The Krueger Effect

[darksabre]

13 minutes ago, Thorny said:

This is exactly what I was talking about weeks ago when I was saying Botterill's cap management has only been "adequate" thus far. He's supposed to be a cap whiz. He should find a way to either find a spot for Bogo should that situation arise, or clear, what, the ~2 mil in space necessary to allow for a 7 mil (Risto gone) buffer. 7 mil is enough to bring in a bonafide talent. 

If we are sitting here with not only a dearth of top 6 talent, a roster so in need of an upgrade yet STILL somehow up against the cap such that no move can be made, what are we even doing here? We are lacking talent yet somehow still a cap team. Come on. 

This is also why I never bought the, oh well, it was only a 3rd we gave up for Vesey. How much does he make? We need that cap space now. 

Botterill not augmenting the top 6 substantially in the offseason, yet also still re-signing EVERYONE from last year's bad team (save poor Pominville) so as to not even allow an upgrade to be made, is just unacceptable. I'm not saying this is necessarily when happened, this is why I am choosing to believe he thinks he has fluidity with how he manages this cap wise. 

I can't argue against any of this. He's handcuffed himself. 

[Thorny]

3 minutes ago, darksabre said:

I can't argue against any of this. He's handcuffed himself. 

I'm really hoping he doesn't think this himself, or that he fancies himself Houdini, at the very least. Surely he can fandangle a little room on top of whatever we move out in a deal. Right?

[Taro T]

4 hours ago, darksabre said:

Someone who fits in on a checking line doesn't have to not be a goal scorer... 

I think some people are dreaming big about what is possible right now. I think a 15-20 goal guy is the best they could do given their cap situation. If they can add two of that type of player it would make a huge difference. But I don't think we're getting a 30 goal guy from anyone. 

One interesting point about the cap is the way the current CBA is written, once a guy is on LTIR the team needs the cap space available to bring him off LTIR.. (I'd thought they HAD to make room when he was ready to be on the roster, but that seems to be incorrect.)

So, they might have more room than we expect they have.  And, honestly, I still expect Ristolainen has value league wide.  (Which frees up enough space to make a legit move this year.).

My concern is still that Botterill might consider that he's playing with house money this year and things don't get real to him until next season.  (Hope that's wrong, and it very well could be; but until a move is made, it isn't.)

[triumph_communes]

Bogosian will return.  We have zero cap space.

[LGR4GM]

If I understand the CBA correctly we have roughly 940k already banked for Bogo being on LTIR. Is that correct to the lawyers out there? We get cap savings on each game he is out on LTIR? 

[Brawndo]

 

[triumph_communes]

6 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

If I understand the CBA correctly we have roughly 940k already banked for Bogo being on LTIR. Is that correct to the lawyers out there? We get cap savings on each game he is out on LTIR? 

You get no cap savings at all if you're exceeding the cap before LTIR, like we currently are, even if you aren't using all the LTIR.  We will have 0 saved up at the deadline unless some big trade happens moving lots of money out.

 

https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/sabres

 

The projected LTIR must be negative for us to be gaining anything.  We're 2 million over.  Hunwick is never coming back, so that's ok.  But the current 'cap space' is only 4.8 million, so they'll need to fine another 300k to reinstate Bogosian (covered by us sending someone down and then we will have 700k cap space remaining).

 

Botterill is going to want to end the season under though, because there's 4 million in rookie bonuses on the line.  Though, we can carry any rookie bonus overages forward to next year where we will be out of cap hell, and probably what he intends to do.

Edited November 13, 2019 by triumph_communes

[dudacek]

Notwithstanding the impact his systems may or may not be having, what attracted me to Ralph was his obvious focus on properly managing people, both as individuals, and in groups.

Overall, I like what I’ve seen.

Reinhart, Sheary, Miller, McCabe, Bogosian and Mittelstadt have more or less been what they were prior to Ralph.

And one could say his influence has negatively impacted Skinner and Hutton. Some (not me) might make a case as well for Dahlin and ERod.

But one could also say there have been dramatic turnarounds in the play of two of our favourite whipping boys, Sobotka and Scandella. One could also say that the contributions of Kyle Okposo and Zemgus Girgensons have notably improved and Linus Ullmark, Johan Larsson and Rasmus Ristolainen are playing some of the best hockey of their careers. Newcomers Montour, Olofsson and Jokiharju have flourished, as did Johansson prior to his injury.

I didn’t watch much of Jimmy Vesey prior to Buffalo, but given what his press clippings told me to expect, his transformation has been remarkable. His scoring has disappointed, but his doggedness and reliability without the puck and dedication to battle through his extended goalless start has been a revelation.

And the emergence of Jack Eichel on and off the ice has been remarkable.

We’ll save the conclusions until the end of the year, but so far I think the Krueger effect on a mediocre collection of talent has been real.

Now if he can just fix the special teams, while his boss acquires another forward, we’ll be in business.

 

 

Edited December 11, 2019 by dudacek

[dudacek]

The Athletic talked to each of the new NHL coaches this season. Here’s Ralph’s response:

You have been away from the NHL and the North American game for six years. What is going through your head as you shift from something so dramatically different — the English Premier League — back to this?

“It’s quite simple. I am not allowing emotions into my space. From the day I made the decision, I have been extremely focused on taking care of what I need to take care of on that day and I haven’t drifted beyond that.

“The first few months were about developing a revised plan for where the NHL is today, where the speed of the game is and the lowering of the physicality and the increasing of the offense. With my assistant coaches, we developed a plan throughout the summer. I mean, we brainstormed hours and hours and hours. Once the plan was clear, it was about how to implement it. We had lots of contact with the players in the summer, lots of communication before we even came together. Every day, we have so much to work on and improve on so we have stayed on topic. I’ve just been plowing through some hard labor together with the staff and the players and that’s really it.”

How did you familiarize yourself with the NHL game after being away so long?

“I’m a coach that focuses much more on my own team than others. There’s always pre-scouting — and I don’t watch every minute — but our video guys cut them together and they know what I’m looking for. In the end, it’s been a focus mainly on us and it continues that way. We’re making sure we’re getting our principles and concepts in on a regular basis.

“As far as the need-to-know the details, I have that around me. I have that support from my coaching staff. There is so much copy and paste in the league that you try to look for the nuances and I try to look for the personality of a team. Every team has a personality and I have enough time to go team by team, even with the back-to-backs, but it is a learning process.”

Is there an inherent advantage from having worked in Europe and being familiar with so many other hockey-playing cultures?

“We have 10 (European) players. Almost half your team comes from European cultures so understanding them helps a lot: the needs of a Finnish player vs. a Czech vs. an American. They come from completely different backgrounds so it’s important to be cognizant and respectful of that. There are different buttons to push — not that everybody from a country is the same but I do feel that is an advantage I have.

“Having said that, this is such an international game now. Hockey is played very similar all over the world now. There’s no real European and North American game anymore. I think they are all meshed together. You have the different (ice) surface but the great Swedish players have a lot of the same traits as the great Americans and Canadians. Twenty years ago, there was such a different personality coming from each country. Now, everybody has homogenized the game because they have taken the best parts of different cultures.”

You didn’t get much of a chance in Edmonton. Why come back after all those years in Europe before and after the abbreviated Oilers experience?

“More than anything, I was looking at all my different experiences in life and what was the next place where I could use the maximum amount of my toolbox. This was the only role that gave me that feeling. I could have gone into team presidency or there were two groups looking to purchase teams in the Premier League that asked me to lead the purchase. I had three really weird options.

“After the Olympics and the World Cup, there was so much hockey going on inside my brain that I wasn’t able to put into play and I thought if I don’t do it now I might not ever be able to do it. I can use my leadership skills at the same time. Everything in my life seemed applicable to what Buffalo needed. It felt like the right time to come here. I took the job because it checked more boxes than any other one and the personal challenge and the respect I had for the challenge made me want to climb another really steep mountain and this was the steepest of them all. The others were quite a bit flatter and softer.

“I think it’s a renewing experience for my whole family. This is the world I was in for 25 years. We never cared where we were, whether it was in Austria or the Olympics. I just love the day-to-day life as a head coach so to be able to step back into that lifestyle, my whole family has really embraced it. My kids are adults now but this is a journey we are sharing together. It’s definitely refreshing and renewing. The people of Buffalo and this organization from Day 1 have been extremely supportive about this abstract hire.

“I could have had a lot tougher month of August or September. Friends of mine who might have questioned me taking the job because of the perception of me coming from the Premier League in a chairman role to this, but the people of Buffalo were open right from the start and that has helped a lot.”

[Doohickie]

There is just something about the way he talks that doesn't engage me.  Sometimes you read someone's words and think, gee I'd really like to have a beer with him and shoot the breeze.  I don't see RFK that way at all.  I'm not saying he's a bad coach, just that I don't find his story personally interesting.

[LTS]

17 hours ago, Doohickie said:

There is just something about the way he talks that doesn't engage me.  Sometimes you read someone's words and think, gee I'd really like to have a beer with him and shoot the breeze.  I don't see RFK that way at all.  I'm not saying he's a bad coach, just that I don't find his story personally interesting.

I love this because I feel the exact opposite and I think that demonstrates how different everyone is...

i found that whole block of information interesting. 
 

life is good.

 

[Doohickie]

To be clear, whether I want to have a beer with him or not is irrelevant.  I just want to see wins.  I like this team better than last year's so far, so I'm willing to stick with him.

[Doohickie]

I've been at best lukewarm on RFK from the start.  Pleasantly surprised when the team was 8-1-1.  As the season has worn on, in his post game interviews Ralph says stuff like, "lots of situations that we can learn from."  But the team doesn't seem to learn.  At all.  It tells me he's a terrible teacher and not much of a motivator (which is supposed to be one of his strengths).  I realize there are problems with the roster, but I just don't see this team moving forward under RFK at tall.

[LGR4GM]

Glad you brought this back up because I keep wondering about Chris Taylor's impact on the team. 

[...]

Every coach since Lindy has been saying the same exact thing. You could literally take post-game quotes from Nolan, Rolston, Bylsma, Housley and Krueger, and reassign them randomly to one of those guys and the message wouldn't change.

I'm not excusing RK, but at the same time we have to consider the patterns that have been well-established. Seems by December whatever effect the coach(es) had starts to wear off and the rest of the season becomes a struggle.

[Gatorman0519]

"We will learn from this"... said every coach the past decade and they never do.

[StuckinFL]

The problem is the roster, not the coach. I remember an interview with Ryan Miller where he spoke that he listened and followed Ruff and took the criticism because he was afraid of Ruff benching him. This was during his Venzia winning season I believe and he was still afraid Ruff would bench him. If you have a few talented bad apples on the top lines but have absolutely no way to bench them because the team is so barren of talent, how can you hold these kids accountable? And remembering that they are just that, kids. They're young and there is no way to hold them accountable. 

[Kruppstahl]

On 12/11/2019 at 5:57 PM, Doohickie said:

There is just something about the way he talks that doesn't engage me.  Sometimes you read someone's words and think, gee I'd really like to have a beer with him and shoot the breeze.  I don't see RFK that way at all.  I'm not saying he's a bad coach, just that I don't find his story personally interesting.

He speaks in the way business-oriented self-help motivational type books are written! 

Why in the world would he seem engaging?

This idiot Botterill is worse in that regard.

 

[Doohickie]

27 minutes ago, StuckinFL said:

The problem is the roster, and the coach.

fify

[Doohickie]

44 minutes ago, Kruppstahl said:

He speaks in the way business-oriented self-help motivational type books are written! 

Why in the world would he seem engaging?

One would think that motivational speakers would be able to engage with the people they're trying to motivate.

[Doohickie]

Now I'm really frustrated with Krueger.  The Lazar-Mojo-Sheary line looked pretty good tonight.  Why didn't Krueger try Mojo on the wing earlier?  How many games have we lost because he insisted on forcing a winger to be a center?  Granted it's only one game against a lousy opponent, but they actually helped Hutts get a win, and that's saying something.

The thing that really pissed me off was when Krueger was glowing after the game with the credit for inserting Lazar between Mojo and Sheary.  Great move.  But why didn't he try  it sooner???  About the only way to make this right is to tank our way to another top 3 pick and transform from a lottery team to a Cup contender by October.  If he gives us more of the same next year I might try being a Stars fan.  Do make me do it, Ralph!

[PerreaultForever]

I think it finally came about because Ralph has given up on Skinner for this year. Johanson is a playmaker and pairing him with Skinner was a reasonable idea imo. Playing him at center speaks more to the failure of Casey and to JBot's failure to provide a 2C in Mitts place. 

Nobody would have suggested Lazar as that player and if Krueger had put him there early on we'd all have said he was insane. 

I could be wrong, but it seems to me Krueger is simply trying to do what all coaches do. If you work hard and play well you get bumped up the lineup and if you suck you get bumped down (along with your ice time). We're not a very deep team, so it's hard for him to do on a regular basis, but this is part of the simple motivational dynamic of any team. The result is supposed to be for others to see how Lazar has moved up by working hard and thus they will follow the lead. I can't argue with it.

[Doohickie]

I think it's been obvious for some time that Mojo is not a center.  Krueger should have made this move months ago.

[Torpedo Forecheck]

Now if he'll just use Lazar to win an OZ PP faceoff and we don't waste 30 secs. losing it and having it iced every time.

[Doohickie]

Okay Ralph.  Here's your challenge.  You've got your forwards back.  Prove me wrong.  I hope you do.