dudacek
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Posts posted by dudacek
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2 hours ago, Doohickie said:
Jeff Skinner at his worst is Victor Olofsson at his best. Jeff had a "terrible" year this year and was third on the team in goals. He had a -2 in the +/- which isn't great but neither is it a disgrace.
I think one of the challenges the new coach will have will be finding a role for Skinner. Maybe it will be on the power play and playing wing on a protected third line like he was at the end of the year with Krebs and Greenway. Maybe it will be on a second line as a scorer. Skinner has a unique skillset and some flaws but he's shown he can still light the lamp, even on an off year.
I know he's one of the whipping boys this year and has been for some posters for a long time, but I think he will have a bounce back year next year and score about 35.
It’s never been a question about scoring goals. It’s not even really about working hard, although that wavers.
It’s a question about sticking with the game plan, playing with structure, staying focused night after night and taking care of the details.
You won’t find very many lists of Sabres that dance to their own drummer that won’t have Skinner at or near the top.
When they talk about not being held accountable, which players do you think they are talking about?
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Personally don’t think the intent is to clean house, it’s to maximize the effectiveness of what’s in house.
Fringe free agents like Davidson, Comrie, Jost and Olofsson will likely be gone.
More useful ones like Jokiharju and Girgensons could be.
And I would think others are available if it brings in the desired piece, like Mitts was.
But I think the focus will be on adding, not moving pieces out.
Really curious if they take a look at cutting ties with Skinner because he’s the sole exception I could see to the above.
But I just don’t think there’s a market, or that a buyout makes sense.
Rather it will more be about how well he can adjust to this new standard in order to avoid becoming next year’s sideshow.
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The amount of weight this community still puts on an incident that happened what, 12 years ago - and has happened to many organizations both before and since - is baffling to me.
No, I don’t think this is at all different to Aaron Dell wiping out Drake Batherson, or any other of the countless cheap shots that happen in NHL hockey.
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24 minutes ago, JohnC said:
I listened to the WGR segment with Hamilton that you are referring to. Your comments about Cozens's ability to handle the pressure of higher expectations reflected what was said on that particular segment. Hamilton also speculated that he observed that Cozens was not the same for a long time after he instigated a fight to arouse his teammates. He seemed to suggest (not know for sure) that there were lingering effects (concussion) from that fight that affected his play. Hamilton pointed out that he once had a concussion that it took him a long time before those effects were finally gone.
Before the myth of Dylan Cozens bad numbers being a result of the fight and resulting concussion takes root, let us remember:
- He was 3/4/7/ -1 in 11 games leading up to the fight.
- He was 2/4/6 -5 in the 20 games to finish up the season prior to the 3-point Tampa finale.
- He was 11/20/31 -1 in the 47 games in between, you know the period 'where it took a long time to shake off lingering effects'.
The was no correlation between his injury and his ***** production
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Thinking about this in the context of what @inkman was saying about how seriously we should take these things.
If I put my PR hat on, I think Adams gave the fans what they wanted: he switched from aw shucks mode to I'm pissed mode, called the players out for lack of accountability, took some personal responsibility and took dramatic, concrete action by sacrificing the most obvious lamb.
I don't know that he really could have done much more in terms of getting people to lower their pitchforks.
It was a little surprising and very interesting and it set a proper tone for next season.
It remains meaningless until they start playing games for real again.
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1 hour ago, Eli Cash said:
It’s astonishing how quickly the players appear to universally admit that the work ethic was not there.
Would you expect them to say that it was?
And what what this place be saying if they had?
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People bash "traditional media" all the time.
And then there's this.
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2 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:
I was listening to WGR the other morning. Hamilton was on. He said something that surprised me about Cozens: That he hopes the young man consults with a sports psychologist this offseason. Hamilton related his impression that Cozens' game suffered because he cared too much and that he became despondent over letting the fans down. (I think it was Bulldog who chimed in: Plus, you might lose your "I'm a bad ass" swagger when you get your face broken.) Hamilton then referenced Ryan Miller and the great success he had in consulting with a sports psychologist.
My understanding of Hamilton's main point: Too much emotion can evolve into worrying. Worrying turns into doubt. And doubt is a killer of confidence.
It was all very interesting.
Here's wishing the Workhorse a restorative offseason. I think he's going to be a very good NHLer for a long time.
With the possible exception of his rookie year, it may have been the 1st time in Dylan's athletic life he's failed to meet expectations, never mind regressed.
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Who are the guys who need to be more accountable in the sense Tage was talking about?
To me there are two levels of this:
The more experienced guys: Skinner, Cozens, Tuch and Tage himself. To a lesser extent Jokiharju, Greenway, Clifton and even at times Dahlin
The kids: virtually all of them save Luukkonnen and maybe Benson. Peterka and Quinn may be fine 'for their age' but that phrase no longer holds water with this team.
The bar was not set high enough individually nearly across the board.
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8 hours ago, PASabreFan said:
After watching that interview, I'm more convinced Alex is the best choice.
He had a better interview than Dahlin, that's for sure.
Personally, I thought the Tage interview was the best one.
Sounded like the coach's son he is.
8 hours ago, Doohickie said:I won't impugn Dahlin's character or work ethic, but I feel Alex is a better communicator. It's not Dahlin's fault that English is his second language, but answering the questions you can almost see him still thinking in Swedish and then trying to find English words.
There's truth here.
He remains the one who shows the most leadership on ice.\
51 minutes ago, Mr Peabody said:Based purely upon exit interviews I’d pick Thompson. Seemed the most po’d and most likely to get in your face and step on your throat. With coaching could he develop that Crosby edge?
Might be seeing three guys wearing the A this year.
Glad to see I'm not the only one.
29 minutes ago, Believer said:Two or three… Fine by me… Let the strongest leader emerge… and allow the new HC to give his input and blessing.
This needs to be the way.
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58 minutes ago, ska-T Chitown said:
Insane buffness aside - OMG! Sidney Crosby on a beach! He must not be committed to hockey!!!!!
It's like everyone expects every player to be doing off-ice stick handling drills every second they are not ON the ice or in whatever magical weight room everyone assumes will make them "grittier". Joseph Smith ... they are people - they get to take vacations.
**not directing this specifically at our friendly neighborhood Liger - I was just too lazy to keep scrolling to find the egregious indignation being hurled at Dylan and Tage for taking a beat to rest.
The perfect world scenario is that Kyle Dubas decides it’s time to reset the Pens and fires Mike Sullivan.As our own @Brawndo hinted, the Ventura/Karmanos connection already knows this is coming and has already tapped Sullivan as our new “experienced, structured and accountable” coach.
The Dubas rebuild offends the PIttsburgh locker room, leading to the UFA in the above photo to take his tone-setting, faceoff-winning, line-driving, ultra-accountable, Pegula-dog-namesake 1C talents to join the new Ventura/Karmanos/Sullivan axis of evil on the Niagara frontier.
It is the off-season, and long-suffering Sabrefans are allowed to dream.
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I've been saying all season that this year's team was immature.
The last three days have confirmed that.
The best thing about immaturity is that for most of us it passes, and usually after life hands us some lessons.
Looks like we have to hope that this year becomes lesson learned, and that the new coach is the right guy to reinforce that.
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16 minutes ago, inkman said:
I’ve learned the people who earn respect in the work place take personal responsibility or as some would say accountability. Blaming the coach for not being motivated is a cop out and a sign of major mental weakness. Could imagine telling people at work, I’d do a better job if my boss just pushed me more. No one would respect anything you did or said ever again.
I don’t see that as what Dahlin did there in the slightest.
I see a man saying “I wasnt good enough and it cost someone I respect his job. I deserve an ass-kicking.”
Like I said, we all watch through our own mirrors.
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You said yourself not to put stock into these things.
Reading the variety of responses, I think we often just read their responses through our own state of mind. (Including me)
Just win.
Just now, inkman said:Unoriginal people. If you aren’t motivated within, maybe you’re the wrong guy.
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4 minutes ago, inkman said:
Not liking how this sounds. How about some self respect for the job you have?
Some would call this being accountable. 🤷
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1 hour ago, LTS said:
Devils fans chant "Fire Lindy" - November 13, 2022
Sabres fans change "Fire Donnie" - December 23, 2023Why do I bring this up? Everyone keeps looking at only last year to this year for Ruff. But people seem to ignore that the Devils sucked the year before their great year last year.
Lindy Ruff - year over year with NJ
2020-2021 - 19-30-7
2021-2022 - 27-46-9
2022-2023 - 55-22-8
2023-2024 - 30-27-4He had ONE good year. There's nothing here that says he's going to perform better with the Sabres. Do the Sabres have Jack Hughes, Timo Meier, Dougie Hamilton, Ryan Graves, Damon Severson? Nope. So if Ruff's success is because of the players then why do you expect he'll have success with this roster?
Brunette took over in Florida and had a 51-18-6 record. Florida last year? 42-32-8. Nashville this year 47-30-5. The man coaches winning teams.
When Brunette came to NJD he ran the power play, that improved from 28th the year before to 13th. That NJD last year also boasts the largest single season turnaround in NHL history. It's not all Brunette, but it's also an outlier at this point.
There's just not much to give Ruff all the credit here. And if people point to the roster for the reasons of his success then you have to account the Sabres roster and ask if that roster will give him success.. because either he's a coach that wins because of the roster or he's a coach that can make the roster win.
The difference is important.
I hope nobody thinks my post upthread was me advocating for Ruff.Its me looking at the tea leaves and saying what I think will happen, not what I want to happen.
I like Lindy and think he’s a good coach. Also think he’s easy to cheer for and can’t think of a better story than his return ending the nightmare Sabres fandom has been since he left.
All that said, I think the team is better off looking ahead than looking behind.
(Still think he’s going to be the guy, and sooner than you think)
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40 minutes ago, Mango said:
I was just going through some data points in another forum. Cap friendly is by far the best NHL cap resource, below is the team spending going back to 2015 when they first started. The Sabres have been spending bottom half of the league 7 of the last 9 years that they tracked. Another (not so) fun fact is that the Sabres scouting department is tied for the smallest in the league with Ottawa. The Kings and the Jets don't list their scouts, which is super weird, even if they have less the Sabres are in terrible company with those three teams.
2015: 27th
2016: 24th
2017: 19th
2018: 6th
2019: 4th
2020: 18th
2021: 32nd
2022: 32nd
2023: 31stThe scouting department, roster spend, plus the lack of arena maintenance should be major question marks for any high sought after candidate. There are a lot of data points that point towards lack of institutional support.
It was my impression Adams had balanced off their smaller scouting staff by redeploying those resources into the analytics and player development staffs.
Is that not the case?
How do they now rank in terms of the amount of bodies in the overall hockey department?
If my memory is correct part of the bloodletting when Kevyn was hired was due to Pegula thinking the hockey department was loaded with people who didn't do much. (A conclusion I think was fuelled by a review done by a pre-GM Adams.)
That fits with when/why they dipped from 4th to 32nd.
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2 minutes ago, Brawndo said:
All this and the fact his goaltenders could not stop a beach ball
I would add Mike Sullivan onto the list of possibilities if he gets fired.
Has a relationship with Jason Karmanos and Sam Ventura. His 3 year contract extension starts next season with a 5.5 million dollar AAV. The Sabres and Penguins could split that 50/50 while the Sabres give him a 3 year deal.
Good call. He's not available today, but he could be very soon.
1 minute ago, WhenWillItEnd66 said:Because here in the NJ market, it has been said that the winning system was Brunette's system. As you see, he took it to the Preds and it is working wonders.
Let me get this straight: Lindy Ruff was a hands-off figurehead leader content to run his assistant's system?
Not the Lindy I remember.
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Just read Fariburn's rundown of the candidates and walked away almost certain it's going to be Lindy.
Adams had a plan in place and 4 watchwords: experienced, structured, accountable, immediately available.
Of the candidates he listed: Woodcraft and Evason aren't that experienced, Boudreau and Gallant aren't that structured, Brind'Amour and Quenville (probably, for well-known reasons) aren't immediately available.
That leaves Ruff and Berube.
I don't know of any connection between Kevyn and Berube, or anything to feed the sense that he's a target Kevyn feels he can speak about with the kind of directness and certainty that Kevyn used yesterday.
Lindy, on the other hand, is someone he knows well and has worked together with.
Lindy is also someone who can not only fire up the players, he can fire up a moribund fan base.
He's also won with youngsters and plays the uptempo style Adams prefers.
What has Kevyn preached from day one? Passion for the jersey and for the city, people who want to be here and to win for the people of Buffalo.
Nobody epitomizes the Adams checklist like Lindy Ruff, it's not even close.
It's coming.
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2 hours ago, PASabreFan said:
How could a source know this?
Adams addressed this twice and seemed to be saying he knows what he wants to do with all 3 but that the new coach will be a factor in the final decision.
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Why does everyone point to Brunette as the main reason for the rise and fall of the Devils?
Didn’t exchanging 3 veteran defencemen (Hamilton, Graves, Severson) for 3 rookies (Hughes, Nemec Bahl) in their starting 6 play a huge role?
I mean, those are talented kids but we know 1st-hand about having too many young D. The vets were +66, the kids -31.
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2 hours ago, inkman said:
It shouldn’t just be Krebs and Joki for draft picks either. One of the core needs to go. Put this team on notice. You guys don’t perform, see ya. (I realize that could incentivize sand bagging) One of Tage, Power, Cozens or Dahlin needs to be shown the door. The return should be substantial. A top end of the roster player. A good ol fashion hockey trade.
See, I saw the Mitts trade as exactly this.
Do you disagree, or think it wasn’t enough?
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This was a year where he needed to take a leap and the results were disappointing.
Krebs has shown clear progress over the past 2 years defensively and has become pretty reliable in that area. He’s fast, relatively fearless and has some skill.
But the skill has not manifested itself into enough production for the third line and the grit is less than ideal for the 4th.
He’s at the cusp of the 200 games/3 seasons point where kids have to show what they are. What he is right now is a player who needs to be better to be part of this going forward.
Im not ready to move on in the same sense I am with Jost. But I certainly would not be going into next season with him as a 3C.
I want to see what a new coach can do for his game. But I fear Jost may be who he is.
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34 minutes ago, Pimlach said:
The point is waiting to talk to Brind’Amour is not a thing. Adam’s seemed to have an urgent need to move fast.
My take was he clearly has a target, or a short list of targets and he is going to start chasing them immediately.
Sounds like he has a very specific list of qualities in mind and not many people fit those criteria, but one or more that do is available right now.
And they will all be names you've heard of.
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Muel Presser
in The Aud Club
Posted
I think that the biggest single message coming out of the locker room is “this was on us”.
Whether they think it needs to come from within the room, within themselves, or both, they all want a higher bar of accountability set for themselves and those around them.
Whether that’s a reason for hope or a scathing indictment is going to be in the eye of the beholder.
Don’t take it personally.