dudacek

Too lazy to scroll through the tape, but I'm pretty sure Adams outright said in his presser that was the message he was going to give to the players when he met with them. I agree with this, but I thinking most of this discussion has been about looking for nuance in the comments of 20-something hockey players that probably isn't there.. I've only watched day 1 interviews, but Muel was far from the only one to say 'we need to step up'. I also think "we need to be held accountable" is just another way of saying the same thing. The theme is you holding yourself and others to a higher standard and everyone else doing the same.

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.

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?

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 Robinson, 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.

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.

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

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.

Would you expect them to say that it was? And what what this place be saying if they had?

People bash "traditional media" all the time. And then there's this.

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.

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.

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. There's truth here. He remains the one who shows the most leadership on ice.\ Glad to see I'm not the only one. This needs to be the way.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Some would call this being accountable. 🤷

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)

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.

Good call. He's not available today, but he could be very soon. 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.

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.

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.

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.

See, I saw the Mitts trade as exactly this. Do you disagree, or think it wasn’t enough?

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.