LTS

You are correct. At one point the information coming out of the room seemed to indicate that the players were split. I still think that there is some issue there as well. However, Murray was quite pointed in his comments and knowing that makes you wonder about some of the other player comments that were made. I look at it this way. The coach is not building relationships and helping pull the team together. However, this does not excuse the players from not attempting to get more cohesive in what they are doing either. There were still comments from players that specifically called out others not being on the same page, not as committed, etc. Right now its clear to me that Bylsma needs to leave. At the same time I think some players are in the same situation. I do have faith that Murray will make the moves. I think he's going to be real creative with Las Vegas in offloading 2-3 players to them to open up roster space and potentially pull in a top pick or another player that is exposed on another roster.

Here's the one takeaway that I care about after reading all the comments. Dan Bylsma does not build relationships with players. There is no fixing that. There's no off-season course he can attend to become be that guy. If the GM says you need to spend more time with your players and you didn't already feel compelled to do so it's not going to change just because he said it. After hearing that it puts earlier player comments in perspective. "Systems don't matter." - Gionta - We took as him supporting the coach. Can you now read it as him saying, Bylsma, STFU about your system and listen to the guys. "It's not the coach, it's the players." - Because the coach is nowhere to be found. Why did Murray address the room not too long ago? Because Bylsma couldn't do it or wouldn't do it and it was necessary. Murray also commented about not spending enough time scouting. That would indicate he was busy overseeing his coach/player relations. Clearly he wants a coach he can rely upon and it sounds like Bylsma is not that guy. All of this tells me that Murray is going to sit down with Pegula and recommend that Bylsma be let go.

Well, it's not always about the destination, I just said sometimes it is. In this case, for me, 2006 was a great ride until the end and then it all went to hell. It undid every bit of good that season... and then it led to even worse things. If the Sabres had won the cup in 1999 I would probably not view 2006 as the hardest season ever. I would have experience a championship. It changes the perspective. I would have wanted a second one, but I don't have the first one yet. There may come a time when I don't view 2006 as the hardest season ever. All I know is that I don't view this season in that way because I never thought they'd be more than sniffing 8th with a hope. It was worse than that but I'm not surprised by it.

The season, while we were in it, was a blast. But now I have to continually think back to that year and each time I do so I have to think about what didn't materialize. I didn't have high expectations for this team this year. I had higher expectations than what we got but it wasn't that high. In a few years I won't look back on this year with as much disgust as 2006. Retaining Vanek was more of an abomination in my opinion. But, like I said.. the disappointing end completely negates the fun of the season. Sometimes its the destination that matters and not the journey.

Look... you all complained and posted statistics on how teams who fire their coach mid-season have great success. So why do you want Bylsma fired now? Statistics show that firing him next December should be a greater benefit than firing him today right? :) Have a nice day.

For me the 2006 season remains the hardest season ever. To have a team that was so damned good run into that rash of D injuries at the worst possible time killed me. 1999 was hard too because it should not have ended that way.. This season started ominously with Eichel going down, Kane breaking ribs, and the hits kept coming. Next season will be the hardest if there aren't some significant changes made.

I'll be playing hockey today instead.. which is hard enough with this weather. Game at 2:20 and 7:30.. I'll be too tired to care. Didn't really watch last nights game either. No where to go but forward. All eyes on 4/10

Here we go! Only in Sunrise could you find a hockey game that where "out" defines the entire game. Out for the Sabres: Okposo, Foligno, Nilsson, Larsson Out for the Panthers: Luongo, Ekblad, Barkov, Jokinen Out for both sides: the fans. It's the free game on NHLGameCenter confirming that the NHL is definitely looking to conserve its Internet bandwidth usage. Someone let MODO know if Ullmark is playing. All eyes to 4/10.

Whew... the author sure knows how to sling a line of crap eh? She's throwing all kinds of counseling terms around without understanding them. She contradicts herself and even undermines herself and never offers a better solution other than... "lessen the consequences because standards are hard"

I am sure there is a time, but some players will be earlier and perhaps that's what he is referring to. Dunno. After Larsson banged up his shoulder he was shutdown for the season. I agree it shouldn't be in the same sentence because I would prefer it had not happened but it did so we have to put it together. :)

People said Bylsma's system was confusing.... But in all seriousness. That's scary crap. The injury you can't identify and quantify is the fear of all athletes. It's why they hate concussions. A knee injury is a knee injury. All the best to him.

How about you float an idea where everyone walks into the lobby and begins picking their nose. You can call it the "Pick Your Next Goober" contest. Or.. if everyone just flings them you can Fling your Goober. Or something...

I can't even root for Sven Andreghetto. THis game sucks. Go Sabres.. I am sure I will be doing something else.

That's what I want to hear from Jack. He's growing up, let's hope it continues. The last comment is interesting. There are clearly a few bodies in the locker room who are not as interested in doing what it takes. Who is it?

Ristolainen.

Some guy is wearing red in the midst of blue, gold, and white. Hmmm.

We'll see how that goes over. I think the NHL just screwed themselves.

Yea... go Sabres.

This is why I like Reinhart. In the article that Harrington wrote they had a Murray quote that basically said, he knew some player would be late.. but if you had asked him which player it would be Sam would have been at the bottom of the list. Assuming no media spin, it was clear that Murray believes in Reinhart and respects him and clearly expected some other players to be more likely to be late. Reinhart comes from a hockey family. He's been trained to be a professional all his life. That's a hell of a compliment. Thank you. Truly.

How would they get him injured? The insinuation that he's not smart enough to play in the NHL and will put himself in harm's way? Aren't there more headhunting goons in the AHL than the NHL?

Ugh. Not something I want to hear about, not for this guy.

Now you know why I avoid the Internet on April 1.

I've responded to it. Teams suffer injuries in a game, sometimes almost right away, that cause them to play with 17 skaters or 16 skaters. Just because one of them is suspended doesn't change the reality of the number of skaters. Let's say in the next game Sam Reinhart goes out on his first shift and 8 seconds in checks a guy from behind and gets ejected. Would you blame the league for putting the Sabres down a man for the game or would you blame Sam Reinhart for being careless? What's the difference of missing all but 8 seconds of a game and all of the game? The player is responsible for their action and no one else. I don't think this represents either argument that's being made. As I said before, since it is not uncommon for teams to skate with 17 players in a game it's not that big of a deal. The sitting on the bench part is an interesting twist on the situation and is probably what has people the most upset. However, some of Sam's comments made it sound like he wanted to support his team and I've also heard comments that they decided it was best if he was there. I still don't know what the truth is but I don't care about that relative to making excuses to shorten or move the penalty. The penalty cannot exist without the action of the player. I would suspend him. Without any second guessing myself. You either can hold people accountable for their actions or not. In this case, Eichel sleeps late. There is no secondary variable. The player was irresponsible. He now has to sit in a room with an entire team he's spent the season with and try to explain why he could not be responsible enough to get up on time. He has to explain why he is lessening their chances of winning the Stanley Cup, a goal they've all dreamed about since being kids, because he could not be bothered to make sure beyond any chance that he would be up on time. As the HC or GM there would be a massive upswelling of hatred towards me for enforcing the decision, just like there is on this board concerning missing a meaningless game, but the truth is that all of them would be wrong. You'd be making excuses for Jack Eichel. A guy who could have done all kinds of things to get up on time and show up like the rest of his team did but did not. A guy who ruined your hopes of your team winning a Stanley Cup because he couldn't set two alarms and make sure someone got him up. It's easy to blame the guy who has to enforce the punishment. You are 100% correct in thinking that those 15 minutes are not going to impact the game he is going to play that night. In my world, standards are standards and it takes a lot of factors to fall in line before I'd consider them not applicable. Drawback for whom? The players have moved on from this. The front office staff considers this over. The only people who are still talking about it are the media and the fans.

Let me put it another way.. why is the limit not 6 minutes then? The punishment was not arbitrary it was mandated by rule that was stated and clarified 24 hours earlier. The reason they clarified the rule was because they realized it did not apply evenly. For example, (and Murray said as much) some 4th liner who never sees special teams would never experience repercussions for being late. That's not fair to everyone, so to be fair, if ANYONE is late they sit. I hope he did not, but given the "misread a text" seems a bit odd one wonders if he didn't decide to test their commitment. Of course imagine the media frenzy if Reinhart says, "I wanted to see if they were serious.". So, it comes out as "I misread a text" It is their sole purpose in life. Look at the amount of training these guys put in all year long. If it was not their sole purpose (okay, yes, they have some other purposes day to day) they would not succeed as hockey players. We've all seen players who show up to camp out of shape... For what it's worth, if you read Harrington's article with Murray he said that he was there and if there was an injury they would have put him in. You can ask what if all day long and eventually find something that requires you to break the rules. That doesn't mean you don't create them and you don't abide by them except in extreme circumstance. Discretion is used.. but it must be used judiciously. Why would you not sit Reinhart for the game, because the team would have to skate with 17 skaters? They've done that before.. any time someone gets injured for a game they skate 17. Why don't the rules allow the teams to dress an alternate so in the event of injury (which is rarely caused by the player who gets injured) they can put him in? It would be fair right? The other team injured one of our players and now we're shorthanded. It seems like that would be a good rule to put in place. It would be more fair right? Point is, teams play with a short bench all the time because of injury, ejections, and other penalties. They live. They were not in danger of not having enough players to play the game. You're just upset that they have a rule that forces a guy to miss a game if he can't follow the rules. It's too bad. Reinhart broke the rules and put his team in that position. You clearly don't accept that. So be it.

What if you are 8 minutes late? I mean it's close right? The punishment was stated. Every player knew it. He got caught up in it. Period. If you want to argue that missing a game should not be the penalty that's fine but stop acting like it wasn't warranted in this situation. At the time of the infraction the team policy was CLEARLY if you are late, you miss a game. It was so clear that it was stated only 24 hours earlier. The problem with black and white rules is that people want to try and bend them. They work just fine but people love to bitch and not hold themselves accountable for breaking the "black and white" rule. Take speeding for example. If you get pulled over for going 1 mph over the speed limit there is no arguing what you were not speeding. You might say, it's so hard to tell, I mean what's the difference. Well, the difference is that rather than push your speed right to the absolute limit you could drive 1mph under to giver yourself a buffer. Unfortunately most people aren't wired that way and they'd rather argue that "it's just 1 mph over". Now, we all know that rarely does it happen that you get pulled over for 1mph over... but if you want to test the theory drive through Franklinville, NY and argue with the kind police officer when he pulls you over. Finally, I wholeheartedly disagree with this making the Sabres look like a second rate organization but I do fully agree that you don't get it. The way I read his comments is that he thinks the punishment is dumb but he accepts that he broke the rule. Every player is going to lobby them to let it slide. However, he sees himself as a team guy and I think he wanted to be on the bench to support his team and show them that he was a team player. I dislike this attention to detail in this situation and for his willingness to let it slide but I applaud him owning it and wanting to demonstrate to his teammates that he's there for them. This is not about following the rules so much as doing what it takes to win. Cutting corners and lowering expectations is never the way to win or succeed. I have taught my kids one mantra "If you cheat on the ice, you get beat on the ice." It holds true on the ice and off. If the drill says you skate to the line you don't skate to within 2 feet of the line, you skate to the line. Those who want to say it was "close enough" can also use that excuse when they don't backcheck hard enough and were "close enough" that they couldn't get a stick on the guy who just put the puck in the net. "Close enough" sucks. I could say some crap about hand grenades here. It was executed perfectly. As I said, based on Reinhart's latest comments I believe he wanted to be on the bench supporting his teammates. I think Jack and Dan butt heads and I am sure it's both on the ice and off the ice stuff. However, I don't think Gio is just trying to keep his career alive. You are talking about a guy who has been the Captain of two franchises, one of them being THE iconic franchise of the NHL. He's a leader and he's been around some unbelievable talent. He's WON and he know's what it takes to WIN. If he's an adult then why was he late? Reinhart was late, he cost the team 2 points (using your point). I would say that holding the players accountable is treating the players like responsible adults. Here's your schedule, follow it. Kids are more apt to get a slide from the rules than adults. Overall I am going to leave it at this. There is a camp in here that wants to make excuses for the "star" players. You have placed the blame on the coach, the GM, and questioned everything but the player himself. Is there no personal accountability in your world? Do you make excuses for everything when you feel something is "dumb"? That's a huge problem with society today. I don't want to do this because I think it's stupid or I shouldn't have to. You don't have to do it, but you don't get an exemption from the ramifications. What I want on a team are players who are always striving to perfection. It's not achievable but if you create a culture where being 5 minutes late is accepted then you will soon have all players showing up 5 minutes late. Then it will be 10 minutes late because hey.. what's 5 minutes right? You are setting the bar lower rather than higher. You are holding yourself less accountable. Our society does this all the time. "Oh this is hard? Let's lower the standards. There you are." Precious snowflake. Own your damn mistakes, own your lack of execution. I am going to leave one thing here. I've been coaching awhile and last year we used this video as a demonstration for the kids. I think it holds true to a lot of things. And this year's video, which I just watched. Hell you can watch them all on YouTube. That's a culture of winning.