Sabre Dance

Working in tech support for a clinical trials group, this could be my daily motto. We continuously have sites trying to register patients when they don't have all of the preliminary requirements met yet for the trial. Then, we have to scramble around (usually about 4:30 on a Friday afternoon) so that the patient can get treated without delay. Ten minutes of checking the day before would head off these issues, but no one does it. :wallbash:

Nothing earth-shattering. He did put his finger on exactly the issues the team is having and he laid out some back-to-basics steps to get the team playing better. I think he knows he has a tough job ahead of him, but is willing to give it a go....

I listened to Rolston on WGR this morning and he sounds like a no-nonsense kind of a guy who has put his finger on the exact issues plaguing this team. He also laid out some back-to-basics steps to get the team playing better. As long as the players have not mentally checked out for the remainder of the season, I think he might be able to turn things around. We still might miss the playoffs, but maybe watching the team play won't feel like eating broken glass anymore. I think that the next few weeks will be the acid test for a number of players. The malingerers will see a lot of the press box and the guys who do have some heart and pride will pcik up their play. In large part, the rest of the season is going to be like a very long training camp. Those who show up to play will stay; those that don't will be seeing Rochester/Columbus/Winnepeg soon. (OK, maybe not ALL of them). It hasn't shown on the ice yet, but I'm feeling a little better about the Sabres than I did two weeks ago.

I don't know if this has ever been mentioned in any discussion, but the Sabres have had the same strength and conditioning coach for some time. Seeng as they seem to get knocked off the puck often, don't go full-tilt when they're on the ice, etc.could it be that the Sabres are not in the best possible shape? Last night, the team seems to play pretty well in the first period, but as the game went on, they backslid into old habits. They looked tired. Maybe the coach that should have been fired (or perhaps another one to go) should be Doug McKenney...

I think you are referring to Gump Worsley (real first name Lorne). Actually, the Gumper was one of my favorite goaltenders. I only remember him while he was playing for the Minnesota NorthStars. He always looked so old to me, although he was really only in his mid-40s (which is still pretty old for a hockey player...) Well, I've been around since before the Sabres came into the league. I remember sometime in the mid-1960s (I would have been 8 or 9 years old), I turned on the TV on a Saturday afternoon and saw a bunch of guys with sticks chasing around a little black disc. That would have been cool enough, but on top of that, they were all on ice skates! At the time, baseball was the big sport, but I thought that this "ice hockey" was the very coolest sport ever invented. After that, I was hooked... I was in junior high when a friend told me that Buffalo was going to have its own NHL team. I flipped out! The thought of being able to see Bobby Orr, Bobby Hull and Jean Beliveau playing right here in Buffalo was nearly unbelieveable. I didn't get to see a game in person until 1973, as the Aud was sold out for every game. I've been a Sabres fan ever since. It rarely happens these days, but when Gil Perreault skated behind his own net, picked up the puck and headed up the ice, a buzz started in the crowd and often by the time he hit the opposing blue line, fans were on their feet. Even if he didn't score, he almost always got a great shot off (or a great setup to Martin or Robert). There was no goal horn back then, just the red light. But, the roar of the crowd was deafening. THAT was some exciting hockey! :thumbsup:

Now, the onus shifts to the players for sure... If they were indeed dogging it to get their coach fired (questionable), the deed has been done. No matter who is behind the bench tomorrow at the ACC, they need to step up and put up, or shut up.

Now we'll see how fast Lindy does get hired somewhere else. I see him going to Washington after Oates gets the gate. Imagine the fun discussions Lindy and Ovie can have!

You know, for a guy who stood up in front of a bunch of reporters and former Sabres and made all kinds of pronouncements, TPegs is awfully quiet right now. He's been sending poor ol' Ted Black out there to take the heat from reporters and fans but has remained silent himself, apparently turning down interview requests. As the guy at the top of the team org. chart, he should be at least as willing to take heat as he was to bask in the limelight after puchasing the team. I can only surmise that he feels he has painted himself into a corner and does not know how to extricate himself. The current situation with this team is an insult. It is an insult to all of the former Sabres who played their hearts out for the Blue and Gold. It is an insult to all Sabre fans, long-time and brand new. It is an insult to the team itself. Worst of all, it is an insult to the founders of the Sabres franchise. The Knox brothers brought a fledgling expansion franchise into the NHL in 1970. Five years later, their team was one of the best in the NHL and went to the Stanley Cup Finals. I can't imagine what they would think of the current situation if they were still with us. There were some pretty lean years for this franchise in the past, but none of those left me feeling as helpless and as disconnected as I do right now. It's futile to do mental calisthenics as to who we could trade for or what coach/GM might be available. It looks like the team management has decided to stay the course no matter how bad things get. I guess we must begin looking at this team like we would watch a really bad "B" movie and take our "entertainment value" from that. You know, it's so sad it's funny... :cry: :lol: Mystery Hockey Theater 2013.

I don't question TP's commitment at all - I firmly believe he should be committed..... :blink:

The discussions in this thread have been thoughtful and entertaining. Too bad Darcy has been busy re-reading "Moby Dick" for the last two weeks and has no idea who this "Reilly" guy is..... :blink:

...meanwhile, the sound of crickets coming from the Sabres' front office is deafening. :bag:

While watching the Boston game Sunday night, there was a player who made me sit forward whenever he touched the puck. Unfortunately, it was a Bruin player..... :(

Does this mean if white smoke is seen coming from the FNC chimney that Pegula has selected a new GM?

The question was, what would you do if you were GM, not what would you do if you are Darcy Regier. :D

Actually, I think I was there! (Or the same thing happened on another night...). My dad and I were sitting in seats he got from a co-worker - first row orange, section 36 right behind the net. (This would be the Zamboni end of the Aud). We were there early and I was reading the game program. Suddenly, we heard a commotion to our right. A guy had lost his balance and fallen about 15 rows back in the next section over. He slid down on top of the seat backs and stopped just a couple of rows from the railing. He had this panicked look on his face like he was going to just keep going right over the railing and down into the lower blues. I remember him yelling, but I don't think it was "Bruuuiiiinns!" It was more like a plain old scream. Maybe it was a different night.....

That's what happens when you run around your own zone waving your sticks at the Bruins instead of hitting them and knocking them off the puck. Seriously, I was screaming, "Hit somebody!!" most of the night... Optimism is allowed, but you need something substantial to hang your optimism on. I'm optimistic that I'll get to spend an evening soon with Jennifer Aniston, but that doesn't mean it is in the realm of possibility....

Hmm..Woodward and Bernstein didn't name sources and they brought down a US president. Now, Bucky is no Woodward OR Bernstein, but that doesn't make him wrong. If you're going to hold Bucky's feet to the fire concerning specifics, please hold Ted Black to the same standard. In his interview on WGR last week, he verbally tap-danced for an hour. When asked what was or would be done to improve the team, he said he and Terry were aware of the situation and nothing was off the table when it came to improving the team. Well, what exactly? Trades? He may not have been able to say that Darcy was pursuing player X or Y, but he could have said that the trade route was being investigated seriously. Coaching change? He deferred answering that question. So, we can only go by what has been done this season, which so far is...nothing. As to whether other teams/owners/league officials are "laughing" at the Sabres, no one outside the "inner circle" of the NHL knows for sure. I know that there are people I work with who I would never denegrate to anyone in my office or that we do business with. But, when I talk to my friends, I certainly point out their foibles. I'm sure the same holds true in the NHL. One last thing - when TP took over, he gave Regier and Ruff a "clean slate" re:performance. If you bought a company, would you routinely ignore your new employees job performance prior to your taking over? Not if you want the company to succeed. So, now what? How long is too long to wait for change? The end of this season? The end of next? Do you wait now until Ruff's or Regier's contracts run out? If so, you have much more patience and optimism than I.

That would give Brad Marchand another chance to whine about how Buffalo sucks and there's nothing to do. Maybe he could play in the Labatt's tourney....

I love the line when the (hot) female Customs agent is frisking the bear...He says, "Oh, I think you found something!" I'll bet (nod, nod...wink, wink). On another note, I'm an amateur photographic hobbyist (I like taking pictures, but I'm no pro). A fellow hobbyist turned me on to the the Fujifilm X series of digital cameras. They have awesome image quality - I've replaced all three of my previous cameras with the Fujifilms. Three cameras? Yes, one pocket-size point-and-shoot (Leica C-Lux 3 now replaced with a Fujifilm XF1), casual street-shooting camera (Canon Powershot G10 now replaced with an X100) and a mirrorless compact system camera (Olympus E-PL3 now replaced with an X-Pro 1). With the snowy weather, I've yet to take any great amout of photos and I'm still working my way through the owner's manuals, but so far I'm loving what I've seen with these cameras. On another note, the Sabres comeback last night was VERY awesome! Unlike some arena-goers, I hung around until the end. Sweet! Now, keep the winning going! :thumbsup:

And now we've accounted for all three of the team's wins so far... It makes it worse that two of the teams that we hate the most don't give the Sabres a second thought...

Fixed.

I just fell off my chair laughing.... :lol: You were kidding, right?

Ted Black sounded awfully confident in his statements this morning. He and Pegula have to be aware of the prevailing sentiment of the fan base. They are either incredibly naive (which I doubt) or they're cooking up something. I don't know what that would be, but perhaps with the secret Penn State research and the black helicopters (with consulting input from the Illuminati and a handwritten promise from a leprechaun), Black and Pegula know something we don't. It just goddang frustrating that they appear not to care while all the time saying that they do. Talk is cheap. If I were a fan of another team (especially a rival like Montreal or Toronto), I'd be laughing myself silly right now. The longer this mess continues, the more foolish Pegula, Black, Regier and Ruff look. I'll never be ashamed to BE a Sabres fan, but right now I'd be ashamed to say it in certain company. I really wonder what other NHL owners are thinking when they look at this franchise. As things are right now, I cannot imagine they give much credibility to anyone involved with the Sabres. I know I don't.

Even if they were (which I think they are not), why do it now? They could play some entertaining hockey, have some fun and then tank it the last three weeks of the season. However, if you listened to Ted Black this morning on WGR, his comments were very interesting. Being a lawyer, he gave all kinds of non-committal answers, deflected some questions about the coach and or GM losing their job, etc. He also stated that when it comes to improving the team, nothing is off the table. But, here we sit near the bottom of the conference and league and the status quo remains. There is something nefarious going on, or else everyone in the front office is high and doesn't know any better. Or at least it seems that way.... :blink:

This thread is more entertaining than last night's game. ONE-TWO-THREE-FOUR! WE DON'T WANT TO LOSE NO MORE!!