Mango

Skinner got caught standing straight up. So weird. He thought that was a breakout. Lazy lazy goal. I still think if you switch goalies and this series is flipped, even with a rough outing or two from the rest of the Edmonton roster. I think I'd pull Skinner. Pickard has played well coming in cold

I haven't been thrilled with Edmonton for quite a bit of this series. But if you swap goalies I think at worst it's 3-2 Edmonton into tonight, if not closed out 4-1. Edit: word, goalies

That and the palm trees presser made me aggressively angry at this org. I've lost all trust in Terry Pegula ability to do anything other than age. I wish no ill will, but.... I do hope he ages comfortably yet expeditiously and stays home...for forever.

Right? Announcer is saying Ekholm, and he certainly botched it, but that was a tough goal from SR. And as I type this,Jeff Skinner has a strong shift in his own end. Crazy.

Great shift from Skinner. Wow. A couple of key moments keeping the puck in.

For the purposes of this conversation, if there was an example in the sport of hockey to look around to your teammates and go "WTF GUY'S", the moment where you have to watch your own replay of being laid out because you don't even remember it, and all your teammates are just fingering themselves in circles is probably as good as an example as any. But at scale, we've had player issues, but more often than not players have been put into positions to fail or be middling compared rather than positions to succeed. Which was the base of my point of earlier. Like we can't even get reasonable production from a bottom 6 player like Rodriguez, whose playing in his second Stanley Cup Final, because we require him to be a top 6 forward. A position he's "meh" at.

Lets not pretend like the Bruins under the Jacobs and the Sabres under Pegula are even remotely comparable.

Can we just trade Pegula and 23 first round picks to the city of Boston to bring the Jacobs back home?

I thought we were all in agreement that like 96% of the problem with the Sabres was the org as whole. Especially after that Fairburn article that linked Pegula to Adams on basically day one. Ya learn something new everyday.

Pretty good interview. The whole thing starts at 1:26:00. It's longish at 45 minutes or so. I'm surprised how candid he is. He makes a few comments through out about how hard it is not to be in the playoffs, it eats away, how it drove other players to leave and he gets that at this point in his career. Tage also mentions that he hears the noise about Buffalo and that it's hard not to. He talks about the hit where nobody jumps in and says watching the replay he wishes somebody did but everybody apologized and Lindy leaned into the group about it. Start at about 2:06:00. I wouldn't be shocked of he's the first one who asks out of here. https://youtu.be/KGlLo7Kg_Os?si=IFH2aR8awEfIhgXI

Not a huge NBA fan, but oddly enough the entire series has been 3 days between games except for once. Those guys are so soft it is frustrating. They sit for games to rest and need 3 days between playoff games? The league does a lot of things right, but man they could use to add some more physicality and toughness back into the game. The WNBA is a way more physical league. I found myself tuning in to SF SEA last night after the hockey game. I was out at a bar earlier and was paying way more attention to IND/NY than I was the US Open.

As with a lot of players that have come and gone in the Pegula era, they are put in positions they aren't qualified to perform in. The Sabres in large part have had many more roster construction issues than they have actual player issues. We just ask too many players to do more than they are capable of.

Edmonton just has not looked comfortable all series. Props to Florida. But at the same time if you swapped goalies I'm not sure there is a game 6. I'm shocked that McDavid hasnt been a bigger factor.

Another 3 day break between games? I'm not claiming any sort of conspiracy, but anytime Florida has played T home they've gotten 3 days and anytime Edmonton has hosted theyve gotten 2. (So far) It is strange

I can't believe we have a 4-2 game with 34 total SOG.

I actually think that not having a cup for Edmonton is a wart on the league. His nickname is McJesus. He's the best player in the game by a mile. Leagues need their stars to win sometimes. It's not a market size issue. I think the personality issue is worse. It's similar but different to the NBA at the moment. The issue isn't exactly Indiana v OKC. It's that casual fans don't really know them. If it was Durant v Reggie Miller it would be zero issue. The NHL desperately needs their star to be a star and win a championship.

McDavid has got to put this game away. He hasn't been invisible this series but he's been muted (by his standards).

To be fair when they "put the whistle away" 95% of penalties don't stop play. It's tought to bring everybody to the faceoff dot and just ignore a penalty. The over the glass is both sometimes dumb but I also don't want it to go away. I don't want it to become a subjective penalty.

The Panthers put in a $10M dehumidifier at ice level and the Sabres...checks notes...finally replaced the roof they were contractually required to replace after it leaked on fans for like 7 years.

I think the ref just took one in the danglies.

I should have clarified it with "from somebody from one of the orgs". But also we've had a bunch of dudes leave and be very good players in the league post Darcy. If that speech was given from Pegula, then sure. Honestly it should have been.

That is arguably the worst presser in Buffalo Sports history. Either that or the "Hockey Heaven" speech. I feel like I am being gaslighted. Like this cannot be real. There aren't real humans who watch those 20 minutes and come away with "ya know, I think somebody else is the problem here" Adams literally admits that Lindy asked in the interview process about the coaches and then brought it up again after getting to know everybody. There is no back and forth between two people who want to keep the coaching staff that is already in place. It is, "you still like them?"..."yeah"..."cool". And you move on.

WTF are we talking about here? This is sooo far out of the realm of reasonable. There have been next almost zero HC who proactively quit their jobs mid-contract that aren't part of some joint agreement to walk away rather than be fired. Lindy would be 1 of 1 who spent 30 years in the same city only to walk out of the org on terrible terms mid contract. It would be a horrendous end to any coaches legacy for the org, for the fans, and for Lindy himself. I think he was a little bamboolzed by making some assumptions about the same weird wording we constantly hear from Adams. And instead of ending his tenure hanging the city out to dry he is sticking around to try and right this thing before he rides off into the sunset. Adams is constantly smug in his wording, and particularly so in what is the worst press conference in Buffalo sports history. He is wildly evasive and aggressive from start to finish. Assistant coaches included. I am just so baffled how anybody can listen to that interview and think that enemy number one and in this organization is Terrance Pegula and Kevyn Adams. And then talk about a team that has lead the league in unused cap dollars over 5 years and thing 'It DoEsNt MaKe SeNsT tHaT pEgUlA WoUldNt SpEnD oN nEw CoAcHeS" I don't think Lindy is a world beater. He isn't, especially at this point in his career. The best part of Lindy is that he can make a 10 goal scorer a 20 goal scorer. The worst part is that he can take a 30 goal scorer and also make them a 20 goal scorer. He can take the 20th best roster and get them into the playoffs and maybe steal a series. But he also won't have the 6th best roster in the conference finals all the time either.

What does this mean? It doesn't really follow a single thought. What does that say about Lindy? Well by Adams own admission Lindy asked about replacing the staff at the front end, and then after getting to know the staff had a "back and forth" with Adams about replacing them. There is no back and forth between two people are on the same page off the rip. So unless you think Adams wanted to replace the staff and Lindy was trying to keep them, to me it sounds like Lindy tried to replace the coaching staff. I am not sure what the realistic expectation of Lindy Ruff is. He has spent nearly 30 years in this town as a coach or player for the Buffalo Sabres. I am sure it would be really really hard for him to throw his fingers up at the org and walk away over hunkering down and trying to right the ship. The expectation, which you seem to imply, is that Lindy should go out in a blaze of glory. That seems like the absolute worst way to end a career in your home town and would basically be unprecedented in any of the big 4 leagues in the US. I cannot possibly wrap my head around the fact that any human who watches that presser and has followed the Sabres isn't targeting all their anger and frustration at some combination of Pegula and Adams. They could hire the ghost of Scotty Bowman to be the HC this team with Trotz, Deboer, and Maurice on staff and they would still miss the playoffs. That is how wildly inept this franchise is.

This! I don't hear that any differently than "Terry give me everything we need to be successful". Adams always leaves wiggle room. He is a total weasel. Ask him for a yes or no answer on if he can spend 100% of the salary cap or if Terry will pay for 4 new NHL veteran scouts and you get "Terry is willing to provide everything it takes to be successful". Sort of crazy to me that @Archie Lee watches Adams squirm over this question the way he does and comes away fully thinking Adams said that this was Lindy's staff that he wanted and he assembled after getting to know them. He explicitly says that Lindy asked about it, and that after getting to know them they talked about it some more, and after a back and forth "this is the staff that we arrived at". Not that this is the staff he wanted. But the one we arrived at. And as a follow up question, if this is the staff that Lindy wanted, WTF was the back and forth about after "getting to know them". In theory if this is Lindy's staff, here is the conversation. Not sure anybody would consider this a "back and forth" Kevyn: "Do you love this coaching staff?" Lindy: "Yeah" Kevyn: "Cool, next item on the agenda"