Kruppstahl

Not a revelation, but when an analyst for another NHL team says this on their post game show, it's pretty bad IMO. I mean he really threw us under the bus! LOL

This is from the NYR post game show. Listen to Steve Valliquette ream out the Sabres! Loved it.

There were actually a lot of things to like about this game tonight. Overall competitiveness was better than normal. I thought Skinner had his best game in a long time and he was rewarded with 15 minutes + of ice time, which is good for him, given how much Ralph hates him! Cozens' game in general continues to be strong and the fight was just outstanding. Hutton's goaltending was still terrible, though he made a huge save late in the 3rd to keep it at 3-2. He made a few good saves. The Lazar line looked like our best much of the time, which is not really a good thing, but you can't blame Lazar's line for hustling. Montour made a great play at the blue line when Hall fell down to save us from a clean breakaway from center ice. The bad: Eichel continues to float, stand around, and refuses to move his feet. He is mentally checked out. I'm starting to think he has already asked for the trade, hence the way he has approached this season. He is nowhere close to trying his best.

I would think the odds of pigs flying around the arena tonight and showering the ice with fresh cut daisies are greater than Dahlin getting in a fight. But then he did make the reference to fighting in the last post-game interview! It surprised me! I'd love to see someone on this roster do something physical to let us know they care. Don't hold your breath. The instigators dedicated a full hour to that discussion today.

If only we did!

I was just listening to Howard and Jeremy's radio interview with Ralph from this morning. Ralph is just fantastically full of crap. Howard said: "I'm going to ask you the question I think most Sabres fans would ask if sitting in my chair right now. You have a team that struggles to score goals. You have a goal scorer in Jeff Skinner but who is buried on the 4th line and gets very little 5-on-5 ice time. Why?" Ralph then rambles on for 1.5 minutes saying absolutely nothing, other than the fact that we do not have a "4th line" and that we simply put different people on the ice in different situations. He also rambled on about Jeff not being on PP1 which takes away from his ice time, but Howard specifically asked about FIVE ONE FIVE ice time. Ralph does this over and over again. He's just totally full of *****. Of course, Howard does not ask follow-up questions, he never digs in deeper, he never challenges Ralph, and so the ***** continues to spiral.

How about any of the "journalists" who follow this team for a living actually doing some journalism, and digging around a little to find out what's going on with Skinner and Ralph? I don't think it would be that hard. For example, I suspect Rob Ray knows what it is; he probably would not talk about it, but he'd be the first person I'd talk to to try and get somewhere. Not sure if anyone has noticed, but Rob Ray is no longer doing his game day segments with Schopp and the Bulldog, which are greatly missed. They were some of the best stuff in the world of Sabres media. Rob would always tell it as it was and his personal (the real Rayzor) was totally different to the Yes Man he impersonates during broadcasts. He provided a unique perspective on the team as he is largely an "insider" but he would be willing to talk to the outside, to a degree. Not that he knows every last detail of the current team. He also supplied a steady stream of great stories from back in the day which you are only going to get from players. Listening to his old Sabres stories is literally more enjoyable than watching the current team play hockey. Anyway, he's gone, and of course, WGR-550 makes no mention of it! LOL

The place feels like the ceiling is rather low for a building of that type, and that it is very poorly lit. I have had that impression of it my entire life. Never been inside. There is ample evidence in every game they play to see a lot of "not caring" all over the ice. If you don't know where to direct your attention, watch Jack. He's as guilty as anyone.

I ate at 716 only once. The food was mediocre, and we had a party of like 10, so I got to taste and see a lot of stuff. Service was fine. A place like that is all about the atmosphere, which is cool. I guess that TV screen is the largest in any restaurant in America or something like that. I'd be happy to drink beer with friends in there with various games on in the background. More than that is not the place's forte.

My suspicion is that they are are sort of equals on the corporate flow chart as well. I do not think it is a traditional relationship with the GM on top of the HC. We have a similar setup with the Bills IMO, where McDermott is at least equal to, if not superior to, Beane. In the NFL, that is more common. In the NHL it's kind of a weird setup. I have been wondering about this lately, b/c I am not sure it is KA's job to fire Ralph these days. I don't think he can!

Of course they are. This is an interesting story to me. No reason for them to be selling, at least ideally. It's a piece of their little chunk of Buffalo. And people don't want to believe money comes before winning with the Sabres!

Bulldog is getting revved up right now, going off on a pretty solid rant. He's basically attacking Pegula for doing nothing to try and save the season, which suggests he doesn't care. He called it "a clown show." LOL

Correct.

You really think Terry Pegula would move the team out of WNY? I do not. I do think it is possible he would sell, especially because of the Bills. The Sabres organization is not in good health and it couldn't have gone any worse from a competitiveness perspective so far. It is probably a long shot, but I do remain hopeful Pegula will say "enough" and narrow it down to only Bills ownership. If he did that, I think he would definitely try to make sure he was selling to the right person. Someone committed to Sabres hockey staying in Buffalo.

This one is a bit old, but it's so true. Brian Koziol was discussing this concept just last night after the game. He suggested Raph is basically another Housley, but with better communication skills so he gets to stick around longer. It's true!

Jack is a known gym rat and looks pretty cut and strong in the various weight lifting videos I've seen. This is not a function of being out of shape, even though Ralph Krueger claimed that (along with everything else) in the last few days. I do think he's injured, to some minor extent, but more so, his spirit is broken. He mailed it in yesterday against the Flyers and is making plenty of mental mistakes, which really can't be blamed on a physical injury.

This stuff is not just bad for us! It's actually damaging to the Sabres brand and reputation around the league.

They played some recorded stuff at the start of the Howard and Jeremy show this morning. Basically sound bytes from over the weekend, I guess. I'm transcribing one of the clips from Ralph Krueger, word for word: "It's serious what we have for a challenge ahead of us. It's serious what we need to do to fix this. We need to communicate and clarify the pathway. We need to do a refresh where we can find a window here on what the principles are that we all embraced early in the season through training camp and into the start of the season, those first 10 games, we certainly didn't cement it but you could see a lot of what we wanted to be and what we could be potentially and now its slipped off course; we need to get back to that." This guy is not only full of Scheisse, he is fantastically, unbelievably, full of Scheisse. He is officially at the point where he has to go. Has to!

I am going through the recorded segments from Howard and Jeremy this morning now. I just listened to the Paul Hamilton segment...now onto Hour 1.

I keep checking today to see if word has broken that Ralph is fired. I think it could happen today. It should happen today. But it may well not!

Great rant. Today feels like one of those impactful days in the history of the organization. I keep checking to see if word has broken that Ralph is fired. I genuinely believe he goes today, or he will not go at all during this season.

"The more he gets backed into a corner (with a question), the longer and more rambling his answer." Perfectly sums up his BS response about Jack getting his injury in NJ and not the pre-game skate. Lots of words, most of which contradicted other words, ultimately saying nothing.

I'm listening now. "He's a salesman! (Krueger). He's a salesman! But eventually if your product sucks it doesn't matter how good of a salesman you are." Sums it up nicely.

Dahlin does not look like an organizational cornerstone going forward. Not close. Way too early to say anything like that for Cozens, he still has hope. I still support your blow it up approach!

Photo of the game! Head Hanging, what the Sabres do best.