nfreeman

I don’t love the idea of firing another coach, and this time only 19 games into a very screwy season, but OTOH, this is the earliest a season has been over since the tank. It should be unacceptable.

Huh? When?

Hang in there @Indabuff. We are pulling for her.

But it's not a bigger treasure trove than the tank. They had a zillion high draft picks from the tank teardown. That also was a chance to "do it right." And it bought us 8 years and counting of the worst stretch in the franchise's history. As @Taro T has astutely noted many times, when you effect a total teardown, too many things have to go right, along a long road, for you to end up as a contender. It happens once in a great while, but the likelihood is too low. You want to trade Hall, Staal, Montour and Eakin at the deadline? I'm in. You want to trade Reino for presumably good value instead of committing to him for a long-term contract? I'm skeptical, but it depends on the price to keep him vs the trade offers, and I'm open to discussing it. Also very open to discussing a new coach and a senior hockey guy to work with/instead of KA. You want to pay someone to take KO and Skinner? I'm all ears, although no one should kid himself. It's not happening unless you want to part with multiple 1st-rounders. But trading Eichel would be folly. He's not as good as Crosby or McD, but he's nevertheless irreplaceable and he will be great again.

Serious question: has RK implemented a change in the system since last year that has turned Eichel from a legit MVP candidate to a shell of himself?

I get the frustration, but I think a teardown, like the tank, is much more likely to result in another generation in the dumpster than in a positive outcome. What’s needed is patient and prudent addition of a few key pieces, and, more importantly, for the right guys to be in place to make and execute the decisions.

So Bryson is ahead of Irwin, eh? Good call IMHO.

Good man, but I think it only counts if you eat the bat.

Alright Risto!!

OK, here's a question: last season, the Sabres finished, based on %ages, #30 on the PK and #20 on the PP. A number of observers, including me, felt that these results, especially the PK, indicated a coaching issue. This season, the Sabres are #21 on the PK and #1 on the PP with a bullet. So they have improved substantially on the PP and a decent amount on the PK. I think coaching should get some credit for this, although it's a small sample size and we can't get carried away here. IMHO, the team shows up and plays hard for RK, and the issues that have kept them in the dumpster this year are goaltending and low production from their top guys. It might be fair to attribute the top guys' underperformance to RK, but Eichel had his best season last year under RK, and Reino and VO are both having good seasons this year. Is it crazy to think that the top guys will start to revert to their career standards and that RK's 5-on-5 coaching will improve, just like the special teams have improved?

IMHO, the path forward is: - Do not trade Eichel - Improve the goaltending - Figure out by the end of this year whether better coaching is needed and if so hire someone like Boudreau - Improve the rest of the roster around Eichel, either via internal development or opportunistic pickups from around the league. E.g. Vinny Trochek was available last year for a pretty reasonable price and he would've been a much better addition at 2C than Staal has been. The bones of a good team are already here -- Eichel, Reino, VO, Dahlin, Risto, young talent at F and D, and maybe Ullmark as part of a goalie tandem. Eichel is by far the hardest piece to find. What they should NOT do is panic, trade him and start over.

This is reasonable, but I think they could’ve had both Hall and Fleury. Maybe Vegas retains some salary, maybe Zemgus doesn’t get overpaid, etc. There were multiple ways to get there.

by the way, Fleury is 8-3 this year with a .942 save percentage.

17 games is kinda few for evaluating a GM.

Eichel healthy scratched?

Getting Brindy would be incredible.

For those ready to hire Julien -- here's how he's done in the last 7 years: 2014-15 -- missed playoffs 2015-16 -- missed playoffs 2016-17 -- fired by Boston after 55 games (26-29 record); hired by Habs; lost in 1st round of playoffs 2017-18 -- missed playoffs 2018-19 -- missed playoffs 2019-20 -- made playoffs as last team in expanded 24-team field; won play-in round; lost in 1st round of "real" playoffs 2020-21 -- fired after going 9-9 and losing 5 of last 6 games. I'd rather someone else.

It started on Black Sunday. The hockey gods were divided as to how long the punishment should last, and the moderates were able to keep it limited until Lindy got fired, at which point half of them joined the "make them bleed" contingent. Then the tank took care of the last few holdovers, who couldn't believe how many fans went along with the idiotic plan, and made every last one of them disgusted with us and determined to keep us locked in the dungeon for a generation. Then, after a time, one of them had mercy and allowed the One to sneak into the supermax prison from the Yukon, knowing that he might be able to free us before the sickness pervaded him too...

if @IKnowPhysics's plan is adopted, would Borgen be exempt from the expansion draft?

Get well soon Jake. I wouldn't be surprised if the Sabres give him a better contract than he can get elsewhere -- maybe a 1- or 2-year bridge deal so he can make a good salary until he gets back to 100%.

These are both reasonable, but still -- if the Sabres limp home to a bottom-5 finish this year, and the day after the season ends there is a presser at which Rutherford and Babcock are introduced -- would you not be excited? The (theoretically) perfect should not be the enemy of the good, especially when compared to 10 years of very bad.

I'd guess that everyone here would be pretty happy if the Sabres' organization included Rutherford at Pres or GM and Babcock at HC.

Well, teachers in NYS have been eligible for the vaccine for over a month, although that of course doesn't mean the supply has been there. One interesting question is whether they should be required to be vaccinated ASAP as a condition of continued employment, so that in-person schools can reopen in full.

Unless you have an opt-out right that I'm not aware of, that's not the reason.

I know I said it would be nuts to fire him anytime soon, but if they lose, say, 3 more like this, and they keep looking like they’ll never score another goal, it’s going to start to feel inevitable.