PerreaultForever

lol, you can't be serious equating Norris and Kesselring to Barkov and Tkachuk in terms of importance/value are you? You have to be joking.

If Greenway is healthy - big IF - I'm taking that line up we had against Florida and sitting Quinn and playing Greenway in that spot. Otherwise I'm not touching that line up because it worked. If I'm Adams I'm looking to move Quinn for a D man so that I can waive Bryson. But he loves Quinn so it is what it is and I have to hope he will get it one day.

I know some people are going to scoff at this, but I think Geertson has to stay in the line up. At least for now. It's not that he's any good. He isn't. He's a big dummy. But he's our big dummy and the philosophy holds true in that other players play bigger and more aggressive knowing he is there. Probably the best I've seen Malentstyn be since he got here. Initiating and throwing his weight. I am sure he is more comfortable doing that knowing he doesn't have to match up with the heavy weight should things go that way. Everybody played bigger, and it matters, a lot. In time, as they learn they can all be this all the time they might no longer need him every night, but for now, it matters. Doan plays net front the right way and is something we have also been missing so perhaps that's an integral ingredient going forward as well. Obviously, if Lyon isn't playing this way and the PK isn't as good as it was this game could have been very different but that just illustrates the historical flaw of not emphasizing goaltending as a priority. If the goaltending holds up like this there is hope. Kitties aren't the team they were at the moment and they took full advantage of that. Not being intimidated and fighting through anything kitties tried. Watching Marchand lose his s**t is always hilarious. Overall this was real hockey. Complete hockey. Balanced offensive and defensive hockey and thus winning hockey. I'm not going to jump on a bandwagon because I've seen these moments before and seen them disappear as well so we shall watch and see, but if they keep playing like this they might just turn this around. Only downside to this would be it means Adams will get an extension rather than the pink slip he deserves.

Start the pool now for how many games Greenway plays before he's injured again. I say 10.

Well fair enough and for a short stint you might get away with it but we can't expect this to go on much longer.

Not a gritty team compared to say Florida but more grit than the Sabres. More guys who will drag you into the fight and stand up for each other. Pests and scrappers. They can at least survive that sort of game if not thrive off of it. Tenacity is the word that comes to mind most for me after watching them a couple times this year. Benson/Doan are steps in that direction for us but they stand out so much relative to the passivity of most of the rest of them. We need more of that and we need it to become infectious.

Watched Seattle Ottawa tonight. What a difference a goalie makes.

Well with their injuries I'm not sure about that but if you can't beat them now you never will.

I don't know about winning the division but I hate to admit I like how they have rebuilt. It is the sort of balanced roster I've talked about here. They can play numerous styles of game and have toughness and grit to go with their offensive weapons. They have a good GM.

Lyon has been good, but he's never played this much before in his career. They will burn him out or get him injured this way.

Johnson and Bryson have bother been awful. Metsa might be more Kesslering-esque than those two but there's a big defensive hole until we actually see Kesselring.

I haven't watched Detroit yet but Montreal looks pretty good. They have improved from last year. The extensions to upper management have been earned there.

It's hilarious how fast Sabres twitter has gone over positive with one game. Sabres did this last year and before as well. Remember when they bombed Toronto. If you give them open ice they soar. Ottawa played open (as they seem to fall into every time we play them) and thus got bombed. Most teams won't play that way. Best tweet I saw was "looks like Sabres are playing against the Sabres tonight" because yes, Ottawa played that style.

You know with all their injuries Florida might be an on the bubble team this year too (and then might still win the cup). They are beatable without their stars and other injuries. I'd say the California Golden Seals were the stupidest franchise ever. How many times they dealt their picks to Montreal and made Montreal into a dynasty. Pollock would trade for those first rounders down the line and then they'd finish dead last. Hard to believe, but the Seals were actually worse managed than the current Sabres.

Always want them to win but I do think "chaos" is inevitable.

The 74/75 Washington Capitals were the worst team I ever remember watching. I looked it up to get the year right and they only won 8 out of 80 games that year. Interestingly, since I had forgotten this. In the tank year we actually had 3 more points than the year before. Also interesting in a sad way, when you look back to 2013/14 bottoming out we were 8th in the division and Florida was 7th. What a tale of contrast there.

well really tied with Ottawa but yes, the Isles haven't won yet and they might be pretty bad. I suspect they end up 8th to 10th from the bottom as usual.

They do seem to have the Senators number. For whatever reason they always seem to get Ottawa off their game and they fall into a wide open affair the way the Sabres like it. So the floodgates opened and things went their way. Not sure we can read too much into this but it's nice to win and win big. Hopefully they want more and dig down and get on a roll. Not that I want to save Adams job or anything, but winning is more fun to watch than losing.

They are messing with a 21 year old's head. I don't like this approach. He will either over try now and thus make mistakes or he will quit (unlikely but possible). I don't see this working at this stage of his career. The veterans have to step up. Oh wait, that's right, we don't have veteran leaders. They seemed to be able to beat Ottawa last year. Maybe this year too. Notice we are already getting the back up goalie against us benefit and it's only October. Must win. 🙂

Another thing I don't understand is this statement that Kulich "might get scratched" and he has to be better. He's a 21 year old kid. Why is he being publicly shamed? Ya, he has not been good, but he's a 21 year old kid. They never did this to Quinn or Peterka or Cozens. Not this early. Not like this. You really think that's how you build a culture where players want to be here? If I'm Kulich I'm heading the Peterka route first chance I get. and just to be clear, I'm not saying that he shouldn't be scratched, just that they shouldn't have announced it as he might be.

Well that's just it though isn't it? On other teams players are held accountable. There are veterans that set the level of expectation for the new players and players have to buy in. Cultures live and die with their veteran leadership. The Adams idea of "growing together" is like putting everybody on a ship and saying "Okay guys, figure out how to sail it". How can a captain be expected to know how to navigate these things when he came in here from a foreign country at the age of 18 and has never experienced winning in the NHL? That's not to say it's his fault in any way, but there simply is little to no veteran leadership on this team and hasn't been for a really long time. People talk about Tage's comments and again, it's not all on him, but the comment is flawed and wrong. It's so called positivity and "I don't want to dwell on the past" and "it's only 3 games" and that's just loser talk. The comments should all be we sucked, I sucked, we have to work harder and be better. The so called leaders have to lead on the ice and drag others into the fight, but there's literally no fight in this team. Ruff has no answers because they simply aren't doing what he tells them to do. He can't coach these players as a group. I don't think anyone can. They've assembled a bunch of guys who just play for their money and don't care. The standard should be about winning but in Buffalo it's "who cares, I can just get traded away and then care if I have to".

You like that for memories go back a little further and remember this:

Cozens is 3C in Ottawa. He might bump up with Tkachuk injured but before that he was bumped down below Pinto. Honestly though I don't think Ottawa cares all that much. From their perspective they managed to dump a gimpy player on a big contract. If they end up trading Cozens away at some point it's still a win for them. That second might even be a big deal the way we are going. It's weird to see the Sabres being talked about this much from the usual hockey talkers this early. They are usually ignored or get minimal coverage. It just all feels so much worse than it usually does and this stuff doesn't help ease that.

That would be my fear. Adams gets moved into some sort of advisory label and Jarmo becomes interim GM and that's the public optic, but in reality it'll still be the same people in committee style meetings with Terry still voicing opinions. As far as the bills goes I don't follow them closely enough but I doubt they fire anybody. Not yet anyway.