Josh Norris has an Upper Body Injury; Zach Benson is hospitalized

[SwampD]

9 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Took  a puck in the face in practice, the cut became infected. 

Someone posted he could be ready for Ottawa on Wednesday.  

I knew he took a pick to the face, but jeebus, a week and a half for an infection?

 

[LGR4GM]

2 minutes ago, SwampD said:

I knew he took a pick to the face, but jeebus, a week and a half for an infection?

 

... he was hospitalized for it

Ruff said Wednesday 

[Pimlach]

9 minutes ago, SwampD said:

I knew he took a pick to the face, but jeebus, a week and a half for an infection?

 

 

7 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

... he was hospitalized for it

Ruff said Wednesday 

They probably hooked him up to IV antibiotics and have been doing cultures to verify the infection is gone, must have been bad and they needed to nip this thing quickly. 

I don't think this looks good on the training staff and wound care - but we have enough to bitch about

[JP51]

1 hour ago, SwampD said:

I knew he took a pick to the face, but jeebus, a week and a half for an infection?

 

Remember Jay McKee and his staff infection those are nasty 

[PromoTheRobot]

45 minutes ago, JP51 said:

Remember Jay McKee and his staff infection those are nasty 

Hockey locker rooms are gross.

[shrader]

And depending on where this is on his face, your vision and airways come into play. 

[RochesterExpat]

6 hours ago, Archie Lee said:

After the fiasco that was Adams’s first year as GM (the Covid year), the Sabres had back to back seasons where they exceeded expectations. The Sabres went from being a disastrous 55 point team to a 75 point team to a 91 point team. Adams read this to mean that he knew what he was doing and he failed to recognize the streak of good fortune that the team had during that stretch. Then in 23-24, Granato’s last year, they regressed to the mean and were a 84 point team; while that team disappointed fans after the 91 point season prior, they played to exactly where most models were projecting. Sadly, the wrong man paid the price for the setback. Say what people will about Granato, but in his 3 full years as head coach of the Sabres, the team met or exceeded objective expectations for wins and losses - based on the roster - every year. Adams learned all the wrong lessons and rather than making real and meaningful and needed roster adjustments, he replaced Granato with Ruff - likely to extend his own window as GM - which has been a disaster

This is my view from 15 years of playing hockey (not counting beer league) and a dozen years of coaching youth hockey--and just generally being a rink rat: Granato was in over his head, but he had the locker room behind him (until the end when it was apparent he was not coming back) and managed to get the most out of every player on the ice as a result. Lindy has the experience, but I don't think he has the buy-in and he is not getting nearly 100% from the majority of players.

Granato was not a good strategist. His game management and inflexibility toward trying new lines (or anything new, frankly) being two notable shortcomings that no rose-tinted glasses will favorably color. His line deployments were, at least at times, best described as "questionable." Yet the team consistently outperformed--or, as you pointed out, at least 'met'--expectations. That's because he was the motivator that Ralph Krueger was supposed to be. The problem is that Granato was simply over his head at the NHL level. 

And this is where it gets most frustrating for me. As time has passed, it's become abundantly obvious that Granato was a good coach--just not at the NHL head coach level. Firing Granato and bringing in Ruff was a nostalgia-driven attempt at bringing in an NHL-level coach, but it ignored the consequences from the team morale side. The roster construction has improved since the time of Granato, but the team itself hasn't because Ruff doesn't connect with the players the way Granato did. I firmly believe if Granato had the current defense--and I'll even take the goaltending tandem of Lyon and completely-unproven-Ellis with it--he could get the Sabres into the playoffs.

While we have 100 different things to scream about over the last decade and a half, one continuous tie-in is the assistant coaching. Granato might have succeeded as a head coach even in spite of the roster construction if he had a "game" coach on the bench with him who could have directed/advised him on strategy--even Mike Peca could have probably filled this role despite him also being a relative rookie. Granato needed someone to help fill in the strategy side for him. Shockingly, the powerplay extraordinaire, Matty Ellis, wasn't able to do that. I mean, ideally, Granato would have been an assistant coach and Buffalo would have hired a serious head coach, but that would be asking too much.

Thing is, and to circle back to your closing point, I don't think replacing Granato was itself a bad move because, much like everything else, it's just a small part of the bigger issue. Granato wasn't an NHL-caliber coach, but he might have become one if he was given the support he needed and he'd have done it with (or in spite of?) the "in-house" roster Adams constructed. It's the same reason why so many of our players find success elsewhere. The organization doesn't understand support.

[Thorny]

10 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

And now there are two. The rest of us will join the chat eventually.

This place is is so tired of us being right they’ve decided to paint us as the villain. I honestly just feel bad for the fans doing this 

Edited 7 minutes ago by Thorny