Kruppstahl

Thanks for posting this. Just watched it. It's really sad. He has transformed into a completely different human being.

This came up on Schopp and Bulldog today and I had not heard about it previously. I found this article from last year which is quite good. My #2 team has always been the Edmonton Oilers and I remember Murphy fondly from the old Kid Line days. Very interesting and sad situation. Have others here been following this story? https://www.freep.com/story/sports/columnists/jeff-seidel/2018/10/10/joe-murphy-homeless-detroit-red-wings/1565171002/

Just caught wind of this now! Immediate reaction was "My God that's terrible!" And those white gloves....Jesus that's bad.

Paul Hamilton had a little piece today on Ralph. Not sure who else caught this. I am convinced Ralph is a good guy, will work very hard to be successful, and means well. I just have zero confidence it's going to work. https://wgr550.radio.com/articles/news/sabres-new-coach-ralph-krueger-still-listening-fans

"Culture" is a greatly over-used word these days. I think it matters very little as compared to, for example, having a bunch of really good players. Having said that, if there is a "culture" in Buffalo of all the players, starting with Eichel and moving down, not really giving a crap about what they are doing for a living, not putting in their best effort, and being content to drive a Mercedes SUV and bring in the big bucks while being a garbage hockey team, I agree that is a problem and has to be changed. But good players winning games changes everything automatically.

Too bad Botterill wasn't thinking in those terms with ROR! It will be really interesting to see what value Risto brings. May not be quite what you all are expecting.

I like it when they are on those networks. It means I can actually watch them in HDTV. It's usually low def on NHL Center Ice, where it looks like I'm watching a video tape from 1986 that has been recorded and re-recorded over 75 times. It's absolutely shocking to me that the NHL allows their product to be shown in this manner, in 2019. But then again, who ever said the NHL was well run?

Table 1 with RJ is the obvious choice; I can listen to his stories all day long. Second choice is easily Table 10. The stories would be equally good (though not as varied or going back as far) and I have no doubt I'd be laughing with tears flowing soon enough. It also helps that at Table 10 I can lean over and talk to Dom at Table 9! Who would probably be one of the most entertaining guys in the room. You have to remember, the guy is insane, and maybe the best goalie of all time to boot.

It's ridiculous that his ass can't be released without salary cap implications. McCabe started out very promising, then slumped. Then he made a comeback. He's serviceable. Still waiting for the team to actually be improved.

Hiring a coach by itself does not move this team forward. The idea is to hire a good, effective coach, and I highly doubt we did that. Re-signing Skinner is the only meter-moving change that has occurred with this franchise this off-season which will directly impact the coming season. None of our draft selections, for example, will be around next year. Another really bad start to the season and, if we are lucky, the coach and GM will both go at the same time, as was the case with GMTM and Bylsma. Here's the rub: firing people doesn't help if we don't hire good people to replace the bad. Hey, maybe we'll come out of the gates storming and finish with 110 points! I guess it could happen.

These starting salary figures sound about right. Ullmark asking for way more than he is going to get, and the Sabres low balling him. They'll meet somewhere in the middle. Ullmark is not the answer going forward, so honestly, who cares?

I've already been there for quite a while. This organization has an enormously tough row to hoe this off-season, but not much has happened thus far, and I have no faith in Botterill to get the job done in the first place. With Bills training camp in place now, this is much more of a football time of year for me, though I'm not really following the Bills lately either.

Anyone ever notice that your average NHL franchise is run by kind of dumb people?

Nice to see we are top 4 in something. Oh wait a minute.

You can't do better than Highland Park 12 year, especially for the price.

I was going to write something snarky along the lines of the bolded. LOL. The future always looks bright for all fans of all teams, especially the further out you move it.

It raises an interesting question. Should uniform color be prioritized for a good look on TV? Or should it be about how it looks in real life or in person at a game? I certainly see the uniforms a lot more on TV than in person! And I also watch most games on center ice, in low definition! A lot of games look like I am watching a VHS recording from 1987. Everything is pixelated and the dark blue uniforms look like a pitch black ink stain on the screen. Maybe we should try lighter hues of blue! Remember when American companies actually made consumer electronics?!

He's bad and I am definitely not unsure about it.

I have always liked Rodriguez but like most players on the team, he is utterly replaceable as you suggest. It's unbelievable the amount of money guys like Rodriguez earn these days. The lousy level of regular season play translates directly from these salary levels. The hungry guys trying to keep a job and who are happy to make $600,000 a year are gone now. They're all rich, fat, and happy now, just to varying degrees.

Actually this was your America, and it is currently in a rather bad state of decline. It's not the 1960s anymore. 78% of American workers live paycheck to paycheck. 40% of Americans say they would struggle to come up with $400 to cover an unexpected emergency expense. As of 2013, America ranked 23rd in the world on the "American Dream" list. Meaning if you were looking to find upward socioeconomic mobility, you would have a better shot of finding it in 22 other countries. America ranks 27th in health and educational performance as of 2018. In 1990, we ranked 6th. I can go on but you see my point, I'm sure.

He was indeed a disaster and he literally "set the franchise back years" as fans like to say regarding controversial moves. He actually did that. The funny thing is that I think he was generally very popular and very well liked by most serious Sabres fans, particularly those that like to comment all the time at chat forums like this one! And now, with the passage of time, we can plainly see that the widespread love for GMTM was grotesquely misplaced.

Someone please explain the generally accepted widespread love for "royal blue" with our uniforms. I find it to be cheesy and the deep navy blue is a much classier, longer lasting look. I agree it does tend to look too dark on TV, but that's a different matter entirely. It's funny, b/c I think most Sabres fans LOVE our uniforms, like they are clearly among the best in the league. I have been looking at them since the 1970s and have ALWAYS found them to be kind of cheesy. Blue, white, and gold is not really a great color grouping and there's nothing special about them other than the leaping Buffalo logo, which I do like. I hated the goat's head, but otherwise LOVED the switch to red, black, and white at the time. When we wore our all blacks, we looked positively evil and the overall look was fantastic. We had some very tough teams wearing those uniforms too, which didn't hurt, along with some very talented teams. I have good memories of those uniforms overall, and if you are seeing a replay of a significant moment in Sabres history, the guys are probably wearing the red/white/black stuff. Anyway, so what's with the "Royal blue"? It's cheesy. Conceptually, I do think we should stick with our historically correct colors, so I don't mind the return to white/gold/blue, but then you have to try and make the most of it. A darker, navy type blue is a step in the right direction. I would love to see the gold somehow represented as more of a gold and not a red-tinged yellow as they are now. I believe I have done this before, but I will attach a photo of one of the few good looks I have ever seen with our color scheme. Would be nice to work a tiny bit of red into it so we can replicate this with our uniforms:

Yes, the hinge! The idea being that not only should the 2 D-men work together, and they should not only be on separate sides of the ice, but also one in front of the other. That's the hinge. If I'm behind you and the puck goes over to you, I should then get ahead of you, or if the puck comes toward your side, I need to get back behind you. One forward, one back at all times if possible. That's an old hockey piece of conventional wisdom. Don Cherry has talked about "the hinge" on more than one Coach's Corner over the years. I agree Risto's hockey IQ is very low and it's not going to change. He turned out to be a real disappointment, along with "Big Z" Zadorov. Those are 2 big guys with a nasty streak in them, and they should be worth their weight in gold. As it turned out, both have a hockey IQ below room temperature. Imagine if they were both really solid D-men and Big Z was still in Buffalo. Our team would be a lot better than it is.

No worries, we already have that covered!

I don't know. It's like Botterill is stockpiling right shooting D-men as they can be a trade commodity in the league. I don't know if he is acquiring these guys as currency in future deals or if he actually wants to keep Jokiharju.