JohnC

I don’t want to belabor my point but I don’t believe he is the defacto director of hockey operations, (My opinion.) His failings are related to his bad judgment in hiring critical staff. As an owner he is inept. His record as an owner demonstrates that.

If the owner wants to be in the room then he is going to be in the room. As an owner that is his prerogative. You and I might not be enamored with his omni-presence but that's his choice. As I stated in a prior post, I'm not sure that he is as involved with player discussions and decisions as many think. My main criticism of him is less about that than about his judgment in hiring critical staff. On that issue, his record is less than impressive and bordering on self-defeating.

The problem isn’t he being in the meetings. It’s he having input when decisions are made. We really don’t know about the inner workings of the operation but in my (opinion) his sabotaging failure is in selecting the staff. That’s where he has miserably failed.

The inability to understand basic economics is stunningly low. And the inability to process information and then make a commonsense judgment/analysis is at a frightening low level. In medicine, one of the most important concepts drilled into people entering that profession is: "do no harm". When doing nothing is a successful strategy it is not too difficult to carry out. Some disasters you can't avoid. Man made and self-inflected disasters like what is going on now are stupendously idiotic.

You are right that KA did make some good moves, such as you noted with the McCleod and Byram trades and Zucker acquisition. But you are not dealing with a static situation. All GMs for every team work to improve their teams mostly in the offseason and sometimes during the season. If KA is making some good personnel moves yet most other GMs are also doing it on a larger scale and at a faster rate, then you fall behind. KA has a five-year record. It's unimpressive by all standards. The Sabres are less than a second-rate organization because substandard performers are allowed to remain on the job. I'm confident in saying that no other owner/franchise would have kept a person at the top of the hockey operation with a similar record. Until there is more accountability within the organization this franchise will remain stuck in the muck of mediocrity. It's way past time for a shakeup at the top.

I’m going to make a prediction that may make you half satisfied. I think that our owner with the enormous boat will kick KA up/down ?? in the organization and give the GM position to someone else. My guess is Karmonos. With that maneuver the owner and his failed GM can save some face.

The owner better be careful in allowing this saboteur on his boat. In the dead of night he will puncture some holes below the sea line and sink it. 😃

I'm not trying to be snarky in asking this question: Is that really his boat?

At this stage of his career, he should not have been playing on the first line. The offensive production was inadequate as a top line player. I also like Kulich a lot. Again, with him at this stage of his career, he should not have been playing on the first line. I like both of these young players and do believe that both have the talent to eventually be top two-line players. But I doubt that other than for a few bottom feeding teams that either one of these players would be playing on the top line. It seems that because there was a dearth of top line talent that both players were pushed up higher than they needed to be. That's why the Sabres are on the couch watching the playoffs instead of participating in them.

I really don't know if time has passed Lindy by or not as an NHL coach. Are his coaching views much different from most other NHL coaches? I don't think so but can't say for sure. There are a lot of different coaching styles and personalities that have succeeded. It just seems to be that the biggest problems for anyone standing behind our bench is the talent level and roster construction. And those would be tough challenges for any coach.

That’s like saying water is wet. Not very illuminating because everyone is aware of it except for the oblivious owner.

Do you know what happens to people who look in the mirror instead of looking forward when driving? They crash.

I’ll tell you one dinosaur who had a good run is Lou Lam…… However, his time had run out as it does for everyone.

I have a different perspective on the KA hiring. The primary reason that KA was an out of the box hire was that he presented the owner a balance sheet blueprint to rebuild that was much cheaper than taking a more conventional approach of reconstructing the roster. My basic point is that an austerity strategy appealed to the owner, and he got exactly what he wanted.

You are preaching to the choir regarding adding more veterans to this youthful and immature roster. Why would you think otherwise? The central point in my previous post dealt with having an old school iron-fist coaching approach with today’s players. It doesn’t work. Dinosaurs are extinct and not coming back. Nostalgia is about the past and not the present and future.

The world has changed from the 60s where dictatorial coaches controlled their peasant players. Communication is not a one-way street in the modern world of life that includes businesses, education, sports etc. When you noted that Ruff met his players halfway, I considered it demonstrating flexibility and an ability to listen before responding. That's a sign of growth in how to handle players/people, not weakness of yielding to players. What you may consider to be a weakness in style of coaching is something that I see as showing positive traits of a willingness to listen and adjust to players of today. The era of the "old school" coaching for all sports is long gone, eras and people change. You either adapt or go by the wayside.

I’m a Benson fan and believe in a couple of years he’s going to be a good player. However, he playing on the first line was too much of an advanced role at this stage of his development. He’s certainly an effort player and smart positional player, but his lack of offensive production should have placed him on a lower line where his game was better suited. Will he eventually become a to two line player? Maybe, but lean toward eventually yes.

In the oil and gas business he was astute. In the hockey business he is obtuse. A generation of failure and he still hasn't figured it out yet.

The best strategy to improve the business side of the operation is having a serious team.

Dahlin is going to be the dominant partner with whomever he is paired with. He’s not in the Norris conversation because he plays on an irrelevant and inconsequential team. Everyone in the hockey business recognizes how good he is. However, he is not going to get the official recognition because he plays on a Pegula owned team.

As I stated with Atlanta George, I believe the priority should be finding a suitable partner for Power in order to put him in a better situation to succeed. Ideally, it would be a more rugged and defensively oriented partner to better complement the young player’s game. I also have a higher opinion of Samuelsson’s game of late. I thought he finished the season playing solidly. I just think there are other more important issues to address this off-season.

I say this with no animosity or rancor but you are being unrealistic. There is a saying: Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good. Dahlin has been playing at a premier level regardless who he is paired with. Samuelsson has stabilized his game and in no way has negatively impaired Dahlin’s game. So what is your problem with the pairing that has worked well? I suggest you channel your stirred up energy on finding a suitable partner for Power.

To be succinct, yes to what I said and emphatic no to your position on Samuelsson. He stabilized his game playing on the first pair. So what is your complaint? As a first pairing player his contract is not outside the boundaries in that role.

You gave a number of well thought out responses. Just responding to a couple of them. A priority has to be to find a suitable partner for Power. As you well know, I’m a staunch believer in the talents of Power, much more than you do. This has to be one of his off-season priorities. With respect to Samuelson, he did play well when paired with Dahlin. And it was evident that he didn’t diminish Dahlin’s play in any fashion. So I disagree with you that his contract should be bought. This bumbling franchise needs to add talent, not subtract talent already in hand.

An intelligently run operation would have serious search efforts for top level jobs. Not this shambolic organization. Acting on an owner's whim instead of serious analysis is the standard operating procedure. It's done in this superficial and self-sabotaging way because that's how the owner wants it done. When you own the toy and you desire to play with it, then you do so.