SabresVet

Leadership and self-motivation are two entirely different things. A guy with the "C" or "A" can play hard every night, get after guys who aren't, and take tough questions for why they lost after the game without other players buying in. It's up to management to remove or temporarily sit those who don't play hard. It's why Adams' insistence that he wanted players who wanted to be here seems absurd now. The guys he locked up want to be here...but some aren't getting it done. Players typically want to be here when the team is winning...and this one isn't. There are guys who just drift around who are still on the ice and no one in management seems to care. Nor is trading them a realistic solution because many of them are signed long-term with high cap figures. And mid-season, deals are harder to make with more teams up against the cap. It becomes a buyers market and the seller's pay a steep premium. Other people have asked an important question as this season devolves: maybe they didn't need to lock up some guys until they'd done a little more in their careers to justify big money. But that can happen when a GM is focused on culture and no one holds players accountable.

Dahlin does not need, nor should be expected to do anything more than play hard as an example to other players. And even then with the lack of effort around him, I wouldn't be surprised if he asks what the heck it's all for. In any workplace for that matter, if it takes fellow employees to motivate underachieving ones, that's a problem with management, not those other employees. Don Granato and his minor league assistants have the responsibility to motivate whether players are on league minimum or long-term guaranteed contracts. Bigger issue is, why is Adams evaluating players positively who then turn around and display less than expected effort? Is that an individual player issue, the coach(es), the GM's bad evals or a combination?

Mid-season is a good time to make some hard conclusions: Adams isn't going to fire Granato with 2 years left on his deal after this season because it'd signal the rebuild is failing. That is, unless there's a catastrophic streak of bad like Krueger had and Terry allows it. And Pegula isn't going to fire Adams primarily because the owner doesn't know anyone and even if he did, they wouldn't work here under the limitations imposed by the owner and his meddling. Ironically, hiring Kevyn Adams was/is not all that different than Ralph Wilson's final few GM hires for the Bills. All clearly out of their depth and expertise and all failed miserably as most rational people expected. They were hired not for the acumen as sports executives, but because the owner was comfortable with them. A shake-up is needed now. But it ain't coming.

OK Hondo.

You're missing the point. Saying it "works for him" reads like he chooses to be confrontational and it works for that organization. My point is that while every team can't have a a MacKinnon leader on-ice, they should have something like him and his style off it when things get bad and/or players aren't giving 100%. The M.O. in Buffalo seems to avoid disrupting the status quo. That ain't leadership...it's poor leadership and a lack of urgency.

In high performance organizations this type of leader pushes the lesser motivated individuals. It's not what works for the leader...it's how that individual keeps the guys who need focusing focused. The Buffalo Sabres have a leadership problem, although for one game after the fans called for Granato to be fired, this wasn't an issue. Then they reverted back to their old selves and are continuing as the rudderless ship 2023-24 is.

We can talk all day about what happened in the past, but something is foundationally wrong with this rebuild and this year's team...which is now in Year 3. I don't evaluate a rebuild only by what you can see, i.e. player performance and coaches in-game decisions. The bigger problem are the executive decisions made before a puck is dropped. The roster composition is showing major weaknesses, like focusing on skilled guys who don't do the dirty work. The hiring of this coach...a guy who by all appearances is solid, but isn't reaching this group anymore as evidenced by their "compete." Someone up thread mentioned that they essentially kept the status quo from last season. If by the half-way point of the season you're in year 3 of a rebuild sitting 14th in the conference, a shake-up is warranted. It's too late to wait another month.

It's Year 3 of the Adams rebuild and Buffalo has not won 2 straight since late October/early November. They're on pace for 73-74 points after a season they had 91. I think a lot of people were patient last year seeing a team finish 3rd in scoring and pushing for a playoff spot. It's perfectly reasonable to question a rebuild that doesn't take another step forward through half a season.

This is the same franchise that couldn't fire Krueger until he started 2020-21 by going 6-18-4. I still have doubts Adams has authority to fire the HC, but even if he did, firing the HC he re-signed 14 months ago points to a rebuild gone off the rails.

If that's the case, then I'll back away from the being in Florida living point. What's funny about all of this is how, upon buying the Bills he said he hadn't been to a game in years, but at one point had been a Sabres season ticket holder or regular attendee to their games. Same guy who cried seeing the French Connection in early 2011. It's amazing how money changed his preference for the Bills over the Sabres.

He and his family have always gone to FL in the winter, he's 72 years old, and it's possible his wife has suffered a permanent debilitating medical event. I'm not going to bash him for personal decisions to remain physically away from the team. He can communicate effectively without being in Buffalo. That said, the start of the problems with this ownership was when they thought buying the team meant they told hockey people which hockey decisions to make. I have a friend who covers the team who cannot tell me for sure why LaFontaine left. Fast forward a few years and it's clear the Pegula's felt betrayed by NHL types who recommended people like Botterill which led to them hiring someone unqualified but trusted with Adams. It's been one domino falling after another and by now the word has gotten out in NHL circles that's not a place to go. Sure, they'll spend as evidenced by the Thompson, Cozens, Dahlin, and Samuelsson extensions, but it's not an environment where hockey people are given enough decision-making authority. At this point, seeing 4 HC's fired around the league, this team floundering near the bottom of the standings, I'd expect that Pegula would yield to Adams and that Adams has the latitude to change course with the HC.

Donnie Meatballs sounds more like a politician after every debilitating loss. Whoever said it echoes Krueger was right.

"Father, I used a lot of bad language during the last Sabres game. A LOT." "Well, it is a sin, but God can forgive...and empathize."

We can only hope it was the kiss of death. Like Kim saying Botterill's job was safe and firing his 3 weeks later.

It's a common theme within the organization. Terry gets to feel comfortable and the result is the team sucks. Anyone remember the video during draft weekend of some front office exec practically breaking down in tears when they were talking how the culture was so much better under Adams? Yeah...

FIFY.

My point is there's a disconnect between ownership and the fans. They don't consider the lack of fan support as crucial to overall success because they're aloof. Always have been. Still, the apathy has been growing for several seasons now and that should drive change(s). We see that, but their main concern after the Murray and Botterill hirings is having a GM whom they can trust. And of course, there's major drawbacks to that being the prime job requirement.

Yeah, if players continued development then we could all say they're trending in the right direction. And even though they've had injuries, I did not expect to go from 3rd league-wide in scoring last year to 20th this season. To the point about defense, they're really not much improved if goals allowed are the metric. I do not see a coaching change being made and largely because fans have grown apathetic AND local media doesn't push back on the organization as much. That's a bad combination.

30 games is a solid sample size to conclude something is wrong, especially with some of the bad starts. They've given up the first goal 19 out of 30 games this year and are 3-14-2. In 14 games they've gone down 2 or more goals to start and are 1-12-1. After the Arizona games that Granato talked about how the compete has improved, but some players still are prioritizing skill. And he wants more of the former before the latter. But if 30 games in, the HC still has players doing prioritizing skill, it makes me wonder why they're tuning out the HC. Because all I heard back in the 2021 off-season from Adams was about "guys who want to be here." Stands to reason that they now have guys who want to be here, but they're doing their own thing deep into the season. Granato ain't reaching them, scoring is down, and the defense is as bad. You can't go down 2 or more goals to start in half your first 30 games and see this season staying on the rails.

Rob and Dan seem to preemptively defend their recent play at have those notes at the ready each game. The NYR game was 5 games and 10 days ago.

If 2021-22 was really Year 1 of this rebuild under KA and DG, then this is year 3 and the results are middling, highlighted by some outstanding efforts, but complemented by more games on the opposite end of the spectrum like last night at at New Jersey. Who pushes the players and gives them the internal competition to raise their game in this franchise? Neither the GM nor HC seemingly do. And I'm not referring to yelling and screaming at them, because that doesn't work at the pro level. To me, a shake-up is now warranted beyond sending a young goaltending prospect to Rochester. It won't happen. Firing the HC and replacing him is a bridge too far and reveals the plan is not working. Making a trade is difficult with cap implications. Benching a player? Not their style. And so the status quo continues resulting in the refrain of "they're young." I suppose it will take another year of this to make clear what more people are realizing: the plan is inherently flawed.

“It’s a young team and they’re going to make mistakes.” Next time. I hear that…

Donny clearly getting coaching lessons from Coach McClappy

Rob Ray with the kiss of death praise of Luukkonen.

Hate is a strong word to describe having Okposo on the roster. Question is with a team struggling to score and him at about a 15-16 point pace for the season whether those leadership qualities make up for the lack of production. The other element is whether Krebs' development is hindered by having him playing alongside him. Not a major issue, but a consideration to the subject.