tom webster
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Posts posted by tom webster
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35 minutes ago, shrader said:
What kind of veteran goalie though? I think he fully expects a 1A/1B situation between 6K (there you go, @Hank) and Levi. Any veteran would be that #3 type spending most of the time in the AHL. I don’t want to see that, but it’s what I expect.
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.
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1 hour ago, dudacek said:
Id kick tires on a proven NHL backup to provide a safety net and make Levi earn the NHL.
I think that will be hard because the more capable options will be reluctant to sign with Levi looking over their shoulders.
They will sign someone. Fingers crossed he will be better than Dustin Tokarski and Malcolm Subban.
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.
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1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:
The Bills have a very important thing that the Sabres do not. Josh Allen, the 2nd best QB in the NFL.
He's had no answers for months. Listening to him is sickening as he blathers on while saying nothing and taking 0 responsibility. He couldn't tell you how to fix this team if the hockey gods came down and wrote him a book on it.
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.
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8 hours ago, Second Line Center said:
Don’t care either way - but yes they should be fired. Then, per 2024 NHL rules, when we start 2-8, does new guy get fired? What’s the rules? People getting fired left and right the Rangers are winning the Cup anyway - btw I said after opening night loss to the Rags we just lost to the best team in the NHL. That team looks different.
We have bigger problems.
1. Terry Pegula as de facto Team President
2. The city of Buffalo is not a place the players we need want to relocate their families to.
We can overcome one of those two. Not both.
Too many heads in the sand over number 2.
“We want guys that want to be here” is a mantra that’s born out of necessity. Thus the build from within that’s beyond to the extreme right now.
But like I said. You can overcome one of those not both.
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
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1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:
Team is a bunch of losers. The head coach sets the tone and the tone is no accountability.
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.
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1 hour ago, TheAud said:
Gotcha! Did not realize that.
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.
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22 minutes ago, TheAud said:
Blake Wheeler, Dan Boyle
Blake Wheeler was not the same as these guys. He was a first round draft choice who never signed.
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19 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:
Mattias Samuelsson has absolutely no offense to his game. He is next to useless once you get into the neutral zone and certainly an afterthought in the offensive zone. He may shutdown plays at a good clip, although I do have some questions based on that model, but without showing us the average and then telling us what standard deviation away from that Samuelsson is, idk how to take the stats other than he might be good defensively but not leaps and bounds better than the league. That would be what my eye test says, he is solid defensively, above average, and can be trusted to deal with opposing top lines. I want him no where near the offensive zone though, all he can do is pass the puck to his partner or send it down low, there is almost no other skill or manipulation to that side of his game. I actually think quite a bit of Muel's defensive game, but the rest I don't. It is that duality that has me down on the guy overall, coupled with his complete inability to ever be healthy for more than 60% of a season.
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.
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14 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:
Totally agree on the bolded. I think they said: "Playoff experienced top-4 D? Check! Handedness, schmandedness." with Byram.
The only thing that gives me pause on the top 4 is this current lineup of Power-Dahlin. Jokiharju isn't going to break the bank on a bridge and if Byram-Joker gels the final 6 games, I think we easily see Muel start next season with Clifton (where they both belong, albeit as a pricey 3rd pair). But that's for summer conversations!
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.
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No. Read the Athletic article on Columbus.
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11 minutes ago, Thorny said:
I’ve been known to lose the forest from the trees in getting caught up in the specifics of the wording, certain turns of phrase are admittedly triggers for me. Like I said I even agree we should give them another shot. It’s just definitively not “unreasonable” to have expected more. Dollars to donuts playoffs were the rightful expectation but even if that wasn’t one’s personal expectation, to say it was “unreasonable” to expect that is just a bridge too far. I wouldn’t even say it’s unreasonable to NOT expect playoffs this year, if that’s one’s own personal timeline.
It’s funny, I was going to use “forest for the trees” earlier but images of a young Linda Ronstadt clouded my brain.
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2 minutes ago, Thorny said:
There is a give and take. The give and take is an argument about pulling the plug now and firing Adams, or acknowledging that while we failed this year, it would be in our best interest to give Adams another go. I fall down on the same side you do, in fact, in this regard
But that’s not the framing. I’m sorry if it doesn’t matter to you but it does to me. Suggesting it might be unreasonable to have expected more to this point is below the belt type jargon
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.
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43 minutes ago, Thorny said:
You specifically asked if it was “reasonable to expect different”. Not, “should we expect different?” (We all did pre-season, dudacek was chastising fans for not setting their expectations HIGH enough, that’s why I opened the thread with that response), and not even “is expecting different viable. “Is it reasonable” was the quote I was referring to. Ie: you are proposing it might be unreasonable to expect more. Not that you don’t, but get it: you asked if a position expecting playoffs was “unreasonable”.
No, is the answer. To answer your question: no, fans expecting playoffs are not unreasonable. Hope that helps
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.
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38 minutes ago, Thorny said:
Yes, it’s reasonable
With all due respect your take is frankly absurd. Your question isn’t even “what was the expectation?” it’s “was it reasonable to expect more.”
Was it reasonable in year 4. Can you imagine if you had posed this question pre-season?
“Is it reasonable to expect playoffs this year?”
You would have been met with a chorus of boos and the exclamation it’s not just reasonable it’s expected.
You can turn tail and run from what we all know to be what the actual expectations are or we can avoid that sort of sad, hypocritical thinking
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.
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57 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:
Condescending much? I never mentioned the Mets even if the other poster did. Historical data I cited you dismissed. I ***** hate this place because this is what everything becomes. Your comment is perhaps the perfect example.
Thanks for reminding me.
What historical data?
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2 hours ago, LabattBlue said:
I didn’t mean the new HC & GM should be fired if they miss the playoffs in their 1st year. Just don’t be like the current regime and run it back with an unproven and mostly the same team as the prior year.
See I am in complete agreement with this only that I think if it wasn’t for the nine years prior to then we would be willing to give them a mulligan for this year. And for the record, to some of those up thread, I never said I was happy with the last couple of years. I do think, however, that history shows that we might have been expecting something that’s rarely if ever done given the current framework under which everyone operates.
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4 hours ago, LGR4GM said:
This.
They have hardly been the league punching bag the last couple of years and of course loosing isn’t acceptable but the question is that given the available historical data is it reasonable to expect that anyone can turn any franchise around in four years? Like you and the original poster said, it took the Mets 8 years. Thanks for proving my point.
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1 hour ago, PASabreFan said:
It's really not that complicated.
Why is KA's plan so long and torturous?
If it's really his choice among so many other plans, he should be fired.
Of course it's not his choice.
Nothing changes unless Terry changes or sells the team.
The point is that no one in similar circumstances has come up with a faster plan. Vegas was an anamoly that will likely never be repeated.
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13 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:
- Fired their HC after the 2022 season
- Fired the HC in 2023 after failing to make the playoffs by 2 points
- Only in his 3rd year has HC for Seattle who is only in their 3rd year as a franchise
- Just fired their HC Lindy Ruff recently after being bad (goalie issues) even though they will finish above Buffalo most likely
- Fired their HC in 2022 and hired Torts who is their current coach.
- Fired their HC in 2023 and hired Tocchet
- Lets add in LA, fired their HC in January 2024
- How about Detroit, 2022 fired their HC
So every single one of those teams you listed fired and moved on from their HC in the time that Granato has been HC with the Sabres except for Seattle. I think Adams will stay but I see no reason why Granato should. At a minimum, every single one of this assistants except the goalie coach should be fired and replaced with an experienced veteran coach. Lack of accountability in Buffalo for a product that regressed (they play some really boring uninspired hockey for long stretches) and will miss the playoffs for the 4th straight year under Granato and Adams.
Playing Devil’s advocate, they did all that and all except LA, are still either behind or on par with the Sabres and I wouldn’t bet against that being the case next year. Buffalo, Detroit and New Jersey are the real test case because all three are on roughly the same timeline and all three have issues to overcome.
For the record, I agree in the assistants.
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4 hours ago, dudacek said:
Absolutely we should have expected more from this year.
And that’s even if you subscribe to my personal belief that this is more realistically described as year 3 of a ripped-down-to-the-studs rebuild. (People seem to forget that we started ‘Adams 2.0’ with our top 6 forwards coming off seasons of 13, 10, 8, 7, 4 and 2 goals, respectively, and for 3 of those guys, those were career bests).
Last year’s Sabres team missed the playoffs by just 1 point coming off 2 years of steady improvement. It clearly had talent given the offence it had just put up. It was resilient, fast and explosive. Its holes — goaltending, PK, commitment to team defence, stoutness up front, and depth on the blue line were pretty obvious and should have been fixable.
Ironically, the team looks to have fixed, or at least improved, most of those holes. But in the process it got slower and easier to frustrate.
Sabrespace has wrongly excoriated this team as being terrible when really it’s kinda like it was last year — just a different shade of mediocre.
But the pieces and the opportunities were there last summer for Adams and Granato to make this year something more and they were unable to do so. Sure the core is callow, but Adams did not bring in the right pieces, nor Granato push the right buttons to smooth or mask the pitfalls of that reality.
I can’t see any way to describe this year as anything other than a failure. And they have to own that.
I don’t disagree with any of this. The point I was clumsily trying to make is that it hasn’t been as easy as some have implied to pass what was and has been the standard bearers for the last four years.
I expected more this year and believe there were opportunities to speed up the process. I also believe they deserve one more year.
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11 minutes ago, JoeSchmoe said:
At risk of taking this off topic, my biggest thing is why do we still have starting pitchers in baseball? Pitchers should still pitch the same number of innings in a year, but spread them over less innings per game in more games. There are so many benefits:
-You can maximize lefty/lefty righty/righty matchups.
-Your weaker pitchers can pitch against the bottom of their order.
-The batters only see a pitcher once per game and never will time them up the 2nd or 3rd time around or recognize their tips.
-Your never leave a guy in too long.
-You should be able to manage and prevent injuries.
I know some teams like TB do dabble with this sort of thing sometimes, but try telling a Verlander that he's not a true starting pitcher anymore.
I believe a team could win 10-20 extra games a year if they adopted this full-time. Won't happen though.
I don’t follow baseball as closely as I did but I thought it had started to move in this direction.
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You all owe this to LabattBlue, one of my favorite posters by the way.
I asked a question in a couple of different threads. Are we holding KA and DG responsible for the 9 years before they were put in charge instead of just the four years or so they have been here. Blue responded like the other poster with the usual, it's the NHL, 'everyone makes the playoffs." "parity" reigns, so on and so forth.
Today I had lunch with someone with an educated opinion so I started in on the discussion at which point he smiled and talked about how he's been pushing this story to people he perceived had the time to do the kind of research this topic probably needs.
Anyway, here is the abridged version.
After tearing down the whole organization, KA kept Ralph to start the 56 game, 20/21 season before replacing him with DG ezactly half way between the 56 games.
Out of the 16 teams that made the playoffs that year, 7 have made the playoffs all four years since then. 3 of them have made it three of the four years and three more have made it the last three years.
That leaves you with four teams who made the playoffs once in these four year and two likely to this year;
1) Montreal - a true anamoly
2) Calgary - a team on a rise set back byTkaczuk and other contract issues
3) Seattle - went all in on year two but now have taken a major step back
4) New Jersey - considered a year ahead of Buffalo last year, they too have taken a step back
5) Philly - a "Torts" surge likely to last this year but no excuses, they continue to win.
6) Vancouver - they've been out of the playoffs since 2014/2015 I believe
Further,
Out of the bottom ten teams from KA's first year;
Six are behind Buffalo this year
LA has become a perenial playoff team but where well on their way when Buffalo started the rebuild.
New Jersey made it last year.
Detroit may this year.
I know, I know, It still sucks, none of this matters and we are all tired of waiting but the truth is, its not like all the other organizations are passing them by. They are holding their own, have the youngest roster in the NHL, apparently a boatload of prospects and other teams are nearing the end of their run, except Boston who somehow never rettreats. Like it or not, they can make a good case for earning another year.
Fire away.
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9 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:
Oh yes you know inside my mind and what I believe and you are the superior view because you question everything. lmfao. You know nothing about me.
Young players need to be taught. That's a simple fact. Even the greats need to learn things when they hit the NHL. If your NHL team is just a big training camp all year sure, maybe it works and they get the individual attention to details they need, but if your NHL team is busy trying to win hockey games you need to send these kids to school.
I will tell you what is true Mr. Questioner, and that is you have lived in the Sabres bubble for far too long.
Maybe I worded it wrong but what I meant is that most people in general have grown up believing unprovable facts are absolute because that’s the way it’s always been. I allow for the possibility you are right, I just doubt anything that is regarded “as the only way.”
Also, for the record, this has nothing to do with life in the Sabre bubble, quite the opposite in fact. In a perfect world, they agree with you.Lastly, at 64, I don’t take anything personal and I don’t mean anything personal. I enjoy that back and forth. Sorry if I offended you.
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9 minutes ago, ska-T Chitown said:
I would wager the advantage that the big club sees is that the player who "marinates" in the minors gets to make their growing pain mistakes in minors with no bearing on the big club's W-L. When a player is then granted access to the NHL as a more finished product, the difference is more glaring as most fans have not seen them before and marvel at the more polished version they are presented with. It takes more effort to objectively go back and look at the 18 yr NHL old rookie and compare him to his 22 yr old self. Not to mention the perhaps unrealistic expectations that come with entering the league at a younger age.
I don't suspect that much, if any, of Aaron Rodgers' mid-to-late career success had anything to do with the year or two he spent on the bench behind Brett Fah-ahhh-vruh. (sticking with the QB thing as our other example)
I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me how a talented rookie learns anything from skating around the Brett Murray’s and other AHL pylons and scoring goals from the blue line against goalies who can’t move laterally.
Yes, I would wager the opposite. Let me know if you discover that alternative universe.
Sticking with the QB theme, I’m guessing Josh Allen didn’t gain anything from watching Peterman throw five first half interceptions.
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Adams & Granato to return?
in The Aud Club
Posted
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.