PerreaultForever

I don't know enough about Pegula to know if he's sick and detestable or not. Maybe if he'd kept LaFontaine around as his King Clancy we'd be on to something? Simpleton? I doubt that, but he definitely doesn't understand hockey. Hey, for all I know it's god's punishment for all the frakking.

Ya, I've got no problems with an emotional owner who wants to be sitting right up there with the GM and President or whatever they call whatever upper management. He can cheer a goal and yell at a penalty and it's great if he says "what the f's wrong with that guy?" when a player blows a play or even "whatever we pay that guy it's too much" BUT like any good CEO he needs to hire good people and let them do their jobs. The results on ice lead to their own reviews and if it's bad they get fired. Pegula is the new Harold Ballard.

Oh come on don't you know, NOBODY gets an F any more. They're all special. They all get ribbons and participation awards.

This is so stupid. I was so looking forward to an actual snow game. One more reason as to why I watch very little football any more.

I don't see these guys as all that similar. Big Dave was a massive man and an immovable object. He'd get right in tight and with his reach he could pretty much bang in anything that the goalie didn't hold. Vanek had a lot of skill but he was soft. Especially if you compare him to Briere and Drury. We kept the wrong guy. Reinhart I've already talked about too much. No comparison. The point about tips and dirty goals is dead on though. This is what bugs me about Tage. With his size if he played like Andreychuk he could be a league MVP, but no, he just likes to snap wristers from a distance. Guess we have to go find somebody else. Now watch them put him on LTIR so they can add at the deadline and then he will be back for game one.

Another Buffalo Sabres loss. The bottom line is this Sabres core of Jack, Samson, Risto aren't good enough. In the offseason the Sabres need a major block buster trade like when the Sabres moved................................ Did I make my point? It's the coaching, and the team culture that comes from that coaching failure and the lack of leadership along with that. It's not enough. It won't change much if anything.

To be fair................(as they like to say on Letterkenny) Kreuger's win percentage was .433 Housley's .421 and Disco Dan Bylsma's a whopping .485 Don Granato this year is ,476 so one could argue that we have made absolutely no progress at all. In fact, we may be doing less with more as I think you could say this roster has far more talent on it than Kreuger's had. Certainly more than Disco Dan had. It wasn't a horrible effort today. In some ways it was pretty good and I liked the push back but Johnson shouldn't have had to be the pay back guy and idk what Power tried to do. I like the spirit, but he showed everyone why he struggles at times at the NHL level. He's just not very strong, as he ended up with that weird looking leg lock on Miller. Payback should be coming from the bigger forwards, especially when you're already down 2 D. Samuelsson is made of glass. I like Benson's game. I do not like Thompson's game. Quinn was next to invisible today, and I'm starting to think Cozens has vision problems. All in all though I think the game demonstrated that it is in fact coaching. Vancouver strikes me as a team with less talent than we have. Certainly not more, but unlike in past years they are playing a well structured system and fairly disciplined hockey. They are hard to break through, block the lanes, and have rigid defensive layers. They function as a unit. To some extent, you could say they are playing Bylsma hockey, and it's working.

Hard to judge that. They had a different situation with cap problems but if you put that date at the upper management change then yes, they started after us and we were roughly equal with them at the time I think. Despite living in BC I have not seen them much this year so I am interested to see how they play. Just how much does coaching matter? I think a lot.

Never going to agree on this but no need to beat it to death as he's a Panther. I still say he was good at going near the net, but he generally avoided the heavier/dirtier areas. Maybe in Florida he does that better, or maybe he fits better as they play a heavier team game and have lots of guys who do that job and also open up space. The ability to deflect pucks absolutely. "Stud" not so much.

Long standing problem and still is. Remember Kreuger sticking Risto in front on the PP? For all his bad coaching he saw the problem too. It has still not been corrected.

This is incorrect on every level. First, He did play center when they first used him. After they drafted Eichel they put him on the wing beside him. Not before. So you could argue they had too many top centers or you could argue he wasn't good enough at center to be a center but either way he started as a center. Now on to your favourite trope "he didn't hit things" , that was never the issue. The issue was how he used his body in and around the net and whether or not he would go in hard and take (or give) the punishment or whether he'd back off or shy away. He was always willing to go near the net, he was not always willing to go in hard and tight. Benson, the comparison of which brought this up, despite his size, seems more willing to make contact and use his body in tight. It's never about that simplistic trope you sue "hitting", it's always about how you use your physicality to shield the puck, move past players, drive through the D. Physicality is much more than just "hitting things". I also didn't like the way he'd almost always give the puck to Eichel and let him drive the play. That may have been on the coaching, but it made for a very predictable and easy to defend against offense. He also seemed to lack a consistent work ethic. The slow starts were notorious, and I still remember that Detroit goal where he just quit on the play. I'm sure you remember it to.

hairplugs?

So, like say, Ristolainen and Reinhart? 🙂 Wish they had a Vezina goalie too. That would be awesome. And maybe a true heavyweight on the 4th line to keep the opposition honest. A Nic DesLauriers type. And a third/fourth line grinder like say a Marcus Foligno. If only we could get 5 guys just like those, we'd be all set.

This I do not see at all. Benson drives the net better than almost anybody on this team (which is ridiculous but true). idk how he's playing in Florida now, probably really good given th3e stats, but he was a very smart but also more cautious player here. Did they not use him as a center at first and he basically couldn't win a draw and just looked lost. Completely ineffective. Which was why they tried him as a wing the next year was it not?

and you should be sorry! I would love for Robinson to be an impact player, but I just don't think he is.

I think we need better than him. I get the idea, but he's a pretty mediocre version of what that player should be. He's no Marcus Foligno, let's put it like that for simplicity.

Could be. Might not be. Could be almost anything at all. Yup.

Umm...........no. But watch KA sign him to a 2 million per 2 year contract next year and then watch him end up in Rochester by Christmas.

Well yes, just like I didn't say it was wrong, nowhere did I say it had to be NHL hockey. There's a women's league now too. That might be a new thing for some as well.

idk what some of you are talking about. I thought that was pretty atrocious hockey on both sides. Both teams basically playing to where they sit in the division standings (last and second to last). Giroux as a real veteran leader tried his best to lift them but otherwise that team looks like they've cashed it in for the season. Coach firing definitely hasn't worked. We were about the same as we usually are. Sabres have some snipers who can score any time any moment, we know this, and they did, but overall it was sloppy inconsistent bad hockey all around. But hey, win's a win.

Because he knows he can bully them. Just for once maybe punch back harder and quit whining. Ottawa is garbage. If we lose to them again we are garbage on fire.

Ya, I grew up in Hamilton and fondly remember my dad making me the backyard rink. That was a long time ago and I don't think that's easy to do any more around there. Generally not cold enough any more. Lived in Ottawa for a while and skated on the canal. They rarely open that any more either. ice too thin and unstable now.

I didn't say it was "wrong". Everybody can watch what they want for whatever reason they want. You can watch Sabres games if Marty Biron turns you on if you want or for any reason at all and that's fine, but if you don't like hockey if it's not the Sabres then you're not really a fan of hockey, you're a fan of the Sabres. That's all I said. No judgement. It's just different.

This Gauthier thing is fascinating. Apparently Briere went to the Worlds, wanted to meet with him to talk, and the kid said no. Wouldn't even talk to him so the Flyers attitude became "who the F*ck does he think he is?" and that was that. Under the circumstances I think they got a decent return and now maybe they move Walker or Seeler at the deadline even if they are still competing. Can't wait for the day some new prima dona does this to the Sabres he says sarcastically............ Flyers talk is he better keep his head up when he comes to town. That I guess, is Philly hockey.

I actually hadn't thought of that but good point. I kind of just mean there's love of hockey, and then there's love of your chosen team(s) and imo those are two separate things. My favourite hockey of all is the Olympics if the NHL is there or the Canada Cup and in those the Sabres can be spread around all over as friends and foes. Hope to see something like that again soon.