Lindy Ruff officially hired as Sabres HC

[Flashsabre]

You wonder why some of these guys don’t have credibility. 
 

If true, either Berube said no to an interview or Adams just BSed everyone and only talked to Ruff.

Either way I don’t care but the larger optics aren’t great.

Edited April 26 by Flashsabre

[Derrico]

12 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

You wonder why some of these guys don’t have credibility. 
 

If true, either Berube said no to an interview or Adams just BSed everyone and only talked to Ruff.

Either way I don’t care but the larger optics aren’t great.

I don’t think KA cares about optics.  I don’t know what Terry said to him but he sounded like a different guy after firing meatballs.  He sounded confident in that press conference that he knew who his guy is.  The same guy he knows very well and worked under.  He wanted Ruff from before the moment he fired Donnie.  If that’s his ride or die I’m fine he didn’t mess around and got who he wanted.

The results from this are squarely on KA now though.  If this doesn’t work we will be looking at a Gm search in 2 years or less.

[Mango]

3 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

You wonder why some of these guys don’t have credibility. 
 

If true, either Berube said no to an interview or Adams just BSed everyone and only talked to Ruff.

Either way I don’t care but the larger optics aren’t great.

 

There is a chance he is telling the truth even if pedantic. And if that is the case who are the 10 candidates he talked to if Berube is not on the list? Half the coaches in the league are off the list because they are all still coaching in the playoffs and would need permission to interview. 

So the list likely starts off like this. 

1. Ruff
2. Appert
3. Gallant  (one would hope but apparently nobody called Berube)
4. Matt Ellis (I am not joking)
5. Carle (maybe, but also maybe not?)
6-10: ?????
 

Edited April 26 by Mango

[That Aud Smell]

38 minutes ago, Mango said:

So the list likely starts off like this. 

1. Ruff
2. Appert
3. Gallant  (one would hope but apparently nobody called Berube)
4. Matt Ellis (I am not joking)
5. Carle (maybe, but also maybe not?)
5-10: ?????
 

The Adams family's dog, Tinsel, should be on that list. She's a good listener.

[dudacek]

It makes me smile when the same fans who are passionately for or against a particular coaching candidate they’ve never met are furious because Adams targeted someone someone he knows very well, then simply went out and got him.

[PASabreFan]

Trying too hard.

[That Aud Smell]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

It makes me smile when the same fans who are passionately for or against a particular coaching candidate they’ve never met are furious because Adams targeted someone someone he knows very well, then simply went out and got him.

Is that actually it? I had the sense that fans were upset about an apparent lack of a deliberate, thorough process -- that GM KA was just like 

[LGR4GM]

4 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

Is that actually it? I had the sense that fans were upset about an apparent lack of a deliberate, thorough process -- that GM KA was just like 

[Mango]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

It makes me smile when the same fans who are passionately for or against a particular coaching candidate they’ve never met are furious because Adams targeted someone someone he knows very well, then simply went out and got him.

I am not against Ruff. I have said why I think he makes sense since he was fired in NJD. 

I wish Adams stood up and said "We targeted Lindy for the role because A, B, C. We went into the process thinking he was the best fit and after the numerous  conversations between him moving on from New Jersey he convinced us he pretty quickly he is the one to get this team right". 

Instead we got "We did a remarkably thorough search. We spoke with 10 candidates in the last 5 days for this role.". This wasn't thorough. We all know that. 

I think most fans just want a little more conviction rather than getting cute with verbiage and pedantics. This search feels about as thorough as removing the interim name from Meatballs. Just stand up there and say they targeted Lindy from the get go. 

[dudacek]

7 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

Is that actually it? I had the sense that fans were upset about an apparent lack of a deliberate, thorough process -- that GM KA was just like 

I always get into trouble speaking in broad-brush generalities.

There are definitely fans who think targeting your guy without a thorough process is unprofessional, and that is a legitimate take.

There are also definitely fans who were vehemently saying things like "they should hire ---" and "no way they should hire ---"

I'm referring to people who belong to both group A and group B at the same time.

[Huckleberry]

1 hour ago, Mango said:

I am not against Ruff. I have said why I think he makes sense since he was fired in NJD. 

I wish Adams stood up and said "We targeted Lindy for the role because A, B, C. We went into the process thinking he was the best fit and after the numerous  conversations between him moving on from New Jersey he convinced us he pretty quickly he is the one to get this team right". 

Instead we got "We did a remarkably thorough search. We spoke with 10 candidates in the last 5 days for this role.". This wasn't thorough. We all know that. 

I think most fans just want a little more conviction rather than getting cute with verbiage and pedantics. This search feels about as thorough as removing the interim name from Meatballs. Just stand up there and say they targeted Lindy from the get go. 

Or they actually started the coaching search before Meatballs was officially fired.   Most football teams over here work like that, have contacts with possible new coach a week or 2 before the other one is fired.

Edited April 26 by Huckleberry

[Buffalonill]

Who cares as long as they make the playoffs this year

[PASabreFan]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

I always get into trouble speaking in broad-brush generalities.

There are definitely fans who think targeting your guy without a thorough process is unprofessional, and that is a legitimate take.

There are also definitely fans who were vehemently saying things like "they should hire ---" and "no way they should hire ---"

I'm referring to people who belong to both group A and group B at the same time.

I'm trying to nail this one down in my head. Are you saying a fan who wanted Gerard Gallant and naturally wouldn't think KA would need to interview a bunch of guys has no business criticizing KA for wanting LR and (allegedly) not interviewing a bunch of guys?

It would not make sense for that fan to want KA to interview guys then hire Gallant. It would make sense for that fan to ask KA to do his due diligence before hiring someone other than Gallant.

Am I close? Am I nuts? My head hurts.

Edited April 26 by PASabreFan

[Mango]

30 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

Or they actually started the coaching search before Meatballs was officially fired.   Most football teams over here work like that, have contacts with possible new coach a week or 2 before the other one is fired.

Right, totally. I addressed that in the "since he was let go from New Jersey" part. 

And again, what you are saying is fine. I don't disagree. Just say that. 

But the GM sat there and said he went through 10 candidates in 5 days before they hired Lindy. 

[Doohickie]

6 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

the larger optics

The larger optics are will the Sabres win hockey games.  By the end of the summer no one will remember Kevyn's "double digits" statement except people here on the forum.

[Cityo'Rasmii]

36 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

The larger optics are will the Sabres win hockey games.  By the end of the summer no one will remember Kevyn's "double digits" statement except people here on the forum.

Likely true. Meanwhile, we've added "double digits" to Kevyn's list of shortcomings. Also, going forward we will be more scrutinizing whenever he speaks.

Go Sabres

Edited April 26 by Cityo'Rasmii

[kas23]

7 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

You wonder why some of these guys don’t have credibility. 
 

If true, either Berube said no to an interview or Adams just BSed everyone and only talked to Ruff.

Either way I don’t care but the larger optics aren’t great.

I think we can all agree this was never about the Sabres interviewing candidates. It was about candidates interviewing Kevyn Adams and the rest of the organization. I don’t doubt Adams reached out and spoke to some, maybe even double digits, but many of these conservations were probably very short. He also didn’t tell how far back these conversations occurred. Could’ve been done any time over the last 3 months. 

[PerreaultForever]

3 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

Or they actually started the coaching search before Meatballs was officially fired.   Most football teams over here work like that, have contacts with possible new coach a week or 2 before the other one is fired.

My own purely speculative view is that they fully planned to go ahead with Granato for one more year until Ruff was fired by New Jersey. When that happened Terry and Kevyn got together and it was "new plan". The rest is spin, optics, marketing, and PR BS. 

I also think Ruff will get a say in personnel and other moves going forward. This will be his last coaching job and he will be bumped into a senior advisory role when it ends. The only question obviously is will it end successfully or not. 

[PromoTheRobot]

2 hours ago, Mango said:

But the GM sat there and said he went through 10 candidates in 5 days before they hired Lindy. 

He actually never said specifically he talked to 10 candidates in 5 days. Only that he spoke with "double digits." He didn't say when.

[Dr. Who]

1 hour ago, PerreaultForever said:

My own purely speculative view is that they fully planned to go ahead with Granato for one more year until Ruff was fired by New Jersey. When that happened Terry and Kevyn got together and it was "new plan". The rest is spin, optics, marketing, and PR BS. 

I also think Ruff will get a say in personnel and other moves going forward. This will be his last coaching job and he will be bumped into a senior advisory role when it ends. The only question obviously is will it end successfully or not. 

I'm pretty much happy with all of that. If KA listens to Ruff on personnel, I give it a better than 50/50 to at least end in the playoffs.

[PerreaultForever]

10 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

You wonder why some of these guys don’t have credibility. 
 

If true, either Berube said no to an interview or Adams just BSed everyone and only talked to Ruff.

Either way I don’t care but the larger optics aren’t great.

The details never come out in these things either. So what does "tried to hire" really mean? Could mean they called him up and he said "I want a 5 year deal" or "I want X (huge) amount of dollars" and KA replied "let me get back to you" and that was it. So would that be "tried"? Or would it be Adams turning to Terry and saying "you wont' believe what this guy asked for" with an eye roll. 

[French Collection]

7 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

The details never come out in these things either. So what does "tried to hire" really mean? Could mean they called him up and he said "I want a 5 year deal" or "I want X (huge) amount of dollars" and KA replied "let me get back to you" and that was it. So would that be "tried"? Or would it be Adams turning to Terry and saying "you wont' believe what this guy asked for" with an eye roll. 

If he is to be believed for double digit numbers then some were probably conversations with agents who represent multiple out of work coaches.

Another could have been a text to Quenneville asking if Bettman had pardoned him yet.

He says he wanted an experienced guy but he may have talked to “rookies”, who would count towards his total.

[PerreaultForever]

10 minutes ago, French Collection said:

If he is to be believed for double digit numbers then some were probably conversations with agents who represent multiple out of work coaches.

Another could have been a text to Quenneville asking if Bettman had pardoned him yet.

He says he wanted an experienced guy but he may have talked to “rookies”, who would count towards his total.

Absolutely. I mean sure, he might have lied and only wanted Ruff, but it's also not hard to get up to 10 phone calls in pretty fast. So maybe little white lies as they say. 

[Mango]

17 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

He actually never said specifically he talked to 10 candidates in 5 days. Only that he spoke with "double digits." He didn't say when.

Well the time between Lindy’s announcement and Granatos firing was 6 days. 

Anybody employed in season would need permission to interview so we know it that number doesn’t include the 16 teams currently to in the playoffs, or anybody on an NHL staff through the month of March.

And we now know he didn’t call Berube.

The more information that comes out seems to indicate the pool of people he spoke to was rather small with minimal NHL coaching experience and those with NHL experience would have to be bottom half of the league teams in the 5-6 days between firing Granato and hiring Lindy.
 

[PromoTheRobot]

34 minutes ago, Mango said:

Well the time between Lindy’s announcement and Granatos firing was 6 days. 

Anybody employed in season would need permission to interview so we know it that number doesn’t include the 16 teams currently to in the playoffs, or anybody on an NHL staff through the month of March.

And we now know he didn’t call Berube.

The more information that comes out seems to indicate the pool of people he spoke to was rather small with minimal NHL coaching experience and those with NHL experience would have to be bottom half of the league teams in the 5-6 days between firing Granato and hiring Lindy.
 

I don't doubt the pool was small. I wouldn't be surprised the pool was one: Lindy. Just saying Adams never said he interviewed double digits in 5 days.