In The Buff

A lot of those early playoff exits were at the hands of our Sabres & the Leafs. Hasek & Joseph were probably a big part in their defeats. But yeah I agree i'd rather have someone else. Although from what I've read, Martin does a good job with coaching up younger players & of course he is experienced. I'd just prefer someone with more upside. If JBotts hires Martin its almost as if Pittsburghs coaches are to the Sabres as the Carolina Panthers players are to the Buffalo Bills. On one hand it makes sense since theres that familiarity but also seems very safe & uninspiring.

I'd have to think that if the choice for Martin is between us & Ottawa, that he would go back to Ottawa. There's not only the familiarity with Melnyk & the franchise as a whole, but dude was born there & calls that place home. If the choice is between coaching for the Sabres or coaching for your home city, you'd think Ottawa would be his dream job so to speak & a chance to not only turn that franchise around again but to even right whatever wrongs happened last time. We can definitely offer more money for his services than Ottawa can however & a roster with more potential. But i'm not excited at the possibility

yep. My whole point was that it just wasnt a flattering picture. Was just a reaction to it. Kind of my reaction to hearing his name as our top choice atm. Suppose we could do worse though

This image from that wivb article isn't that flattering. Mike Sullivan doing the coaching while Martin stands there with a dumb look on his face & his hands in his pockets:

Ironic being interested in Myers since he was Risto'd around here 1st before Risto. I can just see if we trade Risto that in 5 years a new thread will pop up titled 'Risto anyone?' But in all seriousness while i think Myers is a good dman, I don't think he'd even want to come here first of all, nor do I think it'd be a good fit. He's prone to making mental mistakes from time to time & needs to be paired with someone who can clean up, which sounds a lot like what we have currently. We need more d that can clean up so to speak. Risto & Myers are too closely related, both in their careers here in Buffalo & in what they provide on the ice.

Idk bud but thanks for pointing that one out. I have a: 'Where's The Keef?' bumper sticker staring me right in the face too.

Or on the flipside, maybe we'll have to wait longer to hear Keefe is the guy.

For as good as the Amerks looked for 2 periods, how quickly things can turn around. The Marlies started this 3rd period with some urgency. Really hope we find a way to pull this one out.

To the point of the players not listening to the coach & their sense of entitlement & all that. After finishing in the bottom of the NHL all these years, why should they feel entitled to anything? After having multiple coaches fired for their poor performance. At what point do they step up & take responsibility for their play on the ice & say no more to this bs. No more to the mental mistakes, no more to the losses, no more to the passive aggressive interviews with the media after bad games. No more firing coaches. No more excuses or any of it? I gotta think that whoever the next coach is, if these guys have even half an ounce of self respect & are sick of losing, that they'll do whatever it takes on the ice to not have this next coach get fired. Because if a team goes thru 3 or 4 coaches with the same core group of guys & has the same result, then the problem isnt with the coaching, its with that group of players you got.

I have a link to a 1080p stream online if any of u guys want it. Just pm me. I just remembered a few minutes ago Roch was playing tonight so i missed most the game. 11 minutes to go in the 3rd, down 0-2. We need a comeback!

Yep me neither but Botts is really jammed up against a wall with Skinner. We need Skinner more than he needs us imo. But 9mil is a ton of money to spend on a player who is valuable & a great asset but perhaps not an integral player on your team. Someone like ROR for instance you could justify spending that money. Mark Stone is another. Those players add more value to your team than a Skinner does. But if thats Skinners asking price, idk how Botts lets him walk & doesn't pay him. Either with that 8th year at the end of the term or by a higher AAV. It'll sure be interesting to see what happens & if Botts takes the bold route & lets him walk & goes after other players or if he just pays him.

hey it can't hurt right? At this point I support us trying anyone/anything.

Given the lack of scoring from our forwards, we definitely need to resign Skinner, i mean he's one of the few guys we had that can score. But all things being equal, I'd much rather pay that kind of money to a player like Mark Stone, who will most likely command the same type of contract, but who has shown he can create & produce offense on his own. Whereas the bulk of Skinners offense came from being with Eichel. Eichel is such a good playmaker, you could probably put Oloffoson on his wing next year & he'd be good for 20 goals easy. But you put Skinner on the 2nd line away from Jack & who knows how much he'd score. So is Skinner really worth $8-$9mil to your team? Or would that money be better spent on your 2C? JBots has some difficult decisions this summer. I don't envy him thats for sure. It'd be a helluva lot easier if our supporting cast performed better. But when 50% of your forwards suck, you don't have much margin for error going forward. And you can't let players like Skinner walk without having a replacement for their production already lined up. We're pretty much stuck between a rock & a hard place imo, Skinner has all the leverage. But like all you guys here i'm excited to see what happens this summer because regardless, changes are coming.

Yeah he was one of my early guesses when this all began as well. Fits the portrait so to speak as he was the coach of the Penguins AHL team: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, when Botterill was the director of hockey operations in 2007-08. Probably one of the hottest assistant coaches out there looking to get the big job & has had some pretty good success with the bolts. I'd rather have him than Taylor. Give me Richards & Gronberg as his assistant & hope for the best lol.

I'm watching the Toronto/Bruins game & just now Don Cherry is on Coaches Corner going on about Ryan O'Reilly again & he asked "how in the world did Doug Armstrong ever got ROR from Buffalo?" Made me feel sick to my stomach I'll take that. Heck i'll even give them 100 wings & some free bleu cheese & carrot sticks & celery. Make it happen!

Sabres gave a 3rd RD pick for Bylsma back in the day. idk if thats what u were thinking of

You have a good memory https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/GARTHS-CORNER/Grnborg-Is-Where-The-Heart-Is/6/93062

Hopefully 1 day soon we'll be singing We Will Rock You & We Are The Champions... instead of where we are now looking for Somebody to Love. No doubt JBots is Under Pressure to get this hire right, or the Hammer Will Fall ?

Chris Taylor is the coach you promote after Housley's replacement gets fired. Not before imo. He's had 2 good years with Roch, but its not like they've been winning titles down there or that he comes with a pedigree of experience or results. Taylor would feel like Rolston all over again & thats not what we need right now imo. But given how JBots fired PH, i'd have to believe that he already had a replacement in mind. Perhaps not officially set in stone but at least an idea of who he'd like to bring in. A responsible GM just doesnt fire their coach without 1st thinking of who could replace them... at least i hope so. But if he picks Taylor I think that just might be it for me & i'll throw in the towel. It'd be like we're right where we were years ago.

If we go for Taylor it'd feel as if we're just settling imo. I'd rather we go get AV before going with Taylor. I think its best if we keep Taylor in Roch to continue learning & having success down there. Just think If he comes up here & fails then now you have 2 problems & you stunt Taylors coaching career. 1 good season in Roch doesn't make me think he's the right guy to turn the Sabres around, nor think that he's ready. But my opinion is just one of some dude on a message board haha

I can't believe this CENSORED CENSORED. CENSORED Chicago jumps from 12th to CENSORED top 3, while we lose 2 CENSORED spots. Who came up with this CENSORED CENSORED system? CENSORED

sorry, i had multiple threads open & posted in the wrong one One of the drawbacks i guess of multiple threads on similar topics, even tho this one was meant as a "joke" snicker snicker

McLellan has pretty much coached his entire career on the west coast. His family & friends I'd imagine are predominantly on the west coast as well. I wonder how much those other factors will work into his decision, if it indeed is between us & LA. As much as I have no idea where he'll end up, just looking at it all it seems he'd pick LA over us. Especially if LA lands Hughes, although he may have to make a decision before then. At least the name being mentioned today wasn't Chris Taylor lol

Yeah i agree, analytics & stats like Corsi only tell you so much Those chances turn into goals when your roster is filled with more players who can finish, like if we had Draisatl here instead of Okposo, ROR instead of Sobotka. That style could work if you have the talent at forward to put those pucks in the net. Otherwise you get what we had this year, tons of games where imo we outworked & outshot the opposition, only to lose the game because the puck just wasnt going in the net. Later in the season PH shouldve adjusted the scheme once it became clear that style wasn't working for us. But on another team with more forwards that can finish, I think that system can be pretty effective. Perhaps thats why many of us argued whether the issue was with PH or with the roster JBots assembled. Kind of like the chicken or the egg debate

Yeah Torts would make more sense than Trotz since he's with the Isles, but Trots was closer to Trotz so i had no idea which way that one was going. Torts would need to be fired though but rumor is that could happen Thing with Q is that ive read he already turned us down once before. I read the same thing about him wanting to go to a contender, but would the Sabres be that much closer to the Cup than Florida? One could argue Florida is closer. But I'm sure theres other factors as well. Prior relationships are one thing in Florida's favor. Economics & financials are another. Salary aside, he'd pay less taxes in Florida & that's something else he'd have to factor in I'm sure. I don't know much about Boudreau, but I know he's been very successful thruout his career. Pretty much taking every team he's coached for a full year to the playoffs, some teams that weren't necessarily that great either. Either one would be an improvement over what we've had in years & given where we've been, we could do & have done much worse.