PerreaultForever

Likely meaning he did not want to sign him to the huge contract Skinner was demanding rather than simply not wanting to re-sign him. That'd be my guess.

Sure, whatever. Who the F cares after watching that Detroit game.

My daughter was visiting tonight so I just finished watching this on replay long after I imagine most of you Buffalonians had already gone to bed. I browsed the thread here and I am laughing at some of the picky things some of you are arguing over, as if they'd make a difference. Some of you think this was a comeback attempt as well, but I saw it more as a case of the Sabres lulling them to sleep as it came so damn easy in the first half of the game. They barely had to break a sweat to go up 4-0 and then they just coasted until they tried to wake up at the end in an "oh crap" kind of way. Sabres are garbage. Just pure and utter garbage through and through. Getting worse, not better. Very interesting and telling stat they put up - Sabres are the bottom of the league in shots with net front presence. Sure enough, 6 on 4 at the end with a desperation situation and still almost no net front presence. Says it all right there. You watch other teams and they are hacking and whacking at the goalies trying everything in that situation and there we are skating around the perimeter. At one point we had 4 forwards all on the same side of the ice and they still kept it on the perimeter. Just insanely bad and SOFT!!!!!!!!!!!! Lastly, I don't care where he was drafted, but Owen Power should be in Rochester and on a massive strength and weight program. He has a big frame but he is a child. He is knocked off the puck easily and he cannot move anyone in front. He is, at times, completely useless and a total liability. He should not have been given the contract he was given. He MAY be good one day, he MAY be great even, but right now he is garbage. Listening to Granato in his bench interview he is either clueless or a liar. More likely the latter, but possibly the former. Season's over.

Ya, I pretty much agree with all of that. Maybe he reads my posts 🙂

You know the thing about Torts is he's really good with dogs and he kind of treats players the same way. He's really hard on you early, he trains you to be obedient, but then when you fetch that stick swiftly and promptly he gives you the best treats. So players that buy in and give the work and effort love the guy and he treats them well. Perhaps even better than other coaches. Only the lazy guys and prima donnas have a problem with him. You look at all the character guys that played for him in the past like Nick Foligno and they all love the guy. He simply sets a standard and then holds everyone accountable. He's a very good coach. I still hold to the theory that if we'd only named ROR captain instead of Eichel everything would have gone very very differently.

Well this is your make it or break game right? You lose this game and it's forget playoffs, the Yzerplan was better than the KA trusted process and Sabres fans get another year of loserhood. You win this game and we can believe we are back in it, the believers can come forward again and proclaim our plan is better and we all get to laugh at Detroit. It is a winnable game as Detroit likes to go wide open (which is our thing) and so if we lure them into that we have a real shot similar to beating Toronto. Goaltending obviously can't have a bad game as they have snipers and the PK has to be outstanding as their PP is their strength. I do not like our chances but you never know. Maybe it's a pivotal moment to turn the season around before it's totally lost. So TP will eliminate himself?

Since other teams will spend to it but we won't, this will hurt the Sabres even more. I'm just in a bad mood having watched Philly beat Pittsburgh again. Philly, F'n Philly with no talent doing better than us already.

You need to face the reality of how it works. For example, Philly just swept Pittsburgh in 2 games and both went to OT so Philly moves up 4 points and Pitt still moves up two. You don't catch anybody losing to Nashville. Only Columbus is behind us. What on earth would make you think we can get in the final 8???

3 million cap hit I don't see him moved easily. Any contender who wants to add him late will want SJ to retain salary so if they aren't into that they might move him for a lower pick like a 3rd sooner than the deadline. He's not what we need though.

2 scoring lines, 1 heavier checking line (if they can play 2 way all the better) and a character/energy line made up of defensively responsible players that like to play heavy. That's the age old formula and it still holds. Teams that falter are always missing one or more of these ingredients.

Granato's a nice guy. I think everybody likes him and he knows a lot about hockey and he's a valuable guy on a coaching staff. I can see him talking softly with younger players, teaching them skills, playing the "good cop" role. problem is we don't have a "bad cop". We don't have the motivator. Nobody has set an adequate standard and demanded we strive for it and then meet it as a minimum after. Somebody needs to set that standard and whip these guys into shape. Then you can have a guy like Granato take them aside after they get yelled at and help build them back up. Granato's idea that these guys have to collectively learn to elevate their game and face adversity just doesn't work. You have to set the standard first. Anyone who doesn't devote themselves to trying their best to achieve it can exit through the one way out door.

I find it fascinating (and incredibly sad) that this small 18 year old kid is one of the few Sabres who will bear down and drive the net. I suppose he hasn't learned yet that as a Sabre nobody makes you do that hard work, you can sit back and relax, but for the moment, he demonstrates clearly how soft and weak (and perhaps lazy) the team is.

I was watching Columbus play Boston and some of those Russians they have are pretty good. Big and tough as well. Seem to play with a little attitude. They have a ways to go as a team and definitely have some holes but if a few of them get it together I could see that team leaping forward in a year or two. Lots can happen of course, but some of their youth definitely looks promising.

Were you here when half this board proclaimed Levi the second coming and insisted that "Patrick Roy did it so why not Levi?" Every off season there are quite a few people that drink the kool-aid but I think the number is decreasing year by year.

Ya, but really we're not. Again, look at points percentage. At this stage it is the only comparison that matters.

Only Columbus below us now. Awesome.

He is a good coach. Don't see it happening. Tuch does give more than most and is one of the few worth his pay. Another loss to a tear down rebuild team. Not going anywhere with that, even if it was a close score. A telling thing to me is as you watch the game you see every single time we got near Saros they gave us a shot or two after the whistle. Down around our goal we did nothing. Maybe that doesn't win or lose hockey games, but it does tell you a lot about the team and it's culture.

True. The plan should always be to be better than the year before and if you are one point out, it's pretty much make the playoffs as a minimum expectation. My point though, which it has always been, is that if you do not build the base, the foundation properly the rest of the stuff you build on top of it will fall apart. Step one, you get rid of anybody and everybody who does not have a work ethic or the right attitude. Step two you shore up goaltending. After that you start to assemble your forwards and offensive stars. But they think their "process" is better.

Ryan O'Reilly has a love for country music.

Exactly why KA should have addressed goaltending FIRST in his tear down/rebuild plan.

The Sabres being too soft has been there a few times over the years for sure. In some ways we lost the cup to Philly because we were too soft compared to that goon squad, even though that team in it's prime would have tossed this team around like rag dolls. Different era, but everything's relative. The thing with what you say is in the past they at least recognized it and tried to address it. We have ditched any toughness we have had and have had little interest in resolving or recognizing the issue as an issue. Hathaway for example was still available late in free agency. DesLauriers was on this roster but we had no use for him. I know a lot of people on this board don't value these things but if you watch any Philly games he's a leader. He's one of those last off the ice guys giving everybody a pat on the back after a win and various words. He's like a big tough older brother for their younger guys and they all play bigger as a result. Imagine how aggressive Krebs would be if he knew he had a DesLauriers right there to get his back should a big guy challenge him. Guys on this roster do not fully put out because they know they might be on their own. I said last year when Tampa made that huge overpay for Jeannot I'd have made the same deal if I was KA. Sure it was an overpay, but adding one of the toughest guys in the league to your roster (who isn't a terrible player either) is something you don't get to do every day. Give a pile of picks away for that any day. The problem should have been recognized and addressed already, but needs to be addressed now for sure.

You need a guy who can change people though. Tochet seems to have managed it in Vancouver. Also, I remember end of last year Torts wasn't behind the bench in the trainwreck that was Philly. He was upstairs with Briere pointing out the guys that needed to be "subtracted". idk if that was it or not, but they do seem to have managed a culture shift there in one year. That team is not talented and is most definitely at the start of a rebuild but they are cementing a culture in place so that when Michkov gets there they should move up substantially. They beat Pittsburgh last night and although they lose a lot too they are competing most every night and are in the games and the games can be close. They don't quit like the Sabres. Now Flyers lack talent and can easily crash and burn this year. Sabres might end up with more points, but Flyers were tear down last year and imo they are building a better foundation for when their future youngsters like Michkov arrive. So who is the guy to change people in Buffalo? That's the question. and if they bring in that guy would these pampered rich kids listen and learn or would they just quit on him knowing that the worst thing that could happen to them was getting out of Buffalo.

Interesting that even the Buffalo News article quoted on the site here has finally used the word "soft". Perhaps this will wake up management (and ownership) although I doubt it.

Culture. A very high bar, a demand for excellence, and full accountability. Leadership. Management there has made a TON of errors and they've botched some of their (few remaining) draft picks as well, but in general players who go there raise their level of performance (eg. JVR this year) whereas here the exact opposite happens (eg. Clifton). They use free agency every year to fill their holes though as best they can. It's a commitment to at least trying to win.

I don't follow the Bills but I am wondering something. With the Sabres it comes up now and again about it being "a country club atmosphere" or "the inmates are running the asylum", the idea the players are pampered and catered to and thus they are all positive when talking about each other but they lack a work ethic as a result of this. Are there similar critiques of the Bills or is their shall we say "less than expected" performance an entirely different thing? You know why I'm asking I'm sure.