thewookie1

1. Anderson actually did rather well, Subban was great in Rochester, Dell was awful, Comrie was a great guy but also a mediocre at best goalie. He attempted to get other goalies but failed to. In the end though he ended up right about UPL and Levi has shown signs of future greatness; he doesn't get kudos for it but your need to harp on this point everytime and it ended up looking ok by year's ended. 2. Well he did make attempts but when your shopping in the bargain bin or getting rejected by better players there isn't much there to work with. Clifton did look better as the year went on too. 3. He brought back Jost once, Okposo(the Captain) once and Girgensons(a solid defensive forward) twice. Haven't we learned that cycling an entire bottom 6 every year doesn't exactly work all that well? 4. Mitts was going to want 8x7mil which would of put us in cap hell in trying to adjust the roster, Byram was likely the best asset available that could potentially help both now and later. Unlike fans, GMs can't just do kneejerk reactions and expect to accomplish anything. As they say, hindsight is 20-20 and we have the same benefit of that as he does. Perhaps like many of us, Adams hoped things would work out even if the voice in his head got louder about issues he saw creeping up. He can make suggestions and shop around for potential fixes for the issues but that doesn't necessarily mean they are widely available to grab. He chose to see if the players could work it out themselves with their coach; all of which he liked. And when they didn't find the correct answers he decided to be more direct. For us its been 13 years but for the players it most certainly hasn't; you can't crucify a player for something he wasn't even a part of to begin with based on a whim. Even if he saw the issues in January or February; he very likely didn't want to fire Granato and that while a mistake was not something done out of malice or a lack of a pulse. He likely just really wanted this group specifically to succeed and turn things around.

Reading between the lines: After last season he believed the roster would take the steps forward needed to go from 9th to Playoffs. UFAs to replace Quinn temporarily were far too expensive to acquire but he does feel some regret there. He felt that with Erik Johnson and Clifton's experience coupled with our other vets that the players would correctly grow. However while the team did seem to like Johnson and still do like Clifton neither could quite break the over abundance of arrogance. They were kids who acted like kids who thought what they did last year would just instantly comeback this year. Adams hoped that Granato and the vets could reign in the issues and salvage the year. The players loved Granato, as did Adams, but when that still didn't fix the issues the kids were then punished. Feels like Adams akin to Krueger proving himself inept wanted to prove to the players that they were wrong to believe they were owed a playoff spot or that playing wouldn't require a great effort. Some of them probably believed Adams wouldn't fire Granato like we did and he called their bluff. Now we wait to see what else happens.

Very true, he'll have to put his money where his mouth is but at very least he's finally saying what we want to hear.

Arguably I'd say the opposite; I think he effectively said he wouldn't hire him as HC due to his lack of NHL experience but would be happy to let him be an assistant

Arguably the best conference he's had

Adams seems pissed that his team didn't make it this year. Remember how we kept UPL up last year because Okposo vouched for it. I think he truly was counting on the the coaching staff and players to bring it together. They failed this year; but I don't think he has any more patience for it.

They do say that the first step to fixing something is knowing your own issues.

Briere's situation was also prior to Kim's medical incident

It would we better than Julien or Appert for sure

I wouldn't hate it

Don't disagree with you

My guess is Ellis is being transferred elsewhere and Wilford is at the whim of the new Head Coach

Perhaps Pegula finally decided to put a fire on Adams' ass to do something or resign

I personally feel bad for Granato because he seems like a great guy but from a team standpoint that was very much needed to push beyond development central.

It would be nice if you wouldn't blatantly ignore Dahlin and Muel in having some jam to their games. Yes, in general our defense is on the soft side but just ignoring Dahlin, who literally was within a handful of hits of Clifton all year, is outright biased.

My guess based on the press conference times will be that the majority of assistants are fired and a vet coach is hired to be an assistant along with other new people.

Cozens has had issues this year but he’s also had god awful puck luck, complete reverse of last season, so getting a couple goals today makes me happy.

Benson on a great ply by everyone on that line

The season was well summed up in this game to be honest. Back and Forth with the other team looking dominate at times but the Sabres did counter-punch effectively. Killed off a questionable 5min PK Score 1 PP goal Gave up a SHG Power made a clutch save twice behind UPL We had a puck 2/3rds over the line only for a Panther to use his hands to pull it out last second Kill off another PK Have a failed PP attempt Screwy OT Florida scores due to their best center stripping our 2C and passing it to our former player who's fresher than everyone else who easily skates through the Sabres and scores.

Now that we know you had a brain fart, I can’t help but imagine this

Murray will always be known as an overspender, regardless of the facts due to his tendency to throw assets at particular players he wanted to get. For instance, trading 2 2nds for Fasching and Deslauries was very unlikely to pan out. 1 very raw player and a guy switching from D to F. There was potential there but we already had and continued to bring back Bailey and Baptiste which created a logjam in Rochester which was in dire need of a center. The other major example was the Evander Kane and Bogosian deal seeing as he traded two NHLers, a 1st and then some for an injured head case who was literally being shopped around and a disappointing injury riddled defenseman + a throwaway goalie. Effectively it felt like they should of been able to get Bogosian for Myers straight up and that they traded a King’s ransom for a guy WPG wanted to be rid of.

So Arizona/Phoenix with an expansion team while Utah gets the Yotes f I'm reading this correctly.

I wouldn't go as far as to say we are coached not to hit but I'd guess it is far from emphasized to finish checks. My guess is most of the players are effectively coached to not "chase hits" or potentially hurt their positioning. Additionally I don't think hitting holds anyplace in Granato's strategy specifically. Unlike Vancouver who said they run around hitting people the first 10 minutes purposely. All hits by Sabres players tend to be either personality/emotionally driven or inadvertent. Thompson is an emotional hitter, you see it when he's angry or desperate. Dahlin both has a persona that likes to hit as well as a tendency to hit with emotional motives but not not exclusively in that regard. His running over of two guys at the end of the Detroit game were emotional where as his typical hits are more just his way of playing. Clifton hits a lot because he likes to hit; for him no emotion is needed for him to get pleasure causing pain. Tuch is in a very similar place as Thompson only he'll hit people more naturally due to his style of play.

Oh boy

I don't fully disagree, only with the bolded. While it was in part a shot at Eichel it was also a true statement about a few different players. From Leino to Berglund to ROR to Eichel we've had a number of players who have said their happy to be here only to run out the door at their first opportunity or just stop trying to play altogether. "Most players don’t have a NMC." While from mathematics standpoint this is true; a large number of the type of player we are looking for do. We aren't looking for 4th liners or pure castoffs. Likewise some high end players never received any NTC/NMC since they are effectively locked in there for life. For example, Aho and Svechnikov. Aho however will have a full NMC starting next season. Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou are a couple more examples; the likelihood of them being traded is slim to none. The players we are looking for are the guys in that middle range, defenseman akin to 2,3,4 and higher end 2nd/3rd line players who can play a role and thrive. The issue is many of those players have NTCs as a deterrent to being dealt at the deadline. Since a team can far more easily eat 2mil on a 2x6 mil contract to pick up better assets than they would eating 4 mil of a 4x8mil. The dealing team isn't going to have any interest in 4 years of retention while the other team cant afford the 8mil cap hit.