GASabresIUFAN

Great game tonight. Maybe the best 3rd period we played this season. Now they have to build on it. Best game Byram played as a Sabre. Zucker may end up being Adams best acquisition. He has helped these kids grow up. Bryson and Gilbert out playing Joki and Samuelsson is still a bad look for Adams.

Joker has been so bad (and Samuelsson), Lindy benched them in favor of Bryson and Gilbert. If anyone is getting traded, it's one of these two (Joki and Samuelsson), but Samuelsson's contract is untradeable at this point. Byram did have his best game as a Sabre tonight. It was a pleasant surprise. Hopefully he can build from there.

So we are supposed to wait until the season is out of reach before making changes? The sooner we make changes the better. Adam’s can’t be trusted to fix the roster. Therefore he must be the first to go to begin fixing this mess. As to Ruff not having GM experience, at least he been in the NHL and around good GMs for decades. Adams had zero experience in the NHL after he retired as a player. Ruff and Karmanos could make a very effective duo. They know what to do unlike Adams.

Someone named Lindy Ruff is already in the building. Might as well give him a shot or promote Karmanos. I think both would be more decisive and make better decisions. Both are experienced NHL hockey people.

lol, waiting until next year has really worked for the last 13 years. What’s a 14th year of failure?

I wrote the day he was hired that he was in over his head and was just a yes man. I hated the moves in year 1 such as signing Hall and not extending Ullmark longer. It wasn’t really surprising that the team imploded. I did agree with the general plan in year 2 to draft and develop to build the team properly after the implosion. I thought he did a good job of getting assets for the old core, although those trades are not aging well. Overall I think he and his staff have drafted pretty well but even that is cooling some. However the ultimate issue with Adams is his failure to fix his roster issues. He never adequately replaced Ullmark. He has never found proper partners for Power and Dahlin or acquired anyone who is actually good at defense. He also hasn’t found a coach to help the power play or completed a single trade that upgrade his top 6 forwards or top 4 D without subtracting from another area of the roster. His biggest move since the tear down is Mitts for Byram and this has been an unmitigated failure so far. Byram has been our worst D so far and Mitts is lighting it up as the 2C in Colorado. Maybe the best symbol of the Adams era is the buyout of Skinner and most of the savings remains unspent. The Adams era in a nutshell: Roster he inherited vs the guys he has basically replaced them with. Out - Ullmark, Eichel, Reinhart, Montour, Mitts, and Skinner In - Levi, Krebs, Tuch, Clifton, McLeod, and Zucker. Talk about downgrading the roster. Adams makes TM look competent. He needs to go now.

No question Pegula should be blamed for how bad this franchise is, but the current mess is all Adams. He gave the contracts to Cozens, Samuelsson and Power. He re-signed Joki. He traded Mitts for Bryam. He has failed to make a move to upgrade his top 6 or top 4 D without hurting another area of his roster. He has failed to draft and develop any defensive D. He has failed to draft and develop a capable center or capable playmaker. He has failed to make any in season moves to support the team.

What more really needs to be said. The Sabres continue to be bad. Bad GM, bad roster construction, bad defense and no depth scoring. I’m not blaming the goalies or Lindy. They can only do so much with the mess Adams created with the skaters. The defense is leaving the goalies out to dry. Lindy has no one who can actually play defense and no playmakers to help guys like Cozens or Quinn. This team really misses Benson. I’m not sure it’s fixable in season unless Adams is able to make a trade for a real defender or two and someone like Zegras.

"Economic. Effective. Efficient." equals failure.

So the Sabres are struggling to score. I’m shocked. Another mistake filled loss.

As I’ve said for years Adams is incompetent and needs to be fired. Even Jbot and TM were able to swing deals to bring in real higher end talent why can’t Adams? Skinner, Kane, ROR and Montour to name four. In general I agree with a slow rebuild, but at some point the GM must throw his chips in to get the missing pieces his pipeline didn’t produce. Our pipeline didn’t produce enough defensive D or good centers. Add that he traded away a good center and it’s long past time to fill those holes.

Goal?

I just watch the video of Horvat’s breakaway, behind the play a Sabres actually hooked another Sabres with his stick and pulled him down to the ice. Crazy!

He has been equally as bad this season. Just watch the 1st and 3rd goals for the Panthers.

Our defense remains terrible.

This team would be better right now if KA had found the D version of Zucker and not re-signed Joki.

And look who is right behind him; Owen Power no less.

He is waiting until Adams is fired to come over.

This team needs a playmaking center and at least one stay at home D. Then again these needs haven’t changed since he dumped Mitts for Byram. This trade took away our best playmaking center and gave us a redundant LHD with a skill set we didn’t need. So here we are having to trade assets to replace a player we didn’t need to trade. I’d be thrilled with Zegras, but that doesn’t excuse Adams incompetence. He also needs to trade more assets to get the D he needs to clean up our terrible in zone defense. His re-signing of Joki was mistake here. He should have been traded for other assets and a legit defensive specialist acquired. Truthfully there is no way on G-d’s green earth that Adams can pull off even one of these deals before the deadline and doubtfully even then. He simply doesn’t have the skills necessary to make this team actually competitive. Sorry Lindy.

This is exactly what KA's rationale was and he figured one of his prospect would step up in the next year or two to make us forget about Mitts. The issue, like all KA decisions is based on assumptions that aren't based in reality. Cozens is not a playmaker. Cozens' shooting % outside of his big year are lousy. The biggest issue with trading Mitts was it eliminated the team's best forward playmaker with no one in the hopper to replace that skill set. PS. Our defense was and remains bad. They are still giving up way to many HDCA. They also struggle to clear the D zone when the opponent has a heavy forecheck. Power isn't physical at all (4 hits on the season) and he and Clifton are giveaway machines. Byram, for all his alleged offensive skill, has only taken 8 shots in 10 games, the lowest amount from all Sabres starting D. Clifton and Dahlin continue to take costly penalties. The truth about our defense is that they are a bunch of misfit toys. Lots of O skill and skating ability, but poor execution coupled with a complete lack of in-zone D skills are a huge negative for the team. How much better would this team be if KA had retained Mitts, still traded for McLeod, and then went out are traded for or signed a RHD stay at home D to play with either Power or Dahlin? We'd be better defensively, better skills at forward, and deeper at center.

Makar -7, McKinnon -5. Their issue was Georgiev in goal. He has a 4.62 gaa and an .822 save %. Casey -6 in the 1st 4 games as the Avs started 0-4 behind Georgiev's horrible play. Since then the Avs are 5-2 and Casey has 3g 7a in those 7 games.

About friggin time. Apparently Lindy reads this board.

I was trying to think of any moves (trade/fa) that actually made the Sabres better. I can think of many that made us actually worse or were a complete waste like signing Hall, E. Johnson, Comrie, Stillman, and of course Mitts for Byram. I also have a long list of meh or inconsequential moves like Pysyk, Reider, Kubel, Robinson, Lyubushkin, Lafferty, and Hinostroza. I also don’t like wasting a 2nd on Malenstyn who is on pace for 16 pts this season. Even moves like Anderson, who played decently for us, was a downgrade after Adams lost Ullmark to free agency. The McLeod trade is looking good so far on its own, but he is a definite downgrade from Mittelstadt. If we had to argue for the “good” moves, we are left with possibly Greenway and possibly Zucker and Clifton, but none have significantly improved the team. Clifton was actually a huge negative to start last season and Greenway is only finally showing value in year 2 here. Not exactly a stellar track record. For all those who are about to mention the teardown trades where we sent Eichel, Reinhart, Montour and Ristolainen packing, here is a look at those. The 1st 3 have all won a Cup with their new teams. From those moves we have a 1st line winger in Tuch, a 13th forward in Krebs, a backup goalie with potential in Levi, a top 9 forward in Greenway and some decent prospects that may (or may not) contribute to the Sabres in Östlund, Kulich, and Wahlberg. Right now, only Tuch is a consistent contributor 3+ years later. Would you trade Reinhart for Greenway and Levi? I’m note sure I would. Now add that Adams has never fixed goaltending after Ullmark left which is spotty again this season and never acquired proper partners for Dahlin or Power. What you have is the mess we have today where 10 games into the new season we are already looking for a big trade or two to fix obvious holes in the roster like a top 6 center and some stay at home D to repair on ice issues such as a lack of depth scoring, poor defensive play, poor special teams and spotty goaltending.

I find it interesting that some of the people who disagreed with my post also want trades to occur. My question is how can you trust Adams to fix the broken roster he created when he has a proven track record of being unable to evaluate NHL talent?

There is certainly a goalie issue, but in their defense the defense has been terrible. The 1st and 3rd goalies allowed in the Panthers game are clear examples for the issues with the defense. That said the Sabres are 3-2 when the goalies save 90% of the shot or better and in the two losses the Sabres offense failed to show early in the year.