Porous Five Hole

I would prefer Kulich to wing and Quinn to the press box. It might be like shifting chairs on the Titanic, but Quinn has been INVISIBLE. He’s averaged about 16 min a night so far and this is his stat line: Zero points, 2 SOG (9 SOG against), zero hits, 2 shot blocks, 3 giveaways. But sure Lindy, punish the kid instead of the guy cashing checks at 3.375MM

KA doesn’t have a contract next year so he may not be re-signed. Is that the same as firing? If so, it’s him. I think Ruff and KA go out together on expiring contracts at the end of the year.

It would be weird to turn the keys over to a guy who has never done the job before versus a guy that has.

Of course it matters lol I am the type that is trying to come up with practical solutions. “Just don’t play with a coach” or “fire everyone, it doesn’t matter” is not the conversation I’m trying to have. Look at my posting history…I’ve wanted the GM gone for a long time. So if people don’t want to talk about a short term & long term solution to coaching or the front office, then I guess I’m not in the correct thread or right place.

@Thorny, totally OK to disagree. But how should it go tomorrow if everyone is fired tonight? What’s the plan?

I did. Tage said it out loud that negativity breeds negativity. I believe he was returning the vibe he was receiving. It isn’t for me to say if that’s correct or incorrect/fair or unfair. But I’m certainly not going to tell our best forward who has scored 50% of the goals this season (lol) to ***** off for it, like the “fan” I was quoting.

This is only the correct move if Jarmo is moving to Buffalo and is the next GM. If that, then be can backchannel a new coach AND new assistants that aren’t currently employed. Otherwise, you’re promoting from within on an interim basis and that might literally be worse.

negativity breeds negativity

He can go ***** himself? Bad take. Your best player (the only guy who scored today and the only C who would win a face off other than Danforth) is trying to stay positive…and that’s a bad thing? Hey, I get it that we are all frustrated, but I’m not pissed he’s trying to keep it positive to the media.

Amazing how banged up the D is. Right now, the Bills have 3 DTs on the entire roster…Oliver, DaQuan, & Deone Walker. I could be wrong, but I think both Leone & Zion are out of call-ups and would have to move to the active roster if called up again. No matter what they do, it’s going to be a long night against Bijan. Lucky for us, Josh Allen is an alien 👽

Justin Danforth getting more minutes than McLeod or Kulich is not what I had on my bingo card. If you cannot trust your current 2C in the defensive zone, you’re pretty cooked.

It’s not effort today. It’s talent level.

Doan

ESPN win probability has Aves at 97.1% at the moment. Let’s get stupid Buffalo you got this.

The pitch clock has made a BIG difference. Also, batters cannot step out of the batter’s box and can only call time once. It has helped a lot with folks like me who have shorter attention spans.

I don’t love the term of 7-8, but the dollar values are all skewed from years of a flat cap. The 2024 cap was $88MM. 2026 cap will be around 107MM. 2027 cap even higher. So a contract for Tuch in 2024 dollars of 8MM is right about 10MM in 2026 dollars. It is essentially the same percentage of the cap. For me, it comes down to his trade deadline value. He will be the most coveted pending UFA given his style of play and current AAV (not to mention the first crack at signing him to an extension). You may be better off spending 10MM on what you could acquire with him than on him. Just know that he is one of the boys and leadership will need to be acquired to make this contract extension make sense.

“The solution is in this room” Fire KA

Wawrow’s tweets this morning need to be considered when discussing the Tuch extension. In the Bruins game day thread. This team is missing veteran leadership that hates losing. Tuch is a veteran. Can we say he’s a leader of men à la Josh Allen or he hates losing à la Drury? Not playing ability…leadership characteristics. Tuch is a good player. One of the boys and fits in just fine. Good in front of a camera. But he’s not what I hoped he would be at lifting a team up and demanding accountability. He’s just not. And if I’m a GM, I don’t want that type of guy to be my highest paid forward. I’m not saying he shouldn’t be extended. Just saying this needs to be considered. Nice dude. Not currently a part of the solution of needed leadership on this team as a 29 year old veteran.

Listen we have scored a goal

You’re not wrong. Walking out of the arena, I said, “it was nice one team I root for understood the assignment on opening night.” If the Sabres ever get healthy, the spark plugs of Dunne & Kozak can make the Amerks elite.

I agree on Radim. He’s just so athletic that I think he can hang as a young guy. It’s only one night, but you can already see how the Amerks are built differently for 25-26. They’re bigger, heavier, and more built to play big boy hockey than last year. Not relying on young high draft picks to out score teams and prepared to answer any bell. If Levi can hold down the fort, they’ll be excellent this year. Östlund may be the real deal. He had two PP assists and was a driver on each. He was even on the scoresheet and noticeable with the puck on his stick. Rosen scored two laser bomb PP goals. A good sign. The kids are alright.

Dahlin

This makes sense to me.