JohnC

Terrific analysis. Everything you described was observable to the hockey unschooled (like me) because the same patten of play almost always existed. What got me the most irritated about the PP was the resistance to adjust, embodied by a stationary Tage shooting the same blasting shot from the usual location. How about some movement, how about players rotating positions, how about more quickly moving the puck? And as you point out, how about taking the puck behind the net forcing the defense to react to you instead of you reacting to the defense? It's the forcing a square peg in a round hole mentality. In this case being stubborn is being stupid. As @LGR4GM has pointed out on a number of occasions, with hockey, like most sports, there is a basic/standard strategy used in the game. It's not rocket science. However, even within its basic nature there needs to be some variation and adaptability to way the opposition is reacting. The Buffalo Sabres have set the standard for bad ownership, bad GM work and bad coaching. What's worse than being stupid is being stubbornly stupid!

As fans of both the Sabres and Pirates it is apparent that you have masochistic tendencies. 😀 Or maybe you are just frugal and seek cheap tickets in an arena and stadium where you have plenty of room to stretch out because the seats around you are vacant?

After reading your intriguing observation, a question can be asked whether the Sabres would have had a better record with Granato than with Ruff taking over? With both Granato and Ruff, the bigger problem related to the composition of the roster than with the coaching. It just seems that there were roster and structural deficiencies that hindered each coach.

I wonder if there will be a drop of Canadians going to Bills games? I wouldn’t be surprised if the stressed inter- country relations had little effect due to the better product on the field.

Name one owner who would have interviewed KA let alone hired him to be their GM? Name one owner who would have retained their GM with the record he had after 5+ years? Name another owner who would have had such a patently charade hiring search for the critical HC position? What’s evident is that this is an owner driven failed franchise. The record speaks for itself. KA being retained due to the owner not willing to eat a contract in a business where it is a normal part of the business demonstrates why the Sabres are not a normal and competitive franchise. I wish the big boat owner would sail away. I’m so tired of his foolishness.

The rate of Canadian attendance will also be down for weekend games. I don't blame them for not wanting to deal with the foolishness and patronize businesses on the other side of the border. When you treat people disrespectfully the negative reaction shouldn't be a surprise.

I just read the link you posted. What's obvious is that in the Florida organization there is a coherency related to the type of players they want. Dudley noted that the coach preferred a player profile that accentuated size and gritty style of play. And if one examines their roster that is exactly how the roster is composed. It's impressive how everyone in the organization from the HC, GM, advisors and scouts are all following and implementing the same script. What our big boat owning owner never got right is the proper way to structure and staff the organization. If you compare how Florida operates and how the Buffalo operates it is like a Chihuahua fighting a Pit Bull. Our owner wanted to make sure that he structured and staffed the organization in a way that would allow him to inject himself into the operation whenever he wanted. The results have been disastrous.

The issue with Tuch more likely is whether he wants to be here than does the organization want him. I'm watching how his contract situation plays out to get an inkling whether the players genuinely believe that this is a serious franchise. The experienced players have a realistic grasp as to how their team stacks up against the other teams. If it appears that he has no interest in signing entering his contract this year, then that will be an ominous sign that things haven't substantively changed.

When dealing with prospects and young players you are rarely certain how they will develop and what level of player they will be with the exception of the few ultra elite players. Whether Zemgus was rushed or not he would have turned out to be the same player that shown to be over a long career.

Wasn't Quinn Golisano's main franchise representative when he bought the team? And because the owner believed he did a sterling good job in guiding the franchise out of its financial peril that he gave him a chunk of money when he sold the team to Pegula?

With respected to your comment about being able to learn when dominating at a lower level, that isn't the issue. The primary issue is whether he would have benefited more in the juniors or playing in the NHL. @LTS gave a strong argument why it made a lot of sense for him to play in the NHL given the rules that would have prohibited him from playing in the AHL. And there is another element to whether Benson would have benefited more in the juniors than the NHL i.e. physical development. It's more likely that the workout and training facilities and staff would be at a higher level in the NHL than it would have been in the juniors where a lot of his time would have been spent on buses.

The takeaway in reading this thread is that there are many combinations that make sense. My preference would be for Tage to be 1C, Norris the 2C and McLeod the 3C. It’s also going to be interesting to see how our forwards get slotted for the top three lines. Currently, my first line preference is Zucker/Tage/Tuch. Needless to say, this is subject to change. This is going to be an interesting camp.

Thanks for the response. With respect to the football stadium in Orchard Park, from everything I read about it outlived its life span and the cost of upkeep wasn’t worth it. It was better to apply the upkeep money to a new facility.

As you yourself note that he is a confident kid. You act as if he was an overwhelmed player in the NHL. That was far from the actually case. As a player he was an asset and not a drag.

Not necessarily. Some players simply aren't suited for playing on the top two lines. However, Benson is.

In your opinion, has the arena reached the stage in its lifespan where putting more money into it is not worth it? Just as the Orchard Park stadium reached a diminishing return on rehabilitation investment, it seems that the Key Bank arena has gotten to that same point where it would be better to invest money in a new arena rather than re-patching the patches that already exist.

The one thing that his play indicated to me is that he had enough confidence where the lack of confidence issue was not a concern at all. Was his offensive game hindered by his lack of strength and weak shot? Of course it was. But that was primarily because of his lack of strength due to his age. However, when watching him play I never felt that he was a liability or hindered the other players on his line. There was a scrappiness to his game that many other players lacked. I don't know how much more physically developed he will be entering in this camp. It may take more than a few years for him to reach a physical maturity before his offense will be more developed. But I'm sure that based on what I saw last year that he will be a contributing player and not a fringe player for us. In making a judgment that can't be proved or disproved, I would say that he benefited more playing in the NHL last year than he would have if he stayed in the juniors and dominated. That's how I see it.

The Sabres just don’t have the depth to absorb injuries that is required when the inevitable injuries happen. And when a critical player such as Dahlin is sidelined, there is a cave in. Regarding your projected lineup, I would prefer Norris in the 2C spot and Tage in the 1C spot. I see Greenway more as a third or fourth line player. It’s going to be interesting to see how Ruff assembles the lines. I expect a lot of experimentation and jumbling of the lines in the beginning of the season.

The advantaged of staying longer in the lower league is that the prospects will be playing higher roles and more minutes than if they were more quickly brought up. That extra ice time will accelerate their development even more than if they played limited minutes with lesser roles with the big club. When you watch some of the young developing players play against experienced NHL men players you can see the contrast when boys play against men.

Bringing in young players from Rochester to replace vets on an already young roster will continue plaguing this roster i.e. inexperience. Let the upcoming young players continue maturing in the lower league so when they do move to the next level they will be better prepared.

I'm not sure if you are talking about Pegula or Golisano with the payroll cuts. When Golisano took over the Sabres in a bankruptcy setting the franchise was basically insolvent. The previous owner and his son ended up in jail due to intermingling the franchise money with his own money. The financial fraud was at such an egregious level that the feds got involved in an investigation that led to convictions and jail time. Let's not forget the context of the situation. Golisano took over an insolvent franchise and put it on a strict budget and required strict accounting recording. The chaotic financial books were relatively quickly straightened out by him. Did some staff have to be let go? Yes, he was dealing with a financial carcass where there was a negative cash flow. To his credit, he financially stabilized the franchise. And to his credit, he paid contractors that were stiffed by the previous owner and weren't required to be paid due to the bankruptcy rules. When asked why he paid the contractors when not legally obligated to do so: he simply said that it was the right thing to do. From a Sabre franchise historical perspective, I consider him to be a hero. Let's not forget what one of the primary reasons why Botterill was fired by Pegula. It was due to firing staff in the scouting department. Botterill refused to do so and was subsequently fired. (This is what I was originally referring to in my post on this topic.) https://www.nhlpa.com/news/2-22673/sabres-fire-gm-botterill-in-series-of-cost-cutting-moves

The point I made about the scouting issue is that from a broad perspective it wasn’t a major factor why this franchise has struggled for nearly a generation. I strongly believe thst Golisano would have hired better hockey staff and allowed them to do their jobs. And I’m sure he would have held them accountable for their performance.

I'm not sure that is the case. I believe that change in scouting happened under Pegula. But that isn't the primary reason why the franchise has struggled. The owner hasn't done a good job in hiring staff to run the hockey operation. The hiring of KA made little sense and the process to hire Ruff was a charade. I'm not discussing whether Ruff is a good HC or not. What I can say is that the hiring process was not a serious process for a critical position.

I believe that although Golisano was not much interested in hockey, he would have been much more adept at hiring staff to more competently run the franchise. I do agree with you that Golisano wouldn't have been inclined to injudiciously spend a lot of money on the franchise. But as an astute businessman, he would have had the foresight to recognize that in assembling a competitive team he would have generated more revenue and have a more self-sustaining business instead of debasing the product and causing the withering of the fanbase. I want to emphasize that I'm specifically directing my comments toward the current owner's stewardship of the hockey franchise and not to his other activities. I strongly believe that this hockey market, that includes southern Ontario area, is a strong hockey market. It has been laid to waste by less than stellar management. That's a shame.

The difference between Golisano and Pegula is that Golisano is smart enough to recognize what he doesn’t know and wise enough to hire people who know what they are doing. And I’m sure that he wouldn’t interfere too much while the hockey people were doing their jobs. That is not to say that he wouldn’t be so aloof that he wouldn’t hold the staff accountable.