dudacek
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Posts posted by dudacek
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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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10 hours ago, Archie Lee said:
Just finished watching the press conference. I find an incongruence between Adams’s prior consistent approach of patience (we won’t block prospects) and his now sudden urgency. I’m glad that he sees the need to move things forward, but had be showed a bit of this urgency last off-season we might not be here today. I am fine with moving on from Granato (great guy, good coach, moved us forward, well paid, he’ll be fine), but I’m comfortable saying he was not dealt a winning hand by his GM. The good news about last year’s complacent off-season is that nothing happened that will cripple the team this off-season. The decision Adams makes on the next coach, will be the most important decision he makes as the GM.
Just out of curiousity, when was the last time you heard Adams going hard into the 'won't block prospects" thing? Weren't Lukas Rousek, Ryan Johnson, Jiri Kulich and Devon Levi "blocked" by more veteran players this year?
My sense was that blocking was the byword in the fall of 2021 and had all but fallen by the wayside by the fall of 2023.
He didn't want to block his young players 2 1/2 years ago because he wanted them to play and learn by doing, with the idea that they would get experience and get better.
This year was the year that "better" was supposed to turn into good. But, instead, it kinda marked the first year in three they were supposed to be better than they were.
I'm not sure about this being "sudden urgency." Isn't it more of a growing urgency as the plan slipped off the rails?
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1 hour ago, Billznut said:
Agreed. I like Berube and what he would bring, but kind of a small sample size with his coaching career. I’d put him in my top 5-6 for head coach wish list, but definitely there are others I’d prefer. If we are going experienced, I’d like to see a coach who has won in multiple organizations, that way you know it wasn’t a fluke.
Berube has been an NHL head coach for 6 full seasons and parts of 2 others (he was hired and fired mid-season)
He's also had 2 years as an NHL Associate coach, 2 as an AHL head coach and was an NHL assistant for 7 more.
His head coaching record is 206/132/44 with the Blues, 75/58/28 with the Flyers and he has .584 career winning percentage.
And he has a Stanley Cup ring.
What kind of sample size are you looking for?
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1 hour ago, jad1 said:
I know that Adams doesn't want to hear that the Sabres are young as an excuse, but it's not an excuse that they are too young, it's a fact.
Young players are inconsistent, and the team suffered from inconsistency this year.
The Sabres have 10 players under the age of 24 on the roster. For reference, the Panthers have one.
So if Adams decided to fire Granato because of his game management or line decisions, or he lost the room, fine. But if decided to fire his coach because his 20 year old top 4 defenseman or his 22 year old goalie didn't play like seasoned veterens, well that's on Adams, not Granato.
Youth is not an excuse, it's a choice. A choice that Adams made over and over again in refusing to age up the lineup.
I've been banging the drum for awhile here on the 3 seasons/200 games for a while on here in terms of the Luukkonens and the Powers and the Quinns. you don't have to sell me on your point.
But that cuts both ways: Tuch, Thompson, Skinner and Cozens were the season's big disappointments and major reasons why the Sabres are on the outside looking in. They are past that rationale.
The concern about Granato prior to the year was "he's a great coach fro developing kids, is he a great coach for guiding an NHL contender?"
I think Adams showed us he thinks he got his answer.
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11 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:
Prospect pool might actually work against it as coaches want to win now and very few will want to sign on for any kind of long term development plan. They all want GMs who are ready and willing to do whatever they can now and in the near future to make the on ice roster better, and that will include trading prospects.
The firing of Granato makes me think Adams might be willing to make the moves now or he feels pressured to make it happen now for his own job.
To me it just means the development portion of the build is over and the time to win portion is here.
it isn't about bringing in more veterans to push the kids on the roster down, it's about pushing the kids already on the roster to a place where the need to do that becomes redundant.
it's about getting the types of seasons out Thompson, Dahlin, Quinn and Power that Tocchet got out of Petterson, Hughes, Boeser and Demko.
Adams expected the Power to Thompson age group to be better. They got worse and that's why Donnie got fired.
His replacement will be the guy Adams thinks can make this group take another step.
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6 minutes ago, Brawndo said:
Adams is probably here for the duration of the next coach, 25-26 is his first season to potentially be on the hot seat imo
Of course some team could want Karmanos and Adams becomes POHO to keep him
It varies with the circumstances obviously, but I've always thought in a perfect world a "fair shot" for a GM is two coach hirings and/or 5 years.
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4 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:
Give me Berube. He is the coach this team needs right now.
If it is Lindy he better come with James Patrick to make it more palatable for me.
I expect some more grit and sandpaper added in the summer via trade and ufa. Some vet leaders.
Is they are drafting #11 please trade the pick for someone who can help now.
The parallels between this year's Sabres and last year's Canucks, and between Rick Tocchet and Craig Berube are not lost on me.
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37 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:
I stand by my comments upthread about not having a real clue.
But by appearances, he certainly seems an excellent fit: a no-nonsense presence with a track record of both winning and of coming in and quickly focusing a locker room that desperately needed it; experienced, but not too much of a retread; and despite his reputation as a player, he seems to have a brain in his head.
His worst season was 81 points. His Blues weren't particularly loaded with high-end talent, at least for a cup-winner, but they were deep.
Not sure he's got much of a track record with young players, but Kyrou and Thomas did emerge nicely under his watch.
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That's quite the clickbait thread title and not in the way I think @inkman intended
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1 hour ago, PerreaultForever said:
True. I wasn't trying to list everything so I guess I would say Benson was the brightest spot and UPL playing like he did was another bright spot. Peterka coming into his own was also a bright spot but I expected and predicted that one. I had hopes for UPL when he was drafted but was surprised this year with the sudden changes and Benson totally surprised me. The guy has a manner that differs him from most of what we've been getting and his build is different too. He has everything right and could easily become my favourite Sabre. It's been a long time since we've had a kid like this and I did not realize he'd be this. After watching him I'm kind of dumbfounded as to why he dropped to us.
I haven't had a favourite Sabre in a long time, but it dawned on me watching yesterday's game that he's it.
This shouldn't be read as "he's going to be great and save the franchise".
It's just me saying "I love watching him play". He plays the game the right way, every night.
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38 minutes ago, Weave said:
This is somewhat revisionist. Ruff was the coach during the Miller - Lucic incident and the “fragile little children” comments by Miller. Ruff is not a panacea.
No one is.
I hate coaching searches because we have only the most peripheral idea of what any coach brings to the table, what the current needs of the team are, and how well those two situations match.
There's a reason all coaches are hired to be fired.
Most candidates are going to be qualified. It's all about trusting Adams to find the right match for these players in this particular place and time.
Granato, in hindsight, was a good match for the summer of 2021, so I guess Adams has that going for him.
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15 minutes ago, shrader said:
Im not sure why that is overrated. It looks like it is exactly what you are saying. He spent $10 for what should have cost $5, just like Botterill sold stuff for $5 that should have cost $10.
I’m not sure what the point of captain hindsight game is. The value of the pieces 10 years later doesn’t not outweigh the value of the pieces at the actual time of the trade.
My point was simply to reply to what I thought was hyperbole and I explained why.
I respect your opinion, and don't mind that you disagree.
Ask Promo what the point of Captain Hindsight game is.
3 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:We had the #1 rated prospect pool when Tim Murray was GM. He promptly traded most of them away for magic beans. Now that Adams has restored that pipeline people want him to act like Tim Murray again.
2 hours ago, dudacek said:For those keeping track (sorry to the majority who won't)
From that "#1 rated prospect pool" Tim Murray traded away Girgorenko, Zadorov, McNabb, Armia, Lemieux and Luke Adam.
Personally, I would still give up that entire group for Ryan O'Reilly alone.
But hey, that's just me.
Edit: Missed JT Compher. Doesn't change my opinion.
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1 minute ago, jad1 said:
Sabres have been turned down by experienced coaches over the last 13 years, so this isn't true.
I'm aware of one for sure (Babcock) and likely 2 (McLellan).
Each chose better offers, so it doesn't negate the point being made.
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Just now, PASabreFan said:
It could be a nice spot to walk into. Someone else has done the dirty work.
Add to the mix some roster control and an idea that Terry is willing to spend and agree to stay out of it.
Great franchise tradition, fan base willing to come back with a vengeance, as close to a Canadian team as you can get etc.
Really, it's about comfort level with Terry and whether he's going to be with you or an obstacle to what you want to do.
If that's established, the situation should otherwise be enticing for most unemployed guys with egos.
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1 hour ago, ... said:
BTW, props to our man @tom webster who said in a now-closed thread:
"I think those that want change may be happy before Friday."
Dude, would you now share winning lotto numbers?
There's a few who were shitting on him earlier in the year who should be thinking about apologizing
1 hour ago, SDS said:TW is top shelf. He is a rational guy who doesn't get too high or too low with a great ability to distill information over the long term. He also knows people and so he is worth paying attention to.
Anyone paying attention over the years knows Webster is a credible source who talks to people.
He's not always right, but he doesn't claim to be. He shares what he hears without embellishment and we're lucky to have him.
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The Players need someone to push them?
in The Aud Club
Posted
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.