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The Laundry List: The Sabres Problems

LGR4GM

By LGR4GM
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Kruppstahl Second Liner

Kruppstahl

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Posted

Someone alluded to it a couple of weeks ago, and we discussed it pretty heavily when it happened, so the rumor is that he called Kim a nasty word beginning with C and rhyming with something Doug Marrone likes to do on fourth and short.

Really?  That's fairly entertaining.  Wonder if it's true or not.

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Thorny Hall of Famer

Thorny

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So, I'm confused here. What's his issue with Kim. Is it because she makes people who suck nervous that they may get fired? Or is it just that fact that she a woman. Would the Sabres be better if Terry did the firing, or Russ because they are men?

 

The rest, sure, but his first point is kinda stupid.

And the Okposo part, too. One of my biggest pet peeves is when writers leave out assist totals to try and make their argument look better.

 

Ya, they still count as points.

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Thorny Hall of Famer

Thorny

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I take most articles written by Toronto based journalists regarding the Sabres with a grain of salt. They are so quick in their praise of the Leafs and just as quick to bash on the Sabres. Considering the Leafs utter futility since 1967, maybe they should focus more on the Leafs lack of success then ours.

That said lets address this article.

1) Kim - It’s her team and she wants desperately to field winners. So far so good with the Bills. I also think she got it right this time with Sabres. I take heart when I look at the mess in Colorado and their one year turnaround. I think the same is possible here.

2) The Locker Room - who cares. Really! Winning cures locker room issues. This team’s lack of scoring ability is the real issue. If they score more, they’d win more and the locker room would be a better place. If Jbot can fix the roster and Jack can get everyone on the same page these issues will be a thing of the past.

3 & 4) Point regression. This is the biggest disappointment for this season. We discussed the lousy 3rd and 4th lines before the season started and frankly that is our achilles heel. If we had better secondary scoring, we’d be a much more effective team. That is Jbot’s chief mission this off-season. However, pt regression is not unusual for rebuilding teams. Again just look at Colorado, Dallas and Edm if you want to see three franchises in various stages of rebuilds and look at their results year to year. Fixing a team isn’t a straight line to the top.

5 & 6) Okposo and prospect development. It has been a strange year for the Sabres. I’m not really surprised after KO’s injury that he has taken half a season to get his game back. Reinhart and Risto have been the biggest surprises to the negative. I think both have struggled with the new system and Wowie has struggled to how to best utilize their talents, but that is changing for all three of late.

Reinhart has 3g 2a in the 9 Jan games, which if he keeps this up would be a 40pt pace. Risto has 3g 7a in his last 10 games and Okposo is actually having a good season if you take away the first 9 games. He has 8g and 17a in his last 36 games. This is a 57pt pace. He also has 9 pts in his last 9 games.

Bottom line is we look very much like Colorado did last year. They had vets who weren’t pulling their weight, some young guys struggling to find their spot in the NHL. Young stars who weren’t playing to their ability. A very suspect D group despite some big name well known players. A couple of locker-room malcontents and a first time 1st year head coach. Sound familiar?

Their former player GM, Joe Sakic, dumped the vets, called up some additional talent, traded away the malcontent opening up PT to a young star and fixed the D. Now they are a playoff team.

The Avs dumped 11 of 21 players who played 50% or more of last season, including 1 goalie and 5 players over 30 years old, but kept most of their core intact. They replaced these 11 with 3 players who received expanded roles from last season plus 8 new players, including 3 prospects.

No reason Jbot can’t do the same thing here Moulson is gone. Kane, our Duchene, will be as well. Gorges as well and hopefully Bogo. Odd are against Antipin, Josefson, Pouliot, Nolan and Falk returning. If Jbot has had enough of Larsson and Girgensons, they are on very tradeable contracts. Young stars are coming and soon. Guhle and Ullmark are almost certainly on the roster next season. CJ Smith could be our answer to Colorado’s Kerfoot. Mittelstadt could also make the team. Maybe one or two of the RW trio also seizes an opportunity in Buffalo next season. Added in the an NHL ready drsft pick, the right FA’s or trades and rebounds by Reinhart and Risto and you could very well have a contending team next season.

This in an excellent post.

 

But please let us not speak of it again - if we all start seeing it as possible, or even expected, there can be no surprise, and it won’t happen. :(

 

;)

Edited by Thorny
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Ogre Second Liner

Ogre

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Posted
“You can’t afford to lose games, no disrespect to them, against teams like this.” said Lucic.

Hey, Milan. F U. Nice cartoon character name. Miss Boston much? How much do they miss you?

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Thorny Hall of Famer

Thorny

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That Draisaitl deal would make me a little nervous as an Oilers fan.

 

He’s actually had a pretty decent year, just not sure it’s 8.5 million bones/per good.

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Darryl Shannon's +/- Top Prospect

Darryl Shannon's +/-

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I guess it depends who she is firing. In my idealistic view of ownership, she'd fire the GM only, not the coach, scouts etc. Otherwise she'd stay in her lane. Terry too. Because they really know nothing about running a hockey team. They never earned the right to do such a thing. She was lucky enough to serve a young Terry at a restaurant in Olean and he liked her. And then he won the lottery with his business. They're not qualified hockey people. Still -- again -- owners do get to decide who runs their team for them.

It's a hornets nest, and, yes, sexism is going to play a part in it in the world of hockey. Putting that aside, as GM, would you be happy about Kim firing your staff?

 

Except in this case, the GM and everyone else got canned.  I'm torn on this, as if I were the owner of a team I'd feel the responsibility to do the dirty work myself.  Yes, the ideal is to say that you'd let the hockey ops team take care of all hockey business.  But when you are the one signing each paycheck, I think a level of responsibility exists as well.  Keep in mind that Bucky and Harrington have pulled the tired, "Kim is in the room while men are talking".  And I think that's where a lot of this talk/speculation starts.  

 

The other thing to keep in mind.  While there has been a lot of turnover for both teams over the past few years - I don't know if any of the firings could be categorized as inappropriate.  Murray and his tactics to build a "heavy" team set the team back years.  And they fired him before we all saw that to be true.  

 

It's funny to me how the criticism flows.  Terry was beaten up for not being available to the media, now the problem is that Kim is too involved in firing incompetent staff?

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