PerreaultForever

If you're going to think this way they need to do what the Bruins did last year and mid season deconstruct. Then drop like a stone as low as they can go. You trade those vets for almost ready prospects like Bruins did for Minten (who is really good - hate the Leafs, but they drafted well). To do that, as I said in the game thread, now is the time to fire Adams. Let the new guy get on with it this year so as not to waste next year.

Well you have to like the comeback attempt but you can see at the end they look dead inside again. They know it and we know it, you aren't going anywhere losing all these games, even if they are close. I'd really really really like to see Adams fired now. Make Jarmo GM if that's the plan but do it now. Let the new guy start planning for the deadline, potential tear downs and future draft. If they do the usual and hire in the off season they'll lose more years in the adjustment period. Come on Terry. You can shake up whole neighborhoods with that frakking. Shake up this hockey team. It depends. You have to time it out with the face off and which top guys are rested and ready to go. The thinking isn't we will be attacking for 3 minutes. It's just now's a good time for the line match ups we want. or at least it should be.

Quinn with another of his patented stick waves. Just how many losses will this dude earn them this year? Absolutely useless defensively.

Come on, Terry isn't scouting and doing paper work and making phone calls. He's just the final approval on everything big. You want a trade he has to say okay. We will see in time if Jarmo plays a bigger role or not.

You can argue forever searching for "facts" and absolute "proof" and you will rarely get it. Most hockey related stories are filled with conjecture and scenarios which may or may not be true from Friedman and Seravelli and a host of others. You just kind of sit back and try to look for the simplest answer. Occam's Razor. So you look at Buffalo and see bad decisions and futility since Terry bought the team and you ask yourself what is the one constant through all those other changes? Does it not then become obvious???

Hurricanes come at you hard and forecheck as well as anybody (except maybe Florida) but they can be beaten. A few games back I watched a talent deprived Bruins team shut them down and keep them to the outside. You play them physical and you control the middle of the ice and they have issues. They can be beaten, but if you show up trying to play open ice and your own perimeter brand of hockey you will get blown out by their talent.

You have to remember Jarmo was unemployed. Maybe promises were made. Maybe he just wanted back in the NHL. If Kevyn gets fired and he gets the GM job we will know he was brought in as the insurance policy. Will he accept Terry as his meddling overlord? idk, I guess maybe, since he took the job he took. Lou Lamorello visited and left remember. Shanahan makes a point of saying he'd want autonomy. When do you hear a guy announce publicly he'd want autonomy? I never hear it on other team hires. You say it cause you think it might be a problem.

You know when you look back at it Murray structured the concept around where McDavid would be. He added the pieces that on paper should have worked. A young star goalie, a hard nosed D man, a power forward sniper, a complete 2 way center for the second line etc. all the pieces you want around a star playmaker in theoretical abstract terms. That formula on paper would get most GMs to say yes, that's exactly how you build. It should have worked with Eichel as well. He's no McDavid, but he is a star player any team would covet. Lacked the leadership skills of McDavid and so O'Reilly should have been captain but that's just another of many mistakes. Trouble is Murray got a bratty problem child as the power forward, a psycho goalie, a broken D man addicted to pain killers, created a locker room divide and couldn't build a proper defense with the war chest he had. Just bad management and a bad coaching choice to top it off. So honestly, I think McDavid here would have played out just like Eichel. Even without a neck injury, he'd be elsewhere by now.

How much is he paying them? It's not like Terry does any of the day to day stuff but I think he is the final say on any contracts and any trades too. Adams does all the work but Terry sets the direction and says who is untouchable or who should go. Those big picture formative things. It was reported in the summer that Buffalo was hard to deal with and one can easily surmise that all their moves are slow and indecisive looking because they have to run them by the big guy. They've shown the behind the scenes stuff and they spin it as Terry caring but he's in the room or on the phone. He's in the draft room. He's there for the trade deadline. He's constantly involved. This is clear and obvious.

Yes, there's definitely a fear and indecision thing going on with Adams and he doesn't have a clue on goaltending. It seems nobody in the organization does. Maybe they should just bring Marty in and say "Marty, pick the best 2, pick the second best 2." Two for the NHL, Two for Rochester. Get rid of the rest and keep the 2 prospects somewhere like the ECHL in Ratzlaff and Leionen. That's it. Get it done. Really, if they can't decide on Ellis how are they ever going to decide if they don't play him? Hey buddy, go buy a condo, we'll pay for your moving expenses if we screw you over, but don't expect to play any games. What a crazy dumb organization.

It would be nice but I wouldn't look for that to happen. Only way for them to have success right now is to play a tighter more grinding team system and get some good goaltending. If they try to rely on star power and individual play it'll fail miserably. Everybody has to get on the boards and grind. Battle. This is part of the Thompson problem too. He's just looking for the shot again. Every team knows this. He needs to grind as well. Stop being so predictable.

Ya gots to keep yer head up. hockey 101.

You don't replace a guy like Dahlin. You just don't. But in terms of what you have on D, on paper, it can still work. Two highly skilled offensive D. One or two (depending on how you look at it) middle level defenders. Another half decent big D man and then you add one journeyman (and hopefully not Bryson). Most teams are like that. So it's now on the forwards to step up their D game and play a tighter team concept not relying on one star. They do that they might actually win more. Heck, the PP could even be better (can't be much worse) if they finally start spreading it around.

No buy outs. Trade him if you can. You probably can't. Send him to Rochester IDGAF.

I agree with the premise that Terry doesn't meddle in football and hence it's more successful. I've said that repeatedly over the years but I would say the Bills would be a very mediocre middle of the pack team without Josh Allen.

Optics? Honestly I have no idea. We can surmise he might be a potential Kevyn replacement but who really knows from the outside.

As much as I hate the Leafs I have to admit they drafted well. Fortunately some of those picks are now spread out around the league and not all in Toronto. Proving you can draft well and still screw it up.

Yes, definitely. Even further. Terry is the GM. He has a guy he likes push the papers around and do the day to day tasks but all the big decisions are his. Kev might negotiate but the trades as finalized go through Terry. They spin this as group decisions but Terry's the boss. He's in on all of it.

You might have to rethink that "just outside the playoffs" belief. Although the points are still close and almost anything can happen, they are currently dead last in the east.

I was done with Kevyn 2 years ago. Heck, I was sort of done with him when he was hired.

That was pathetic.

I'm not going to argue the position could use an upgrade, I'm just arguing the philosophical stance and idea of having the tough guy and what it can bring, Well they lost to a garbage team without him in the line up too so it simply proves they are quite capable of losing no matter who is in the line up.

What does "real" mean? Do they look more like a real hockey team this year? yes. Do they look like a real playoff contender? no. At least not yet.

Well I would have played Ellis, just because, but whatever. Blues are sucking this year so pounce on them early. The Montgomery magic seems to be gone. Unless it's a trade pending that's some serious message sending. Sabres should do that with Quinn.

I won't disagree with that but he brings a different dynamic. Lots of 4th liners in the league have foot speed issues. That's why they are 4th liners. They bring something else though and he does. Nobody will argue against upgrading these sort of guys but for the time being they are the best you have. I'm never going to agree with the idea that we need 4 skilled speed lines (not saying you do, but some people push for this at times). As a GM I'd always be looking for Tom Wilson types for my team but they are hard to find and when teams do they don't want to give them up. Right now I think Dunne makes the 4th line look better. Malentstyn for example is hitting more playing with him. I think that's not a coincidence. One guy brings it out in other guys.