PASabreFan

My Jitterbug keeps shutting down when I click on it.

So remove Krueger to see if Jack plays as well as he did under... Krueger?

Haven't seen much of Taro either. Hope both are well.

Risk: the interim coach turns things around and that glorious summer day turns into a Matt Ellis Interim Tag Removal presser.

Well, that stole me thunder.

(My scenario assumes you can't put the new hockey czar in place right now. If you can, that's ideal. That person starts evaluating things right away and runs the deadline day war room. Ideal, but I don't see how it's possible at the moment.)

Let's assume that the Pegulas are indeed looking for help, and that help will come after the season in the form of a POHO or a new GM with president power (think Lou on Long Island). What most people want, whether the title president is there or not. And that implicit in the move is that the Pegulas extract themselves from day to day involvement in hockey affairs. Krueger is gone as coach and maybe has some new role on the business side; Adams is probably retained, but his exact role is TBD by the new boss. If that's the new starting point some warm, sunny day in June, with the country approaching herd immunity and the pandemic on its knees, what are the smart moves that should precede that glorious day of rebirth? Is Adams entrusted with trading off high level assets as part of a comprehensive rebuild? No (reality: someone will have to make some important calls on deadline day). If the Pegulas realize how badly they've bungled things, do they trust themselves to do it? No. Does firing Krueger now serve any real purpose? You can bring in a placeholder coach, but he'll be gone under the new regime come summer. You can try and bring in a name coach, but under the presumptive scenario above, you risk not getting that president/strong GM if his coach is already behind the bench. That person would know that his coach reports to Pegula/s and not him. And firing Krueger risks making the franchise's reputation for being unstable even worse; it permanently tags Eichel et al. as serial coach-killers, likely unfairly. So keeping the coach seems like a reasonable if unpopular option. He has decent ideas about culture, even if this board thinks he doesn't know a deer tick from a hole in a hound (h/t Scotty's grandpappy). Everyone will hate the idea, but staying in a holding pattern while the engine burns is probably the smartest move. Get this hellish season, which shouldn't have ever happened, over, and go from there. Minimize any more damage. Strike a master stroke, 10 years overdue, and enjoy the fireworks on Independence Day. Patience? Yuck. What else ya got that doesn't have a higher risk of making things worse?

How many coaches/GMs now who've been too dumb to do it the right way, the SabreSpace Way? What are the odds?

So Rutherford has been advising the Sabres all along and hasn't steered us wrong yet. Why not make it official?

Owners shouldn't meddle is a common sense stance. I don't need to be a sports owner to know that. But you're literally saying you know better than a professional sports coach. Digging through data can't qualify you that much. Let's just let a robot coach the team, Mike! The bigger point is: fine, you get your lines. The team still sucks. They've tried about a million combinations, and nothing works.

Surprisingly, that was my reaction. RaKru grew on me though, apparently.

Dang. Will he win the Selke the same season Dahlin wins the Norris?

Until he didn't use them the way you/we wanted, because you/we know better. The results are the results, of course. But would rearranging the deck chairs have altered the impending disaster all that much?

I feel shame.

Maybe I/we don't get it. Were you nominating a goal from this season to go up against Barzal's?

Can't believe no one commented on the attempted murder of John Robert Eichel today on the bench.

I love that this thread is still open.

I logged in/on just to point out that after the whistle on the Sabres' power play Eichel went up to Brock Nelson and admired Nelson's stick and appeared to ask a question about it and have a little chat. I've been on the fence about trading Eichel. That sealed it. This isn't a summer scrimmage with your Masshole buddies.

Would anyone else like to see an NHL game without game planning and coaching? Well, captains are player-coaches. But that's it. It might be wild.

So on Saturday the lasagna is in quarantine? No touchy? You are a genius.

Nor is it Dan Dunleavy's. When it was 4-1 today he said the Sabres were looking to cut the lead in half. And when they scored that's exactly what he said they did.

This is brilliant. I have no doubt Terry believes in his heart of hearts they're not that far off. Hell, Adams admitted that before the season that was his thinking.

I'll just say you didn't want the tuna casserole. Her eyesight was going. The cats were happy with the switch though.

Duff just can't wait to smile.

I am kind of loving it. It's all we've known. It's warm and comfortable, like a casserole your mother used to make. We wanted to be a dynasty? We are!