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I don't think it's pride, I think he's tired of looking like the one sowing chaos by firing so many different GMs, coaches, etc. over his time as owner. I think he sees himself as a victim. A victim of bad advice from outsiders, a victim of bad staffing internally, etc. So now he's digging in. "The NHL is a development league" I want to take those rumors with a huge grain of salt. If Adams was doing presentations, I have to assume they were scheduled and may have even been his idea. That kinda stuff is his background. I don't believe he is in any kind of danger whatsoever.

That's not my issue with O'Brien. He's 3rd on his team in points, so how much of his assist total is inflated by playing with 71g Lardus? I think Martin and Bear just have more of the jam I'm looking for. I'd roll the dice on McQueen at 9 depending on his medicals too.

Send this to cold takes exposed.

I am still shocked he survived the palm trees and taxes speech. That was such an anti-leadership moment. Should have been fired almost immediately after that bit of leadership failure. This sounds to me like a short leash situation. Those kind of presentations usually contain milestones that need to be met. I would expect a change as soon as a planned item gets missed. Then again, I said at the time I don’t see how he survives palm trees and taxes, so my prediction rate is not looking good.

I have seen numerous PIPs in my corporate days. Never saw one that helped "fix" a persons performance unfortunately. They may be intended to help but the reality is that it is a tool to prevent a lawsuit. I doubt Terry is worried about a lawsuit. I think he truly likes Adams. Terry could still be spooked about his reputation around the league as being impatient. He must be counting on Lindy to make a difference. Promoting Adams higher into the FO to get him out of the way was never going to work. If you don't want Adams involved in the FO decisions anymore you release him.

it's because he broke his ass on the door to the bench, if memory serves. oh - don't misunderstand me. the guy's a winner. dirty as f*ck. but a winner.

Any system that allows a team to jump up 9 or 10 places is just plain dumb and unfair. Period.

What resonated with me is your comment that at least Stevie Y is trying. I have more respect for people who try to correct a problem and fail, as opposed to someone who stubbornly goes on the same pathway that is wrong. That's what is so exasperating with how KA and the owner have conducted themselves.

Yeah, sure it will be different if the results are essentially same. EVENTUALLY that'll be true, ..., most likely.

Imagine last offseason saying it is playoffs or bust this year and there are no more excuses. Then assembling a team that is last in the conference for most of the season and missing the playoffs for the 5th straight year under your leadership. And the boss says “Nice presentation, give it another shot this year” 🤪

So Jack Quinn got the strength and conditioning guy fired?

At least they finally ID'd the biggest problem. Now fire Skip the Usher in section 104 and the turnaround is real !

https://www.audacy.com/wgr550/hosts/sabres-live Within the above link is a 13 minute segment with Kris Baker on the show and talking about some prospects in the draft within our drafting range. More interesting, is his commentary about what we should do with our pick and with players in our system. His views on Kris Baker provided sound advice and concise opinions on how the Sabres should handle this offseason. He was emphatic that this team needs to get older. His response about Ryan Johnson was very sensible.

So change is coming, just a year too late, probably 2? With the very real risk of completely alienating the fans and the good players. Seriously, what hope does Kevyn have? Trading Byram and Cozens ain’t going to do it. Seems to me no matter what they spend on the margins, it’s going to be about putting most of his coin on Owen Power and Devon Levi again.

It's a great question. We all have our theories. I think it is simply that Adams is the first guy Pegula has hired to manage the Sabres, who he truly likes and trusts. Had Murray or Botterill had the sort of success that McBeane is having with the Bills, then maybe they are still with the Sabres, whether Pegula liked and trusted them or not. But neither had any real success, so they were fired. Adams also hasn't had success, but the combination of Pegula liking and trusting Adams along with Pegula also being, I think, sensitive to the perception that he is too quick to fire people, has lead him to be far more patient with Adams than is warranted. I don't think it has anything to do with micromanaging or not being committed to winning*. I think Pegula just failed to get it right the first 3 times, and now that he finally has a person in the role who he likes and trusts, he is going to give Adams a very long leash. *I understand that many, me included, will rightfully say that this is the same thing as not being committed to winning. I just mean that I don't think he has consciously determined that winning doesn't matter or that pinching pennies is more important. I think that Pegula thinks/hopes that they will eventually win with Adams. As a fan, there may be no point in distinguishing between the motivations.

KA giving Terry a presentation and all I can picture is this:

3 days of presentations to Pegula tells me he wanted to see a detailed explanation of where we went wrong, and the path out. In my experience in the corporate world, this is the management equivalent of a performance improvement plan. And everyone in the corporate world knows a performance improvement plan is usually a hand on the exit door. Frankly, Adams hasn’t earned the opportunity to dig his way out, but here we are.

Another playoff team making moves

Was this the rugby guy they brought in, or am I misremembering?

The driving force for Pegula retaining KA has little to do with performance as it does with his own hubris and stubbornness. The owner made an out of the box hire with KA. He made the hire with little consultation from anyone else. This was the man he chose and if he acknowledges his failing to do the job then he is also acknowledging that he made a mistake. Why was KA hired? He was hired because he presented a plan that was cheaper than following the standard approach to managing a franchise. At that time, that was a big appeal to the owner who was hemorhaging money on his franchise. The mindset became, if I'm not winning and losing a bounty of money then, it would be better to lose less money while starting over. Cam anything be salvaged with the KA retention? Maybe. My sense is that the GM will have pressure on him to make some moves this offseason to be more competitive sooner rather than later. I really don't see this as a status quo offseason. (My opinion/hope.)This offseason should be interesting. TBD.

Oh, that absolutely seems to be the plan. Yeah, they swapped Cozens out but it was for another guy that's essentially on the same timeline. It's what we hear directly from people within the organization - the plan is good, it just takes time. That ISN'T the message Ruff puts out, but he's about the only one. Before "hearing" today's non-announcement announcement, was hopeful that we'd at least see Adams pulled out of a direct day-to-day hands on running of things and that Ruff's thoughts about getting the team a bit older were going to take hold. (Now, not overly hopeful they'll even have THAT level of a change in direction.)

I think there are solid arguments for Adams with every trade (given the circumstances surrounding each). A few, could even be called good trades. The larger point though, is that in his 5 years Adams had traded away multiple young players that cost us a 1st rd pick to acquire, with nothing to show for it. Adams has traded Montour, Ristolainen, Reinhart, Eichel, Mittlelstadt, Savoie and Cozens (we acquired Montour with the 1st rd pick we received from San Jose for Evander Kane). So, Adams has traded away seven players that we acquired using 1st rd picks, five of which were top 10 picks, two were 2nd overall. Every one of the players traded is either still in the NHL or, in Savoie's case is still a prospect. Only Montour is over 30. These players are largely still in, or heading into, the prime of their careers. And 5 years into Adams's tenure, we had a 79 point season. The year before Adams took over, in the covid shortened season under Botterill and Krueger, the Sabres had 68 points in 69 games; that is an 80-81 point pace. Five years of Adams trading all these highly drafted and young players, has produced nothing. So, it's not that Adams won't get value in any particular trade, but rather he will do nothing with the value he obtains. Ray Ferrero said it best when he was doing a Sabre game a couple of years ago: Buffalo's roster is just a collection of nice pieces. I'm not afraid that Adams will make a terrible trade. I just have no faith that any trade he makes will result in the Sabres becoming a playoff-level team. And so, every day that Adams remains GM is just putting off the day when the job is given to someone who might be able to get us there.

It wasn’t me

Yes Stevie Y is struggling too. He takes action, and it looks reasonable on paper, but the players on the roster just never gel. DeBrincat is a goal scorer but he gives up a lot too. Detroit brought in some talent with Kane, Copp and Compher. In the past he added ex-Blues like Sunquist, Fabbri, Perron, and now Tarasenko. He is at least is trying to add guys with playoff experience that are "hard to play against" to go with his home grown players. Not sure he has much in the net either. Stevie gets a B for effort and a F for results. Adams gets and F for both.

A few points: first... This song writes itself. second, We need to stop comparing the Bandits and Bills success (and really, have the Amerks been all that successful?) with the Sabres. Each is its own unique situation. But with the NLL in particular, there's nothing to compare. The average NLL player makes about $19,000/season and up to about $30K for the stars. There are 14 teams in the entire league. You get a good core together and you've got yourself a contender. You could build an entire roster for less than Tyson Kozak's annual salary. Nationwide, the NLL is an non-entity. thirdly: But, if someone wanted to somehow compare the NFL and NHL and how to build a roster: the Bills have an MVP-caliber QB. What's the best comparison in the NHL? A Vezina-level goalie or an Art Ross-capable 1C. In his five seasons as GM, Adams has had one season with a starting-caliber goalie (Ullmark) whom his predecessor and he both only signed to 1-year deals. (This was signed before Ullmark's dad died and he decided he needed a change of scenery.) Then, there was never even an attempt to find a legitimate 1A goalie in any of the following seasons. On the 1C front, Adams dismantled the core of which Eichel was a part of and traded a top-10 C in the league for a then 2/3W and some futures. You could even toss in a Norris-capable 1D. Adams inherited one of those, too -- and Samuelsson has been the partner of choice for 4 years running. That's all Adams. He's bad at his job. finally, Adams' presentation: "I want to be here. I'll keep it EEE, keep you safe (from public appearances so you make money from the NFL machine). And just wait until Power turns 26. Then, look out!"