darksabre

I mean, video scouting is basically what all the analytics hobbyists are doing and they're making actual careers out of it...

What's weird is that he wasn't already doing vision exercises. It's a pretty common thing now for goalies at all levels to basically do eye exercises to increase their puck tracking ability.

Yeah, Eichel is the problem. It's definitely not all the AHLers he has to play hockey with. Lord have mercy.

Let me, ah, philosophize a bit. Perhaps if you're someone like Terry and Kim, you look at the successes and wealth you have accumulated and you tell yourself "I have done difficult things, and I have solved difficult problems" and it becomes a sort of myth you tell yourself. And so when presented with a situation like owning a hockey team, you say "this will be difficult, but I have done difficult things" and so you make things difficult in order to fulfill that myth. The more difficult the job feels, the greater the hero you are in your own story. "I will solve this difficult thing, and it will be my greatest triumph" you say, as the people you surround yourself with lose their minds in the chaos you create.

Owning a hockey team cannot be as difficult as the Pegulas make it seem?

And I'm gonna add one more thing. I don't know what the answers are anymore, but if I never hear a prospective GM called a "savant", or "genius", or "wizard", or anything of that nature ever again, I'll consider that a success. What's Kevyn Adams? Who cares. He's a guy. Hopefully he can just put some *****in hockey players on the ice that don't stink to high heaven.

I'm going to sum up my feelings on today with this: Building a reasonably functional hockey team cannot be as difficult as the last two GMs made it seem.

It's a slaughter!

I can't say it doesn't feel like they're just trying to cut salary to help the bottom line while hockey is essentially paused. Nothing to really scout, nothing to really manage.

There is not a single person here who would say they are happy.

Right. Botterill, theoretically, was ready to execute some kind of master plan that might have crippled this team for years. Maybe Krueger and Adams can prove to be more careful with their asset management.

Frankly, they could be brothers.

The "lack of communication" thing cropping up again is troubling. This is two management groups in a row where apparently no one was on the same page or paying attention to details. Players don't get signed, negotiations get botched, deadlines get missed, the coach and the GM aren't on the same page, the GM has no idea what is going on with his players... What's the point of having a bunch of AGMs and paying them a bunch of money if the work isn't going to get done? Might as well cut back and eliminate some bloat. Then see what you really need to get things done and fill those roles.

The nice part about my relationship with the Sabres being as frayed as it is, is that I basically have no reason not to shrug and go "eff it, let's see what happens." Either this works and I get to care again, or it doesn't and nothing changes for me whatsoever.

So is the implication here that Adams was already sort of doing AGM stuff for Jason? I wonder how long that has been going on.

I think Jack was looking for that. Isn't he the one who said that in his zoom call?

Guess maybe we don't have to worry about Simmonds being re-signed now

It's hard for me to imagine it's anything other than this. The priority is simply to have the right people. If the balance of power falls in a non-traditional way then so be it. Sometimes you find people that fit a structure. Other times you find a structure that fits people. It just depends on where your strengths are: structure, or people? Looks like they're saying: keep the good people and make things work for them. In that case, it's a vote of confidence in Krueger. They see him as valuable enough to change the structure to fit around him. League traditions be damned.

lol what

I think this is something that will NEED to happen for me to feel good about this. I need to see experienced people around Adams.

This is basically what I'm seeing. They're really happy with the model and the ethos of the Bills right now, so why wouldn't they want that same model on the Sabres? The Bills are efficient and effective, the Sabres are a convoluted and useless mess.

Not to give the Pegulas much credit here but, frankly, I don't blame them for picking someone inside the org that they've known for a long time. They've had plenty of "help" from the league, and advice from outside "experts", and look where it has gotten them? A bunch of schmuck GMs and coaches.

It'll be interesting to see who gets brought in as part of a new management team. I would expect "experienced" people. I have to imagine Adams/Krueger will both be answering directly to Kim.

That's basically what I'm getting at. Adams is taking the "daily grind" stuff, and Krueger takes a more "high level" spot.

Interesting.