PerreaultForever

I'd give him 5 years myself. Let all the players know this is how it's going to be and this is what this team will be. You give him 2 years with this history/culture and the team could just quit and wait for the next guy. Torts is not the old school hard ass some think he is. He's evolved and learned. Players love him. He rewards hard work and that's a good thing, but he knows what he's doing and he will develop all these young guys the right way. Those that refuse to buy in were not worth keeping anyway.

I think he's going to say there was a disconnect between his ability to stop all the pucks and the team's ability to win.

Just watched a bunch of Columbus players praising Tortorella and saying how they will miss him. Merzlikins especially. So, just saying, bring them both in and reset the culture with a new core.

What I meant was the dynamics of the team have a different feel. There's more unity, they compete, they feel like they have a chance. McDavid doesn't smash his stick he digs down and plays harder. the team follows. I'm not saying that is all they need, the Oilers have made a ton of mistakes and are not going to win it all, but the team isn't a shambles like we are. I am sure if the draft was flipped we'd have done a lot better over these years and if not in the playoffs this year damn close. We'd be excited about that too and building off it, not pointing fingers and arguing about where the most blame goes.

Well we're dead last with them so we can't actually be worse. I don't consider those 4 similar but the first two have not delivered what you need to win. I guess I'm way in the minority, but if it doesn't change and they're both here again that was making me consider finally giving up on the Sabres after some 48 years or so of watching them. A complete reboot without them is probably the only thing that'll keep me a fan. I guess this thing is going to be polarizing to the extreme.

It's a team sport and the dynamics of being a team are what's important.

I don't believe any of this disconnect crap. Likely comes from his agent. A way to make himself look like the good guy and the team the villain. Whole thing was a complete dump on the franchise and the fans. He doesn't give a damn about Buffalo and likely never did. Good riddance we can finally right the ship with a proper captain. Good bye *****.

I'm not buying one bit of his spin on the "disconnect." That is his way of making himself look better and dumping on the franchise as the problem. Probably his agent's advice. Oh look, Jack tried his best, he did everything, it's just those damn Sabres kept him from being the greatest. Bull. If anything, the Sabres mistake was in handing him the keys to everything without actually earning it. This set the tone and the culture. Eichel this Eichel that. he should have never been named captain. It ruined this franchise. So I guess in doing that it's Pegula's fault, but ultimately if Eichel was as dedicated as McDavid it would have gone differently. But he's not.

Well given the Eichel comments there is a little tearing down required. You remove the old core and then build up around the youth and new players. New attitude. No prima donnas. Again, Ottawa is doing it right. Do that.

I don't really get why some people are upset by this. To me the cat's finally out of the bag. There's your broken culture. It's always been about Jack and Jack has always been about Jack and now we can finally end this era, turn the page and start over (hopefully) properly. The entire old core has to go (unless they are fully committed to the team which is unlikely) . Time to build a team with a team first attitude. I actually have an optimism for my Sabres now that I don't think I would have if things didn't change.

<sigh> One quick last try. It's not about going old school, but you don't throw the baby out with the bath water. The game on the ice has changed, everybody knows that, but the dynamics of team building and what makes a successful organization have not. The point is, we, as a franchise did it the right way once upon a time and thus we need to look back and do those things (the ones that are still relevant in today's game, and there are many) again and the top needs to stop thinking they know some new better way. Hockey is still hockey.

Meh, just apply their win percentages and call it a day.

You are totally misreading and mischaracterizing what I said. Not much point in going over it again. Suffice it to say your "incongruent mixture of players" is the direct result of a lack of clear identity and comes about from building top down rather than bottom up. Lastly, falling back on thuggery vs. talent is a tired strawman argument. It's about balance, team spirit, and unity. Teams without it fail.

Everything that matters is decided. Going to be so boring waiting ages for the playoffs. League should drop the Canucks games. There's no fans allowed anyway. Pointless.

I know full well it's a long time ago, but what I am saying is that era was Buffalo's best era. Don't blame me that we haven't had so much success over the decades that it's just one of many good eras. It stands out as a different time. Yes, things are different in today's league, but many aspects of hockey are still the same. Men might make less homophobic jokes and they might not have a shaggin' wagon parked outside like Danny Gare used to and so forth but it's still a boys club and it's still a team dynamic and the boys bond in many of the same ways they always did. Rangers bonded big time this past week. You might find it silly, you might not like it, but trust me, that team grew up and became a team. You think we would have responded at all? The Imlach era had an identity. They were a team. We are a grouping of individuals with only an identity of losing at the moment. You don't change that easily, and it's not as easy as saying just start winning. It won't happen. I've been around enough teams in my life to know what the psychological make up of a successful team has to be, and we ain't it.

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.