PerreaultForever

so change the players.

The "heck" I'm talking about is a response to the idea that "today's players" etc need some sort of mollycoddle treatment. Wasn't that Kreuger? Just praise and positive thinking? We've been following this for a decade and it's got us underachiever after underachiever. Players come here and get worse, they leave and get better. And yet you're afraid a new coach might yell at them for crap play and bruise their little overpaid egos. Enough is enough. All great coaches get fired at some point. Fired doesn't mean washed up. Or would you argue that Florida should have never hired Quenneville? Tortorella was let go by Columbus after 6 years of making a team with limited talent (compared to their opposition) OVERachieve year after year. The GM praised him for creating a culture and foundation that is strong and they can build off of. I will gladly take 6 years of overachieving with a roster that you yourself say has "not enough talent" rather than this crap. We desperately need that foundation/culture rebuild, and only then the talent will prosper. This idea that Granato made them so much better is a myth. They're not. He loosened things up and so they had fun and played free and easy and scored some goals in some games which made it a little more pleasing to watch, but they were hopeless against tight checking and cannot defend against sustained pressure if their lives depended on it (and don't even dream they could handle a Tom Wilson team if that team decided to play us hard). We got shutout by 3rd string goalies!!!!!! We are not much better than we were. Lastly, don't you be disrespecting Punch Imlach. That era when we made it to the final against Philly and when we beat down those Russians was the era of the best Sabres hockey ever played. We had some stars, but they worked hard, they fought, they stuck together and stood up for each other. They had character and identity and they were respected by the opposition. We were pretty good when we rode the talents of a legendary goalie, but those early years were the absolute pinnacle for this franchise and we are nowhere near that peak. Nowhere.

Screw what the players want. This team has been built upside down and needs to be reset. Hire Torts and build the work ethic at all costs. Anybody who doesn't buy in is shown the door. The kids like Cozens with the right attitude will buy in and grow and become stars. Ottawa is doing it. I said at the beginning of the year that they were doing it right and would pass us in time. Sooner than I expected and they will get better and better. We will just flounder asking is Jack happy and does he want out until it happens. Sabres are the stupidest organization in pro sports.......and the Steelers are the Steelers 🙂

Well two things to this. First, they did spend money and they failed so perhaps as owners they have decided no more, time to cut losses and try something else. Perhaps putting more of their time into watching their successful team, the Bills, which was built a different way. Perhaps they see that success and have rethought their hockey plan? We don't know since they don't say, they only tell us they know things we don't. So you want to pamper the superstars? That'll get you to the cup? So when Bruce Cassidy benches Jake DeBrusk he's a bully? There are nuances and levels to this black and white extreme depiction. The Leafs are doing better (but will they in the playoffs?) because of the foundation that Babcock put in place that they used to build upon combined with the maturation of their young star draft picks. I doubt however, that it will win in the tough checking playoff games. They may get out of the North division if they end up star against star with Edmonton but neither will get further without massive luck. Matthews has yet to prove himself in the playoffs. Babcock was one Jake Gardiner replacement away from beating Boston twice. What has Granato done that is so special? We're DEAD LAST IN THE LEAGUE. We managed 1 win out of 7 against Pittsburgh and Boston and 2 against Washington. Wow, we are SO GOOD NOW!!!!!!!! Granato just shifted us back to Housley hockey so some of these guys liked it better than the defense first approach they hated and couldn't seem to grasp. By the end of it Skinner was back on the 4th line and we could barely generate any scoring chances when the opposition checked us hard. We only won when the opposition took us lightly. It's a joke. Staying the course will mean just that, dead last again. Tortorella is available. He's now my first choice. Sabres will not agree with that idea I am almost sure of that. Wouldn't be surprised if the Kraken hire him instead. Build their foundation the right way so in 2 years they can move ahead of us too. We will hire Granato and talk a bunch of bs about how we're headed in the right direction. Almost sure of it, cause that's what we do. Damn I miss the Imlach years.

I truly cannot see him holding a presser to announce wanting out. At most he will say some vague stuff about what he expects from the organization to keep him happy, but mostly just the usual bs about things looking up at the end and they'll be better next year and he will be ready for the fall and yada yada yada. Nothing.

See, I was going to say you, but now you point this out, maybe you're the one who angered those hockey gods getting the info out too fast? 🙂 Nah, you get my vote.

I've always said Murray's idea was sound (on paper and in theory) but he chose the wrong pieces and rushed it and thus f'd it up and it all crumbled down fast. Find franchise goalie - check - but he overpaid for him and somehow missed knowing he had mental issues/problems. Perhaps developed/helped properly he'd have given us what he's giving others now. Trade for underachieving sniper/power forward to play with future superstar - check - but he was an egomaniacal f up and never really committed to hockey. Never grew up so to speak. Draft superstar - check - but he got the B grade one not the A grade one. Traded for solid 2C who should have been C period. Good idea, but again probably overpaid. Traded away too many picks. Coach had success with a Crosby-less team so in theory, until we had Eichel prime and a better roster, not a terrible idea for playing style. In many ways it should have worked. But it didn't gel. So any number of theories as to why. Personally, I give up on trying to figure it out beyond, the obvious. It really is the water.

or you hire better contractors to do the rebuilding. and they build it from the foundation up, as all solid lasting structures are built, rather than from starting with the top and then haphazardly trying to support that top with some ramshackle cobbled together bunch of sticks and stones you found lying around.

You can't use this for any meaningful argument since he didn't coach for us. He's a good coach and I'd hire him now. He was fine in Toronto until the softies there cried about his bullying. But even if you don't like him, he's irrelevant to the argument as he was never here.

People say they burned the house down, but they forget the foundation was cracked, the furnace didn't work and the roof leaked bad. The house was a shambles and needed to be torched for the insurance money.

Final assessment on Granato. Nah.

idk. I want the core and it's values changed. I don't think I'm going to get that.

That ends up being a very bad roster. If that's the best they can do, no way will they be another Vegas. Not even close.

A dismal but perhaps fitting end to another season of futility. If that was his last call, Sabres couldn't even give poor old RJ one goal to do something with. Seems to me we give more players their first NHL career shutouts than anyone else. (and end goalless draughts for opposition players on other occasions) If they don't make some big changes I think I'm done.

Oh come on. Being a last place team means you have a roster of rubbish nobody wants anyway.

Unfair as it might be, Jack will always be looked at as not as good as McDavid. That "2 generational players" thing was hyped up so much it resurfaces easily and often.

Oh of course it is, and this thread isn't the place, but if you objectively go through the rosters player by player you will see we are very far from them.

Well, simply because he was our top line guy with Eichel and Sam. So we're an entire line away from matching them.

Houser's lucky streak certainly over. He was downright dreadful. otherwise, this was like watching a preseason game that doesn't tell you much about anything. Waste of time.

It's time. Great career, good memories, but he makes a lot of mistakes now and you can tell the energy just ain't the same. All things must pass.

Well, I enjoyed watching the Rangers/Caps game. It was kind of dumb and definitely slapshot, but I was entertained. That's all.

He's dull dull dull, but he's incredibly flattering to the team and I don't think ever criticizes their play even when it's horrible so the team/ownership probably loves him. Biron is the only guy imo worth anything.

Might it also tell us how very far away we actually are from competing with them since Hall is a mere second line cog there?

I only wish that were true. Watching the Bruins, he's a completely different player and has jelled perfectly with Smith and Krejci. He's been so good in fact, DeBrusk is struggling to find ice time playing on the 4th line with Lazar. Lazar, is exactly the same as he was here. Massive amount of energy and absolutely no finish around the net, but still a very effective and cheap 4th liner.

I voted 26-22 and considered that optimistic.