PerreaultForever

Yup, we agree again go figure. I'd be willing to trade him or any of that list if we can get good D and/or goaltending back. Kulich probably has my biggest asking price but I'd consider any of them for the right deal. Trade them while they are considered to have upside for greater value. Don't wait until any of them become disappointments. Not saying that'll definitely happen but it's a risk.

We were supposed to be much better than them this year. We're about the same as them but they play harder most nights. If we play well it'll be even. Toss a coin.

Enough talent yes. Enough grit and fortitude no. Also, a complete systemic failure in terms of team defense. You will NEVER win in the playoffs without those things no matter how much talent you have. As for this year, oh man, making the playoffs was over about a month ago.

Botching goaltending is a biggie. No question. Rebuilds should always be goalie first. UPL and Levi should be competing for the back up spot to a decent veteran. For D men, as soon as we knew we'd be drafting Power he should have done whatever it takes to get a reliable experienced mentor to play beside him for at least a few years. Slapping the kid in as your #2 D man is just ridiculous and stunts his growth and development. While I think the cost of Johnson and Clifton is an overpay it was probably the only way he could get them. I actually have no problem with them, but they are bottom end guys. Expecting them to be more is the problem. Clifton was 7th D in Boston. I still think on a team that plays a proper defensive system he'd be fine as a bottom end guy but in this non system system he's lost. Johnson is an old guy who should have been expected to give you 40 games not 82 as a reliable fill in 7th D and occasional middle minutes guy if injuries dictate that. That's all. He's old. KA failed to fill the holes on the roster. Granato has failed to teach this team to play proper defense. Both need to go.

Unless he's being traded for Firkus so that Firkus can be closer to Seattle.

Yes, Adams is the fraud. He signs the 35 year old Johnson for over 3 million while Boston signs the 34 year old Shattenkirk for 1 million to replace Clifton and is getting better mileage out of him as well. I guess that's the price you pay for has beens when nobody wants to come. Or so they say.

I realize now you meant Patients and just can't spell. For we are all mental head cases to still follow this team without a doubt.

You are cherry picking the games though. We beat Boston once, but lost to them twice. Colorado and the Rangers have also beaten us. We have losses to Philly and Pittsburgh and Carolina and New Jersey and a host of others. Some of them we've also beaten but overall we lose more than win and there's only a handful of good games where we were the better team by far. I looked it up we have won 2 games in a row ONCE this year. October 29 against Colorado followed by Philly on Nov 1. It was a Halloween miracle. You can keep talking about "how we finished up last year" but I tell you it was an illusion. A few teams we beat near the end had depleted rosters, a few took us lightly. We played some good games, but we were not all that good. Not that different from how we started this year. This might shock you but Krueger's points percentage in 2019 was actually better than Granato's is now. Bylsma's was better in both his years. Ruff, Ruff only had us below .500 in one bad season. The rest were all good and some VERY good. Floyd Smith of course gave us our best numbers for obvious reasons. Do you remember when the bar for acceptable was much higher? Sator got replaced because he wasn't high enough above .500 and Dudley got axed the minute he dipped below. Granato is below .500 and with him it's "patience". F that.

You kicking me out junior?

I agree that the roster construction is a primary problem but there's a coaching problem in terms of the system/structure (or lack of) that they employ. The Sabres philosophy seems to be build a team with blazing speed and offensive skill that will dominate in the offensive zone and thus win hockey games by scoring lots of goals. At least I think that's what it is. Sometimes they are so bad it's hard to tell. The defensive plan however seems to be simply have fast skating defensemen who will (or are supposed to) make quick exit passes and get the puck out of their own end right away and launch/drive that offense. By that philosophy zone time should be disproportionate and skill and speed will win out (or so they think). The problem (or at least one of them) is that the second they turn that puck over in the offensive zone they just run around chasing and there is no counter plan, there are no layers and there is no structured defense so the other team just moves up the ice easily and controls the puck. They drive the net where our D is very weak and they screen and tip (like we don't do) and we have multiple defensive breakdowns. Offensively this team is big enough and fast enough that it could, it COULD, have a very aggressive forecheck that would cause massive headaches for the opposition but it requires the forwards to hit and finish their checks. To press their D and knock them off the puck and then pounce on their turnovers with our skill. But we're soft and we only function in open ice. We don't go to the net and most teams can keep us on the perimeter or along the wall for most of the night. Shots are easy most of the time. Most NHL goalies are good. Most teams are good. Scoring requires hard work and net front. You have to go to the dirty areas and you score by screens and tips. No goalie stops a well executed tip play and we should be practicing those constantly. We are big. We should be able to do this. Why little Benson is one of our most noticeable net front players is beyond me. I shouldn't notice this, because they should ALL be doing it but they don't. It's too hard and it demands hard work and bumps and bruises but that's how you win. There is no physicality and no team defensive construct and that to me, that lands with the coaching. If the players you have refuse to do that when the coach demands it, then you have to change the roster, but I don't see the coaches demanding it. If they are, the players are definitely not listening.

We agree on the work ethic but I don't see this team elevating against top tier. We just dropped a major turd of a game against Boston. Blowing out the Leafs isn't elevating against top teams it's just the Leafs love to play wide open no checking and we do well in that. We will blow the Leafs out often. Means nothing. This team gets yelled at for a bad game (I guess) and then has a good one but can't have more. They drop right back to lazy/sloppy/uninterested every time. Doesn't matter who the competition is.

Bylsma was a better coach than Granato is. We should have hired Torts. We should have hired Tochet. We should have and can hire Gallant. But this organization didn't even consider any of them. If they do fire Granato (which I doubt) they will just fill the season with Appert and if he has a late season surge they'll hire him for next year. Rinse and repeat.

Kyle is very often one of the only Sabres to throw any body checks and he plays hockey the way a proper hockey player is supposed to play, he's just too slow at this point to play the way Granato wants the team to play with all that pointless running around speed. He doesn't fit so they dump on a plodding 4th line but many times he tries to ignite things and his body really isn't suited to it any more like you say. They really should do him a favour and trade him to a top contender at the deadline. I look at the Bruins and see how much mileage they're getting out of a potpourri pile of used trash like JVR, Heinen and Shattenkirk and I think if Kyle was on that team he'd probably pop in 20-30 goals and he'd be called a rejuvenated force. but as things stand, with the Sabres, it really doesn't matter if he plays or doesn't. They don't know how to use him or build a line for him to function on and so his career will end on the crapper with the rest of the franchise.

Just stating facts. They were better last year than this year. You attribute it to whatever you want to. You know somewhere else in this website someone used that injury excuse for Dahlin. Let's use it for Tage too. And everyone else. They all have bobos and need a snuggle from their mommies to make it go away. I don't buy any of it. Every single team has guys banged up on a regular basis. Using it to justify this team's poor play is BS. "gripping their sticks too tightly" is also a hockey euphemism for "playing crap" . People use it for slumping players all the time and it's meaningless. As for the confusing and conflicting coaching messages idk, maybe, maybe not, do they get a message? Is there a message? what is the message? I don't know either. So if you're just saying the team is poorly coached, you get a green check mark. As for Skinner...............well.............his history is what it is and how his old team did once he left is on record and he's what he is but if his locker room presence is influential then he's a problem. Again idk, but we haven't won since he got here.

illusion. Not to mention Dahlin and Cozens had their best seasons while playing for new contracts. Now they have big long term deals and their performance has dropped substantially. The holes on the roster were not adequately filled. The message to the team was we are content, we are staying the course, we are not doing the things we need to do to improve. Or maybe we just have to wait until Skinner's gone.

Watching Vancouver demolish the Ottawa team that dominated us. In terms of "talented" players does anyone think Vancouver has more of them than the Sabres? No, they don't. Coaching and roster construction are the differences.

Not just him.

This is it I think. He's not being coached/developed. He's just being thrown out there and the expectation is learn from your mistakes and it costs the team. The whole "plan" is based around learn on the fly but it's really not working imo. They learn to be sloppy/lazy/loose and their bad tendencies are not corrected. This is a long standing problem in Sabreland. Go over to the NHL thread and read Risto's comments on coaching. They are telling.

Swedes looked like Buffalo on the Swiss goal. Just standing around with no net front coverage. Easy goal.

I only saw the 12 minute highlight package but in that Savoie's line seemed to be in it a lot as did Kulich's. No finish on Canada's end though. Geekie looks like an NHLer. I know there's a knock on his skating, but I think he will be better than his brother.

I don't buy it. He's always had inconsistent play. The team as a whole is the same. He's not the only one. There are moments when just about every player has moments where they are just watching or not trying or just out to lunch on a play. It all goes back to the coaching and how they are constructed and developed imo. Dahlin is just the highest paid example and as highest paid he is supposed to be at the highest standard/expectation.

Don't become a jackoff by trying to act clever, it's not. It's easy to be better but do worse if your competition is better. Didn't think of that did you. OR, you can be better but your competition takes you more seriously because they expected you to be better. Anyone who thinks we don't still pick up wins here and there because the competition takes us lightly is dreaming. There's a development path to winning and "better" is a vague word that can mean many things. You want lasting success you need to build a culture where hard work and defensive responsibility takes center stage. It has to be the foundation you start from. The bar gets set and the work ethic kicks in. Point totals and playoffs come from there. Sabres don't seem to understand that. They also don't understand player development. They just seem to take a kid like Power and say "hey, you have talent, go out there and do your thing" . I see no evidence of proper coaching and development at any level for this franchise.

Like half the league. Excuses excuses excuses.

Yes to Skinner, yes to Tage. I think Dahlin would struggle but maybe eventually buy in. At first he'd have a lot of trouble though because with Torts it would likely be think defense first offense second and he's always had it the other way around here. Power I wouldn't be so sure. That Olympic team was playing a fairly solid defensive style. It's not a foreign concept to him to go back to. Greenway idk. I do get a sense he might march to his own drummer but I really don't know. Tuch might be fine. he might be like Konecny is on Philly who they also said wouldn't fit and has excelled.