JohnC

Try this link: https://www.audacy.com/wgr550#/questions

I also don't have ESPN+. If you have the NHL Package you should get the full package. I'm getting tired of this shiiit!

@dudacek and @Taro TDoes he have the potential to be a #2C?

How did the Casino know you were counting cards especially if the stakes were not exorbitant? Or were they?

I caught some of the Anaheim game with Washington. I was very impressed with Zegras's offensive skills. I would appreciate it if some of our astute talent evaluators here will give their thoughts on a comparison between Zegras and Krebs. What's your take @dudacek, @LGR4GM, @Thorny @Taro Tor anyone else? If Krebs is in the same echelon as Zegras I would be ecstatic. I predict a Sabre win. The back to back after an extended SO game can be depleting. UPL is being given an opportunity to display his talents even if it is for a short-term basis.

In general, I have little problem with how Adams has handled his responsibilities. But I do, as many others, have stinging criticism for him on how he has handled the goaltending position, the most important position on the ice. Ullmark was a free agent. Even if the GM felt that he was going to be able to sign him he should have had a better fallback position just in case it didn't work out. Not doing that has put this team in a difficult competitive position when it needed to that way. Compare how Yzerman addressed the position without giving much away in assets to how Adams handled the goalie situation? There were simply better options for our GM to resort to if Ullmark couldn't be signed. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/nhl/red-wings/2021/07/22/detroit-red-wings-acquire-goaltender-alex-nedeljkovic-carolina/8058296002/

No. Have the Bandits been bad for a decade?

When KA took over it was understood that this was not a quick fix task. Fans understood what KA meant when he stated he was going to start the process of rebuilding the right way with players who wanted to be here. This was clearly rebuilding process understood by all. But that doesn't mean that the team within the confines of a rebuild can't be competitive and entertaining, especially after being subjected to a team that has been stuck in the mud for a decade. I'm not a KA basher. With the exception of addressing the goalie issue in a meaningful way I believe he has done a good job in not only adding talent to the system but also upgrading the staffing within the organization. Where I and many others have intense criticism for him is not having an acceptable fallback position to the most important position on the ice. It went beyond being a bad miscalculation. It was a display of gross incompetence that has to a visible degree set back the rebuild . There is no doubt that without the Canadian market (due to covid) to buttress the local US market it has had a major affect on attendance. But what has had a greater depressing effect on the market is a half a generation of ineptitude that has made this market steadily wither. You are misguided if you are assigning more blame to the fans than to the organization under the current owners.

Have you ever been a student in a classroom where the teacher has lost control of a class with the kids running amok? You can then replace that teacher and with the same group of students dramatically alter the situation where the students thrive as a group and individually. There are coaches who can take a group of athletes and the end result is team failure. And it is not unusual where a coaching change can result in the team thriving with the same players.

Chicago's Tyler Johnson just had the same surgery that Jack had on his neck. https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/32779647/chicago-blackhawks-tyler-johnson-sidelined-neck-surgery

I understand the point you are making about the individual aspect of morale and attitude. But in the work world in all fields of endeavor you can put an individual in a dysfunctional organization and get a certain level of production. If you move that person (especially a young employee) into a more positive and nurturing environment you will get more production and a faster rate of actualizing one's potential. I'm not disagreeing with your general point. I just feel that this new young core has only been exposed to team failure in their professional careers. I believe that it does have a negative effect on a player's development.

The young players such as Dahlin, Mitts, Tage etc have been exposed to losing for their whole careers. This isn't a one year hurdle that they need to work through. Success certainly entails working through adversity. No question about that. But having the right support system also is a factor in the development of players. In the workplace or even in a school setting the more positive environment there is the greater chance there will be for growth.

Your time-line is accurate. That doesn't change the fact that his goalie decisions on his short watch have been damaging to the point of negatively reverberating beyond that one position.

Your fear is my fear that the reprise of the disillusionment of the prior core could/has ???? spread to the promising new core. When the youngsters see a former player such as Reinhart who wanted out and ends up in a cup contending situation that their acceptance to their current plight is even less tolerable. Do you know what is worse than being sabotaged? Self-sabotage!

I'm not sure that prior to free agency that KA knew what caliber of goalie he was going to be. Or whether at that point he wanted to make a conclusive judgment about him as his franchise goalie. Was it the wrong decision? It certainly was because he didn't seem too interested in finding better options. That's the source of my complaint about the GM on this issue. As you indicate how things have turned out only makes sense if the plan was to tank. And I have no doubt that the Pegulas would be receptive to this strategy because in the short run the contract obligations would be much smaller than if this focused on winning in the present.

With respect to the Ullmark negotiating or any negotiations for that matter there is usually movement from both parties. That wouldn't be surprising. We don't have all the details about the negotiations but one story I heard is that when Boston made an offer his agent took it back to Buffalo and required them to exceed the Boston offer in price and term. (Is that true? I can't say for sure.) The answer was no. My main criticism for KA is not focused on the inability to signing Ullmark as it is not having an adequate fallback position if a deal couldn't be consummated. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that a Buffalo free agent would want to go somewhere else where he had a chance to win, especially after being stuck in a losing organization and facing another rebuild. That's mostly why Risto, Jack and Reinhart wanted out. In general, I don't think our thoughts on how the organization handled the goaltending situation are much different. And I agree with you that the organization made a decision to go through a rebuild without the disillusioned former core. Was it a calculated tank? I would say yes. My fear is that the psychology of losing will contaminate another young core to the extent that it did with the previous young core. As you well know as someone who is a paying customer this franchise needs a jolt of action before the withering fan base withers to the point of near extinction.

You are correct that the year to year play of goaltenders is very mercurial. But the situation in Buffalo isn't so much about finding an elite long-term goalie who will anchor this franchise. Rather it is about finding a capable netminder who can play at a level that will allow this incomplete team to reasonably compete for this year or a little longer. Ullmark would certainly be a goalie who would have played at an acceptable level. That didn't materialize. The GM should have had better fallback positions. I don't fault our goalies for all of the ills of this team. But there shouldn't be much dispute that they are one of the main factors for the rapid descent of this team.

I made some related comments in a prior post so I apologize for the redundancy. KA on WGR made comments about Ullmark's departure. He stated that when negotiating a contract he places a value on the player and then he wasn't going to go beyond the boundaries of the designated value/cost. Without explicitly saying it he wasn't going to go take the same route that resulted in an over-compensated player such as Skinner. I have no problem with that approach. The problem is that when negotiating with any player in a free agent status, such as Ullmark, you have to have a reasonable fallback position just in case a deal can't get done. In business you don't always have a perfect or even a good option. But you still have to come up with an acceptable option that will tide you over until a better solution can be found for your problem. That didn't happen here. The options that he took with the goaltending position put this fragile team in a precarious position. He played some long odds and lost the bet. It has proved to be very damaging.

My main criticism of the GM is that even if he couldn't secure a long-term quality goalie to build around he could have done a much better job at securing a better quality goalie/s for the short term. Not having that baseline level of competent netminding is sabotaging the rest of the rebuild.

He was traded in July but prior to that he was put on waivers in January. It is very likely that KA thought that he was going to get a deal done with Ullmark who was going to be a free agent. It didn't work out as the GM hoped. He should have had some better options ready for the possibility of not being able to sign Ullmark. https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/31863098/carolina-hurricanes-trade-goalie-alex-nedeljkovic-detroit-red-wings

Anderson in general did play well for us. But it was a major gamble from a durability standpoint to rely on such an older player who was on the precipice of retirement. As you and others have pointed out the GM made a damning mistake by not having an adequate fallback position for the possibility of losing Ullmark, a free agent goalie. He should have had a much better option in his pocket for that possibility. You can't control what a player decides to do when he is a free agent but you should be prepared with reasonable options for the potential loss. Compare what Yzerman did in the offseason to address the goalie position with how KA did? He acquired Alex Nedeljkovic for a reasonable price. And there were other reasonable options due to goalies being exposed for the expansion draft. We could have offered a draft pick for a goalie who could have been a better option than going for the riskier route of getting Anderson as your primary goalie. He would have been a better option as your secondary goalie. The Sabres have a number of deficiencies that go beyond the goalie position. So I don't want to get carried away by blaming all problems with this roster on that position. But by buttressing that position you can at least for the short-term compensate for the other problematic areas. My worry is that the psychology of losing is going to demoralize our young players. In the Carolina game (I intermittently watched) it seemed as if Dahlin was a beaten man. That bothers me very much. https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/31863098/carolina-hurricanes-trade-goalie-alex-nedeljkovic-detroit-red-wings

As you noted there should be a worry about the mounting losses creating a psychology of losing that demoralizes the young core as it did with the last core. The situation that resulted in Jack/Risto/Reinhart wanting out primarily revolved around the issue of constant losing and the inability to foresee a change in the near future. Does anyone doubt that Reinhart was glad that he was on the home bench instead of the visiting bench in the Florida game? I'm not a pessimist regarding the near future of the Sabres. The organization seems to have a number of high end prospects ready to make the jump next season, or soon thereafter. But my fear is that another season laid on top of the past few seasons will dispirit this promising young core to the point where some of them will want another place to play.

You can have an upgrade in net and still be scored upon. Whether you have mediocre to bad backstopping it becomes even more exposed with inadequate defensive coverage. I'm not arguing which issue is more important because they are linked. The Sabres currently have insufficient staffing at the goalie position. That's obvious. It becomes even more manifested when you have a sieve defense. There are just too many glaring coverage mistakes that lead to opportunities that are easily converted. A goal by deflection is one thing but an easy tap in because a player is uncovered is a major problem. It happens too often.

The Sabres would have a better record if Ullmark was our primary goalie. Few people would argue otherwise. But I'm not convinced that this would be a playoff team because the defensive coverage is atrocious. It's obvious why so many are fixated on our goaltending deficiencies. It's a problem that is starkly evident. However, when you have below average backstopping along with weak defensive coverage then your goaltending deficiency becomes exponentially worse. When mediocre goalies constantly get bombarded with ripe scoring chances then you get this repeated flurry of goals in short periods. The Florida game, among other games, was an example of this. How many people truly believed that after the Sabres scored the first three goals that the Sabres would coast to a victiory? I didn't. This team has a number of issues that go beyond the goalie issue related to the overall talent level of its roster. I just don't see this front office willing to expend resources to significantly upgrade the position this season. It's going to be a tough year.

Thank you for your terrific analysis. I was listening to Paul Hamilton discuss Perterka on WGR awhile back. Everything you stated corresponded to what he said about JJ. And what he emphasized (as you noted) is that he had a way to go to learn the defensive side of the game. He was very positive about him but felt that he had a lot more work to do on his defensive game before moving up to the next level. Kevin Adams moved up in the draft to pick him. In the not too distant future that maneuver to select him could prove to be an exceptional move.