RK’s system: What is it and does it work?

[Shootica]

1 minute ago, dudacek said:

I find it interesting that we are bashing Krueger for being too much of a player's coach at the same time we are bashing him for not letting Skinner play his game.

Must be different posters, right?

People forget that a coach can be demanding and hold people accountable while still being empathetic and someone players trust.  It isn't one or the other.

[Marvin]

5 hours ago, freester said:

No kidding, I wish we had Torts or Mike Keenan as our coach.

According to a couple of people who were "in the know", Housley was like that.  They didn't like it after the TDL his last year.  (I would argue that had GMJB done anything to help the team, instead of writing them off as a fluke, then they might not have been worn down by Housley.)

[bunomatic]

The problem with some coaches is they are stubborn or simply glued to their system. They lack an ability to adjust mid-game if the opponents strategy requires it. I hope this isn’t Ralphs issue. Last year with some of his player usage it appeared to be.

[GASabresIUFAN]

He does seem to be making some changes tonight.

Kind of verifies that his original lines were dog doo

[Scottysabres]

Someone needs to speak to Terry and Kim. They should be aware this coaching staff isn't the droids they are looking for. And it better happen like right now if they want any chance of salvaging this shortened seasons chances for the playoffs. If they want Jack to stick around for that matter. It's that bad here in Buffalo.

Go out and make the trade for PLD, size, grit, center, 22 yrs old, very moldable. You grab that if available, because they don't come along often.

But it's abundantly clear the Capitals just came in to the Sabres house and stuffed a big FU, our points, in RK's face. Just horrible, and I mean truly gut wrenchingly horrible to see our team basically kicked in the balls 2 nights in a row.

Ralph's on now, explaining away how we had them in every category except scoring. Well no ***** sherlock, it's your job to coach the players in to scoring positions, change strategies, make adjustments that find success in game. I have really never said anything about this coach or coaching staff, but they suck, and I'm being earnestly blunt.

[pi2000]

55 minutes ago, Scottysabres said:

Someone needs to speak to Terry and Kim. They should be aware this coaching staff isn't the droids they are looking for. And it better happen like right now if they want any chance of salvaging this shortened seasons chances for the playoffs. If they want Jack to stick around for that matter. It's that bad here in Buffalo.

Go out and make the trade for PLD, size, grit, center, 22 yrs old, very moldable. You grab that if available, because they don't come along often.

But it's abundantly clear the Capitals just came in to the Sabres house and stuffed a big FU, our points, in RK's face. Just horrible, and I mean truly gut wrenchingly horrible to see our team basically kicked in the balls 2 nights in a row.

Ralph's on now, explaining away how we had them in every category except scoring. Well no ***** sherlock, it's your job to coach the players in to scoring positions, change strategies, make adjustments that find success in game. I have really never said anything about this coach or coaching staff, but they suck, and I'm being earnestly blunt.

..but the players really really like him 🙄

[GASabresIUFAN]

16 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

..but the players really really like him 🙄

The Bills players liked Dick Jauron

[MODO Hockey]

Imagine if the clueless Jbot and TPG would have hired Rikard instead of this ***** clueless cupcake of a coach

[LGR4GM]

I've missed angry Modo.

 

Any coach trying to run the pp from the point is behind the times. 

[Trettioåtta]

11 hours ago, Scottysabres said:

Someone needs to speak to Terry and Kim. They should be aware this coaching staff isn't the droids they are looking for. And it better happen like right now if they want any chance of salvaging this shortened seasons chances for the playoffs. If they want Jack to stick around for that matter. It's that bad here in Buffalo.

Go out and make the trade for PLD, size, grit, center, 22 yrs old, very moldable. You grab that if available, because they don't come along often.

But it's abundantly clear the Capitals just came in to the Sabres house and stuffed a big FU, our points, in RK's face. Just horrible, and I mean truly gut wrenchingly horrible to see our team basically kicked in the balls 2 nights in a row.

Ralph's on now, explaining away how we had them in every category except scoring. Well no ***** sherlock, it's your job to coach the players in to scoring positions, change strategies, make adjustments that find success in game. I have really never said anything about this coach or coaching staff, but they suck, and I'm being earnestly blunt.

Come on man. This is two games in and we played a dominant game. They didn't kick us in the balls, we played a much better game than them. Sometimes the better team loses.

We won ten games in a row winning them basically all in overtime. We didn't make the playoff offs that year. Give me a dominant team and they won't win every time, but over 50+ games they will win enough.

[Carmel Corn]

2 minutes ago, Trettioåtta said:

Come on man. This is two games in and we played a dominant game. They didn't kick us in the balls, we played a much better game than them. Sometimes the better team loses.

We won ten games in a row winning them basically all in overtime. We didn't make the playoff offs that year. Give me a dominant team and they won't win every time, but over 50+ games they will win enough.

I don't see it happening as you say...terrible special teams (again), so-so goaltending, players on wrong lines and our two franchise players looking below standard.  A bad start will quickly lead to finger pointing and bad vibes all around, which will fester and infect everybody.

[Trettioåtta]

2 minutes ago, Carmel Corn said:

I don't see it happening as you say...terrible special teams (again), so-so goaltending, players on wrong lines and our two franchise players looking below standard.  A bad start will quickly lead to finger pointing and bad vibes all around, which will fester and infect everybody.

Yeah special teams haven't been good - but it is still only 2 games in after 10 months without hockey. I think Ulmark is fine and played a good game and made some nice saves. I do have concerns about Hutton.

Let's hope RK/team leadership can keep the finger pointing and bad vibes out and they'll pull together and dig in as a team rather than divide

[Scottysabres]

8 minutes ago, Trettioåtta said:

Come on man. This is two games in and we played a dominant game. They didn't kick us in the balls, we played a much better game than them. Sometimes the better team loses.

We won ten games in a row winning them basically all in overtime. We didn't make the playoff offs that year. Give me a dominant team and they won't win every time, but over 50+ games they will win enough.

Love the optimism, but they didn't dominate last night, and most certainly not the night before.

They played better last night, but once again, 0 out of a possible 4 points in 2 home games to start the season is a kick in the balls imo. There are only 56 games this year in case you hadn't noticed, every point lost only drags a team already known to not play a full season year after year further in to the basement imo.

[Carmel Corn]

3 minutes ago, Trettioåtta said:

Yeah special teams haven't been good - but it is still only 2 games in after 10 months without hockey. I think Ulmark is fine and played a good game and made some nice saves. I do have concerns about Hutton.

Let's hope RK/team leadership can keep the finger pointing and bad vibes out and they'll pull together and dig in as a team rather than divide

I hope you're right, but that means RK will have to be willing to swallow his pride and change some of his strategy (ex. special teams).  I was also hoping they were right about Hutton....we'll see.

[JohnC]

1 hour ago, Carmel Corn said:

I hope you're right, but that means RK will have to be willing to swallow his pride and change some of his strategy (ex. special teams).  I was also hoping they were right about Hutton....we'll see.

The coach did change his strategy this game. He put Reinhart on the Jack line and it resulted in that line dominating the play although with no conversions. The coach needs to move Skinner up and put him on the second line. I thought Skinner played very well and when he was on the ice he was the dominant player. The coach has to yield and alter on how he handles Skinner. If you have an asset you have to maximize that asset. 

[inkman]

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

The coach did change his strategy this game. He put Reinhart on the Jack line and it resulted in that line dominating the play although with no conversions. The coach needs to move Skinner up and put him on the second line. I thought Skinner played very well and when he was on the ice he was the dominant player. The coach has to yield and alter on how he handles Skinner. If you have an asset you have to maximize that asset. 

I thought Skinner finished last nights game in the second line. 

[JohnC]

Just now, inkman said:

I thought Skinner finished last nights game in the second line. 

He did. He might have even played some on the first line when Hall was getting stitched. What I'm and others are advocating for is him to be an established member of the second line and at times the first line to change things up. 

As I said in a prior post I thought that Skinner had a very good game. The out of town TV announcers even made the observation that he was the most prominent player on the ice during a few of his ice time interludes. In conjunction with Skinner moved to the second line I thought when Reinhart was assigned to the first line and Tage was off of it the first line played exceptionally well. They didn't convert but they created quality chances. 

[Taro T]

3 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

I've missed angry Modo.

 

Any coach trying to run the pp from the point is behind the times. 

You keep saying the PP is run from the point, but it isn't.  You are correct it isn't r7n from below the line.  It is actually run from the 1/2 wall.  Eichel runs the 1st unit & Staal runs the 2nd.

The monster issue the PP is having is they can't get the puck into the zone after it is cleared.  The 2ndary issue is they are overpassing looking for that play they scored on right off the bat.    Bith of those are on coaching.

A 3rd issue exacerbating the 1st issue which will remedy itself any day now is Dahlin can't keep the puck in the zone.  

At this point, especially in the 2nd, would consider having Lazar start on the PP, win the faceoff and then get his butt off the ice for Hall.  Only partially kidding.  It would guarantee that they start w/ the puck and would therefore allow them to get set up w/ the puck on Eichel's stick quicker.

[Taro T]

23 minutes ago, inkman said:

I thought Skinner finished last nights game in the second line. 

He had a shift or 2 on that line & a few on Eichel's line while Hall was getting stitched up but almost positive he finished the night back on his original line.

[dudacek]

3 hours ago, Carmel Corn said:

I don't see it happening as you say...terrible special teams (again), so-so goaltending, players on wrong lines and our two franchise players looking below standard.  A bad start will quickly lead to finger pointing and bad vibes all around, which will fester and infect everybody.

You’re talking about Sabrespace, right?

[Eleven]

4 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

I've missed angry Modo.

 

Any coach trying to run the pp from the point is behind the times. 

I don't know about the last bit.  It depends on the roster.  If you have Ovechkin on your team, you definitely run the power play from the point, for example.

The Sabres should be running it from behind the goal line, though.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Eleven

[Thorny]

2 hours ago, Taro T said:

You keep saying the PP is run from the point, but it isn't.  You are correct it isn't r7n from below the line.  It is actually run from the 1/2 wall.  Eichel runs the 1st unit & Staal runs the 2nd.

The monster issue the PP is having is they can't get the puck into the zone after it is cleared.  The 2ndary issue is they are overpassing looking for that play they scored on right off the bat.    Bith of those are on coaching.

A 3rd issue exacerbating the 1st issue which will remedy itself any day now is Dahlin can't keep the puck in the zone.  

At this point, especially in the 2nd, would consider having Lazar start on the PP, win the faceoff and then get his butt off the ice for Hall.  Only partially kidding.  It would guarantee that they start w/ the puck and would therefore allow them to get set up w/ the puck on Eichel's stick quicker.

Dahlin actually had a really top-level keep in last night when we had the goalie pulled. Think he'll be ok in this area. 

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

Dahlin actually had a really top-level keep in last night when we had the goalie pulled. Think he'll be ok in this area. 

He did.  And all it takes is a bit of confidence to make that happen regularly, but he misplayed a lot of pucks last night before that.  When he gets that confidence back, the improvement will be dramatic.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Taro T

[mjd1001]

On 1/15/2021 at 11:53 AM, PASabreFan said:

I dream of a day where the hockey is so good, we never speak of diamonds or forecheck schemes or PCWTMOACB (passes completed within two minutes of a commercial break).

Where we leave the theater with no interest in the camera angle the director used to shoot the critical scene or what percentage of the budget went to camera operators.

A movie so awesome, the experience of watching it was enough.

Hockey can be that. We so rarely get to see it in Buffalo, we've truly forgotten what it feels like. We should call a cop — we're being robbed.

I am sad when I read these threads. I do understand it's all we have.

When the team isn't that good, you lose a lot of the 'casual' fans. When the team is good, you get a lot more of the casual fans. What do the casual fans bring when the team is good?  They want to participate in the conversations, but there is less breaking down the forecheck and the PP and PK systems...and more talk about how they just love the way a goal looks or the way the team is playing overall. 

I think if the team gets good, you'll still get some technical discussion on here, but those threads will be harder to find because there will just be more casual fans who aren't here now (or posting now) that will talk about more general topics.

[PASabreFan]

19 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

When the team isn't that good, you lose a lot of the 'casual' fans. When the team is good, you get a lot more of the casual fans. What do the casual fans bring when the team is good?  They want to participate in the conversations, but there is less breaking down the forecheck and the PP and PK systems...and more talk about how they just love the way a goal looks or the way the team is playing overall. 

I think if the team gets good, you'll still get some technical discussion on here, but those threads will be harder to find because there will just be more casual fans who aren't here now (or posting now) that will talk about more general topics.

Interesting take. But I think once the Sabres are good again, a lot of the technical discussions become pointless. I see the point of them right now as some fans with outsized opinions of their own hockey acumen wanting to fix the team. Understandable, I guess, but after 10+ years of it, it's beyond tiresome. I want the Sabres to be good again so that kind of stuff recedes into the background (as many want the Sabres to be good again so they don't have to hear me bitching about Terry — but at least I've given it a rest of late).

Look at Bills talk today. There's chatter about where The Interception fits into team lore. Is anybody really up for "Joe Blow should be the LOLB!"

We've forgotten what it's all about.