dudacek

Donnie remains classy to the end. https://theathletic.com/5430238/2024/04/19/don-granato-sabres-coach-fired/ “Nothing surprises you,” Granato told The Athletic by phone Friday. “The situation and the expectations rose to a level that something had to give. The media, the fan base, the pressure that is on that locker room, the team, the organization, something’s got to give. This is what happens. Obviously, there’s frustration, but I don’t have anything to complain about. I really don’t. I could have done things slightly different. You can change some things and can’t change others.” He added, “I have to ground my memory in that I was given this opportunity by Kevyn and the Pegulas. It’s an opportunity I had been waiting for for a long time. And honestly, I have no regrets and no blame for anyone else. There are always dynamics at work in situations and you cannot fight them all at once, let alone think you can win them all.” He talked about the difficulty in transitioning from the guy who built this group up and then turning the switch to a different message. It was not anything we haven't been speculating about on here since he took over. "“I can punish you all day long, which everybody says hold accountable. But the real question is, ‘Are you accountable?’ Do you need to be punished or are you an accountable person? … So if I made the next coach’s job easier, I’m happy for that. Because I love these guys as people and players and I want to see them be successful.” “Unfortunately I created a bit of my own mess because you had to get these guys to believe in their ability,” Granato said. Granato grappled with all of the questions you would expect. How hard do you push a guy before you’re demoralizing him? How do you keep players from tuning you out? How many guys can you make an example of before you run out of players to bump up the lineup? “When you have more experience and more skill, you’re going to have more accountability in your organization,” Granato said. “When people know someone else can replace them, you have automatic accountability. That’s why skill development is so important.” And finally: “This is a tough, tough business and this is an extremely tough time in Sabres history because you’re at a threshold of doing something and getting past a barrier that’s been there for years,” Granato said. “I’m grateful,” Granato said. “I leave this and know I’m better. To be in this pressure, to elevate in this pressure and develop all of these relationships. There’s no question I’m better by working through all of this and that excites me.” The next Sabres coach will inherit a 13-season playoff drought, the longest in league history. But these Sabres are also coming off 91 and 84-point seasons. Those are the two best seasons this franchise has had since Lindy Ruff got fired. That those seasons disappointed Sabres fans shows Granato how far they moved the expectations from when he took over. “It cost me my job, but I’m proud of that,” Granato said.

I've always thought Sam was good enough that he might have an outlier 90-point season in him at some point under the right circumstance. Not 50 goals though. That's a $10M season. I think Sam should stay in Florida, but that team will have about $22M available to sign at least 10 players, including Sam and Montour. I wonder how much of a discount he'll be willing to take.

Quite the opposite. Sorry, I did not mean to offend. It's any argument that Levi is better than UPL right now that I find silly. And this is coming from the man who may be this forum's biggest Levi booster.

Adams explicitly said at his presser he was going to deliver that message to the players.

Sorry I wasn’t more clear. I saw it when he played against kids at the world junior tourney, where he was a man amongst boys. I have not watched him in the SHL.

The thread concept is silly and you were absolutely correct that we put the cart before the horse last summer. What do you think of Levi’s ability right now?

On the last good Sabres team, Lydman, Tallinder, Campbell, McKee and Kalinin all shot left. Teppo was the only rightie.

What does this mean? How are players held accountable in the summer? Byram was acquired because the Sabres needed a top 4 defenceman, place high value on his particular skill set, and don’t care as much as Sabrespace does about L/R balance. I don’t question the fit - 3 very talented D is an asset, not a liability, and it’s not like these guys are the three Brian Campbell clones some seem to perceive them as. There have been plenty of examples over the years. The better question is whether Byram (and to a lesser extent Power) can be the kind of player their draft status indicates they should be.

Personally not worried about Benson, but a year two slump is not unheard of, particularly with a new coach. There are a coaches who judge players on their birth certificate.

After that flashy start, Byram wasn’t very good. Not sure his play was much different than it was earlier in the year in Denver though. More than most, I thought his interview was safe and calculated. The closest you got to real was when he talked about how disappointed he was in his own year. He’s right there with his buddies Cozens and Krebs at a crossroads of his career. Lot of skill there. More than most, he needs a big summer and the right coach.

Brutal. There are places that actually lay off doctors? Vancouver Island is actively recruiting.

Wahlberg has a presence I haven’t seen in a Sabre forward since Darcy picked up Dainius Zubrus at the deadline. I mean I saw it playing against kids, but to carry it over against men? Hard to believe he’s 2 months younger than Benson.

So the Wings were smart to lock $30M into Debrincat, Copp, Compher, Chariot, Holl and Husso to not make the playoffs? And Kane “knew something” because he picked the 41-win Wings over the 39-win Sabres? 🤔

Nice choice. You can’t imagine how satisfying it was for a 13-year-old Sabre fan in B.C. to watch his team knock out the Canucks. I got to watch the Sabres a handful of times a year if at all. But everybody in school was watching this. You also wouldn’t believe how easy it was for a young Sabre fan to be arrogantly dismissive of the Canucks back then.

Wait, this story? https://www.hockeyfeed.com/nhl-news/reports-that-terry-pegula-has-sold-the-buffalo-sabres This is literally the headline: Reports that Terry Pegula has sold the Buffalo Sabres Is the curse finally lifted?! This is dead on?

Mitts was beloved, the leading scorer and full-fledged member of the blinding light brigade. Not sure people don’t consider his trade exactly that.

How can he prove he can be above average in the NHL while he’s playing in the AHL? If it’s by being an elite goalie in the AHL, looks like he’s already there. His career NHL stats: 10/8/2 3.06, .901. 5 of 6 start starts this calendar year have been .925 or better. He’s 15/6/3 with a .927 on a Rochester team where the other 2 goalies put up an .891 and an .890. Kid had a rough start and his playoff will probably be a better indication of whether he can be a Swayman to UPL’s Ullmark, but his talent remains every bit as good as we thought it was. I would trade anyone for the right return. But defencemen who have put up the kind of numbers Power has before turning 22 are rare. The team just signed up for 7 more years 7 months ago. It was like the 4th biggest commitment in Sabres history. Do you really think they’d be considering trading him already?

Hopefully. The 4 is coming from the fact they have played 2 years of the 7 they need to accrue prior to UFA status. If the Sabre wish, they can choose to take the Sam Reinhart path of a 2- or 3-year bridge next summer, rather than signing them to term.

We are 4 years from having to pay JJ and Quinn that kind money. If their play forces that to come sooner, that's not exactly a problem.

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