TrueBlueGED

His brother played two years in the SHL before hitting the A. Alex had one year of juniors. Hard to directly compare their first seasons as a result.

Uh, basketball playoffs? Golf (also horrible), tennis.

I think he'll be better in the NHL than he was in Rochester. Assuming he's put with talent, anyway.

I think WC and Kev need a dedicated Yankees thread I can easily ignore. Or take it to PMs. Or texts. Something other than 15 posts in this thread every time a Yankee farts.

Thaaaaaaaaaank you! :beer:

Happy with merely making the playoffs? No wonder you're fine with just keeping Bylsma around :p

He's Bylsmill. Ha! Hahaha ha! Haha! Ha! *hangs head in shame*

Nah, I read twitter this morning before Sabrespace :D

"Everything is find. Everyone is the same. Every system is identical. All coaches do the same stuff. NHL hockey has the coaching importance of beer league. Grinding boring hockey gives me orgasms." --Every SwampD post in response to criticisms of Bylsma.

I can't believe how many of you fell for this (unless you're just giving Eleven the Internet equivalent of a courtesy laugh). It's not even remotely believable that Bylsma would get canned at this point in the season, and any good April Fool's joke has to be at least somewhat believable to work. You're all suckers!

Well, national writers have picked up recently on not all being well in Buffalo, and questions have been asked about Bylsma's future. Would a few eyebrows get raised if he were canned? Possibly. Probably, even? Maybe. However! If we keep Bylsma and disappoint again (even if, maybe especially if, he's fired 25 games in), that image would look worse than simply firing him after this season and being much improved on the ice next season. I can see the hot takes now: "If he was only going to get 20 games, why bring him back at all? Obviously shows little confidence in him." And imagine if the firing comes too late to make the playoffs? Talk about negative perceptions. The league respects winning. Any questions that get asked about firing Bylsma prematurely, or not giving him a fair chance with a better roster, will disappear and be forgotten (you might even get a few "boy was I wrong" articles later in the year) if the team is much improved on the ice. So why care about those questions in the first place?

Keeping a bad coach looks worse than firing multiple bad coaches in rapid succession.

Interesting. He goes from looking great under Julien, to looking mediocre under Hartley, to looking great again with a different coach. Funny, that.

He didn't turtle when confronted, but he's definitely had his share of cheap shots.

You just might be the first person in history who doesn't want his coach to maximize the roster he has to work with.

It's not about cutting him slack. Or making an exception for him. I'm simply saying a minor mistake can be made without it meaning the guy doesn't take his job seriously enough, or needs to get his together.

Unsurprisingly, I find Pi's demands for perfection to be wholly unreasonable and quite over the top. One can be late, by five minutes, one time, and not have it reflect upon their character or level of professionalism. Holy moly.

Iginla's got nothing left--he's been a total dud playing next to Kopitar. No thanks.

1) Insubordination requires intent. Do you honestly think he woke up saying "This rule is dumb. I'm going to break it on purpose! That'll show em!" 2) "Sole purpose in life." My eyes have officially rolled so far back into my skull, I may never see again.

This thread has reached a level I never anticipated. I'll let you all decide if I mean a high or a low level :p

I've already made that decision: if Bylsma is back, I'm not paying for Gamecenter.

This is how it struck me. If correct, it seems to be some more smoke regarding something being amiss in the locker room. Edit: I accidentally chopped off too much of your post. Meant to also quote the part about this seeming like a continual problem.

He's gotta be better than Deslauriers, right?

My expectation is that player interviews are only going to mean much if Murray hasn't already decided to fire Bylsma. If Murray plans on keeping Bylsma, I think it'd take a pretty united front of important players to change that. If Murray is on the fence, then it's hard to say what would happen either way...though much to the chagrin of the old school crowd, my guess would be Jack's opinion carries the day. Personally, I think there's plenty of reason to fire Bylsma without any regard to how the players feel about him. I hope Murray feels the same way, but I'm not really convinced he does.

I know there's been a lot of discussion, but I don't think anyone has been especially intense about it. It's just a small proxy skirmish in the Great Bylsma War :) I fully admit to being on a crusade against Bylsma. I think he's a coach, we'll never win more than a playoff series with him, and his continued existence meaningfully reduces my enjoyment of following the team. Even of you disagree, I'd like to think, as a fan, you can appreciate that last point.