JohnC

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.

The bigger issue for me isn’t whether the assistant coaches are good or bad (which may or not be the case) but rather are the coaches the HC wants to work with. My understanding is that because some of his coaches were under-contract the HC had to keep them on because the owner didn’t want to buy out the contracts. If that is the case, then it’s another example among many examples why this franchise is such a shabby organization.

You may not be aware of it but you made a compelling case why the Sabres shouldn't acquire him even if the cost is a lot less. What makes me even more inflexible in my position is that you will be taking on a $11.6M contract with 7 more years on it. And let me add that if the Sabres should deal him for Power in a one-on-one deal. then the GM should be arrested for felonious malpractice. Again, a firm no on him. What I would instead like to add to the roster is another couple of Zuckers to this soft roster. And instead of taking on the large and extended contract for EP, you can get two rugged players to add juice to this flat roster.

Who has the last say on personnel decisions? The GM or POHO?

There is nothing mystical or innovative about coaching defensive structure. The concept/s is similar for most teams. The real issue is do you have the players (or enough of them) to play the harder and tougher brand of defense. The problem with the Sabres on the defensive end has more to do with roster construction and consistent goaltending. I'm not against upgrading the staff. But even with an upgraded staff you have to have the right mix of players to be able to execute the defensive plan.

It would be a mistake to take on his salary for a player whose style of play is a style of play that they want less of.(I'm aware that we would have to send back players with high contracts to make the deal work.) In order to work out a deal for him we would have to deal a combination of players such as Kulich, JJP, Quinn, Benson and Power. (Not all of them but at least 2-3 of them.) The Sabres have to make some moves this offseason to upgrade and re-configure the roster. Adding a player whose current organization is demanding greater effort on the defensive side of the game is not the add that the Sabres need. To this particular player I give a hard no.

If the owner hasn’t figured out what the main problem is after nearly a generation of ownership, then he is irretrievably hockey obtuse. If he wants to quickly figure out what the source of the problem is for his flailing franchise, he should go to the nearest mirror and see who it is.

You hit on the source of the problem that has plagued this franchise under his ownership: His unwillingness to seek out the right people to help him. This billionaire fellow is stubborn about how he operates. It's a closed system with him as the decider. It's not a surprise that this franchise continues to go in the same failed circle without an ability to break out of it to take a better course. Until a more competent group of people is brought in to run the hockey operation, the mediocre results will not change. I'm not saying anything that is very illuminating because it is so basic that even a dullard can understand. I simply don't understand why the owner can't realize that the people he selected have failed him and that they are not the solution to the problems they have created. This is basic stuff!

Failure is failure whether you make a lot of moves that don’t work out or take a more passive approach and let things play out and see how they work out. The issue is more about the wisdom of your decisions, not the quantity of them. Not every personal decision is going to work out for any GM, even the best of them. In the end, the scorecard is easy tabulate. What is your record.

You are right that Eichel wasn't the leader that McDavid was when he entered the league. He was immature. It shouldn't be surprising that a young star player felt entitled and didn't live up to his off ice responsibilities. As you keenly point out, he never should have been thrusted into a position of being a captain and team leader, especially when he was ill-equipped for that responsibility. That's as much of an organization's failure as it was his. This team had talented young players that should have been a part of their long-term core. But because of the staff's inadequacies it didn't know how to put them in a position to succeed. What you don't do is surround immature players with more immature players. That's a guaranteed recipe for failure.

I'm not going into the discussion about Quinn or any other particular player related to should he stay or not. What the Cozens trade demonstrates is sometimes a deal is more about changing the dynamic within the roster than it is about did we get back more than what we gave up. In return for Cozens, we got back Norris and Bernard-Docker. Norris was injured so he didn't play much. The hope is next year he will be able to be our 2C, if not higher. What also happened was that Bernard-Docker was added and Joki was dealt. It wasn't a major change, but it did change the makeup of the blueline unit somewhat. And what the Cozens trade also did is give Krebs more ice time and a greater role. With the current roster there has been a stagnation that has existed too long. The lineup needs to be jolted with fresh faces and different attributes from the new players. I'm not arguing that this offseason there needs to be a dramatic change to the roster. But what I am arguing for is that has to be some changes that alter the mix and changes the internal dynamics of this stale roster.

Whether the owner meddles or not is his prerogative as an owner. He can do what he wants and hires whomever he wants. The person he hired was unqualified to start off with and has demonstrated his ineptness. Who hired him? Who has kept him on? That's the point.

A number of players don’t live in the country. I don’t believe the organization has the authority to require the players to periodically call them back to be checked on.

It doesn’t take much imagination or hockey wisdom to conclude why this franchise has struggled for the past half decade, the period of time that the owner’s hand picked GM has presided over the hockey operation. The owner gambled selecting someone to be his GM who was I’ll-equipped to assume the most important job in a hockey franchise. I’m supremely confident in saying that no other owner would have even considered him for the job. To make matters even worse, there is no owner in the league, good or bad, who would retain a GM with his accumulated five year record. At least for me, it’s not too difficult to figure out why and who is most responsible for the ridiculous situation this franchise is in. A lot of fingers are understandably polnted at the current feckless GM. My finger is pointed at the silent owner.

The fan base is not falling for any "happy talk" about the team's future prospects from this hollow organization. The Sabres ranked fourth lowest in attendance with an average of 15,585 sold tickets per game. However, you can deduct two-three thousand fans who don't attend per game. The dismal reality has existed for a generation. So the true storyline is well known by fans and the hockey world. It is etched in stone and can't be erased.