said that if Kisakov didn't work hard on the ice he wasn't going to get any ice. The Sabres let the kid go this summer.

I get what you're saying, but watch this town blow up if this trash owner hired Shanahan as POHO, DeBoer as HC, promoted Kekalainen to GM, and then made the playoffs. It's a dormant fanbase ready to explode as soon as Terry gets out of the way.

Josh Doan was not a throw-in and fans and the coaching staff should stop acting like he was. The fact he isn't getting more ice time is another nail in a coffin that is so filled with them it is just metal for this coaching staff.

That is another area where a POHO can step in and be the face and voice of the organization.

There's only 1 way to fix this and Pegula doesn't have the balls to do it. You go through this list and fire 75% of these people. You fire everyone who's been here for 10+ years. Some won't deserve it, you are right, but at this point it is about a hard reset. Senior Advisor Jarmo Kekalainen Special Asst. to General Manager Eric Staal Associate General Manager Jason Karmanos Assistant General Manager Mark Jakubowski Assistant General Manager Jerry Forton VP of Hockey Strategy and Research Sam Ventura Director of Pro Scouting Jeremiah Crowe Assistant Director of Amateur Scouting Jason Nightingale Scout Craig Anderson Scout Graham Beamish Scout Kevin Devine Scout Brad Dexter Scout Austin Dunne Scout Justin Falk Scout Anders Forsberg Scout Frank Musil Scout Tristan Musser Scout Ruslan Pechonkin Scout Marty Stein Scout Lukas Sutter Scout Tommi Vesanen Data Engineer Matt Barlowe Data Scientist Domenic Galamini, Jr. Manager of Hockey Technology/Team Operations Kyle Kiebzak Coordinator of Team Operations Hunter Kelly Manager of Hockey Administration Brett Ruff Executive Assistant Terri O'Brien COACHING STAFF Head Coach Lindy Ruff Assistant Coach Seth Appert Assistant Coach Mike Bales Assistant Coach Matt Ellis Assistant Coach Marty Wilford Video Coach Justin White Video Coordinator Amir Gulati Skating and Skills Instructor Mike Ansell

According to KA's promo video Doan was a "must have" part of the deal.

Well that's the thing... There has been 14 plus years of no playoffs. That can turn a really good hockey market into a bad one. My assessment where I said pretty good... It's kind of the average of what it used to be, averaged out with what it is now. Here's why I think it's not that good anymore. When I was in high school, 80% of the guys in school knew about the sabres, talked about the sabres, followed the team. Now, I have a handful of nieces and nephews, some of them that used to... That don't even care anymore. They don't know anything about the team. There will always be hardcore hockey fans here, but the market has deteriorated.

Pretty good? Buffalo is probably the best U.S. hockey market outside Minneapolis, Detroit, and Boston. I'd love to see the mood and attendance figures of any other non-Canadian franchise after 14+ years of no playoffs.

They have 100% agreed internally to play this season out and then go from there. I would bet money that Pegula was like "fine you are under contract, go try to make the playoffs and if not Kevyn, I will move you up and we can bring in a new GM" I'd bet Ruff knows this is his last year as well, hell he might want it to be. Just sad really how this is clearly a year with no expectations because everyone from the GM down to the Assistant Coaches are placeholders.

I’d seriously question if I want a player with that attitude on my team

"I've lost my love of the game." - Michael Kesselring, 7 games into his Sabres career, following a -2 plus/minus and 13.5 minutes of ice time last night.

Can’t fault him for honesty. Question was asked by Mammoth reporter so he was tipping his hat to the org and fans. I notice the question he was asked wasn’t included. if you read the entire article you get the context. Seems to have a great attitude.