Mango

Man, I was at least hoping that the advisor and the Eric Staal announcement were two different things. Ugh.

Really difficult to find him a more effective partner when he is a gigantic reason why we have the most expensive blue line in the NHL while also being wildly ineffective. People keep saying "go find him a partner". The dude gets paid the kind of money that he should be making his partner look good. His contract is hampering our ability to go find him the partner that people are clamoring for.

If I were the owner I would have walked out to the podium after that palm trees and taxes presser and fired him live on air. That was as bad a presser as I have ever seen in any professional sport. Still boggles my mind that the lead recruiter said "nobody wants to come here" and then listed actual reasons why, without any refute. Buffalo isn't even in the top 10 for worst weather or taxes in the NHL. FAAAHK DOOD.

If Adams needs the support of a tutor in year 6 then he should have just been fired. I know you know this. I'm more just yelling at clouds.

So I had this thought earlier. But who is advising who for this role? In my mind a senior advisor should be a holistic role that faces the entire hockey org. from ownership to scouts to coaches. But if the senior advisor doesn't have the freedom to change ownerships mind then it's really a bs role acting as another Pegula yes man to hold Adams hand. Not sure if @LGR4GM has any actual insight into to the role but if you do it sounds like the latter unfortunately.

Right. I don't disagree with that at all. At least not from a 1000 foot view. But if you, as an owner are evaluating whether or not to keep your current GM. And local reports are that he's close to getting fired. Why make that decision without the advisor first? Isn't that like the entire definition of an advisory role?

Totally just a guess, but maybe rent something smaller with the anticipation of a trade so he doesn't have to worry about moving so much in season.

Almost everybody was saying that they didn't know where he fit when they traded for him. The issue with Bryam was never that he wasn't a skilled defensemen. It's that the move, at the time, didn't make the team better. It was just the a different version of a the same player we already had.

This is good but doesn't make sense You've decided on your GM before you've picked your Senior Advisor? If the advisor is just there to help shepherd Kevyn into the role, it's too late. It's been like 6 years. If the advisor is there to lead the hockey portion of the org, deciding on Adams future first doesn't make any sense.

Somebody should pay a landscaper (no paper trail) in cash to plant palm trees at his house. What's his address. I'll buy his neighbors house and plant them in my own yard.

I don't think he is prioritizing a "yes man" over competency. I don't think any leader of an org does. At Pegula's core I think he views himself as competent and those that disagree with him incompetent. Adams is one of the first GM's to be in lock step with Terry. Therefore Terry views him as more competent than any other,which is why he is trending towards being in charge for nearly half the drought. Pegula is fragile. Facts don't matter. For him feels equals reals.

My tinfoil hat is that Terry wants out but he doesn't want to become the villain of the community so wants to do it behind the excitement of a Super Bowl parade. Beane has said that Terry puts a lot of pressure to spend now and borrow from the future to get this thing done. I've thought Terry wanted the Bills SB to be a done deal before the KBC lease was up so he could sell the team as a champion and be forgiven. I am finding it tougher and tougher to be convinced otherwise.

This whole thing is strange. Like, Adams job was on the line and he had to give a PP presentation in order to keep his job? Even if the dude was put on a PIP, the data didn't change for him at all. I saw this posted elsewhere, but this is like when a kid struggles as a college prospect, then comes out of nowhere and has a crazy combine so gets drafted 2 rounds too early. Then never lives up to the hype. Moral of the story is, always trust the tape.

Worth noting that there is a step or two in here that mirrors the Sabres org. - Pegula hired a HC that the General Manager did not want. - Pegula fired the HC without ever consulting the General Manager. Not to be a Whaley apologist, but the problem with the Sabres and Pegula's management style is that you can never ever get a true inventory of whether anybody is doing a good or bad job because he constantly muddies the waters of what his senior leadership is and isn't in charge of. You have to give your employees structure as well as the freedom to fail, otherwise you can never pinpoint the problems. I will continue to scream from the rooftops that McBeane's biggest value to the Buffalo Bills is their structuring of the org and management of Terry Pegula. I am very hesitant to believe that either can do that effectively without the other.

I think theres a little nuance here. I don't think he just does what Terry wants. I think they are in lockstep and in full agreement on most things around rh franchise. I think Pegula thinks him and Adams are like McBeane. A singular unit that just needs some time to find success. They likely tell themselves that there is no quick fix in the NHL like the QB position.

I always hate warm weather hockey teams in the playoffs. I almost always pick the colder climate in the playoffs. Except when it's Toronto/Boston. I cringe and sort of look away but I'll take a Florida win. I always felt that way. But then 99 vs Dallas really set it a blaze. Carolina in 2006. The constant attempts at teams in Atlanta and Arizona. Eichel to Vegas. All of it just kept it burning hot.

What is the best way to watch the AHL playoffs?

I watched the LAK-EDM game and all I could think is that the Sabres would get absolutely pummeled in that series. They just are not a playoff roster. They aren't a coach or a piece away. The roster is missing too many things. A commitment to playing style, grit, tenacity, speed. Among so many others.

The disconnect seems to be that these guys were used to answering to Tom Hanks in Big. And then a real life adult entered the room and it took them 6 months how to figure out how to be professionals.

I think it makes sense contextually here. Adams and Granato anointed these kids years ago. Too many wall around with a totally undeserved swagger. This roster needs to be broken like a race horse and rebuilt. But at its face value I generally agree.

Brandon Beane has mentioned a few times that Terry pressures him to go all in on the cap more than he's (BB) comfortable with. My tinfoil hat says that Terry is pushing the Bills hard to win a SB in part so he can move on from the Sabres without the city hating him. Think about the timing off selling the Sabres after that terrible Bengals playoff loss vs a few months after a SB parade. If Terry doesn't win one with Josh and he sells (after ruining)the Sabres he'll be vilified for eternity. He desperately needs to bring a title to Buffalo.

To the underlined, this was in the lease and he was required to do so. I was shocked he let it go so long. There were reports the roof was leaking on the upper deck seats for years and the vendor recommended the scoreboard be replaced like 10 years ago.

I don't mind people using their phones to take a quick picture or to use them to replace 'tapers'. But I do hate looking out into the crowd and everybody watching the concert through their phones. We (including myself) have become too reliant. Even addicted. A few months ago I realized that I wasn't even getting through a 30 minute episode of something without picking up my phone to aimlessly scroll. We have now turned off the captions and when we sit down to watch something put our phones in the other room. TV was meant to be watched and heard, not read and glanced at. It has been really good for us. We talk more and get way more involved in what we are watching.

It is because a lot of those players aren't capable of developing in the NHL and need to be playing in the AHL. But we don't have anybody better. Sometimes that is by design. Sometimes its not. So then we bring them to the big club and the FO tells us all to be patient because they are developing. Then shockingly....they don't develop properly so we move on and bring in the next 20 year old. And around and around it goes. Keep anybody with talent in the AHL and lower clubs until they are without a doubt NHL ready. And if the Sabres tank because they have a bunch of cheap vets because of it, so be it.

At scale, tossing away quality player development because we don't have anybody better us a huge part of why we're in this mess (the last 5 years).