LTS

I have to believe there is something other than Antipin's ability to play hockey that is keeping him off the ice. And this could be one of them.... You are hanging out a GoDDs place and he'll be guest posting for you all night? Or he's visiting you? Or you are sharing your screen to him remotely and he'll be posting?

Okay. Personally I think there were players who accepted that the coach/GM combo were going to be there through the season and decide to make the best of it and those who couldn't do it. Personally if you know the coach isn't going anywhere in-season then you really should just suck it up and play. I don't think Gionta was a fan of Bylsma however. Perhaps he accepted that they had to make the best of it under him and frankly that would be what I would expect from a leader. "Okay boys, it sucks, we know it sucks, but we can't let it bring us down." If people didn't want to listen... oh well.

Based on what information do you come to that conclusion?

The coach doesn't determine the components he has to work with. The coach can only pull from the stock he was given. Granted he does need to put them together properly. The coach is the tinkerer but to make the analogy fit in your description the coach would tell the components where they need to be to be optimal based on reading the factors around them. The components would have to move themselves there to create the successful configuration. So to take it further, the coach provides the room design and the suggests the places for the components to be, but if the components don't look at the room guide ahead of time they'll spend too much time in the wrong positions trying to figure out where they are supposed to be.

If you don't read the stereo instructions and can't get your surround sound configured properly is it Yamaha's fault? I think that's about as succinctly as I can put it.

It's not dumb. Let's be real here. The same posters spew the same negativity about the same things in every thread. The situation sucks, we all agree on that. No one wants the Sabres in this position. However, the continual negativity about the situation just sucks the energy out of me. I don't have the will to fight it anymore. I feel like we're resigned to a bunch of people just bitching and moaning about the situation rather than looking for positives. If it sucks and all you have left is to bitch about the players, etc. then take a break. Why bury yourself under so much negativity? I know, I know, it's every posters right to share their opinion. It doesn't mean it doesn't wear on other people. I'm to the breaking point personally. Perhaps because this season I have been checking the forum more often than I have in the past so multiple times a day I log in and see the negativity. It's a negative situation but that doesn't mean it needs to be compounded with more negativity in posting. I don't want to use examples because honestly I don't want to call anyone out right now, I don't have the energy to have that battle. However, people are here taking shots at this or that and I all I can think is.. "This team is this team. The people on it are not changing, not as fast as you would like anyway. If you just want to sit here and complain about it day in and day out then that's being negative. Stop back when something changes." I feel like I am at work when people just can't stop bitching about the underlying culture issues day in and day out. It's an absolute drain of energy and it does nothing to change anything except create an even more negative atmosphere. Perhaps I used the forum as a way to stave off the garbage at work... and since the forum hasn't been the place I hoped it's compounding the problem... who knows. (welcome to my in post self-realization moment). So all this time Mike Babcock's key to coaching was to use EASports NHL series feedback system? The coach evaluates you in 5 game blocks. Who knew.

Who else is gone that was a supposed leader on the team? It seems like all the leaders are still here so wouldn't they be patsies of Dan? Secondarily, and perhaps I missed information somewhere, why is there this perception that Gionta was all on board the Bylsma and Murray train? Finally, with Housley putting it into the media it does one thing. It opens the avenue for the press to begin to dig away at the players asking them what he means. Players don't want to answer those questions at all. Housley just made sure that press interviews are going to be that much more annoying for the next week or so until every player has had to answer that question to the media. It's not for the fans... not in the least. Who feels better today about the team's lack of success based on Housley's comments? Statements for the fans go more along the lines of, "We're still getting everyone on the same page and there are moments when it clicks and when it doesn't. We have room to improve, everyone has room to improve, and the guys need to put in that extra effort to get on the same page."

I did not witness the ending.... I'm still good. ROR started scoring. Reinhart has two now (regardless of how they are scored). We have 3 players in the top in scoring. The PP finally clicked, the Sabres scored in a 5 on 3. The biggest issue now is pulling it together as a team. Their defensive zone coverage is bad and that takes knowing where you need to be at all times. They are still making mistakes when pushing the play up ice. Vegas is a team that is playing with ZERO expectations. They have no baggage. They are ALL players who were not kept by their prior teams so they have a collective chip on their shoulders. They are a team that is playing for its city right now. I'm not surprised at their energy levels. I wouldn't suspect it to last into December but if it does good on them and if it does then it makes this loss to an "expansion team" that much more understandable. The Sabres do have a lot of work to do. Housley is right about that. They do need some players as well. The D is just not good enough but we already knew that about this team. I still think if Falk and Bogosian are healthy they are in the lineup and the team is more solid on the back end. I'm still concerned why Antipin hasn't been played over Beaulieu... I'd say Tennyson but it seems he's doing just enough to stay in the lineup.

The head coaches job is to make sure the players have the tools they need to succeed and then to put their resources together to make the team succeed. The HC can ask a player to study video but he can't MAKE it happen. He can enact consequences of being under prepared but he can't make the players do anything. I think the players have all the information they need. Video coaches are breaking down the games in real-time. They are offloading video into usable packages for players who can then watch the video on their mobile devices/tablets, etc. I would find it hard to believe if the players don't have their video information within 60 minutes of the end of a game. They will already have what the need for the upcoming opponent as well as break downs of specific targeted work areas from the game that just ended. Bylsma's problem was that he watched too much video. At some point you have to break it down into usable information that can be studied and processed during the real-time of a game. If you have a breakdown of your opponents tendencies that goes 10 decision points down you will have far too much in your head to play effectively. It has to be distilled into what can be processed quickly by the player on the ice. I think that's where Bylsma overcoached the team.

And Niskanen is on LTIR... he'd be helpful too.

That's two quality back checks by Eichel. He's building on his game. Please let it last.

He was working on 1.5 legs at that point.

Beauty work boys.

Extra Special. Errrr.. Even Strength

The lines have been changed during the game pretty much in every game. I'm not concerned. Let's play hockey!

Caps better find a defense soon. That's their downfall right now.

http://www.wgr550.com/articles/news/bailey-has-right-attitude (linked on front page)

Oh.. I don't cross-thread. ;)

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Casey will play goal so he can be on the ice all 60 minutes and lead the team in scoring while shooting from his crease. Seriously, I thought you guys paid attention to hockey.

Reinhart has scored in as many games as McDavid has... (I love spinning stats). McDavid hasn't scored in his last 5 games. Is he no longer invited to the All-Star game? Marner is on the Leafs 4th line, he's washed up. Just argue the point that Liger made... he hasn't struggled the past 2 games. There is probably a reason he excluded the first 4 games as I don't think anyone can make an argument to support that he didn't suck in them. In addition, it could just be that the coach was misusing the player relative to his strengths since he's performed better being at wing over center. A much debated point on this board. So, do you blame a player for not performing when the coach has him in the wrong position? Let's put Auston Matthews on defense and then discuss his hockey skills. -------------------------- In other news, reading the Justin Bailey article was cool. I think it's telling the atmosphere that Botterill has brought to the team when you hear Bailey say the message for him being sent down was significantly different than the one he received from Murray. The more we hear the more we can begin to recognize that the Murray/Bylsma show was built on just beating players over the head with the paddle of hard knocks and hoping they came out stronger because of it. The truly old school method as opposed to the more interpersonal methods that are required these days when dealing with players. Good to hear.

Can't wait to see another game! Love the picture of Sam in the original post. It's usually hard to explain to kids what split vision is but that picture exemplifies it perfectly... at least as near as I can tell. Time for Jack-pot. You can all groan with me.

I appreciate that. the original discussion point spoke of ten years of failure so I was going of that. I might have misspoke about playoffs. Honestly don't keep track of that stuff. It's in the past.

Gah. Mother Nature knocked my power out and got it back in time to see the SHG. But then I see Reinhart score. I missed so much... But now I can see. Yay.

The word is accountable. The frustration of the fan base, or more specifically, the frustration level of each individual fan is their own cross to bear. From a business perspective the ownership certainly understands that a stretch of overall poor performance will wear thin on its customers. If the ownership was the same you could at least say they are accountable for the entirety of this streak (the past decade) but the ownership has changed, the GM has changed, the players have changed, the coaching has changed. Fans can be as upset as they want to be but focus the blame for that frustration where it belongs. If you allow the actions of another to cause you to be frustrated then its on you, not them. They are under no obligation to change their behavior to meet your expectations. It can be argued that changes could lead to a better overall scenario but that doesn't mean it has to happen. I think, right now, Housley is trying to learn more about this team. I'd have to look more last night. I didn't like putting Kane up on the Eichel line but it did work. I think he began moving Reinhart up with ROR and Kane because he showed at the beginning of the game he was going to play harder. Some of the decision making of who was on the ice and when may be suspect but I'd have to know if they had just been on the ice. Housley is a new head coach with 5 games under his belt. He's learning too. The question is do you believe he has the capacity to lead this team as they progress.