GDT: Sabres @ Avs - Wed. 10 pm ET, Dec 13, 2023, TNT, MAX, ALT 📺 WGR 📻

[Believer]

8 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

2 goalies are part of that TNT crew. Not one word about UPL. Lots to say about the guys in front of him. Hmmmm.

Watched the highlights… UPL was ok… Team deserted him… Stood around on D…  Need target practice on O… Just got schooled by a better team… No excuse but do think the thin air affected them… 

[Ross Rhea]

Hockey is an alphas game, the Sabres have and have had too many betas during this non playoff rut.

[PASabreFan]

19 minutes ago, Ross Rhea said:

Hockey is an alphas game, the Sabres have and have had too many betas during this non playoff rut.

Well said. 

[eman]

8 hours ago, HumanSlinky39 said:

Sadly, I agree. KA and DG seem inextricably linked. Granato is not the guy to push this team where they need to go. That is very clear at this point. The frustrating part is they will tease you with games that show what they're capable of, but Meatballs cannot get them to give that effort consistently. They look like wildly different teams from one game to the next. We'll just keep bouncing up and down and get the same post game platitudes every game.

At this point, I would be willing to accept Berube as head coach as he would be tough on the players. This crap has to stop at some point and accountability throughout the organization has to occur, for any serious meaningful change. Until a decent head coach is in place, expect exactly more of the same. There is talent in this organization and it is being squandered.

[PASabreFan]

Given the context of the drought and another season slipping away and so many poor starts to games, after last night a coaching change would have been warranted.

Also, nice start by Dahlin to set the tone. Hoop, barrel.

Just saw the highlights. Wow that was some terrible stuff.

[Goldseatsaud]

Meatball isn’t the guy here. Adams won’t make a move they will just continue to spin their wheels and hope for the best. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

The real question facing this team is why they simply don’t care to put in the effort needed to win.  

Here you have a team coming off 3 good performances with the return of 3 key players in Mule, Tuch and UPL plus a big night for FA signee EJ against his old team, a team we beat 4-0 last time we played them.  Add their coaches family situation and the team should have come flying out of the dressing room.  Instead they slept for the 1st 17 minutes of the game and were consequently blown out.  

Given the number of flat starts and that the few times they come to play follow being embarrassed (like the 2nd period), I’m rapidly moving to the fire DG camp. Enough.  

[Pimlach]

Well I watched it last night. Embarrassing game to play on TNT.  

No effort right from the start.   The first period was the worst I’ve seen all year.  Would like to blame the air because the motivation should be there.  Good 2nd period but no goals, no finish, no fight in them.  They barely went through the motions in the 3rd. 
 

Would like to know what the National TV said with their mics offs.  
 

On to Vahgis. 

[sabremike]

Those comments by Hank were a devastating indictment of this entire rancid organization. He is not an attention seeking clown like Biz spouting off scorching hot takes, he is generally quite measured with what he says. For him to come with the heat was very telling.

[Believer]

Adams has been permitted by Pegula to create a players country club … It is a wonderful family atmosphere… The Okposo tribute video spoke volumes… Great place to work… Yet to see the ROI.

Not sure we will with this roster… Have enough privileged young men… Need a Ruff-like coach and a few grown ass men in their prime to help these kids mature as players.

Unlikely Adams sees it the same way.

 

 

 

 

 

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, PASabreFan said:

Given the context of the drought and another season slipping away and so many poor starts to games, after last night a coaching change would have been warranted.

Also, nice start by Dahlin to set the tone. Hoop, barrel.

Just saw the highlights. Wow that was some terrible stuff.

To the bolded, sadly, yes it is.

[Pimlach]

9 hours ago, Spoonman said:

He did. Got a winger for a conditional 7th.

[Pimlach]

21 minutes ago, sabremike said:

Those comments by Hank were a devastating indictment of this entire rancid organization. He is not an attention seeking clown like Biz spouting off scorching hot takes, he is generally quite measured with what he says. For him to come with the heat was very telling.

He did it last year too.  He asked when will they play defense.  

[SabresVet]

1 hour ago, eman said:

This crap has to stop at some point and accountability throughout the organization has to occur, for any serious meaningful change. Until a decent head coach is in place, expect exactly more of the same. There is talent in this organization and it is being squandered.

30 games is a solid sample size to conclude something is wrong, especially with some of the bad starts.  They've given up the first goal 19 out of 30 games this year and are 3-14-2.  In 14 games they've gone down 2 or more goals to start and are 1-12-1.  

After the Arizona games that Granato talked about how the compete has improved, but some players still are prioritizing skill.  And he wants more of the former before the latter.    

But if 30 games in, the HC still has players doing prioritizing skill, it makes me wonder why they're tuning out the HC.  Because all I heard back in the 2021 off-season from Adams was about "guys who want to be here."  Stands to reason that they now have guys who want to be here, but they're doing their own thing deep into the season.    

Granato ain't reaching them, scoring is down, and the defense is as bad.  You can't go down 2 or more goals to start in half your first 30 games and see this season staying on the rails.  

[Gatorman0519]

It was interesting hearing the TNT crew’s perspectives on the Sabres. Henry even said how sorry he felt for Sabres fans and how frustrating it must be to watch night in and night out. 

[Mango]

49 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

The real question facing this team is why they simply don’t care to put in the effort needed to win.  

Here you have a team coming off 3 good performances with the return of 3 key players in Mule, Tuch and UPL plus a big night for FA signee EJ against his old team, a team we beat 4-0 last time we played them.  Add their coaches family situation and the team should have come flying out of the dressing room.  Instead they slept for the 1st 17 minutes of the game and were consequently blown out.  

Given the number of flat starts and that the few times they come to play follow being embarrassed (like the 2nd period), I’m rapidly moving to the fire DG camp. Enough.  

 

I really like Donnie. I think he is good people and a good, well respected hockey guy. I appreciate what he has done with this team up until this point. I feel for the guys family. Unsure if firing a guy after his brother is diagnosed with cancer is the best or worst move for him. But last night also did it for me.

Something about the inability to have any consistent rush blew my mind. Just every time we try and cross the blue line it is the same exact thing over and over and over again. And when we do "adjust" and try and dump it in to the O-Zone it is either because of a line change, or unless Benson is on the ice, nobody is chasing the puck. We have done this time and time again, but last night was sort of the last straw for me. 

I don't think we can look at this team and blame Granato entirely either. A big part of why we stink is Kevyn Adams. That isn't lost on me. His vision is to keep running the whole thing back until these guys figure it out. I honestly don't want a single roster move until we clean house. I don't want a desperate guy making desperate moves. 

[Mango]

10 minutes ago, SabresVet said:

30 games is a solid sample size to conclude something is wrong, especially with some of the bad starts.  They've given up the first goal 19 out of 30 games this year and are 3-14-2.  In 14 games they've gone down 2 or more goals to start and are 1-12-1.  

After the Arizona games that Granato talked about how the compete has improved, but some players still are prioritizing skill.  And he wants more of the former before the latter.    

But if 30 games in, the HC still has players doing prioritizing skill, it makes me wonder why they're tuning out the HC.  Because all I heard back in the 2021 off-season from Adams was about "guys who want to be here."  Stands to reason that they now have guys who want to be here, but they're doing their own thing deep into the season.    

Granato ain't reaching them, scoring is down, and the defense is as bad.  You can't go down 2 or more goals to start in half your first 30 games and see this season staying on the rails.  

I believe that people should continue to get a chance to prove themselves as long as they are constantly getting better. Even though I had some criticisms last year, I really thought that since the team kept getting better that they deserved another year. Even if they didn't improve this year, I thought for sure that worst case scenario would be another low 90 point season, missing the playoffs again, but at least fun, exciting, watchable hockey.

What I didn't expect was for this team to look this bad. The bottom end of the roster is bad, the versatility of the guys in Rochester is bad. The goaltending is bad. The coaching is bad.  Outside of the Dahlin and Benson, the offseason was bad with no notable improvement from FA's. 

The kicker is if we fire Donnie midseason, who replaces him? Matt Ellis? Ha, what a joke. 
 

[sabresouth]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

The real question facing this team is why they simply don’t care to put in the effort needed to win.  

Here you have a team coming off 3 good performances with the return of 3 key players in Mule, Tuch and UPL plus a big night for FA signee EJ against his old team, a team we beat 4-0 last time we played them.  Add their coaches family situation and the team should have come flying out of the dressing room.  Instead they slept for the 1st 17 minutes of the game and were consequently blown out.  

Given the number of flat starts and that the few times they come to play follow being embarrassed (like the 2nd period), I’m rapidly moving to the fire DG camp. Enough.  

To the underlined. I am there after last night's game.  KA has to go as well. He's half the problem. Not bringing in the right player's during past off-seasons. All He's been doing is bargin basement hunting. And still no true number one goalie after how many years, I've lost track.

[GASabresIUFAN]

8 minutes ago, Mango said:

The kicker is if we fire Donnie midseason, who replaces him? Matt Ellis? Ha, what a joke. 

Appert 

[zow2]

How does a team come out like that in the first period and not even compete? Like they don’t even want to be on the ice and break a sweat?.  Hey let’s just chase the Avs around the ice so we look like we’re doing something.  what a disgrace to that beautiful Sabres logo on the jersey.

[SabresVet]

19 minutes ago, Mango said:

I believe that people should continue to get a chance to prove themselves as long as they are constantly getting better. Even though I had some criticisms last year, I really thought that since the team kept getting better that they deserved another year. Even if they didn't improve this year, I thought for sure that worst case scenario would be another low 90 point season, missing the playoffs again, but at least fun, exciting, watchable hockey.

What I didn't expect was for this team to look this bad. The bottom end of the roster is bad, the versatility of the guys in Rochester is bad. The goaltending is bad. The coaching is bad.  Outside of the Dahlin and Benson, the offseason was bad with no notable improvement from FA's. 

The kicker is if we fire Donnie midseason, who replaces him? Matt Ellis? Ha, what a joke. 
 

Yeah, if players continued development then we could all say they're trending in the right direction.  And even though they've had injuries, I did not expect to go from 3rd league-wide in scoring last year to 20th this season.  To the point about defense, they're really not much improved if goals allowed are the metric.  

I do not see a coaching change being made and largely because fans have grown apathetic AND local media doesn't push back on the organization as much.  That's a bad combination.  

[K-9]

They’re too content to simply be making a great living as NHL players. Winning and losing doesn’t matter. Oh, they enjoy winning when it happens, but they don’t loathe losing and until they hate losing and being called losers with every fiber of their beings, it’s just not going to be much of a concern for them. 

[PerreaultForever]

I truly believe the culture in Buffalo encourages softness, or at least leads to what we see as softness on the ice. I wouldn't be surprised is after the Montreal game (for example) Granato said "you guys were pretty good tonight but you got into too many physical confrontations and scrums. Don't get sucked in to that. Walk away. Stick to hockey". Cozens was probably told "see, that's what fighting leads to. Don't fight Dylan. Score goals" and so on and so on and so on..............

Players quit on this team and why not?

Edited December 14, 2023 by PerreaultForever

[Pimlach]

21 hours ago, SabresVet said:

Yeah, if players continued development then we could all say they're trending in the right direction.  And even though they've had injuries, I did not expect to go from 3rd league-wide in scoring last year to 20th this season.  To the point about defense, they're really not much improved if goals allowed are the metric.  

I do not see a coaching change being made and largely because fans have grown apathetic AND local media doesn't push back on the organization as much.  That's a bad combination.  

Really?   Fan apathy is now the reason that they stick with this coaching staff?   There will be no change to GM and coach because ownership does not care enough.  They have guys that do the job without making waves.  That is most important to ownership.  Stay under the cap and don’t make waves.   Fan apathy is merely a byproduct of the worst ownership in any era of NHL history.  By any measure, the ownership is a gigantic, colossal failure, and they don’t care.   That’s why good veteran players that want to win still will not come here.  

[Pimlach]

On 12/14/2023 at 8:05 AM, eman said:

At this point, I would be willing to accept Berube as head coach as he would be tough on the players. This crap has to stop at some point and accountability throughout the organization has to occur, for any serious meaningful change. Until a decent head coach is in place, expect exactly more of the same. There is talent in this organization and it is being squandered.

Willing to accept Berube?   That sounds funny.  Willing to accept a recent Cup winner.   Is he willing to accept Adams or Pegula?  

Berube is both a motivator and a good X & O guy.  He is not going to jump on a Sabres offer.  He will be coaching in the NHL next season, but not in Buffalo.  

Edited December 15, 2023 by Pimlach