darksabre

Yup. I like Linus and would like to re-sign him. You can always trade him later if UPL makes the jump. That said, I would like to get a solid prospect or a first round pick for him if we trade him. I think he could probably start for a good team and take them deep in the playoffs. He's worth that price.

Thanks for expanding, this is exactly it. It's distinctly possible that some of the much speculated Pegula meddling was more accidental than intentional, a case of inexperienced owners too involved in the work and unaware of the harm it was doing, and inexperienced management too accommodating to draw a line over it.

I get that the Pegulas are definitely...around. Terry especially seems to just like to be tottering around in his dad sneakers feeling like he's involved, even though he has no idea what is going on. My hope is that people who are used to dealing with him, or people like him, know how to...uh, humor, Terry. I have to imagine he's not the first sports owner who wants to believe he's helping.

Echoing dudacek here, I think the Bills, ahem, understanding, is basically "leave the football stuff to the football people". That's not an unreasonable way to structure things. At the very least, it's the professional way to do things. Finance the team if you want, handle the business side of it, but let the experts do what they do. Fire them at will if they fail, but don't be so foolish as to think you can do it. Rutherford and any other credible hockey people they bring in should not have any trouble installing the same ground rules. Perhaps the problem with bringing in guys like Murray and Botterill is that they simply lacked the clout and experience to know they needed to.

The reason I expect that Rutherford might get his demands met without too much complaining from the Pegulas is that getting told to eff off by the Bills is exactly what turned that team into a winner. Beane and McDermott don't strike me as guys who like to be micromanaged. And frankly, I think they were actually trying to do the same thing with Krueger. I think they expected him to work out in such a way that they could put some more distance between themselves and the Sabres. They probably figured they were getting a little two-for-one deal with him, someone who could coach the team but also do a little of the advisory stuff in conjunction with the GM. It just didn't work out... So having a team of Rutherford-Adams and a TBD credible coach ends up being a little less budget friendly version of Krueger-Botterill.

If the Sabres can get Rutherford and Karmanos, and then a real coach, they will have solved their credibility woes basically overnight.

They ran out of gas because they're all out of shape

That's a weak ass interference call

You heard it here first: Sabres win today, narrowly avoiding the league record.

The best defense is not having to.

It's a shame the Thrashers don't still exist. Gotta figure Florida, Winnipeg, and Ottawa are in the mix here. The full circuit of misery. Detroit could be a wildcard. They stink pretty bad right now.

Oh man, there should definitely be filtered to dere

I think dat you are pickin up dat which I am puttin down.

Gotta wonder if Adams has seen the jump dat his younger, fresher players have brought to the roster. It would be nice to see him fill these sluggish veteran player holes with hungry prospects to finish out the season.

I really appreciate how hard you're working to fit dis and dat into every post as many times as possible

Good riddance. Completely ineffective here.

dis is, no joke, the best Sabres thing dat has happened all season. Maybe even in the last decade.

lol they hung Tokarski out to dry on that one

This team

Taylor Hall gonna play himself right out of the league

Can't help but laugh that the Sabres can put pretty much anyone in net and have them be better than Hutton has been in years.

The curse of intertextuality on the coaching progression. Our opinion of one coach is inherently tied to our opinion of the coach that came before and the coach that will inevitably come after.

Sure. I'm just sayin.

FWIW Don Granato's interview on WGR this morning is worth a listen. Definitely a different tone from him than Krueger. Talks about players being confused and anxious, which I thought was an interesting choice of words.