Krueger wanted Chris Taylor "gone": Paul Hamilton says

[dudacek]

18 minutes ago, Thorny said:

I don't want Adams fired but I'm increasingly comfortable assigning him a fair portion of blame the longer the season goes on. And not just for keeping Ralph on. What did we all say the biggest areas of need were this offseason? You mentioned goalie, it was obvious, he didn't do that at all. 2C has been the need for years. We thought he addressed it but what it boils down to at this point is us giving him brownie points for trying - (which maybe seems like a lot cause the previous guy just...didn't) but the spot hasn't been adequately addressed for this season, and it certainly wasn't going forward. Left side D was mentioned a bit. Went unaddressed. 

Basically, without addressing the actual holes we had, the only thing that could have saved his offseason was Hall working out splendidly, and it hasn't worked out at all. 

He should want a mulligan. 

Not arguing your points at all, however it should be pointed out he did have one off-season success: the special teams.

PK has moved from among the all-time worst to top-10. The PP is top 3.

Faceoff win percentage has moved into top 10 as well.

Generally speaking, Sheahan and Reider and Lazar were good value signings that filled a need.

Small consolation, I know.

Edited March 8, 2021 by dudacek

[GASabresIUFAN]

1 minute ago, dudacek said:

Not arguing your points at all, however it should be pointed out he did have one off-season success: the special teams.

PK has moved from among the all-time worst to top-10. The PP is top 3.

Faceoff win percentage has moved into top 10 as well.

Generally speaking, Sheahan and Reider and Lazar were good value signings that filled a need.

Small consolation, I know.

Small consolation is an understatement.  While he got RK pieces he wanted upfront to shore up the PK and get some what better 2 way play from the forward group, he completely failed to get RK the goaltending and D help to make his system work.  Not upgrading Hutton or moving Montour or Miller for a defensive D man, has comeback to haunt this team once Ullmark and McCabe went down.  Honestly upgrading Hutton and getting better skill balance on the D should have been done regardless of who the coach was. 

[LGR4GM]

Just now, GASabresIUFAN said:

Small consolation is an understatement.  While he got RK pieces he wanted upfront to shore up the PK and get some what better 2 way play from the forward group, he completely failed to get RK the goaltending and D help to make his system work.  Not upgrading Hutton or moving Montour or Miller for a defensive D man, has comeback to haunt this team once Ullmark and McCabe went down.  Honestly upgrading Hutton and getting better skill balance on the D should have been done regardless of who the coach was. 

There is no goalie or defender in this league that can make this system work. I can add Hasek, Lidstrom, Hedman, and Neidermeyer to this team and it wouldn't work. 

[KC Scouts]

RK is a pompous ass. This shines some more light on the problem (RK). Thank-You Jason Botterill and Terry Pegula for infecting this organization with this dipstick of a coach.

[GASabresIUFAN]

8 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Small consolation is an understatement.  While he got RK pieces he wanted upfront to shore up the PK and get some what better 2 way play from the forward group, he completely failed to get RK the goaltending and D help to make his system work.  Not upgrading Hutton or moving Montour or Miller for a defensive D man, has comeback to haunt this team once Ullmark and McCabe went down.  Honestly upgrading Hutton and getting better skill balance on the D should have been done regardless of who the coach was. 

 

7 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

There is no goalie or defender in this league that can make this system work. I can add Hasek, Lidstrom, Hedman, and Neidermeyer to this team and it wouldn't work. 

@LGR4GM you may be right that even if KA had made the moves I suggested, that the team might have still failed because of RK's inability to coach offense.  That doesn't absolve KA from not making them.  Upgrading Hutton was an obvious need that everyone on this board and in the media felt needed to be done.  We at SS also have asked for more D first D and more physical presence throughout this lineup for years.  If these moves are obvious to us, they should be obvious to management as well. 

[LGR4GM]

27 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

 

@LGR4GM you may be right that even if KA had made the moves I suggested, that the team might have still failed because of RK's inability to coach offense.  That doesn't absolve KA from not making them.  Upgrading Hutton was an obvious need that everyone on this board and in the media felt needed to be done.  We at SS also have asked for more D first D and more physical presence throughout this lineup for years.  If these moves are obvious to us, they should be obvious to management as well. 

Yes upgrading Hutton was a need that didn't happen. Outside of that, he did everything else. I'm not sold on KA but he's had 1 screwed up offseason. 

To the bolded... what? That isn't why this team sucks. They have Risto, McCabe, Borgen, Miller who all have physical styles to their games.

[Claude Balls]

He mentioned this during his post game appearance on wgr yesterday. And he sounded pretty unhappy with everything going on. He wants RK gone as much as the fans do.

[GASabresIUFAN]

10 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Yes upgrading Hutton was a need that didn't happen. Outside of that, he did everything else. I'm not sold on KA but he's had 1 screwed up offseason. 

To the bolded... what? That isn't why this team sucks. They have Risto, McCabe, Borgen, Miller who all have physical styles to their games.

Quote

 

We at SS also have asked for more D first D and more physical presence throughout this lineup for years. 

 

 

 

Borgen is an AHL player who was not counted on as part of the mix.  McCabe is the only D first D in the starting lineup.  Miller is so bad defensively who cares if he is physical when he does it.  Who is physical and effective upfront?  Who creates space for our skill players in the top 6?  The forwards as a group are soft and have been soft for years.

Edited March 8, 2021 by GASabresIUFAN

[bob_sauve28]

I loved Chris Taylor like a brother! And mean old RK just got rid of him, murdered his career!!1 

[Marvin]

Dear GM Adam's,

Please see if Taylor is willing to be the interim coach.

Signed, me.

[Ross Rhea]

8 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

I loved Chris Taylor like a brother! And mean old RK just got rid of him, murdered his career!!1 

Isn't Taylor an assistant on Ruffs staff with the Devils?

[bob_sauve28]

6 minutes ago, Ross Rhea said:

Isn't Taylor an assistant on Ruffs staff with the Devils?

I have absolutely no idea 

[LGR4GM]

10 minutes ago, Ross Rhea said:

Isn't Taylor an assistant on Ruffs staff with the Devils?

Yes, according to google

[That Aud Smell]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

PK has moved from among the all-time worst to top-10. The PP is top 3.

Man. Imagine if the power play was ranked more like 14-16 ... what would this team's record be? 😬

Also: I initially missed the bit about the improved PK. Holy smokes. The 5v5 play of this team must be historically awful.

Edited March 8, 2021 by That Aud Smell

[Thorny]

57 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Yes upgrading Hutton was a need that didn't happen. Outside of that, he did everything else. I'm not sold on KA but he's had 1 screwed up offseason. 

To the bolded... what? That isn't why this team sucks. They have Risto, McCabe, Borgen, Miller who all have physical styles to their games.

No, he didn't adequately fill 2C. 

If a warm body counts as "doing it", that standards are too low

Edited March 8, 2021 by Thorny

[LGR4GM]

1 minute ago, Thorny said:

No, he didn't adequately fill 2C. 

If a warm body counts as "doing it", that standards are too low

He thought he did though. He actively acquired a player that was a center and could play 2c. Botts acquired a winger and forced him to play c. 

 

[Thorny]

Just now, LGR4GM said:

He thought he did though. He actively acquired a player that was a center and could play 2c. Botts acquired a winger and forced him to play c. 

 

And if the standard is beating botterill, the standards are too low

Is it the GM's job to adequately assemble a roster or is it a GM's job to "think" he's assembling a good roster?

Adams did not add 2C production to this team this season

[Curt]

39 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

Man. Imagine if the power play was ranked more like 14-16 ... what would this team's record be? 😬

Also: I initially missed the bit about the improved PK. Holy smokes. The 5v5 play of this team must be historically awful.

Yeah, it is.  As bad, or even worse I think, than the Sabres’ tank teams.

[LTS]

5 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

I didn't think I could get aboard the fire ralph train anymore but apparently you can supercharge a steam engine and make it go faster.

You can... with expected results as Doc Brown showed.

[DarthEbriate]

1 hour ago, That Aud Smell said:

Man. Imagine if the power play was ranked more like 14-16 ... what would this team's record be? 😬

Also: I initially missed the bit about the improved PK. Holy smokes. The 5v5 play of this team must be historically awful.

Honestly, not much different because we don't get enough PP opportunities to rely on it. In the last four games we've gotten 1 power play each game. We scored 0 PP goals, although Reinhart did get a PP deflection 7 seconds after one had expired and before the Ranger could fully return to defensive position. So -- we'll say we're 1 for 4 on the PP. That's good. But it's one goal across four games.

There were also two instances of offsetting in the previous 4 games (Miller/Lee roughing; Cozens/Lindgren fighting).

The game before that we did get 3 PP opportunities, but were shut out by Philly.

And we don't do anything to draw penalties. Maybe if we drove the net. Or if we had a couple pests, or divers, or whatever. But we don't force the issue and therefore we don't get a chance to use our greatest asset. You have to earn penalties.

[Drag0nDan]

4 hours ago, OhMyDahlin said:

Ralph must have a pretty weak ego to be scared of a coach who couldn't win an AHL playoff game with a stacked veteran roster.

Olofsson is a product of Sweden.

Borgen and Bryson are a product of the NCAA.

Very true.  Ullmark would qualify as a "barely" as well, since he only played under him in 2017 (and he was an assistant in 2015).  But i wouldn't give him credit for "developing" Ullmark either.  

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

He thought he did though. He actively acquired a player that was a center and could play 2c. Botts acquired a winger and forced him to play c. 

 

Also saved some scratch and ended up with the better player.  

[Drag0nDan]

3 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Small consolation is an understatement.  While he got RK pieces he wanted upfront to shore up the PK and get some what better 2 way play from the forward group, he completely failed to get RK the goaltending and D help to make his system work.  Not upgrading Hutton or moving Montour or Miller for a defensive D man, has comeback to haunt this team once Ullmark and McCabe went down.  Honestly upgrading Hutton and getting better skill balance on the D should have been done regardless of who the coach was. 

Nobody wanted montour when their teams were healthy.  I think this is a large reason they considered non-tendering him.  Almost 4 million for a bottom pair defenseman is a lot.  They could possibly trade him now to a team in need of help on the blue line, but his value is pretty minimal at this point on an expiring contract.   Miller has another year at almost 4 million so we'll likely see him blasting slapshots from the wall til at least the offseason.  

The team was bad with Ullmark, but they're a LOT worse without him.  I would've liked to see another goalie brought in as well, but Hall was supposed to help the offense and hasn't.  Honestly I think hutton somehow got worse.  

[Huckleberry]

This board right now

 

  

[GASabresIUFAN]

33 minutes ago, Drag0nDan said:

Nobody wanted montour when their teams were healthy.  I think this is a large reason they considered non-tendering him.  Almost 4 million for a bottom pair defenseman is a lot.  They could possibly trade him now to a team in need of help on the blue line, but his value is pretty minimal at this point on an expiring contract.   Miller has another year at almost 4 million so we'll likely see him blasting slapshots from the wall til at least the offseason.  

The team was bad with Ullmark, but they're a LOT worse without him.  I would've liked to see another goalie brought in as well, but Hall was supposed to help the offense and hasn't.  Honestly I think hutton somehow got worse.  

Montour isn’t the issue.  The RK system destroys offensive D.  Put Montour on a real team that activates their D and Montour is easily a top 4 D.

[Pimlach]

4 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Small consolation is an understatement.  While he got RK pieces he wanted upfront to shore up the PK and get some what better 2 way play from the forward group, he completely failed to get RK the goaltending and D help to make his system work.  Not upgrading Hutton or moving Montour or Miller for a defensive D man, has comeback to haunt this team once Ullmark and McCabe went down.  Honestly upgrading Hutton and getting better skill balance on the D should have been done regardless of who the coach was. 

I think if McCabe and Borgen come back, and look like they did before the injuries, we will be much better.  
 

Dahlin played pretty good hockey with Borgen.  Risto and McCabe looked good as well.