Doohickie

Thank you for pointing that out. I smiled quietly to myself when I noticed that.

The difference is the direction each team is heading. The Sabres have been hot trash for a decade and are willing their way out of the morass. VGK is sinking fast. The fact is, by trading Jack to them, we've become them and they've become us. Have fun losing even more, Jack.

Oh, we know what you're talking about. We've been talking about it since 2015.

In my personal fantasy brain, the current state of the Sabres is the result of a coup by the Deep State for the good of the team. Kevyn Adams conspired with Donny Meatballs to overthrow the existing GM-HC hierarchy and seized control right under the nose of the Pegulas.

That's where it started for me, but frankly it's all of the 1980s and most of the 1990s. I entered college in 1984 in a city outside of the Buffalo sports sphere. Was busy carousing and drinking to pay attention to sports. My first job post-college was in Los Angeles and I didn't pay much attention to sports in those years. Then I moved to north Texas, in the time prior to the Stars move there. I got laid off there and moved to Detroit. I'd been so unplugged from the NHL for so long the Sabres had become just another team. The Red Wings were a perennial bubble team but started to get good. In following them I was drawn back to the NHL. I was all in when they won the Cup in 1997 and 1998. Just after their 1997 Cup win we moved back to Texas. We (the wife and I) wanted to continue to follow the Wings so we got Center Ice. With the package we also got the ability to watch the Sabres. It wasn't until late in the 1998-99 season that I became aware that the Sabres were any good. I missed the Cup finals that year because I'd voluteered to travel with my son's Boy Scout troop to their summer camp trip in Colorado. I was actually listening to the game in the box van we rented to carry equipment when Hull scored the Cup winner, listening to a station in Dallas 700 miles away. After that I started to follow the Sabres more and eventually they overtook the Red Wings again in my fan brain. To me Lindy Ruff was always a defenseman, never a forward. The May Day! call is something I've only seen in replays. I missed the entire LaFontaine-Mogilny era. I was a fan from Day One but took almost two decades off. That's a pretty big blind spot.

This to me is what sets him apart from other Pegula GMs. At this point I would almost say any Pegula meddling has been eliminated or at least contained. Quite an accomplishment.

I think the timeline is: Summer 2019: Current (at the time) GM JBott hires Krueger as HC Summer 2020: JBott Fired, Kevyn Adams hired; quick retooling to attempt to get the Sabres to the playoffs after narrowly missing them previously, meaning +Hall, +Stall, +Eakin, etc. March 2021: After Jack's injury-hindered season and the utter failure of the retooling, culminating in the 12-game losing streak, Krueger was fired and Granato takes over as interim HC. My conjecture is that as a Sabres insider and astute Hockey Man, Kevyn came into the GM job understanding the dysfunction in the locker room and knew major changes were needed. In the Summer of 2020, Jack either assumed or was told there would be an extensive rebuild and demanded a trade. I believe KA was fine with moving him (and reportedly "listened to offers") but that the Pegulas were not yet ready to move Jack or do a full rebuild. In an effort to retain Eichel/make him happy, Pegulas directed the retooling, which utterly failed when Jack spent most of the season injured, Hall and Staal were slugs, and Krueger proved his ineptitude as a hockey head coach. I believe Adams had already laid out his rebuild plan but accepted direction from the Pegulas to do the best patch job he could... with the admonition that a rebuild was really what was necessary. With Jack's struggles and the firing of Krueger, Adams finally prevailed on the Pegulas to do a total rebuild. I think the Pegulas trusted KA since was was a faithful, long-time PSE employee, and recognized he was right about the rebuild. I think he'd already taken steps toward his build though; he knew which older players to keep (Girgs and Okposo) and which ones to ditch (Eich, Reino, Risto), which is why he had given Reino a one-year deal in summer 2020. I think this whole time Adams knew what he wanted to do, did what the Pegulas directed him to do, but set things up to quickly pivot when the Pegulas finally came around to his way of thinking. He's made mistakes, particularly at goalie, but otherwise has done an admirable job of transforming the team in a very short time.

Even if the Sabres had brought in the second coming of Hasek, that wouldn't have saved them if that goalie got injured. It wasn't that they had the wrong goalie the last couple seasons, it's that the goalies they had couldn't stay healthy.

And this cracks me up. He was probably two seasons from the rebuild being complete, about half of which was wiped out by Covid and his injury. Now he's playing for a team in cap hell (in part due to his contract) that's likely in decline, and he could have been at the vanguard of an up-and-coming team. I hope you never make the playoffs, Jack. I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't the rebuild that made him want out, that it was Adams telling him he wasn't going to be what the team was building around going forward.... that he was just another hockey player.

I think you've got it right. I'm maybe a little cynical and think he can't pull it off.

Is Tage Thompson better than Connor McDavid?

Right. We want him to solve the problem but not solve it too well or for too long.

Okay, let's start another thread! I think Tage will be be better than peak ROR when all is said and done. He will soon be far better than current ROR.

I'm saying that he is having honest conversations with his prospects and isn't revealing everything to the public. Those conversations may include gauging the prospects' desire to sign with the Sabres versus another team and he may even now be working on trading one or more of them, but until a deal is done, they are valued prospects of the Buffalo Sabres. What I *don't* want to see happen is these players getting away with nothing in return.

I will say, though, that after the Ullmark blunder, Kevyn has redeemed himself somewhat in his handling of the Eichel trade. The goalie situation is a similarly sticky situation, possibly even more complicated, and may take longer to resolve.

I think for Portillo and Levi in particular, how Adams deals with the goalie position this offseason will be a strong influence on whether one or both sign with the Sabres. I think there is a fine line leaving a clear path for one or both to get to the NHL (i.e., not blocking them), and neglecting perhaps the biggest position of need on the team right now. If he gets it wrong he could set the team back *and* lose both goalie prospects.

Pretty certain that the Sabres organization is consciously shifting to a practice of publicly respecting their players and prospects in the aftermath of the Eichel injury and trade situation to try to redeem their reputation. He will put forward the party line that each of these three prospects are anticipated and highly valued prospects of the Sabres. If a deal is eventually done, it will likely be spun as doing what was in the best interest of both the team and the prospect. But it's virtually impossible to know what Adams has actually said to each prospect, what that prospect has told him, and what the plan is for either bringing them to the team or trading their rights to another team.

Excellent. Feed the system.

Yeah, and Ullmark said he would sign, too. I hope Portillo comes through but won't beliee it until the ink is dry on his ELC.

Is there any feasibility in putting the ship on dry land as part of the museum?

And you do? That's laughable.

So who will be the ROR on this team? Mitts or Cozens? Or both? Or neither?

I hope the Sabres win a Cup in the next few years so we don't have to have that conversation about him being not good enough to get us over the hump. The polar opposite of Krueger, who had a total lack of ability to convey simple ideas in the most convoluted way possible.

How about this question: Is Tage better than Ryan O'Reilly?