Drag0nDan
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Posts posted by Drag0nDan
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Just now, dudacek said:
Another underplayed story.
I think Hutton is a great example of Botterill’s reluctance to vary from his plan when it hits a pothole.
I had resigned myself to Jason sticking with his goalies, but Ralph and Kevyn aren’t married to Carter. I wonder if they make a move,
Like - did you even ask him if something was wrong? If the eye thing was an issue you could have maybe put him on IR. Eyes are KIND OF IMPORTANT to play goalie...
Not that we had much of a backup plan with Ullmark getting hurt
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1 minute ago, Crusader1969 said:
I believe he had a 3 month span with a save percentage around .880% You can not overcome that type of goaltending.
This is why im not ready to jump off any bridges, I honestly believe they aren't that far from being a legit playoff contender.
He didn't play a lot, but buffalo won 0 games when he started from 10/24-2/1. His stats are terrible, and even more when you consider how hot he was at the start.
Take out the hot start and he was .886 sv% the rest of the year. During the 13 start losing streak it was .872.
Figure an average of 30 shots a game. Thats 3.84 goals per game at his worst, or 3.40 for the remainder of the year after the hot start.
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Just now, Crusader1969 said:
I agree that they have other issues, however I would say that if Hutton wasn't literally the worst goalie in the league over a 3 month period, they'd be still "alive" an none of this would have happened.
Of course, it could have still happened after the season was done but if they happened to win the play-in series, I doubt any changes would have happened.
He started 30 games, and gave up 5 or more goals in 9 of them.
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2 minutes ago, dudacek said:
Maybe
Or more likely not
I mean - we're a stinky organization before the mass firings. There was drama with the layoffs/furloughs before, team never makes the playoffs, players acting like they're being saved when they get traded... not a lot going well at the moment.
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4 minutes ago, Tondas said:
I thought Chris Taylor was both dedicated and a good performer. Out of all the blood letting, I thought Taylor was the least fair firing.
If they promote from within then i guess it makes sense in a way. Maybe it was rushed - but if Mair (or someone) is who they want running their AHL and development, it makes it difficult to keep Taylor.
I'm not sure i draw the "they need to win in the AHL" narrative that's been constantly pushed. I see it as - young players need to learn how to play complete hockey. I don't know that there's a huge correlation of being a good hockey player, to winning in the AHL.
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2 minutes ago, Pimlach said:
I wanted JBOT replaced with an establish and proven GM. Which did not happen even though there are options out there right now.
I get Sexton and Greeley going with JBOT but I think firing all the coaches in Rochester on day 1 was a huge over reaction that screams of cost cutting. Which they admitted it is.
If Adams thought that Taylor was focused too much on winning with AHL vets, over development of prospects, then have that "candid conversation". I don't understand why the Rochester staff had to be gutted. Again, it tells me the Pegula's do not value their contributions enough and they felt they can find any old coach to run Rochester. Maybe RK agreed with this? Don't know.
The massive layoffs in the Scouting Staff is all cost cutting. Hopefully they will shore up the group that is left but i doubt they will given the mantra for lean and more use of technology and data bases.
I bet that they left RK's staff alone so as not to piss him off. Looking at performance, if there was ever a group to call into question it would be RK's assistants. The PK and PP units were consistently terrible, but RK's assistants are not accountable or held to the same standard as Taylor was in Rochester.
I have never been so down on this ownership group as I am now and I pray to God they stay far away from the Bills.
I think they looked at Carolina's operation as a team that's gotten by with a lot less.
I find it hard to blame coaches for the PK struggles - having a goalie with an eye patch was certainly not ideal. The PP started hot, but never really developing a PP2 unit really hurts there. I'm not sure its the coaches fault that there wasn't a capable player on the roster able to center that line.
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Just now, WildCard said:
Obviously take it with a grain of salt, it could be Mair planting the word in hopes of an interview, but...
If that's the case - maybe they're trying to promote hard workers and cut the people who were seemingly coasting?
Nobody wants to go to a company that fires people like that- but if they promote good dedicated people, they might be trying to create an environment where they reward good performance.
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27 minutes ago, Brawndo said:
A few things from Friedman's Instigators Appearance this AM
During the Top to Bottom Review of the Organization one of the things that became apparent was that the schedule/workload for many of the scouts was light, which would fall under the more efficient category for the justification for trimming the department. He also mentioned he believes a few more scouts will be brought in.
Probably only one AGM
Friedman again mentioned Rick Dudley and that someone passed a note to him that Dudley's Contract might be up with Carolina. Mentioned that he doesn't have an ego and only wants to find good hockey players. He mentioned his past connection to the team.
It will be interesting to see if anything develops from this. (My words)
Friedman mentioned that people around the league are asking What the Hell is going on and that might prevent people from coming here.
He also mentioned that two people in the organization had contract extensions agreed upon (Chris Taylor) and that everyone else felt safe in their positions based on Kim's Interview from three weeks ago only to be nuked, and he did not like that.
Last piece is the important piece... it'll fade, but right now its unlikely that players/coaches/scouts would want to come here.
The light workload piece also triggers me... were these guys coasting?
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3 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:
Botterill ***** us with his stupid acquisitions of Frolic, Simmonds, and Vesey. We didn't need any of them and yet we wasted assets and cap to acquire them. Everyone likes to say how you only have a 10% chance to get an NHL player in the 3rd round or beyond... well that's a hell of a lot more than the 0% chance you have because you traded the pick for a JAG.
Frolic and Simmonds cost cap room this season too... again... The cap guru didn't have that foresight?
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Just now, LGR4GM said:
No. They need to draft players. Firing the scouting staff is not a green light to dump picks. Our forward prospect pool is a barren wasteland after Cozens. They need to figure out their drafting NOW. Not next year but NOW. They should have done this in 2015 and we wouldn't be sitting in this position today. There is too much selling for bandaid fixes without actually addressing the main problem with the Buffalo Sabres, they do not draft well and need too.
You're probably right, didn't realize how many picks in the next 2 drafts are already gone. 2 and 6 gone this year in the skinner deal. 2 in 2021 for miller, 3 in 2021 for Vesey, and 5 in 2021 for Wayne Simmonds for like a day. Not a lot of bullets in the gun the next 2 years. Looking forward, I'd probably like to get picks back at this point.
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21 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:
Remember Adams revealed the team’s new motto during his radio interview; “doing more with less.”
That just doesn’t bode well for the future. We have tried that before. Remember video scouting and a shared farm team. This destroyed our prospect pipeline and our development system and created the foundation of the mess we are in now. Just to emphasize this, TP just reduced the scouting dept from 22 to 7.
Now add an inexperienced GM, a paired down hockey department, incompetent ownership now more interested in saving money then winning, and the general acknowledgment around the league of owner incompetence and what do you get. A recipe of even more failure to come.
The funny thing is I’m ok with Jbot being shown the door. I’m even ok with trying to save some money, but firing Taylor instead of working with him and hiring an inexperienced yes man as GM were steps to far.
Our only hope is somehow we get lucky and Adams is smart enough in year one to play it cool using a scalpel to the roster rather then a hatchet or the Pegula’s sell the franchise. Odds of either of these things happening? Zero!
I think we probably just bring back most of the RFA's, spend a lot less on AHL (if there is one), and figure out a way to upgrade 2C. I think its probably montour/risto + mittelstadt and some picks - i'd probably keep the first rounder this year (we pick relatively high and the targets were probably already established before the firings). But i'd be open to moving several (lack of scouting staff) this year.
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27 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:
Search your feelings.
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On 2/26/2020 at 11:28 PM, GASabresIUFAN said:
Casey won’t fully blossom until he realizes he doesn’t have to do it alone.
Felt that way about pominville when he first came up - and he had torn up the AHL for like 2 and a half years. He was constantly skating with the puck and getting swallowed up. Learning to play better without the puck, when to pass, and then learning that with NHL speed. Takes time, and JB missed the mark on his development.
Ennis was kinda like that too, except he legit never figured out how to play offense without the puck on his stick.
4 hours ago, LGR4GM said:That honestly makes it worse. He clearly was having major issues all of last year and they did nothing.
I wonder if Krueger was the one who forced Botterill to send down Casey?
By the time he got sent down i was wondering if it was casey asking
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3 hours ago, Crusader1969 said:
I just can't get over how many jobs were lost because they played a goalie 30 times with Vision Issues. its mindblowing.
Why was JB entrenched 3 weeks ago and now everyone is fired?
Get a good goalie tandem, upgrade 2C and lets GO!
Yeah. 2C goes a long way to helping this team. If you can line up a team with olofsson-jack-kahun (possibly a reach to put 2 youngsters with jack, but he really does elevate the people around him) and skinner-2C-reinhart you're looking at a solid top 2 lines.
MoJo moves to the 3rd line where he probably should be (with the ability to play up the lineup in a pinch). Not sure how else that shakes out - but you have thompson, okposo, maybe Larsson, Lazar for those final 4 spots - plus asplund/mittelstadt.
Getting 2C is going to cost them though. Probably Risto/Montour, Mittelstadt is the starting point. If that's the case, how do the D-pairings look after the fact?
Righties: Montour, Risto, Joki, Miller
Lefties: McCabe, Dahlin
Just now, DarthEbriate said:Now, if it can ever be proven that this is true and that it was Adams' plan all along... he's got better foresight and script-writing help than one dear Emperor Palpatine. Emperor Sheevyn Adams!
Oh man... i don't wanna know what happened to the
younglingsjunior sabres.... -
24 minutes ago, shrader said:
And only one business is able to pay for itself. Of course, that could change too if for some reason they aren't able to start their games on schedule.
Businesses should all run independently of one another. If the Bills make money, and the Sabres lose money - it doesn't make sense to rob peter to pay paul. You figure out how to stop losing so much money with the Sabres.
If this was 2 sales business units - say A vs. B. Would you move A people/profits over to the B group to help prop it up? Or would you re-invest in those people/profits to try and grow A. Typically A is the answer here. B would be where you are doing layoffs - bring in new people and ideas, as well as some cost cutting.
I'd say the same thing about his oil business - it's a long game there, don't sell stuff to pay for the sabres misfortunes.
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Just now, Curt said:
Bingo. Pegulas straight up said that their vision moving forward was lean, efficient, lean, effective, lean, lean, lean. And that Botterill’s vision did not align, and the owners felt like they were not being heard.
I get that they aren't like in the business of making huge profits with a hockey team. But this whole thing hurts them even more - they clearly are hearing rumblings of 2020-2021 without fans (massive hit to revenue). They've already been losing money for a few years now it would seem (Excessive player/coach/gm buyouts, lower season ticket numbers and corresponding rate hikes). Yes they are looking at the bottom line - because a 300 million dollar investment shouldn't be losing money YoY, while not growing in value.
Lots of leagues probably fold from this too - since many have no TV contracts. Scouting and the league in general are going to get weird. I wonder if they end up with more of the soccer mindset with drafted prospects being available to loan out to foreign leagues, or if college hockey will see an increase.
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Just now, LabattBlue said:
?
If the thoughts are - draft well, build a core, extend that core... that's like the main successful strategy that works in all sports. Keep the players around that make it go, and augment it. Stop trying to just band-aid issues with free agents.
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1 hour ago, Weave said:
I wonder if the league trend in how powerplays operate changed last season and our penalty kill scheme just wasn’t well suited to it?
I feel like teams were able to exploit the defense a bit. Get caught chasing behind the net, not rotating quickly enough, and just generally not stopping cross ice passes. Also felt we were a bit passive in pressuring teams so they could just a- take the zone easily and b- maintain the zone. Goaltending was also a bit of an issue, felt like short side was a gaping hole all the time.
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On 5/31/2020 at 12:00 PM, freester said:
I’m sure that’s Botterils plan but I have not seen enough of Kahun to call him a 2nd line player.
Yeah - midseason trades are always a question mark. Takes time to integrate, and you don't have camp to like truly generate some consistent chemistry.
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1 hour ago, dudacek said:
Deep dive into the issues of our 30th-ranked 74.6 % PK by the Buffalo News
Things that jumped out at me:
- The Sabres ran the same system with mostly the same players as they did the previous year when they finished a respectable 12th
- PK save percentage dropped from 9th to 29th from last year to this.
- Sabres goalies were .839. Robin Lehner led the league at .918
- The Sabres allowed a ton of chances in tight: dead centre and glove side.
- Frolik, brought in to fix the PK, had the teams worst PK ranking in terms of goals per 60. Rasmus Asplund was the best.
- Scandella, despite his overall improved play, fell off on the PK as the season went on. Jokiharju struggled as his replacement
- The road PK was an abysmal 69.4 per cent
- During the 6-game losing streak that effectively pushed us out of the playoffs, the PK was at 57 per cent.
Obviously this was a huge problem. I’d say an average 80% PK would have resulted in 3 more wins. A good 84% PK might do twice that.
How do we fix it?
Improved goaltending would help - even league average in PK would help. I felt like anything cross ice was always in the back of the net with hutton, as well as short side ones - he was just a nightmare.
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19 minutes ago, Radar said:
Is Botterill to blame. Yes but secondarily to the Pegulas . What's that saying about the buck stops here.
I would say yes. Berglund/sobotka, sheary (not terrible, but when you tack on hunwick its a bad deal), pominville, scandella, etc.
I thought he did a better job this year in bringing in expiring contracts (simmonds, vesey, frolik) to try and jumpstart scoring. Didn't work, but it also didn't bring along bad money. There aren't any major buyout candidates that he's brought in. Johansson isn't an inherently bad deal, and i didn't feel like he overpaid. Even dumping off the remainder of sheary/rodrigues contracts for kahun was a smart move - saves some dollars, and brings in a player you can use beyond the season.
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1 hour ago, dudacek said:
It’s done. He’s been at it for more than a year now and said he is 225 pushing 230.
Nice - now to get better at like... hockey.
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On 5/27/2020 at 9:39 PM, Curt said:
I agree with everything you said except for this. It is definitely possible to add ~10 lbs of muscle in 4+ months if you are on the lean side (Tage has been) and have easy access to the highest level training and nutrition (Tage does). Especially if the starting point for this is the end of a pro hockey season, during which guys get worn down and sometimes actually lose weight.
Agreed. Guys 22 years old and built like a twig, get him eating a bunch more each day and having serious workouts - should be no problem. 6'5 205 -> 220 should be pretty attainable. The key is how to make it functional strength for hockey.
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13 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:
That trade defined the ensuing 3 - 5 seasons of the Sabres, in a negative way, and many of us saw that fact right away when the return scrolled across the screen, our caps-lock raging wasn't just uncalculated emotion. going for round two would be franchise suicide, unless you're getting the fairy tale return. I tip my cap to you if you trust Botterill or any Pegula selection with finding it
I think for me it was like... thats all it took to get traded? He didn't have a long drawn out issue with management or ownership. He just made an emotional statement after a terrible season.
I don't see how JB saw that compensation and was like - LETS GOOOOOO! I feel like deep down TP forced his hand to remove a guy who had poorly represented the team in the media.
Housley was a terrible coach, JB probably should've been fired with him tbh.
Sabres Announce GM Jason Botterill has been Fired. Kevyn Adams Named GM
in The Aud Club
Posted
Yeah - gonna be tough to find a trade partner for one of the worst goalies in the NHL at a 2.75 mil cap hit... especially with a likely lowered salary cap.
Holtby played like crap last year, i wonder what his market looks like.