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He’s got another power point presentation with all the buzzwords that Pegula is looking for. He’ll extend him 5 years when he sees the phrase “Make Appert new Head Coach”

They ARE NHL 0.500. But NHL 0.500 is where bad, though not horrible, teams find themselves. They need to get to an NHL 0.600. Finding some way to at minimum get themselves to an NHL 0.450 on the road (they really need to be NHL 0.500 on the road, but considering they're at NHL 0.250 on the road currently, baby steps) would go a long way towards being able to get there. And they are NHL 0.500 in their (VERY small sample size) last 2 road games. Win tomorrow night in Carolina and then worry about game 2 of the road trip. Shoot, the Blues are horrible and just won in the 2 time defending Campbell Conference champions' barn and shut out another team in 2 of their last 3 road games. Find a friggin' way to get it done. And if you can't, for the love of all that's Good and Holy, make some ####ing changes!!!

I was ok with the recent string of losses and/or OTLs but the events leading up to the Blues game should have got the Sabres attention that this game was going to be a battle. The performance of all of them tells us a lot. It was not just a bad night. Unprepared. Out coached. Out worked. All of it.

I think we know that Lyon is better. And I think we know that Lyon is not the long tern answer if he is expected to play 50-55 games. Ellis played one game and was better than UPL. He kept the team in the game. They rallied around him. He needs to play more. After that we just pray that Levi is an NHL goalie someday. As for Quinn, he had a few good games on wing but his two way game is still suspect. People complained about Peterka's two way game, why does Quinn get a pass? Quinn does not belong on the point on the PP. He just cannot be trusted in that role. I would use Dahlin, Power, Byram, or Kesselring and keep it simple. Get bodies to the net and fire away.

Yes and no. Yes, you aren't going to win any games when you don't score any goals. BUT, how much of their offensive play (not the idiotic "plan" put together by Appert, but their actual play) was affected by knowing that UPL starting would almost definitely guarantee they'd need to score at least 4 goals to win the game? They hit 4 posts; do they perhaps shoot a little closer to the goalie if they aren't gripping the sticks tight knowing they have to get to 4 to win? Tuch is definitely gripping it tight. HE's their shorty goal scorer and when he was in the slot with a teammate coming up the ice with him on a nearly 2-on-1 which forced the goalie to keep from coming out high on him decides to try to pass it to the guy that is NOT a goal scorer to keep from either shooting wide again or getting robbed again for IIRC what would've been the 6th time in just over 2 games. If Lyon, or even Ellis, gets the start, does the team play a little looser expecting that a brain fart WON'T absolutely be in their net? When you have no faith in your goalie, you play differently than you do when you expect a save. And, right down, does ANYBODY here EXPECT UPL to make a big save? If nobody here (or at a minimum nobody posting here that doesn't live in NH 😉 ) expects a big save, why would UPL's teammates EXPECT the big save? (Especially after having seen the 1st 2 goals he gave up.) They finally went for it in the 3rd when they had no time left to try to sit back but by then the Blues goalie was on his game and even when they could get one past him, they couldn't get it heading inside the iron.

The reaction differential between wins and losses remains comedy

To be fair the lines have been unsettled all year starting with the injury to Norris. The one exception for a few games was when Tuch - McLoed - Doan were clicking, but injuries are a big part of the problem. The AHL guys show flashes but they are not ready for prime time.

A start would be not saddling him with rookies like Rosen and Östlund. Imo we should be loading up on one line - it’s better than having no lines I don’t care if you have to run McLeod - Thompson - Tuch ..that should be the first line if “balanced lines” isn’t achieving the required result. Then… Doan - Kozak - …..Quinn? Sheesh, the lack of F work from Adams over several years is frankly striking. Benson and Zucker are sorely missed but..it’s not like you ever have no injuries - - - At least do: Doan - Thompson - Tuch Östlund/Rosen - McLeod - Quinn ..facilitating the performance of Tage should be the primary concern. If he isn’t going we don’t have anything going

This especially

Martin St Louis, Tim Kennedy, Brad Marchand, Theo Fleury, Johnathan Marchassault, Danny Briere, Patrick Kane, etc etc Those are just off the top of my head that are smallish players that thrived in the NHL, furthermore, in an era where it was legal to openly mug and assault for some of them. Benson has the same DNA as some of the players noted.... What he doesn't have is a team that can keep up with his tenacity. Maybe some TRT injections would do this team good, I know a nice place that can supply some peptides for the boys to man up... Benson isn't injury prone, his teammates are terrible prone.

Better than him? Are you ***** serious? Better than UPL? Any replacement goalie is better.

By the end of November this team will be playoff dead and Adams will still not get fired.

What conjecture and nonsense.

This is true. That said, his body, as is, is not currently suited to his style of play. If he doesn’t add 10-12 lbs of muscle he’s going to get more injuries and and as they pile up it will be more difficult. He's not a speedster offensive player. He is a smart player with great stick work in the corners. But needs more size and muscle to elevate beyond just decent. He also needs strength to improve his shot. Heck, a lot of players have better backhand shots than his forehand. It’s all about commitment. If he gets close to 190 that is a weight that would be ideal for his style of play. This is a big offseason for him. And a big season as well.

Actually it's not short-term frustration. I am just about done with UPL. And the reason is... And I'm repeating myself from the game day threads... It's something that I started noticing this time early last year. There are way, way too many times where he's allowing goals where he's not screened... He is set... He is facing the shooter... And shooters are beating him cleanly from 15 to 20 ft out. And I'm not talking all the time with 100 mph blasts, but sometimes with fluttering shots, sometimes A shot that looks like they're trying to gently pick a corner against a high school Goalie. He didn't do that too much 2 years ago. Last year I started posting about it in October or November and some other posters said I was being hard on him. Well, it continued all last year and it's continuing this year. That's not a guy you can win with who was going to take you deep into the playoffs. If I know that... And I'm pretty sure I know that... It's just a waste of time keeping him here any longer.

He's playing 6D Chess. Just wait. You'll see.

Not without getting into politics.

Put tuch and tage back together. They have historically been great together regardless of who the third guy is. Get tage with a familiar partner and he will start to put numbers again. I don't know what the solution is for dahlin. Maybe partner him with timmins, since timmins has now made Samuelsson and power look decent?

I know like all of us that this is a post out of disappointment. The thing about off loading UPL is the question of do we have a replacement for him that is any better? It would be easy to say yes but we really don't know. We can't even win with Lyon in the net because we are not scoring enough to support him. Because of that fact I am still fixated on our offense issues. Quinn is part of that. I don't know who decided he should play point on the power play but it was Skinner flashbacks. Its time to put 2 d men on the power play full time.

What the holy helll was Tage doing when he went into the boards backwards and collided with Quinn. That right there illustrates the lack of cohesion between players on this sad sack edition of how the world turns. I could not believe the disfunction.

100% True. But I feel they took this game lightly. I know how weak this club is emotionally and I know that they can be lazy group. Hence trap game.

The scoring drought is killing them now. At times last year and parts of this year it was the special teams. When it's neither of those, it's goaltending. When it's not goaltending, it's awful play of your defenseman. And if it's not that, it's injuries. A good sign of a bad team is when you poke one leak in the dam, another leak springs up someplace else. At some point, and I think most of us believe they are there, you need to build a brand new dam. And you need new engineers and workers to build it. I think most of us have a plan to make this team better. For me It starts with get rid of UPL, then bench or get rid of Quinn, And pray for no more injuries. You know what though? Maybe that allows them to be good enough to squeak into the playoffs. I see very little hope for this team sniffing a deep playoff run in the next... 3 to 5 years at least with the current roster and management? Unless they catch fire, and I mean immediately run off a 4 to 6-game winning streak, they have to start over. And starting over means really starting over. Brand new hockey people. Those hockey people are given power to make decisions. A coach that can hire his entire staff. Sure. Pegula is the owner so you run things by him, but he doesn't make decisions, he's informed of the reason why the hockey people are making the decisions they are. Really, what are most of us holding out hope for? That they can squeak into the playoffs? That they're the number eight seed with 95 points? That's the aspiration? That's not good enough, and they're not even close to doing that.

The "this is how we play" mantra from the Ottawa game lasted 3 weeks. The Sabres reality (at least until Benson and Norris are back to ice a top line) is the same as it has been. The standings today show the Sabres in last place in the East, having to jump the maximum 7 teams just to get to a wild card spot. And now is when their schedule actually gets difficult (on paper). The Death Star will be in range in 5 minutes games.

Tie his ass to the bench then

What he needs is to not play on a top line with 160 pound rookies.