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I’ll always remember vividly your post about Taylor Hall looking like “a shark that wasn’t quite hungry yet” during camp 2021. How excited you were, and how excited you made me about it there’s no way that guy believed the core should be exploded to the tune of a long form plan based on 56 games, of which Jack played, what, 21? While severely hurt? There’s no way you’d draw that strong of a conclusion based on 21/56 games - I don’t buy it Jack and Sam had to go? You felt Adams had the right idea? It’s not plausible

i’ll still give up a chuckle for his war with Canada Geese. (and, moreover, his campaign to get local government to take it on as a public cause.)

You didn’t want Eichel traded until you heard he asked for a trade In fact you frequently argued against the necessity of it until it happened Talk about revisionist Again, you didn’t want it blown up You didnt want a 5 year rebuild you just argued splendidly and intelligently for why it could work, after the fact - its what you always do. You proclaimed the merits of how the plan could work, and if Adams was actually trying to build a winning team in the way we want one, he probably could have done it by following your strategy

I agree with this. I suppose there is an argument for not firing an assistant until you are certain you can hire a better replacement. But, the proper way to do it (my view) is to start by firing the assistant you want to replace. This accomplishes a couple of things: 1). It creates an urgency or necessity to find someone better; and 2). It serves to cast a wider net than you would by merely calling a few coaches you hope might be interested. In other words, interested coaches will contact you. I’m ambivalent on Wilford. Better is better. I imagine though that we would all swap Ruff for Brind’Amour before we would swap Wilford for Tim Gleason.

No, I’m talking about how I absolutely wanted that team blown up and you didn’t. I don’t want to revisit that discussion but it’s a fundamental disagreement that I think is fueled largely by our perception of that year.

I don’t hand wave 2021 as a quirk of the pandemic at all, that’s far from accurate. I deem it as something that should count towards the evaluation of the 15 years for exactly the amount of games within that stretch it counted for. 56 games. 56 out of 1157 using that anomalific sample size as justification for a 5 year rebuild is incredibly stupid yes

91 points had many if us on thinking we were on the brink of the suffering being over (it has Montreal fans thinking cup contention. Six points less and we wanted Adams and Granato launched into the sun. Objectively 6 points are three bounces or borderline calls, but what matters is how you feel,

There’s no reason the lenses should be different. I’m judging him purely by the record of the team during his time as GM If you aren’t judging him by that after 5 years, I strenuously disagree with you. If you are, the lens is the same

Who is going to lament the Sabres not signing Looch to a PTO?

It’s about bad on top of bad. We’ve kinda had this conversation before: you kinda hand wave 2021 as a quirk of the pandemic, I consider it one of the 2 worst years of my Sabre fandom. We judge Adams through those two different lenses.

It’s mostly the fact we are splitting hairs between bad and bad Better is still bad here. The reaction is going to be more in line with the bad, not the fact it’s squint and you see it better than putrid

I’ve clarified, but I’m not sure it matters to the point: wins and losses matter, but what matters more is how the team makes you feel. Montreal fans like their team more than Torontos right now.

And I’m glad you didn’t because Adams being probably worse than Murray and Botterill (looking at his full 5 years and not just 3) doesn’t stop him from being definitively worse than the competition when compared to a single real GM in Darcy

Only nearly true because of one season carrying the weight for the following two that downgrade, and then downgrade and also not true: 11/12/13 we averaged 89 points per (and made the damn playoffs, to boot) We’ve averaged 84.7 the last 3 (2013 of course a prorated total) You could have used 14 years as the cut off but alas you did not so

It can’t be results because the Sabres are coming off their best 3-year run of the past 15 years. Posted mostly tongue in cheek, but the above is straight up factual. 2011-13 was marginally better. The current run is also better than 02-04 and about the same as 06-08. In terms of regular season results, this group feels worse than it is.

I think pro sports is sold on the quality of product

I get that, but seriously, when was the last time that the coaching and front office staff seemed so…….. incompetent. I don’t think that Gerry Meehans perceived competence was related to team marketing.

Funny thing about hockey, and other sporting league offseasons... they last for months. You can jettison an underperforming coach right at the end of the season. Then, when you do go coach-searching: the people you interview know that you're serious. You're not just having investigatory conversations. You're hosting a real search and real interviews. Serious coaches, and their agents, may even reach out to you because... Dahlin, Power, Byram. That's a pretty solid D-corps that I <insert headstrong and self-confident coach name> think I can get more out of than the Sabres have seen.

Taking all those sugar packets over the years really paid off. Kudos to you, OSP.

It's not anything more than marketing. They sold the tank, they sold Eichel and Bylsma, they sold Botterill and Housley, they sold Dahlin, the sold Krueger and Taylor Hall, they sold Granato and his blinding light brigade, the sold the return of Lindy. Pro sports is sold on hope: when things don't work you press the reset button and sell the new beginning. They've run out of things to sell and they've given up trying. The fans are at the point they aren't going to buy anything other than wins.

“Mason McTavish is another possibility, but the Sabres are closer to getting that done. ” Its from Eklund so you can take it to the bank😝😁

When was the last pre-tank team where there was so little faith in the upper organization? Even after 87-88 Ted Sator, Gerry Meehan survived for awhile as GM. This organization seems way more hopeless than even some of the teams historically bad seasons past. This seems off the charts for Buffalo.

Your description using words such as “rumblings” and “rumors” is a fairer representation than using the stronger word such as “report”. On the other hand, KA has stated/acknowledged on the radio that Buffalo is not an appealing destination for many players because of its perceived reputation. He then stated that the only way to change that perception is to win more.

Appert should've been canned this off-season. That he wasn't and that IF there's a canning of the HC &/or GM too (much more likely to see the former than the latter) we'll see Appert in the "interim" HC role might be one of the few silver linings to come out of this. Him taking over NEXT season screws next season up too; whereas him failing to appreciably improve the team's fortunes getting the job midseason MIGHT actually cause him to get jettisoned too when the season ends. The sliver lining being that since somebody in management or higher up thinks he can do the job, his demonstrating what he can do might actually get them to change directions when this season ends. 100% am hoping the Sabres succeed this year. Not necessarily expecting it and have little to 0 faith in several members of the hockey department. So, IF they can't be good this year and aren't actually moving in the right direction; let it be ugly enough to get things moving in the right direction.