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What is your immediate action plan assuming NO trade?


nfreeman

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OK, so JB and RK have summoned you to an emergency meeting.  The NHL trade market is in lockdown, or maybe the Sabres just look so bad that no one is willing to give them anything good for anyone other than Eichel or Dahlin.  In any case, JB and RK want your advice as to roster and coaching moves that they can implement immediately, assuming no trade is Main the offing.  What do you tell them?

Here is my action plan:

- Mittlestadt and Hutton share an Uber to Rochester -- I don't even trust them to drive themselves at this point.  As @freester has noted, Hutton has fallen off the table.  I'd rather see Hamburglar as the #2 goalie -- he can't possibly do any worse than Hutton.  And the only reason Mitts hasn't fallen off the table is that he was never on the table.  He is a net negative on the ice and is not remotely an NHL player at this point.  I don't want to see him again in Buffalo until he is tears up the AHL for 30 games or more.  I won't be at all surprised if he never gets there.

- The Sabres bring in a new assistant coach in charge of special teams.  As I and others have noted, the debacles that are the PP and PK are not talent issues (except for the PK when Hutton is in net) -- they are coaching issues.  The rest of the NHL has solved the Sabres' schemes here, and the Sabres haven't figured out how to respond.  This is a direct result IMHO of hiring a coach who hasn't been in the NHL in 6 years.  It's fixable with the right coaching, but the Sabres don't have the right guy running the STs.  Find that guy and get him here right now.

- Make Bogo the healthy scratch on D and roll with McCabe-Montour, Risto-Miller and Joker-Scandy as the 6 regular d-men.

- When Dahlin is recovered, don't rush him back.  Let him play in Rochester for 5-10 games until he looks solid on both ends.

- Roll the following forward lines:

VO-Eichel-Reino

Skinner-Larsson-Mojo

Vesey-Asplund-Sheary

Erod-Zemgus-KO

 

- Stop playing that stupid "Let me clear my throat" song at home after they score.

 

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31 minutes ago, freester said:

I think a recruiting company needs to be hired immediately to find a new experienced GM ASAP.  CM needs to be traded ASAP before his value falls below Alex Nylander level. Unfortunately I don’t trust Botteril to make any moves. 

The NHL basically did this for Pegula during the previous GM search.  Giving them a list of the top GM candidates to interview.

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1 hour ago, nfreeman said:

Stop playing that stupid "Let me clear my throat" song at home after they score.

I know it's a joke, but I take this stuff seriously. I'm actually kind of surprised the psychological master Krueger (or Kuger as per Rob) hasn't changed up a lot of stuff around the arena atmosphere. What's the sound of losing? Dougie, Jay Moran (and his opposing goal announcements four minutes after goals, during play — nice way to help the team get beyond what just happened, and no I don't blame Jay for that necessarily), LMCMT, stuff the oftentimes moronic organist plays, even the particular style of horn they blast. Shake it all up. It matters. Maybe even a lot. It's Pavlov's bell stuff.

Edited by PASabreFan
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23 minutes ago, Curt said:

The NHL basically did this for Pegula during the previous GM search.  Giving them a list of the top GM candidates to interview.

And delegating that decision to others that don't necessarily have the Sabres best interests in mind was foolish.  (Of course, having Brandon supporting that decision (heck, maybe he suggested it) helps to explain it.)

But, if the Sabres put together a committee of qualified league insiders (some, but not all, of whom have direct ties to the Sabres) to help evaluate where they're at and where they're going, they may actually get good advice out of it.

And, really don't known if they'd be on board with keeping Botterill or punting him. 

 

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Let’s look on the bright side, the goaltending and special teams are fixable things. This team got a point on the road last night with Hutton in net, a short handed goal against and a penalty in OT 

 

Hutton should be gone. They are just picking corners on him and his head is messed up. Remember that goal he gave up to the Islanders from behind the net in the 0-1 loss? And that goal last night with Bogo and McCabe on the rush, what was Hutton doing waiting for a shot there when the guy was obviously going to pass? 

 

Is Michael Neuvirth available? 

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If fans want to buy better goaltending this season, right away, then that takes away from the ability to sign higher end talent. I didn’t say prevent. 

so we trade for goalie XYZ who carries a cap hit of 6 mil. For the next 3 years after this season. Ok, well, we had to trade away significant talent to acquire him. 
now he’s our “starter for the next 3 years. Ullmark is the backup. Ok, so when UPL is knocking on the door, what do we do? Trade away Ullmark? What if Ullmark is a damn good backup? Trade away UPL? Trade away the 6 mil. starter we traded away significant talent for just a year or so ago?  
Instead of stomping feet and crossing arms and just yelling that you want a player, or coach or GM gone, how about you come up with a reasonable, logical well thought out plan that not only makes sense short term, but long term as well. Not accomplishing short term feel good decisions at the expense of long term success both financially and professionally. Some think in terms of sprints, when they should be focused on marathons.

 

i look at the money for Price and Bobrovsky and I just laugh. Laugh and say no thank you to that team building concept. (Paying a ton to goaltending).

Edited by Zamboni
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That’s a good post @nfreeman and I was agreeing with pretty much everything until the Dahlin thing. Dahlin needs absolutely no part of Rochester. He had 44 points last year, was nominated for the Calder, and is still among our leading scorers this season after missing multiple games. He’s a PERMANENT NHL player and we need him. 

Edited by Thorny
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-Give Hutton about 2 weeks without a game.  Play Linus 5-6 games in a row.  See how Hutton comes back after a lot of time off.

-Have Dahlin comes back strong and plays better and you can give him close to 20 minutes per game.

 

Not much else I can think of that might work well.

 

 

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If no trade I don't really have any idea of a plan for the immediate.

I suppose you keep rotating prospects and fringe players in and out of the line up and juggle combos to see if anything sticks or works well together. Sometimes a guy who might not be all that somehow complements another guy and together they are better so look for that possibility and evaluate for the future.

Reward hard work and effort and sit slackers. try - stress try - to build a better culture. 

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From the Athletic -- regarding Mitts being healthy-scratched vs the Oilers:

 

Quote

 

“For Casey, it was a day to take a breath, take a watch from the outside and learn from sometimes watching from the outside,” Krueger said. “When you’re an age like that, we’re just nothing but excited about the way he dealt with today and the time we had with him and the coaching we were able to do with him.

“It’s part of what we’re doing is growing these players with different kinds of experiences, and today was his turn to take a look.”

Mittelstadt has 16 goals and 18 assists in 107 games over the past two seasons. The Sabres hoped a recent move to wing would spark offense, but that didn’t work as well as expected. Mittelstadt returned to center during Saturday’s overtime loss in Vancouver but got benched with 7:39 to play in regulation.

Too many shifts have ended without a sniff of a scoring chance. Mittelstadt ranks 18th on the Sabres at 1.13 shots per game. In more than 385 minutes of ice time, Mittelstadt has 34 shots on only 51 attempts.

He is exempt from waivers, so a confidence-boosting trip to Rochester could be considered. The Sabres were handcuffed by forward injuries for much of the past month, but with Okposo and Evan Rodrigues returning during the weekend, they now have the bodies to make a move.

 

 

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We have to give JBOT some time.  I'm not thrilled with the team but it takes time to change a culture and get results.  If your boss came in tomorrow and said that sales have to increase by 50% in a year, or quality metrics needed to increase by 25% in 6 months or you're fired, you'd probably say WTF.  If it were quick and easy to fix a team, all the Sabre's Front Office would need to do would be to read this board.  Rochester is doing well, the prospects are coming along, the coach and players seem to be in unison, and the team is in the mix for the playoffs. I'd rather stick with JBOT than to start all over again.  I like JBOT and I think the Pegulas do as well (which is all that is important).  I'm sorta enjoying the ride! (and I'm a 50 year fan).

Edited by Tondas
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I agree with @nfreeman on almost everything but would make the Dahlin trip to Rachacha a 2-3 game conditioning assignment and nothing more.  

CM definitely has been given way too much forgiveness. RK preaches competition for ice time and then continues to send CM out game after game till yesterday. 

That's an inconsistent message to the the rest of the team that's supposedly working to get ice time.

Curious about the Special teams coaching idea. 

Is anybody aware whats out there like that?  Maybe some AHL, NCAA or OHL up and coming hot shot.

 

   

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I still think Mitts agent had a handshake agreement with Botts about no AHL time. After all, he did send Thompson down and Cozens to the WHL so Mitts seems to have some special situation attached to him.

Id guess when Botts made the agreement he expected Mitts to take off immediately based on his WJC and thus the AHL was never a problem. Yet instead he’s struggled and likely should have started the year in Rochester. Botts won’t go back on his agreement and unless Mitts tells him he wants some time to fix stuff in Rochester he can’t send him down.

Its a lot like how the ROR trade is very much odd in comparison to all his other trades in terms of design and asset movement 

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