That Aud Smell Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 19 minutes ago, dudacek said: Howard did a much better job asking the questions I wanted asked than we got yesterday. He's got a tough job - filling air time, etc. And part of his persona (shtick) is the middle-aged curmudgeon. But, when the chips are down, the guy is prepared, smart, and incisive - a seasoned pro. He can ask really good questions, and get answers that go beyond cliches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGR4GM Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 2 minutes ago, Zamboni said: Somebody asked a question at the presser yesterday about hiring experience for the assistant GM position… And KA said that’s going to be part of the ongoing discussions with the pegulas. Maybe I’m just being optimistic, but I think that’s pretty much saying it without really saying it at the presser… That they do want some experienced people in the assistant GM position. Me personally I hope that they do get somebody with a ton of experience to back up KA. Of course I’ll believe it when I see it. And not before. If so the perfect hire is Gillis. He mixes analytics and scouting and has experience. I unfortunately think he's a little rough around the edges so they need someone like that but probably not him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudacek Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 I woke up this morning kinda sad. Taking Botterill’s hands off the wheel was a good thing, a necessary thing. Gutting the hockey department might have been a necessary thing as well. But the Pegulas didn’t make these changes because he was a bad GM with a bad staff, they made them because they wanted to make philosophical, business-related changes and they didn’t like the way he reacted to their directives to get leaner. And we were left with a skeleton crew in charge of knowing and analyzing and exploiting the team and the league, led by two men with limited knowledge of same, and a suggestion that they wouldn’t have the resources needed to overcome that. It seemed like we headed for more of the same. Listening to Adams improved my mood. Not because he was articulate and personable and seemed in tune with the issues, but because it reinforced to me how broken the organization has been and how ineffectual, even reluctant it was under Botterill to address that. Adams has been given a blank slate to fix us. I have no idea if he can, or if he will, but the opportunity is there. And that means we are in a better place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 30 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said: I remember when Dan and Phil and Ralph and Jason also all said they wanted to play fast with the puck There is no more useless question in hockey You mean that there are not teams out there trying to play slow and without the puck??? 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GASabresIUFAN Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 My concern with getting the experienced Ast GM is that the top guy is going to have to be willing to listen to a subordinate. Admittedly, I have no evidence one way or the other if he is willing to listen to subordinate, but my impression is that he isn't the type. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GASabresIUFAN Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 1 minute ago, dudacek said: I woke up this morning kinda sad. Taking Botterill’s hands off the wheel was a good thing, a necessary thing. Gutting the hockey department might have been a necessary thing as well. But the Pegulas didn’t make these changes because he was a bad GM with a bad staff, they made them because they wanted to make philosophical, business-related changes and they didn’t like the way he reacted to their directives to get leaner. And we were left with a skeleton crew in charge of knowing and analyzing and exploiting the team and the league, led by two men with limited knowledge of same, and a suggestion that they wouldn’t have the resources needed to overcome that. It seemed like we headed for more of the same. Listening to Adams improved my mood. Not because he was articulate and personable and seemed in tune with the issues, but because it reinforced to me how broken the organization has been and how ineffectual, even reluctant it was under Botterill to address that. Adams has been given a blank slate to fix us. I have no idea if he can, or if he will, but the opportunity is there. And that means we are in a better place. To me it sounds like the return of a Larry Quinn style organization with a new yes man as the GM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGR4GM Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 Just now, GASabresIUFAN said: To me it sounds like the return of a Larry Quinn style organization with a new yes man as the GM. Then it really all depends on what he is saying yes to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darksabre Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 2 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said: My concern with getting the experienced Ast GM is that the top guy is going to have to be willing to listen to a subordinate. Admittedly, I have no evidence one way or the other if he is willing to listen to subordinate, but my impression is that he isn't the type. Based on what, exactly? Because all evidence points to him being essentially a co-equal with Krueger in this structure. Having an older, more experienced AGM shouldn't be an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGR4GM Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 I keep coming back to what Adams said about scouting and analytics working together. It really sounded like these two things were viewed separately to the detriment of the team. Maybe Adams is aware of what Seattle is doing. They hired a legit analytics department (3 or 4 ppl so far) and sound like they are incorporating all of that into their team building. Maybe we will do that, based on Adams wanting some scouts also familiar with analytics. If that was the case it could be amazing. That would be something I would love to be a part of, if I were a scout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GASabresIUFAN Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 1 minute ago, LGR4GM said: Then it really all depends on what he is saying yes to. It has to be more then that. Saying yes is easy. Executing is hard. All the analysis in the world doesn't do you any good if you can't or are un-willing to make the right moves. For example, what if one of the edicts is that the team is now a budget team and can only spend to 80% of the cap? What is another edict is the return of video scouting and getting rid of our international scouts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
That Aud Smell Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 3 minutes ago, LGR4GM said: I keep coming back to what Adams said about scouting and analytics working together. It really sounded like these two things were viewed separately to the detriment of the team. Maybe Adams is aware of what Seattle is doing. They hired a legit analytics department (3 or 4 ppl so far) and sound like they are incorporating all of that into their team building. Maybe we will do that, based on Adams wanting some scouts also familiar with analytics. If that was the case it could be amazing. That would be something I would love to be a part of, if I were a scout. I read a Tweet to the effect that it sounded like Adams was good with a one-man department for analytics (Nightengale). Nah? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Flagg Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 Not gonna lie. His analytics answer was pretty damn good, looking at it from all angles. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Flagg Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 His hockey talk is far easier on the ears than Jason's. I cannot understate how depressing it was to listen to jason give interviews 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabattBlue Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 I just can’t feel good about this hiring knowing that they interviewed NO ONE ELSE, and instead just hired a guy internally from the business side of the organization. ??? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGR4GM Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 7 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said: I read a Tweet to the effect that it sounded like Adams was good with a one-man department for analytics (Nightengale). Nah? He talked about having people who could traditional scout and do some analytics (kinda like what we do here at times) I believe he used the term cross trained, so I would guess he plans to expand the analytics under Nightengagle. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Flagg Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 I'm still desperate for someone somewhere to acknowledge that our underlying offensive creation ability is critically bad and we will not go anywhere until it's fundamentally fixed in a big way 2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGR4GM Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 1 minute ago, Randall Flagg said: I'm still desperate for someone somewhere to acknowledge that our underlying offensive creation ability is critically bad and we will not go anywhere until it's fundamentally fixed in a big way RIGHT!?!?!?! I am just hoping Nightengale is like "guys our shot quality and generation is piss poor and we gotta stop bringing in people who don't add to it." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darksabre Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 Just now, LGR4GM said: RIGHT!?!?!?! I am just hoping Nightengale is like "guys our shot quality and generation is piss poor and we gotta stop bringing in people who don't add to it." Nightengale: We need guys who generate offense. Botts: Sobotka N: No. B: Tage Thompson N: No... B: Frolik N: What? B: Wayne Simmonds N: ......... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Flagg Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 He mentioned valuing analytics as a source of information, and why would you turn down information, but also stressed that you need to be able to tie it to something you see on the ice (my words, I forgot how he said it), which is my biggest problem with anyone who talks about analytics, they rarely will pull out the tape and show how the numerical discrepancy they found manifests, or even offer an explanation as to possible reasons why 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PASabreFan Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 6 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said: I'm still desperate for someone somewhere to acknowledge that our underlying offensive creation ability is critically bad and we will not go anywhere until it's fundamentally fixed in a big way I'm pretty sure Adams and others know this. I understand — some of those others were not able to fix it. But I'm pretty sure everyone everywhere knows the Sabres need to get more, and bury more, chances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGR4GM Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 3 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said: He mentioned valuing analytics as a source of information, and why would you turn down information, but also stressed that you need to be able to tie it to something you see on the ice (my words, I forgot how he said it), which is my biggest problem with anyone who talks about analytics, they rarely will pull out the tape and show how the numerical discrepancy they found manifests, or even offer an explanation as to possible reasons why Bingo. If Seth Jarvis is scoring like a crazy person and I go and watch the tape and it doesn't add up, that is a problem. Or if Cozens is 3rd in the WHL in ppg and I go and watch the tape and he is the one moving that offense, bingo we have a winner. The numbers should be backed up on tape and the tape should be backed up by numbers. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatorman0519 Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 Perspective. Keep in mind Florida and Edmonton hold the longest playoff drought at ten years. We are at 9 and starting over as we just cleaned house. Without 4 to 6 really good moves and relatively quick, we could officially hold the new record and set the standard of ineptitude. Astonishing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob_sauve28 Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 I can’t help thinking that Hutton giving that interview saying his eyes were bad last season was the reason JBott got canned. Think about it, would that be a secret you’d want getting out? Obviously the press didn’t know, but who else didn’t know? If the Pagulas learned about that from the Buffalo News last week, then I bet they were angry. Did Ralph Kruger know? They kept making the point yesterday that they wanted more communication. That fits the narrative here that they were not told our starting goaltender couldn’t follow the puck! If I were JBott I wouldn’t want the Pagulas knowing that either unless you were ready to find another goalie fast. Once the cat was out of the bag you would have been in an impossible situation with Hutton. Can’t trade him, other teams would know they have you in a bind and we look like a joke, which we do and that’s why Botts is out, IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDS Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 13 minutes ago, Gatorman0519 said: Perspective. Keep in mind Florida and Edmonton hold the longest playoff drought at ten years. We are at 9 and starting over as we just cleaned house. Without 4 to 6 really good moves and relatively quick, we could officially hold the new record and set the standard of ineptitude. Astonishing. Edit: my mistake. I misread the information I looked up. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Flagg Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 4 minutes ago, PASabreFan said: I'm pretty sure Adams and others know this. I understand — some of those others were not able to fix it. But I'm pretty sure everyone everywhere knows the Sabres need to get more, and bury more, chances. I get hopeless because they talk about everything under the sun that might be wrong and needs to get better, except this, and this is still the same problem we've had since 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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