Mango

I thought this person could be Ruff. But after seeing us bring in exactly ZERO people from the outside to fill the staff I’m fairly confident that this will never ever happen under Terry.

Meh. For me KO's legacy in Buffalo will be remembered as the dude who got all ornery with fans because they boo'ed at their low effort play. For a guy who was brought in to "lead" the locker room all he seemed to lead was snarkiness to the fanbase and bad efforts. I don't hate the guy, but I no longer really care about his opinion and I don't see any reason to every bring him back into the fold in a FO or coaching role.

This is strange. He was bottom rung with the US Dev Camp. He was TERRIBLE at RPI. Rochester has been meh. So it seems odd to phrase this as "why he chose...." He is underqualified for his last two roles now has the chance to stand behind an NHL bench. Of course he takes it. It isn't like he had to choose between being the assistant here or in Boston.

And hockey makes it harder. At least during the Bills drought you commit a couple of Sundays. It was 16 days per year. Trying to be a fan of a bad hockey team for nearly a generation is 8 months of inconstancy: Monday: 7pm Tuesday : 10pm (WC) Thursday: 9pm (WC) Saturday: 1pm Tuesday: 7pm Then try and have kids or other hobbies or whatever. Sometimes after 13 years of this it is like "why bother" I would rather go on an extra couple of dates per month with my partner.

I agree with you about the down staff thoughts. The Appert promotion rubs me the wrong way. There were rumors swirling before the team hired Lindy. Then basically the same day Lindy was hired there were multiple reports that Appert would take over. I sort of dismissed it because I thought Lindy had enough NHL and Buffalo cache to slow down Pegula/Adams. But now I don't know and I dislike that this feels like a forced decision. I also don't get the hype around Appert? I have been critical about roster construction, and it is certainly flawed. But when I catch the occasional Amerks game I just don't see what is so exciting about the guy. Appert has been a tier 2 or 3 coach every level he has coached. Just a guy at best. He was never on a junior worlds staff. Only on the Hlinka Gretzky staff, which a tournament that USA hockey no longer considers an official part of their development. He stunk at RPI. Rochester is just fine. And now he is the heir apparent to take over an NHL team? Granato IMO was a much more exciting coaching prospect.

I meant future coaching candidates. In a system where the HC isn't given the autonomy to bring in a single outside assistant the likely outcome is failure. And when that happens it will be 2x more difficult to find a worthy replacement. But to your point about UFA's I think you are focusing on the symptom not the disease. The selection of the staff is the symptom and not a reason why a UFA would or would not choose a team. But the disease is that ownership either does not provide enough bandwidth to let professional hockey people do their jobs, or they are too cheap to allow professional hockey people bring in the proper support to win games. Either of which would be an excellent reason for any free agent to look elsewhere.

Not just that. This org has been very open about how difficult it has become for them to get talent to come to Buffalo. Lindy may not be a world beater, but he is a well respected hockey man across the league. Forcing an assistant staff on any coach, but particularly on a coach like Lindy, will only make it more difficult for this team to climb out of the hole Terry Pegula has dug for them.

I thought the biggest positive of the Ruff hire was pulling the franchise from the grips of Terry and Kevy. But this assistant line up makes it clear that Lindy doesn’t even have enough say to hire his own assistants.

Unsure of the numbers post covid, but pre-covid the vast majority of players who saw arbitration cut ties with their teams afterwards. So if you want the odds of UPL only being a rental for a year arbitration is the right path. I would rather overpay a half mil per year over 4 years than to lose another goaltender. We would just be repeating the Ullmark situation. We let him walk, forced UPL into action too early, struggled through it for a season, now possibly refuse to pay him and give Levi the starting role too early.

Sorry about that. Brain is faster than my fingers.

2018-19 they were 14th. 2019-20 they were 9th.

I think similar to Levi, UPL would be a bit further in his development if he wasn't yoinked around the AHL and NHL. A fully committed season or two as an AHL starter would have gone a long way. Being better than a bad goal NHL goaltender isn't a great reason to force a kid into playing full time in the NHL. Part of having proper development is having a quality onboarding plan into the NHL. "We don't have anybody better' isn't a plan.

I think this is Adams speak. Kind of like when he says "We have enough resources to win" when asked about whether or not Terry will spend The fact of the matter is that this franchise has been bottom half of the league in spending 7 of the last 9 years. At this point I think that the "developing youth" is a convenient answer rather than a design. I am tempted to think it is the reverse and that the design is low spend and the result is a young team.

This is true of every team in each of the big 4 leagues in the United States. It is so generic you could put it on a Hallmark card.

Adams stuck with Ralph until he couldn’t. He had a faux coach search and kept Donnie. Then for no reason extended him. We just saw Adams plan as intended. This isn’t it. I fully believe Lindy was brought in to babysit and in 2 years Lindy will either still be coaching or working as an exec. Will it work? I don’t know. Adams has a new boss whether he remains employed through it is a different conversation. But he isn’t the captain anymore. Between Lindy and Adams the next person to leave the org is Adams.

Here’s the crazy part. They have been trying really really hard.

No we do not. We have some kids who might be good top 6 forwards in 3-6 years. At some point the Sabres need to field a capable roster today. Not a roster full of kids who might be more capable tomorrow. Edit: I will add that I think Sabres only had above average top 6 play from Tage, Mitts, and JJP this season. The rest were middling middle 6 at best this past season. I think we need help at the top of the roster too.

I think the "Move that defines Adams" will be compounding decisions not just a trade. It will be the allocation of resources to Tage, Cozens, Power at the expense of somebody like Mitts. Even if Byram works out and we want to extend him we are looking at it possibly costing a Quinn, Peterka, etc. I don't think any of this has to do with Byram and it has everything to do with the contracts he has recently given out and whether they outperform the guys we have to let walk because of it. Before the Mitts trade there were thoughts thrown out there that we could afford to let Mitts walk because of Cozens and Cozens "could" fill that role down the line because he is younger. Then we traded Mitts. Now I feel like I am starting to get the same vibe around some of the talk around JJP. "Well we have Savoie and Kulich who can fill in and they are young they could be better someday". I am hoping Lindy stops the bleeding of real life NHL players in exchange for "could be good someday".

Well the time between Lindy’s announcement and Granatos firing was 6 days. Anybody employed in season would need permission to interview so we know it that number doesn’t include the 16 teams currently to in the playoffs, or anybody on an NHL staff through the month of March. And we now know he didn’t call Berube. The more information that comes out seems to indicate the pool of people he spoke to was rather small with minimal NHL coaching experience and those with NHL experience would have to be bottom half of the league teams in the 5-6 days between firing Granato and hiring Lindy.

Right, totally. I addressed that in the "since he was let go from New Jersey" part. And again, what you are saying is fine. I don't disagree. Just say that. But the GM sat there and said he went through 10 candidates in 5 days before they hired Lindy.

I am not against Ruff. I have said why I think he makes sense since he was fired in NJD. I wish Adams stood up and said "We targeted Lindy for the role because A, B, C. We went into the process thinking he was the best fit and after the numerous conversations between him moving on from New Jersey he convinced us he pretty quickly he is the one to get this team right". Instead we got "We did a remarkably thorough search. We spoke with 10 candidates in the last 5 days for this role.". This wasn't thorough. We all know that. I think most fans just want a little more conviction rather than getting cute with verbiage and pedantics. This search feels about as thorough as removing the interim name from Meatballs. Just stand up there and say they targeted Lindy from the get go.

There is a chance he is telling the truth even if pedantic. And if that is the case who are the 10 candidates he talked to if Berube is not on the list? Half the coaches in the league are off the list because they are all still coaching in the playoffs and would need permission to interview. So the list likely starts off like this. 1. Ruff 2. Appert 3. Gallant (one would hope but apparently nobody called Berube) 4. Matt Ellis (I am not joking) 5. Carle (maybe, but also maybe not?) 6-10: ?????

Since the Kelce's are hockey fans, once Travis retires and marry's Taylor Swift, rumor has it they'll buy the Sabres. Which competing owner do you think Taylor will write a song throwing shade at first? I don't think it will be an owner at all. I think the first thing they'll do is buy out Jeff Skinner and she'll immediately drop a track called "Jesus, Eh? Forget Football I aint no pig SKINNER" My second guess is she comes after the Leafs and Bieber in one go.

Adams talked a ton about it after the firing and a bunch of players came out and were like "yeah, nobody held me accountable". Then when asked about it Ruff went 180 degrees the other way and said "Woah accountability starters with the individual, then his teammates and the locker room. I am the last one who should be holding anybody accountable". (Paraphrasing) I am keeping an eye on how the players who were vocal about "needing more accountability" perform under Ruff. I tend to agree with Lindy. If I need to teach you how to hold yourself accountable this team has a "you" problem. And if you aren't picking it up from your peers we have a locker room/roster problem.

I think the ineptitude of Terry Pegula makes Lindy a good candidate for this team. This team is dysfunctional at the owner and GM level. More than a coach we need somebody with the trust of the owner to separate him from hockey meetings. Berube and Gallant may be better coaches, but they would but heads with the organization dysfunction just like every other person who has come into the KBC. I am not psyched about Lindy the coach. I am psyched because he might literally be the only person on the planet to provide a long term solution to the biggest plague for the Sabres and that is Pegula. EDIT: Other orgs don't have to save the on ice product from ownership. The Sabres do. So while this may not solve coaching, it could very well solve for ownership.