mjd1001

As the question states, if you could change just one of the options but everything else stays the same what would you choose, just one. If you pick a new coach, everything else around them stays the same. If you pick a new GM they start with everything else around them the same (they may make trades eventually, but at least initially the start with the same coaching staff and roster.) And by 'average' or 'replacement level', I mean what you get in return is someone who would be ranked as the 15th or 16th best in the league. Not great, not awful.

Its more specifically Pegula. It depends on what you define as the 'worst team'. Worst team right now? if not worst team over what length of time? -As of this moment, there is NO WAY they are worse than the Detroit Pistons. The pistons are 1-6 this year, and last year they were 14-68 (thats 28 'points' over an equal length 82 game season). -In the NFL, the Panthers are worse by far. The Sabres, can, and Will go out on occasion and beat a top team like Dallas, or Florida. Carolina is clearly losing when they play any of the top 5-8 teams, no contest. -And Baseball, where even good/great teams can lose 60+ games in a year and bad teams win 65-70 in a year, you have the Chicago White Sox. 41 wins. 121 losses. So no, the Sabres are no where near as bad. Now, if you want to talk worst FRANCHISE overall, to me its clearly yes, they are the worst run/owned franchise since the day Pegula took over. The team slid into the playoffs right after he bought in on a team/roster had had nothing to do with, but since his first full year owning the team 14 years in a row without playoffs. Statistically I worked it out in a previous thread, but what are the odds of any team going 14 straight years without a single playoff appearance? About 1 in 22,000. Under Pegula: -8 different coaching groups. -Several changes in upper management (team president, business side, ect.) -4 different GM's -An arena that has fallen drastically behind all the other arenas in the league built in the same time frame -Whenever things get really bad, he lets his GM/coaches/staff/players take the arrows and he is never around to face any tough questions -From basically "will spend whatever is needed" and "no budget" to being one of the stingiest spending teams in the league. -20 first round picks since he has been owner. 15 of them in the top 15. 10 of them in the top 10. 4 of them top 2 overall, 2 first overall. --Now, Statistically the odds may be about 1 in 22,000 that you miss the playoffs 14 years in a row under 'average' circumstances, but tell me just how much worse it is when you have all the above draft capital and you SILL miss it 14 years in a row? -It appears he is less likely to fire someone when they perform badly, but more likely when he simply doesn't agree with them or he isn't 'comfortable' around them. Screw up all day but kiss his ring and you are fine. Tell him "how things really are" and you are out of here. So, there has never been a franchise in any major sport, now or ever, that has probably been run as poorly as Pegula has run this one since he took over it. They have had experienced coaches, rookie coaches. Coaches who won cups before. Coaches who were the 'hot assistants'. Coaches where were former coaches of the year with this franchise he brought back (TWICE). He's had a GM that had success with this team. 2 (at the time) respected GM candidates he hired from outside. Now Adams. Pegula is the constant. Every single player traded wasn't the wrong player. Every single coach fired wasn't an awful Coach. Every GM they moved on from was not the problem. Pegula has been, and still is, the problem. You can fire Ruff and Adams, but Pegula isn't going to bring in the BEST replacements, he is going to bring in who he is comfortable with. He'll bring in someone that makes him feel like he is heard.Tthat will tell him what he wants to hear. Someone that will take the arrows for him when things go bad. And worst, that will let him do what he wants to do because he thinks he is smarter about hockey than he actually is. Again, Its Pegula.

As I have said before, I'm fine with Adams doing that. As long as Pegula keeps his hands out of it. Pegula to me needs to have everything run by him, makes suggestions, vetoes what he doesn't like and pushes for what he likes. Have Pegula remove himself from the equation, take a step back and yes, Lets see what Adams does. I'm getting tired of seeing pictures and video clips of Pegula being right beside Adams at games, at practices, etc.

I remember saying a while back that Cozens basically is a slightly, SLIGHTLY more physically talented version of Girgensons but with less on ice awareness and I was ridiculed for saying it....be careful there are still a lot of big time Cozens fans on this forum.

This game was the worst game of the season for me. Only a one goal loss I get it, but, its about their position in the standings now. They are treading water. Again. It doesn't seem like it would even be possible for there to be a 5 game winning streak (like MOST other teams have in the league at some point in the season). Doesn't seem like they are capable of getting points in 8 straight, or even going on a 6 win in 8 game stretch. They....tread water. its like...sink or swim! but no, just treading water. Washington was a bad team (or on their way to being one) just a year or two ago, then they made the playoffs and are playing great now. Will they win the cup with this team? probably not, but they give their fans SOMETHING. Look at Columbus this year...they were supposed to be well worse than the Sabres right? Nope. Maybe they will fall out of contention and miss the playoffs but they are giving their fans hope and more than 2-3 games of good vibes. They are exciting for now...and they are a good story for now around the league. I'm not "mad" at the team. The wins and losses do not impact my life that much for me to get mad. But its getting to the point of ambivalence really quickly. Its like..yeah, some good games, some bad games but put together..its just....nothing. Everything with this team just averages out to be zero. Not positive, but negative....just...nothing. Its too early in the season (less than a month in) to be not caring. They only way they snap me out of this at this point is to win 4 or 5 in a row. I don't think they are bad enough to LOSE 4 or 5 in a row coming up, but I don't see that winning streak either so...I just care a lot less than I want to right now. Pegula won't allow that.

Since they got the small 2 man advantage, they have looked awful. Might be the worst stretch of half-period hockey of the season.

That may have been the sloppiest last 90 seconds of hockey I have seen all year.

Clifton got caught WAY up ice, he was basically in the Islander goal crease when they got control of the puck. Samuelsson was the other D-man on the ice. I have seen 2 replays and have no idea where he was. I have no problem with the D-men going to the net in the offensive zone, but ONE of you has to stay back. Since Clifton was in so deep, I'm going to put this on Samuelsson for 'where was he' as he should be covering for his partner. Again, I havne't seen a clear replay of where everyone was on the ice yet. EDIT: yeah, that one is on Samuelsson. He WAS on the blueline when Clifton went really far in deep, but then he pinched to the boards while clifton was still in deep. MAJOR BAD DECISION to try to pinch in the offensive zone when your partner is so deep. That is why there was no coverage. EDIT #2: ON the other hand, Samuelsson HAD Zucker behind him. It still was a bad pinch, but IF he knew Zucker was behind him maybe that is why he decided to pinch..Zucker just got caught flat-footed in the neutral zone and couldn't recover. Plus, Quinn didn't play it well, the near side was his wing, he over-rotated in the offensive zone and left the entire near side of the ice open (where the goal scorer came from.) I really don't have a problem with Clifton there. That one is mostly on Samuelsson and Quinn, with Samuelsson possibly getting a partial pass if Zucker could have recovered better knowing he was there. gl1_5fRNOvoA (1).mp4

When did he say it was a 'rule'? Again, I want my coach to be adjustable. Some guys may respond better to punishment, other guys respond better to playing through it. I don't want a coach that just sets 'rules' and sticks to them no matter what. Anyone can do that, have a computer generate the 'rules' you want to go by, and you have a MLB baseball manager. The reason a coach can be better is if he knows how to deal with each situation, each individual, differently. Now, I do not know if this is one of those cases, but that is the reason you hire a full time coach, to know the difference.

I don't think a good coach just says something and does it. I think you have to balance 'accountability' with 'letting a guy work through it.' And what determines which way you go? What you are seeing on film, what your assistants are saying, when you talk to the guy, what he says. How hard he is working. Sometimes accountability is justified, but a good coach knows when to go in that direction vs letting guys play through things.

Never said they should be written off totally. Never. Said they are less valuable in my opinion, most of the time, than goals.

If we are discussing that he is accumulating a lot more points than usual, then sure, its perfectly justified to see where they are coming from. Are they typical 'run of mill points' or is he making great plays? Totally justified...that is what a message board is, for us to talk about this stuff. And by the way, I agree with your premise, that a lot of points, mostly assists, are nothing home to write about. 100% agree, but I was engaged in a discussion in a different thread when I pointed that out.

The only way the Sabres lose this game is if they are outworked by a TON, or if they hit a hot goalie. Just show up and put a good nights work in and they should win. The Islanders are not a BAD team, they are pretty balanced, but they don't do anything great. They have good players but not great players. If Barzal is not playing, that just reinforces the above even more. Maybe the one way they Islanders can beat you is they do have good speed up front, but Barzal is a big part of that.

Right now take out the top line (Tuch, Peterka, and Tage) and he has more points than anyone on the team. -Now his assist on Dahlin's goal wasn't much, he just flipped it over to Dahlin and then Dahlin made a nice play...(any D-man should make the same play) -And on Byrams goal, the faceoff was won and all he had to do with control the puck and flip it across to Bryam (again, any D-man should make that play) -Krebs goal he got an assist and it was on a weak shot that was deflected 2 times... -McLeods goal he made a nice stretch pass, but again, not anything that half of your defensemen can't/shouldn't do -On Thompsons go it was kinda a 'modified' give and go, where tage gave him the puck and he just gave it right back to Tage.... Ok, OK, but the point is, He IS making these plays. There has to be something said for him being in position to get those assists so that means something. On a different topic, I know others disagree with me, but his assists are a great example of why I value goals so much more than assists. In going back and watching most of his assists, he made either 'decent' plays or 'incidental' plays but was credited with an assist, while the goal scorer on most of them did a lot more of the work/displayed a lot more skill than the guys getting the assist. On Tage's goal, he should have gotten credit for the goal AND an assist on his own goal equal to the assists given out.

I really REALLY want to agree with that. I just can't get there though because after his major injury(injuries), he came back last year and played well, and it wasn't for a handful of games...it was for a third of the season. Even after he missed time in February, he came back for a full month and had 4 goals and 3 assists in his last 7 games. So he comes back from a major injury, plays 1/3 of the season. Misses some time again, but comes back and finishes the season pretty strong. Then has the entire offseason, doesn't have to play a regular season game for almost 6 months, and looks like this? So again, I want to think his injuries are on his mind, but he came back from all of them and put up numbers right away, unless he had another injury in the offseason we don't know about it doesn't make sense.

I agree it doesn't happen much, but I think you are hurting yourself by not trading in your division. You want to make the BEST trade, I don't care if that is with Boston, Toronto, whoever. My goal as a franchise is not to beat the Bruins, it is to beat EVERYONE. If trading with Boston gives me a trade I think is 0.0001% better than an offer I have from a western conference team, I'm making that deal in the division. The only reason I can conceive that teams don't want to do it is if you are afraid you will 'lose' the trade and by playing that team more often it will look worse for you, as a GM. If my GM is afraid of 'looking bad' so hes going to rule out trading in the division, then I want a different GM.

Boston.....negative 13 now for the Bruins in goal differential, 3rd worst in the league as I type this. Marchand 1 goal in 10 games and a minus 6. Both goalies with a save percentage now below .900. Pastrnak the only player on the team with more than 3 goals. Yeah, they might turn things around, they aren't terribly old overall, but they don't just look bad, they look really bad right now.

Dawson Knox. Ok, we are at the halfway point of the season. Ok, 8 games used to be the halfway point, not we have a 17 game season but close enough. Knox. In 8 games, they have thrown him the ball 11 times and he has 7 receptions. Now I know he is good blocking, but he's on a pace for under 20 receptions, and I read his cap hit is over $14m next year and over $17m the year after. Maybe hes a good blocker, but they can't keep him around at those numbers, can they?

It could be all smoke and no fire. It could be a lot of different things. It could be trading a guy who has taken a step backward (Quinn) and a high level prospect for a guy similar to Quinn that might be more expensive but producing right now a bit better.

I lived in Daytona Beach, FL from the late 1990's to 2001, and in the 2000 election in Volusia county we had early voting back then 24 years ago and the lines were LONG for voting early.

Maybe he has a deal involving Cozens (I doubt it but...) and that team would be using Cozens at wing, not center, and wants to see just a small sample size of Cozens at wing....so Lindy was told to make the move to put that on display.

The issue I have is, I think he has been doing that all along. I think a Primary reason Murray is gone is the didn't like it and said something...and Botts, I think it has been written he didn't like how we was being 'managed' from above either. I think Adams is here becuase he would do what Pegula wants him to do. If Pegula fires Adams, he is simply firing his own mouthpiece.

I know I'm saying the same thing over and over every couple of days, but I actually would like to see but I actually would like to see "Adams unleashed" before I see him fired. The problem is we should have seen that last year or the year before. I really think Adams does the leg work but every move is approved by Pegula, and Terry even suggests some moves. My impression is that Adams is like a chef and waiter at a restaurant... He talks to other teams, does the work and puts together a "menu" of options for moves that can be made.... but it's really Pegula that is making the final choices. There is some evidence to this years ago and some circumstantial evidence recently. Beyond that there's no smoking shotgun but I just get the impression that's how things are run there.

As per my post above, what is up with Columbus? It is now more than just one or two games, they are consistently looking really really good.

Of the line combos listed above, who gets benched for Benson? Quinn? And is that a long-term thing?