Doohickie

Krebs: A lot of people had fun with his trees comment. I think he was a little rattled by the trade but he's starting to see that this could be the best move in terms of giving him real opportunity. He doesn't take his position for granted and wants to do whatever he can to stick in the NHL. Also significant is what he likes about Buffalo, if you assume that what he's talking about is in contrast to Vegas. It kind of balances out the envy some of us (me) feel of their early success and the glitz of the Vegas strip.

And Muel looks simultaneously 30 and 48 😄

Watching the Power presser. He's such a man-child. He looks simultaneously 15 and 28.

Tell that to Marty Biron, Rob Ray, Matt Ellis, Patrick Kaleta, Adam Mair, Tim Kennedy, Nathan Paetsch, Larry Playfair.... They have lots of ex-Sabres on staff.

This just jumped out of my brain: Kyle Okposo : Sabres : : Kyle Williams : Bills

Oh absolutely. But imagine if Adams and Granato had been in their current positions in 2015. I doubt we bring players like that into the room to begin with. Instead they would have brought in more Gios and Gorges. And if Granato saw the cliques and factions forming he would have addressed that. Would have been enough? Not sure. But the previous GM-coach tandems just let it go. They were so convinced Jack was the answer they didn't even bother to wonder what the question was.

Yes @Andrew Amerk is also back to normal.

You know the answer to that. You're just being contrary.

I kind of hope that once his playing days are done the Sabres can find a development/coaching position for him. (if that's what he wants)

I think Granato will handle things differently in his own head but I expect him to handle the players similarly. He will still encourage risk for the sake of growth. It will be up to him to manage that risk.

Why? The team was not trending the right way under him. Yes I get it is only your opinion, but it is not supported by anything that actually happened. I thought Mars was going to come up this morning instead of the Sun, but that's just my opinion. I hope of one of them is MAF's agent.

He just wasn't a good coach. That's why the Pens fired him. Everyone now sees that. I would say he contributed to the cancers in the room. EVERY GM and HC between Darcy Regier/Lindy Ruff, and Kevyn Adams/Donny Granato, allowed the cancer to metastasize. It didn't have to be that way, but every single coach we had was clueless as to how to deal with it. Tim Murray brought in Gionta and Gorges as mentors and it was a good thought, but it wasn't enough to overcome the distractions of ROR, Kane, Bogo, etc. The room was splintered in the worst way, with mentors no one was listening to and toxic players leading the young talent astray. Adams did the surgery to remove the cancers. Granato helped the room convalesce.

He was a dreadful Sabres head coach. Dreadful.

I want to say I made a post to the effect of Kyle would ultimately be worth his contract but I've searched for it and haven't been able to find it. You could see it going back to the LOG line: He was very serious back then of doing everything he could to be an asset to the team, even if it was 4th line duty.

I agree with your post for the most part; you're disagreement with my statement is more about interpretation and judgment than fact anyway. But the part I quoted I think is spot on. I think he was determined to get that trade right and if it took patience he was prepared for that. I don't hate Jack as such, I hate the caricature of Jack I've built in my head. Since I'll never meet him or have meaningful dealings with him, it serves me as well as any reality that's more accurate. To me, he's a talented Masshole who was ruined by XGMTM's acquisitions (Bogo, Kane and the rest) who chews up way too much cap space.

Oh I think he'll sign for a lot cheaper; I'm exaggerating (I hope!)

2 x $10 million for MAF. From what I'm hearing he's a younger, better Craig Anderson (not just a solid goalie but a solid team guy).

I'll turn that around: I would say the trend is that UFAs will begin to gravitate to Buffalo, especially those of the undrafted college player variety. Among the skaters, they have three skaters that are over 25: Skinner, Okie & Girgs (well Bjork too but I'll get to that in a sec). If I'm a 22-year-old UFA forward coming out of college, where do I think I would sign and make the team this year? If I think I can outplay Bjork, I would look at the Sabres for sure. If I'm a RHD and think I can outskate Bryson, I'd look hard at the Sabres as well.

Except for Olofsson. He's a very intense dude. He was not happy with his own performance and said as much. He knows he did well at times and his challenge to himself is to make that full time. He also said something to the effect of he's still trying to prove to himself he belongs in the NHL. That's some pretty intense self-motivation.

Also regarding Adams: I think the Eichel trade forged him into a GM. Prior to that he was a hockey guy. In the lead up to the trade I think he made some mistakes, but the trade itself was the best trade by a Sabres GM during the Pegula era. One thing I strongly disagreed with at the time was publicly removing the captainship from Eichel but in retrospect I think it communicated two things to the team: Eichel was never going to play for the Sabres again, and that it was time for the team to move on. It wasn't PR to the outside world and it was a dig at Eichel, it was a move for the team.

Praise the heavens for that.

Tuch is so humble. Damn. Always given others credit.

You just made my wife very happy.

Then the goal would have counted (and possibly been waved off if there was interference). But they said the play was already dead.

Joker is actually like that quite a lot: No flash, no nonsense, just make the smart play. That's why he's on PP2.