PerreaultForever

Stop relying on Dahlin so much as QB. Stop looking for the Tage shot all the time. More net front presence. More activity down low and from the bumper. Also win face offs in the O zone. Most of all though it just comes down to pace and winning the puck battles when they occur. Not enough urgency and tempo.

True. I think I remember when the Rags fired him there was talk that management felt he was too much of a players coach and Laviolette, despite his exterior demeanor, was considered more of a demanding hard ass. Tuch played for him and had good things to say about him in his exit interview so that had value for me.

Depends what you mean by dominated. They had the puck more, as expected, but in terms of high danger chances, they were far from dominant. Winnipeg is a defensive counter punch team and they played their game well.

That's my thought on Sullivan as well. You can thrive with a players coach in a strong culture like that. Not sure how he'd do in this environment so I'd prefer the hard ass as well. One must also remember that so called hard ass coaches are not hard ass all the time. The good ones take it up and down as appropriate and they reward effort as well. There are many examples of guys who played with hard ***** and have nothing but nice things to say about them.

I meant the entire organization from Pegula on down but yes, absolutely, Adams has to address this. The coach would be the starting point.

I always forget how much love and worship Karmanos and Ventura get around here. I've never shared that admiration. Well aware that I am in the minority.

He wasn't very good in the game though until right near the end when he did score. Winnipeg dominated that game in places. Vancouver Nashville game was really good. ROR loving hockey. Ya, he was pretty darn good. I had no idea Vancouver and Nashville were the two hit leaders for the season. Nashville didn't surprise me but had no idea Vancouver had moved that far in that direction. Something to be learned there Sabres.

I'm saying Sullivan has worked with a locker room filled with seasoned veterans and at least one of the best leaders in the league. How he'd function in a room like we have is unknown. Bylsma had ROR when he was still loving it.

Can't see this happening unless Crosby wants Sullivan gone. Not this year anyway. If it did though I'm not sure Sullivan is what we need. Remember Bylsma had success with Crosby too.

I've been on about that for years. I don't want to just make the playoffs, I want to build a team that will win in the playoffs if and when they get there. With the right coaching I can see this roster having a Leafs type regular season, but I also see them having a horrible playoff after that with "star" players becoming invisible and multiple errors and collapses. Some might say losing in the playoffs is part of the learning process, but I see no reason to have to go through that if you can learn from other team's mistakes. Crowd chanting "Rempe! Rempe! " on multiple occasions so I'm sure he's hated.

Did not like this one. Goalies are weird animals but this is arrogant and divorced from reality. The D was good???

Can't agree. D would fold under this level of physicality. Our weaknesses are net front and defending when forechecked heavily. That's playoffs. We are not built for it.

I really don't think they will sign him but that'd be good. Unless they can move some big contracts somehow I doubt they can or will afford him. I'm betting he goes to Calgary. Unless of course Vegas puts several players on LTIR and promises him a new tandem bike.

lol, you're really snipey and sarcastic this end of season. Not making the playoffs this year has really hurt you.

The article about promoting Appert scares me. A move like that might finally be enough to make me quit for real.

Well he played well through it but I think the Larkin injury really hurt them and the goaltending. Much like the Sabres, they are not very deep at this point.

I wouldn't. He's incredibly streaky and is likely to disappoint overall. He was good tonight, but that's definitely not every night. Man I love playoff hockey though. Watching this Bruins Leafs game I found myself thinking that even if the Sabres managed to make the playoffs they are so not ready for this. Leafs tried to be physical but this Bruins team looks more playoff ready than last year. Sweeney's deadline moves look like genius.

I honestly believe it's not that it was a difficult system to learn. What they had to learn here was that the forwards weren't going to come back and help out. They (first Clifton then Byram) came from systems with very good back checking and forward responsibility, Clifton was lost at first. Byram got confused. We basically had no system and it was every man for himself. They learned that they can't do the things they were used to doing.

I'm not going to agree with this. I do agree we have too many similar D men and not enough big strong defensive D men but the number of D men is barely adequate. How many times over the last few years have we seen a defensive shortage with injuries? D men get hurt. Especially if they play the right way. You need about 10 competent NHL or marginal NHL bodies in a season for long term durability. We can of course add guys as free agents, but as is, I think our D is barely adequate. The bolded are my tradeable commodities. Especially if we build the bottom 6 properly. I'd also move picks.

Some pretty soft refereeing in this Islanders Canes game. I hope that's not this year's playoff standard.

Skinner's uncoachable (has to go) but I'd like to see a year of Cozens, Power, etc. under a real NHL coach. A coach who can develop the defensemen and the defensive side of the game. I think these guys could still be much better and just might be. Especially Power. He's still really young. We just haven't developed him properly yet.

True, but Dahlin was a consensus number one overall pick. Some people preferred Svechnikov but most "experts" had Dahlin ranked #1. Easy decision for the GM. Steal of the first round there was probably Quinn Hughes going 7th. Rangers did well with K'Andre Miller at 22. Durzi at 52 was a real steal. Wasn't really a great draft though outside of the top end picks. A lot of Pekars.

Likely whatever the tax amount would be in Calgary or wherever else he'd sign. Florida will have to let some people go though that's for sure. Reinhart will be overpaid though. This is a peak year for him and he won't do it again (probably not anyway) and part of his success is the team he's on and his linemates.

I can see that for them. They had a horrible losing skid and couldn't get out of it. Same for Philly. Number of reasons for both teams, but they both cracked under the pressure and the harder hockey often played near the end of the year for actual contenders (or pretenders).

Ya, I always had a problem with the naming of fringe players as captains. How is a guy like that going to convey "you have to work harder" to some snot nosed diva kid who is thinking "I'm better than you old man". If they were cup winners it might be different. It's a critical moment for this team. I really think we either get it right this time, now, or we will fall apart again and have to start all over one more time.