Ralph Krueger needs to go - like yesterday.

[Drag0nDan]

9 hours ago, darksabre said:

I mean, the Pegulas made up their mind about the "character" of O'Reilly before they moved him, so applying the same thing to any other player is within reason. They're worried about "culture" and it worked for the Bills, so... 

GM and coach in lockstep though.  They moved off the "talent" that they had in watkins, dareus, darby, glenn, etc.  But the timeline for rookie contribution is so much faster than in the nhl draft.  You'd have to trade them for high level prospects you thought just needed a chance.  I'm surprised the team hasn't done more prospect swapping in general.  I think having 0 identity and no idea what identity you want to have is what makes it challenging.  

[LabattBlue]

7 minutes ago, Drag0nDan said:

If you fire him and promote his assistant its probably the same price. I'd wait til the offseason to hire a fulltime coach.  I think you need to go through a full process to try and get this right.  

You mean like the “full process” they went through that ended with Kevyn Adams as the GM?

[steveoath]

Is he gone yet?

Edited March 8, 2021 by steveoath

[JoeSchmoe]

Any Simpsons fans here?

This whole situation reminds me of the monorail episode where Krueger is the smooth talking salesman, and we as fans are the town of Springfield that bought in hook, line, and sinker.

[Thorny]

3 minutes ago, JoeSchmoe said:

Any Simpsons fans here?

This whole situation reminds me of the monorail episode where Krueger is the smooth talking salesman, and we as fans are the town of Springfield that bought in hook, line, and sinker.

"You?! You didn't do anything!" 

"Didn't I?" *Beams up*

[Pimlach]

5 hours ago, Kruppstahl said:

Did anyone post Jerry Sullivan's article from last Friday?

 

https://www.niagara-gazette.com/sports/buffalo_sabres/sullivan-your-buffalo-sabres-the-worst-franchise-in-major-pro-sports/article_98f68d20-65a8-5ee4-ad40-a9614930c9bb.html?fbclid=IwAR1gKWFEArFZEZ49--g0ZWbi5b5ipElZ36IoruNCG6Uy2kf9bzKklPL0Ksk

He is still good at kicking the dead dogs.  

[That Aud Smell]

7 minutes ago, JoeSchmoe said:

Any Simpsons fans here?

This whole situation reminds me of the monorail episode where Krueger is the smooth talking salesman, and we as fans are the town of Springfield that bought in hook, line, and sinker.

That was a great episode - of course, the monorail bit is a spin on a story that is as old as the hills -- snake oil salesman, trouble here right here in River City, and such.

I don't think RaKru has that sort of guile, though. I think his failure here is more akin to a Michael Scott type persona.

[Pimlach]

24 minutes ago, Radar said:

I'm still at about 50/50 that they keep him until end of season. More money issue as well.  In fact it could be Pegulas don't want to pay another person to sit at home. Further, how many coaches want the job. Most out there are also probably still getting paid and will want to wait and see what happens after season ends. My hope is that they are looking to someone to come in to oversee this franchise and work with KA.

They can promote an assistant to interim.  They would not be adding any salary.  It would call off the dogs and let them play out the string in another miserable Pegula season.  
 

There will be no well digging.  No earth to scrape.  

[Doohickie]

21 hours ago, Brawndo said:

John Wawrow was on the Tim Graham Podcast this week and mentioned Matt Ellis as a possibility for HC, as they have a close relationship.

The Matt Ellis of NHL coaches.  (Mind you, that would be an improvement.)

[Drag0nDan]

Just now, LabattBlue said:

You mean like the “full process” they went through that ended with Kevyn Adams as the GM?

I mean not hiring say - boudreau mid-season without speaking with other candidates.  But I hear ya... they have the meddlesome owner stink on them now.  The only way to get rid of it is to... stop being meddlesome.  I don't think a hockey president needs to be much more than a layer away from ownership.  They even tried it and screwed that up (not that i felt like Lafontaine was going to lead this team to the promised land).  At the same time, people talk - murray, housley, bylsma, botterill etc.  

Fact is - Lafontaine was hired to be hockey ops - and he quit.  Black was fired for russ brandon.  Brandon wasn't replaced.  So atop the organization they have no hockey ops president, or just... president.  Its all ownership. 

While they operate the same way for the Bills, the GM Beane is essentially the bills president of operations.  He also has put together a solid group below him with Schoen, Boyd, Morgan etc.  Usually you promote the GM to keep one of those by promoting them to GM, asst. etc.

Just now, That Aud Smell said:

That was a great episode - of course, the monorail bit is a spin on a story that is as old as the hills -- snake oil salesman, trouble here right here in River City, and such.

I don't think RaKru has that sort of guile, though. I think his failure here is more akin to a Michael Scott type persona.

 It put them on the map though!

[Doohickie]

57 minutes ago, MODO Hockey said:

How is he still not fired?! what is going on here, what is KA doing??? like FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

and a couple more... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Only one explanation

46 minutes ago, MODO Hockey said:

 

This hurts my soul badly. 

We are DEAD last, AGAIN. 

 

Ralph, i hope that you never ever will coach a hockeyteam again. I hate you.

 

I have to admit... you called it early MODO.

[Doohickie]

33 minutes ago, Drag0nDan said:

If you fire him and promote his assistant its probably the same price.

Steve Smith needs to be gone right now as well.  RFK is not an Xs and Os guy; that's been largely handled by Smith.

[Pimlach]

You Krueger,   your system stinks! 
 

[SwampD]

6 hours ago, Kruppstahl said:

Did anyone post Jerry Sullivan's article from last Friday?

 

https://www.niagara-gazette.com/sports/buffalo_sabres/sullivan-your-buffalo-sabres-the-worst-franchise-in-major-pro-sports/article_98f68d20-65a8-5ee4-ad40-a9614930c9bb.html?fbclid=IwAR1gKWFEArFZEZ49--g0ZWbi5b5ipElZ36IoruNCG6Uy2kf9bzKklPL0Ksk

Ville Leino was the last person to score a playoff goal in Buffalo.

 

... ugh.

[Cal Naughton Jr]

27 minutes ago, JoeSchmoe said:

Any Simpsons fans here?

This whole situation reminds me of the monorail episode where Krueger is the smooth talking salesman, and we as fans are the town of Springfield that bought in hook, line, and sinker.

One of the best episodes in the entire series

[Doohickie]

6 hours ago, Kruppstahl said:

Did anyone post Jerry Sullivan's article from last Friday?

 

https://www.niagara-gazette.com/sports/buffalo_sabres/sullivan-your-buffalo-sabres-the-worst-franchise-in-major-pro-sports/article_98f68d20-65a8-5ee4-ad40-a9614930c9bb.html?fbclid=IwAR1gKWFEArFZEZ49--g0ZWbi5b5ipElZ36IoruNCG6Uy2kf9bzKklPL0Ksk

The only thing he says that hasn't been said on SS is the Ville Leino playoff goal thing.  Nothing new there.

[SwampD]

In yesterday’s game, one of our players had the puck and was skating with speed up the near boards with a trailer. We had caught NY on their first or second line change. Instead of skating into their zone with speed and creating a mini 2 on 1, our player stopped at the blue line and dropped the puck to his trailer so he could take it in. It made zero sense.

Not only did it kill all of his speed entering the zone, but it also gave just enough time for the other D to get across the ice on the change and join the play.

Just stupid, slow hockey.

He may be a nice guy, but I won’t miss his “proven” system.

[Pimlach]

41 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

That was a great episode - of course, the monorail bit is a spin on a story that is as old as the hills -- snake oil salesman, trouble here right here in River City, and such.

I don't think RaKru has that sort of guile, though. I think his failure here is more akin to a Michael Scott type persona.

I don’t see Michael Scott.  I see a Marv Levy wanna be, but without spending his life as a dedicated coach to pick one - football, soccer, or Hockey. 
 

I blame Botterill for digging this guy up from the depth of the Euro Football World.  

[dudacek]

9 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I blame Botterill for digging this guy up from the depth of the Euro Football World.  

In Botterill's defence, it was on the recommendation of your boy Rutherford

[Gatorman0519]

I’m starting to think Adam’s is not serious the longer RK stays behind the bench.  There has to be accountability... everybody in the entire hockey world sees it! 

[SDS]

17 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I don’t see Michael Scott.  I see a Marv Levy wanna be, but without spending his life as a dedicated coach to pick one - football, soccer, or Hockey. 
 

I blame Botterill for digging this guy up from the depth of the Euro Football World.  

The English Premier League is considered “depth”? It’s one of the greatest sports leagues in the world and only 20 teams play in it.

[GASabresIUFAN]

I want RK gone because I think he has done a terrible job.  We can talk about lying, poor line setup, terrible offensive system, use of Skinner etc...

This last nugget about Taylor is a pretty sorry insight in RK the person as well.  His coaching epitaph should be "RK - The Great Motivator who failed to motivate!" 

However did he really have a chance to succeed? During his somehow continuing tenure his goaltenders have been Ullmark (solid but lost to injury now twice), vision and play impaired Hutton and stop gap Johansson.  Not exactly MAF or Tukka Rask.  Last season our goaltender had a 835% save % on the PK. Hard to win with bad goaltending.

His d group is a mix of kids (Dahlin and Jokiharju) and mostly puck moving vets (Risto, Miller and Montour) plus McCabe (now injured) as his only legit D first D man.  

For a coach coaching a defensive first structure, he has a lot of square pegs for round holes.  Despite that the D group was vastly improved defensively last season and most of this season until the wheels came off once McCabe got hurt.  

Also his forward group is a mishmash of styles without much of a physical presence and is still without a legit 2C to take some of the burden off Eichel.  The team also lacks legit proven RWs after Reinhart to play in the top 9. He also has, but I think it's something he wanted, 5 4th line players who are in the lineup most nights.  

I'll also say this here, RK is primarily responsible for destroying Casey Mittelstadt last year and Chris Taylor and Mitts' himself are responsible for getting Mitts back on track.  I'm not saying Casey didn't need to work on his game and maturity (he did), but I'm pretty sure now RK drove him into the ground.  RK's has proven that he has no idea on how to put his forwards into a position to succeed.

None of this excuses his behavior or utilizing a system that isn't flexible enough to place his forwards in the best situation to succeed.  As I've mentioned before, his destruction of all the skilled players, especially this year, is remarkable in it's breath of failure.  Sheary and Vesey are rebounding away from RK.  Skinner is a shadow of his former self.  Offensive minded D, like Montour and Dahlin have seen their game torn to shreds.  Nearly our entire team can't score at even strength.  It takes a spectacularly horrible coach to destroy all-stars like Skinner, Eichel, and Hall.  

Why he hasn't been shown the door already is beyond me, but it would have taken a special coach to get this group into playoff contention with the goaltending the way it is, the lack of physicality throughout the lineup, the lack of a good 2C and RW depth.

Edited March 8, 2021 by GASabresIUFAN

[Pimlach]

Just now, SDS said:

The English Premier League is considered “depth”? It’s one of the greatest sports leagues in the world and only 20 teams play in it.

 I am aware of the Premiership and it is a fine league.  It also has little to do with preparing one to coach in the NHL.  Ralph is clearly way over his head in the NHL as a coach.  
 

Ralph was probably a fine Soccer front office guy.   I wouldn’t hire Bill Bilichek to coach the Sabres either but I acknowledge his ability as a Football coach.  

[GASabresIUFAN]

16 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

 I am aware of the Premiership and it is a fine league.  It also has little to do with preparing one to coach in the NHL.  Ralph is clearly way over his head in the NHL as a coach.  
 

Ralph was probably a fine Soccer front office guy.   I wouldn’t hire Bill Bilichek to coach the Sabres either but I acknowledge his ability as a Football coach.  

Ralph did have an legit NHL coaching pedigree.  He was a good Canadian Junior Player and had a solid European playing career.   He was an NHL asst for a few years and Edm's HC for most of a season.  He was a solid European coach and did a good job with the undermanned World Team in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.   He was known and is a defensive minded coach and considering our goals against in recent years hiring him was not completely out of left field.  

What is clear is that he has zero idea how to help a team score.  During his 6 years out of the NHL, I think he failed to keep up with the increased speed element of the modern game.  He is no Barry Trotz.

Edited March 8, 2021 by GASabresIUFAN

[That Aud Smell]

31 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I don’t see Michael Scott.  I see a Marv Levy wanna be, but without spending his life as a dedicated coach to pick one - football, soccer, or Hockey. 

Krueger coached professional hockey from 1976-1993. Then returned for a stint with the Oilers in 2010. So, he has a body of work as a hockey coach.

To me, he's gotta be much more Michael Scott than the Simpsons' monorail guy -- he genuinely thinks he's doing everything right, even while all external indicators are that he's failing.