Taro T

The way it makes sense is if Allen both likes and trusts him. We know he likes him. Does he trust him in crunch time to make the big catch? This kid doesn't trust him in that situation, but don't have a say in the matter. Personally, would rather they keep Shavers (even though his and Gabe's roles wouldn't be identical) if it came down to 1 or the other.

Beating a dead horse, but "practice repititon" is the concern. Haven't been to a team practice since Krueger made TC a closed door affair. Have been to over well over 100 games since that time and have watched several 100 in that time frame. With that stated, if you do dumb things in practice, you'll do dumb things in games. They do dumb things in games and the people running practices are the same ones that ran them in the past. So, so, so truly wanted at least Wilford, Appert, and Ellis relieved of all duties.

Not takin' the bait. 😉 Will suffice it to say, am getting tired of cramming 10 gallons of stuff in a 5 gallon bucket and then coming back again to do it all over again. Lather - rinse - repeat.

No.

No, the survey was apparently 1-5. 1 - 5 goes F, D, C, B, A. At least when non-English majors are setting up the scale. This one was clearly set up by English majors or some other mathphobes. In some categories a C- was a 3.0 and in others a C was a 2.8. In one, a B- is a 3.2 and a C+ is a 3.5. If the rules to Calvinball could be converted to math, we're witnessing it. 😉 And they didn't "receive the lowest grade possible on this scale." That apparently would've been a 1.0. They received a 2.0. Which was the lowest grade of the 32 rated team front offices, but it was not the lowest grade possible on the scale.

And again, had they simply replaced the coaching staff (or significant parts of it) would be very bullish on the team's chances to have turned the corner. But they've played such a fundamentally flawed game the past 2 years when they theoretically were going to play NHL defense, just have a hard time believing the improved maturity will overcome the rest of what they're dealing with.

Figured that probably was the case, but didn't think of that until after having hit the post button and didn't feel like editing it. Cool.

As @JohnC said, the grades themselves were inflated. There was/is a very strong argment that they should've received failing grades, not the lowest possible grade they could get and still pass.

Seems about right. Get how those outside this fanbase could give them a little credit for draft and develop. But absolutely no idea how they can say there are 6 teams that manage the cap worse than the Sabres. Leaving millions in cap space every year to vaporize into the ether every time the RS comes to a close is NOT good cap management. It's actually amazingly bad cap management.

You should get Tim Russert's book "Big Russ and Me." A lot of old nostalgia of the Buffalo (or more accurately, South Buffalo) he grew up in.

If we're simply talking 1 player and not incremental (or better) improvement from several, it has to be the team's best player. Dahlin continuing to play at a Norris Trophy level is necessary. It isn't sufficient, but it's necessary. Honorable mention would be to whatever goalie decides to actually play like one of the league's 10 best. Both of those happening would go a long way towards allowing the improvements of the others to be that straw that breaks the back of the camel that is the 14 year playoff drought.

Hi @SDS. I have been waiting for more than a couple of years, but this probably isn't the best year for me to take on the additional time sink that this would be. It'd be an enjoyable time sink, but between work and family, especially if I rejoin the hockey league, I simply wouldn't have the time to properly devote to the team. If I could stay at the top of the waiting list, that would be great as I expect my time commitments to be a bit lessened next year. Good luck with it. And thanks for running it.

Another thing it does is it lets the guy you bring in not be DIRECTLY (even though it likely isn't due to him directly, there'll be a direct line of so and so got interviewed and THEN the boob got dropped, so it'll be perceived that way) responsible for one of his fraternity members losing their job. Cut the guy cleanly on cleanout day, then anybody coming in isn't getting viewed as a backstabber or similar.

Even if (just shoot us all now should this come to pass) all three of the "Big 3" decide to bolt, they don't HAVE to rebuild. They'll almost definitely want/need to overspend on a top UFA, but it doesn't HAVE to be a rebuild. (PLEASE dear Lord, do NOT let us get to the point that Dahlin, Thompson, and Tuch all want out of this dumpster fire. That would be beyond depressing.)

During the off-season (and the feeling was dispelled in fairly short order) when Regier and Ruff were brought in and the top GM got canned and the Jack Adams winner got effectively canned by offering him a 1 year deal that effected the desired reaction from said Jack Adams winner. You had a guy who'd never been a GM before coming in. Yes, he'd learned under Al Arbour, but he was part of some very bad teams and he was extremely milquetoast in demeanor. And the new HC had been a former team captain, but had only been an AC with the Panthers. AND one of the local sports radio stations had a personality that at the time didn't just hate the football coach who'd hired and subsequently fired him but also hated the new GM at a minimum. Things also seemed bad a couople of years before that when Muckler traded away or let walk every star on the team not named Hasek or Lafontaine and brought in an inexperienced HC who'd had success in juniors but no NHL coaching experience. Those are the only 2 points in time IMHO that were viewed as bad as or worse than what we've got now. Even the bankruptcy year didn't seem this hopeless.