tom webster

It’s been like this since the beginning of man. The only place I see Power disparaged is Buffalo. Athletic just had another article were anonymous general managers are still divided in their belief that Power will end up better then Dahlin.

I wouldn’t strongly argue with anything you said but we don’t know that they didn’t have a good knowledge of who would be available to them if they waited. Also, there is some, even if minuscule, advantage to getting this behind them in order to plan the course of their offseason. In general, I think you can learn a lot about yourself by interviewing a myriad of candidates. I don’t think the same applies to NHL coaches.

I said “one of, if not.” Like I said, I’m not sure he is the best but I’m not sure who, of the available, experienced coaches would be.

If you were intent on hiring a veteran NHL coach, there aren’t many available with a better resume then Ruff’s. Berube would’ve been the only choice that won a Cup unless you wanted to sell your soul to the devil and go after Quenville. Why lengthen the process when one of the best, if not the best wanted the job? It seems to me that if Ruff never coached here and they took a month longer to hire him, ninety percent of the people criticizing the move would have nothing to complain about. I am not sure he was the right hire. I just think he has a good to better then good chance of being the right guy.

I don’t doubt that he called at least ten guys. I doubt that he seriously interviewed more then two or three.

A) He had Brunette in Jersey. B) It was pretty widely reported that Darcy went to his house to fire him. Is there reason to believe otherwise?

At two o’clock a friend text me that Sabres canceled a couple of scheduled events for tomorrow and was wondering if something was up. I guess I should have assumed this was happening.

He’s not the only coach that ever thought treating athletes like adults was the way to go and it has worked for others. History has proven that all types of coaches win. You can debate his system or lack thereof but he didn’t lose because he was easy on them. In my opinion, if accountability was really the problem, the real failure is on guys like Okposo and other veteran leaders. This team needed someone like Chris Drury, Daniel Briere, Mike Grier and JP Dumont. Guys that ran Satan off the team and wouldn’t tolerate anyone not giving it their all.

I was wondering the same as well and also @Taro T.

Exactly, he’s able to turn equity into liquidity without going public. Only significant change will be when they show TPEGS on tv during the game it will say majority owner instead of owner. Maybe he will have to grant minority partner right of first refusal if he decides to sell majority share.

I’m a little confused by this. They’d have won 2-3 more games? You realize three wins would have put them ahead going into the final game. I think those that want change may be happy before Friday.

That is the conundrum. Finding a goalie good enough to lead a NHL playoff run if needed but willing to spend time in the AHL and able to clear waivers to do so.

I think they will add a veteran goalie and a veteran center in the Boone Jenner mode. I’m with you, I don’t see them adding a defenseman. I think they are very happy with their top seven assuming Ryan Johnson steps up and they have no issue with the top four being all left handed.

I really put little stock into any interviews or radio/tv appearances any of these guys do but it’s hard to argue with your conclusions.

Buffalo/WNY has a fairly good rep amongst older players with families. It’s a majority of the younger players who have a choice that don’t want to come here. Again, as stated before, no demographic is one hundred percent either way. The Bills have no problem recruiting players they want

I have been ambivalent towards the coach and his staff but it really appears he has no answers. I think it’s time to move on.

For that matter, Vesey was drafted as well. Guys who are drafted but don’t sign by their deadline, become free agents in August. These are just guys who were never drafted.

You can’t argue the durability question and that is mentioned in article as well. My point is just that knowledgeable people can have polar opposite opinions about athletes and in my opinion the variance is most striking in hockey and the growth of analytics has done little to change that. As for the contract, my opinion all along has been with the cap eventually approaching $100M, Sammy’s contract will never be overly cumbersome.

I know LGRM doesn’t think much of Murl but there is an article today on the Athletic that has him ranked very high on list of shut down defenseman. While you can debate the merits of both opinions and credentials of both people, what is indisputable is that with all the wisdom analytics has added to the conversation, there is still no absolute statistical program that is one hundred percent accurate in projecting future success or even quantify current performance except for one, wins and losses.

No. Read the Athletic article on Columbus.

It’s funny, I was going to use “forest for the trees” earlier but images of a young Linda Ronstadt clouded my brain.

I believe in people’s perception being their reality so obviously “unreasonable” was a poor choice of words given the response it generated. I in no way meant to insult anyone or belittle their feelings. If it makes anyone feel better I decided to attend my first game in a month tonight so it feels like punishment is being served.

I asked a question, I gave some history, thought I’d start a conversation. I was proposing it might be unreasonable given the history but I don’t believe anywhere I said it was. There was a time when that lead to serious give and take. I was one at the beginning of the year that expected more. I was guy at last year’s trade deadline slamming the table trying to explain that development isn’t linear and you should go for it when you can.

I posed a question. I never said anything about being unreasonable to disagree, I doubled down by playing devil’s advocate but I certainly never said I was not frustrated, quite the contrary. I think it’s a reasonable argument and I’m not surprised it’s gotten such a angry response but I am surprised by some of those who seem infuriated. Have a great day everyone.

What historical data?