Ok Enough Terry - Fire Ruff Adams and the Assistants!

[SabresBillsFan]

22 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

and The Hockey Guy ranked them 32nd in his early season power rankings 🙂

32 Thoughts today led off with Buffalo talk and the suggestion even Ruff has checked out already. Season is over. 

The one thing TP did do was set himself up for an easy hire upon firing. Jarmo would take the GM job and he's already on the payroll. You know it's coming, it's just when and how. Will it matter? who knows. can't be much worse. 

Jarmo already had a GM spot with Columbus and it was nothing to write home about. A big fat negative to me. This entire front office, including scouts, coaches and assistant coaches need to go. The entire culture has to change. Way too many people just taking paychecks doing a ***** job. Look at the scouting department. With as many picks this team has had they have tons of misses. The prospects should be much better than this. I would go so far to replace the strength and conditioning coaches as well. 

[SABRES 0311]

1 hour ago, SabresBillsFan said:

Jarmo already had a GM spot with Columbus and it was nothing to write home about. A big fat negative to me. This entire front office, including scouts, coaches and assistant coaches need to go. The entire culture has to change. Way too many people just taking paychecks doing a ***** job. Look at the scouting department. With as many picks this team has had they have tons of misses. The prospects should be much better than this. I would go so far to replace the strength and conditioning coaches as well. 

We keep coming back to the bold every couple years.

[PerreaultForever]

1 hour ago, SabresBillsFan said:

Jarmo already had a GM spot with Columbus and it was nothing to write home about. A big fat negative to me. This entire front office, including scouts, coaches and assistant coaches need to go. The entire culture has to change. Way too many people just taking paychecks doing a ***** job. Look at the scouting department. With as many picks this team has had they have tons of misses. The prospects should be much better than this. I would go so far to replace the strength and conditioning coaches as well. 

I hear you but since he's here I see that as the obvious hire for Terry. What other experienced hockey guy would take the job? Cliff Fletcher? Brian Burke? Hextall? Nobody out there on the unemployment line I'd hire as GM.

But this is why I said in the other thread Give it over to Jarmo and let him hire Torts as coach (just like Columbus). This is not because I think Torts can take us to the promised land but I think maybe, just maybe, he could change the culture and do the "subtraction" phase. EVERYTHING needs to change and that's the sort of shock to the system it might require. 

4 minutes ago, SABRES 0311 said:

We keep coming back to the bold every couple years.

and it is correct. 

[gilbert11]

9 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

I think there's no one who expected different. Maybe a couple ppl. I do think a lot of us hoped for different. Idk if that distinction matters.

Of course we all also expected “Glass Man” Norris to get injured again, but so quickly?   Similar to after the trade.  

[Sabres Fan in NS]

NEWSFLASH ...

On October 14, 2025 the Buffalo Sabres have been officially eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoff.  The earliest date in the history of my only the NHL, but for all sporting events right down to the Gladiators of Ancient Rome and probably before that.

FILM AT 11 !!

+++++

These guys are bad - scary bad ...

[Pimlach]

8 hours ago, Archie Lee said:

Over the last two NHL seasons there have been twelve mid-season head coaching changes.  Three of those changes were done by teams in the midst of lost seasons where there was no goal of making the playoffs at the time of the change:

- in 23-24 NJ fired Ruff for Green Travis late in the year

- in 24-25 Chicago fired Richardson after only 26 games, but there were no illusions of them making a playoff run

- also in 24-25, the Flyers fired Tortorella with only 9 games left

The other nine mid-season head coaching changes in the last two seasons, were done by teams that had plans to make the playoffs and at an early enough point in the season where the change was intended to be impactful.  The only one that did not result in an improved winning/points % was Boston replacing Montgomery with Sacco early last year.  The other eight changes all resulted in improved performance, ranging from the modest in Ottawa going from a .423% under DJ Smith to a .500% under Jacques Martin, to the dramatic in Edmonton where the Oilers went from playing .269 hockey under Woodcroft to .702 under Knoblach.  The others were:

in 2023-24:

- NYI went from .544 under Lambert to .608 under Roy and made the playoffs

- LA went from .583 under McLellan to .632 under Hiller and made the playoffs

- STL went from .482 under Berube to .601 under Drew Bannister and missed

- Minn went from .368 under Evason to .587 under Hynes and missed

in 2024-25:

- Det went from .441 under Lalonde to .583 under McLellan and missed

- STL went from .431 under Bannister to .641 under Montgomery and made the playoffs

In the 14 year drought, the Sabres have not made a mid-season coaching change at a point in the season where the change could have a positive impact on that year's standings. They are crazy not to at least try. 

   

Good stuff Archie.   

[mjd1001]

7 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I hear you but since he's here I see that as the obvious hire for Terry. What other experienced hockey guy would take the job? Cliff Fletcher? Brian Burke? Hextall? Nobody out there on the unemployment line I'd hire as GM.

I'm thinking... There might be a good general manager out there that would love to take the Buffalo job with certain conditions. 

Why? There might just be some people out there who enjoy the rebuild. Also, you do have assets on this team that are very good or can be used to bring in other assets to help with the rebuild. 

Now what are those conditions and how come they haven't happened yet? The top of the list for me would be to sign a contract and have it written that this person has total control over the hockey department.0 They can hire and fire coaches and staff and front office members at will, and they don't have to run trades or draft picks by the owner. 

I just don't think our current owner will allow that to happen or anything even close to it.

[Cascade Youth]

The problem is that firing all of these people now would require a big cash investment in buyouts and new hires, something they almost certainly have not budgeted for given the way they've been running the operation.  Terry is just letting this thing drive on autopilot off a cliff - he does not care about you or me.

[PASabreFan]

36 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

I'm thinking... There might be a good general manager out there that would love to take the Buffalo job with certain conditions. 

Why? There might just be some people out there who enjoy the rebuild. Also, you do have assets on this team that are very good or can be used to bring in other assets to help with the rebuild. 

Now what are those conditions and how come they haven't happened yet? The top of the list for me would be to sign a contract and have it written that this person has total control over the hockey department.0 They can hire and fire coaches and staff and front office members at will, and they don't have to run trades or draft picks by the owner. 

I just don't think our current owner will allow that to happen or anything even close to it.

I keep hearing about all the young talent on this team. Hoppe wrote about Buffalo's "high end talent and depth." Where? Who? Doesn't every team have some appreciable talent? It's the NHL.

[LGR4GM]

15 minutes ago, Cascade Youth said:

The problem is that firing all of these people now would require a big cash investment in buyouts and new hires, something they almost certainly have not budgeted for given the way they've been running the operation.  Terry is just letting this thing drive on autopilot off a cliff - he does not care about you or me.

He ain't spending ***** until his precious football stadium is built. That's taking in all his liquid capital. 

[DarthEbriate]

14 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

I keep hearing about all the young talent on this team. Hoppe wrote about Buffalo's "high end talent and depth." Where? Who? Doesn't every team have some appreciable talent? It's the NHL.

They have several high-end talent players who are still young. But the issue is that they don't apply it. And it's not even the dreaded inconsistency of young players. Peterka was inconsistent until last season - this season he's gone.

Quinn isn't inconsistent, he's disappeared from who he was as a rookie. Power isn't inconsistent -- he's good in transition offense, and maddeningly passive in his own zone. Benson is talented and a pest, and not playing. Byram is talented, but not a stud. In the AHL, their high-end talent is basically Helenius and Mrtka. And maybe Östlund.

[rickshaw]

I agree Terry needs to clean house. Ruff already doing theeasiest “send a message” by giving Kulich some tough love. Problem is it needs to be sent to the so called leaders. Benching a kid isn’t gonna do diddly.

[JP51]

17 hours ago, Porous Five Hole said:

Of course it matters lol

I am the type that is trying to come up with practical solutions. “Just don’t play with a coach” or “fire everyone, it doesn’t matter” is not the conversation I’m trying to have. 
 

Look at my posting history…I’ve wanted the GM gone for a long time.  So if people don’t want to talk about a short term & long term solution to coaching or the front office, then I guess I’m not in the correct thread or right place. 

Not to mention... if you are ultimately of the opinion that this roster needs to pretty much be torn down... brining in your next coach and GM to observe is the correct move at this juncture... giving them another year of abject failure will do nothing be make your stars and free agents want to move on and bring in a new Coach and GM to observe next year to do the same thing... 

[Thorny]

18 hours ago, apuszczalowski said:

Does it really matter?

My biggest surprise so far this season is that people expected any different. The GM went out and did absolutely nothing to the roster to try and improve and like usual decided not to rock the boat and hope all the current guys just get better and add a few backup caliber guys to fill the rest of the roster......

To the bold: a great point, and the answer is a resounding “no”, of course. Adams should be fired if you believe in accountability to results. 

As for the rest, the same stuff I (and for some of it, others too) was vehemently railing on to increasing apparent annoyance, as a warning, all offseason long:

-“sabres had enough scoring” to what, finish bottom 10 again?

-JJ Peterka loss was, as always, worked over time in a frenzy into “addition by subtraction”. Only his faults mattered once we dealt him 

-we could simply “choose” to play better D while retaining offence cause players would just “pick up the slack” up front. Shell game thinking need not apply 

- players weren’t “injury prone”, they were just, coincidentally, hurt all the time 

- oh the GM made a ton of changes! 25.414436 percent of the roster since the start of the LAST year we didn’t make the playoffs. Pay no attention to the fact every team does on the fringe adjustment every year as a function of the league itself. Danforth is our impact addition.

- when you don’t acquire good players, you theorize maybe the players we did get will be “harder” to play against. Whatever that means 

- maybe the Adams set up of requiring 34 consecutive coin flips to go your way isn’t the *best* strategy even if it’s strictly possible! 

Edited 3 hours ago by Thorny

[Thorny]

17 hours ago, nfreeman said:

We all know the answer:  TP will stall and delay and hem and haw until Thanksgiving, or New Year's, or the Spring for that matter.

If even in the spring. 

[DarthEbriate]

24 minutes ago, Thorny said:

If even in the spring. 

Ruff is the only lame duck coach in the league. I'd have to do some research, but I'm guessing there are very few other GMs who on the final year of their contract.

It's substitute teacher season in Sabres University and the students are looking to summer already and there's no knowing what classes will be offered next year.

Edited 3 hours ago by DarthEbriate
grammar

[PerreaultForever]

5 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

I'm thinking... There might be a good general manager out there that would love to take the Buffalo job with certain conditions. 

Why? There might just be some people out there who enjoy the rebuild. Also, you do have assets on this team that are very good or can be used to bring in other assets to help with the rebuild. 

Now what are those conditions and how come they haven't happened yet? The top of the list for me would be to sign a contract and have it written that this person has total control over the hockey department.0 They can hire and fire coaches and staff and front office members at will, and they don't have to run trades or draft picks by the owner. 

I just don't think our current owner will allow that to happen or anything even close to it.

Yup, that's it. Pegula has to step away fully and give it to someone. He won't, but he has to. 

This is why I assume it'll be Jarmo. He's already here. You can argue that he didn't get it done in Columbus, but at least he's an experienced GM and hopefully learned from the mistakes he made there.

But if they don't fix the culture nothing will change. The lack of effort and the lazy plays resulting in giveaways show you that the culture is totally broken. There is no excuse for that and those people need to go. The standard has to change and the bar of acceptability has to be raised. 

Not having a competitive camp started this. Merit didn't earn you a job on this team. All jobs were predetermined. That sends a bad message. Now you see Ruff will bench Kulich because he's not performed to last year's level. Oh my, what a shock, a young kid given too much too soon having a drop off. That never happens. So sure, Kulich should be down the line up but he's a kid. Admit you put him in a bad spot. It's your fault not his. Meanwhile Quinn, who has performed even worse still plays and he's older and has had more time to figure it out. So what does that say to them? It's all broken.

[Thorny]

4 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

Ruff is the only lame duck coach in the league. I'd have to do some research, but I'm guessing there are very few other GMs who on the final year of their contract.

It substitute teacher season in Sabres University and the students are looking at summer already and there's no knowing what classes will be offered next year.

Adams getting an extension positioned as “one more kick at the can, this time (this, this, THIS time) for realz, is at least as likely as him getting canned 

[PerreaultForever]

Some enterprising Sabres fan needs to make a version of this Bears shirt

 

[Drag0nDan]

13 hours ago, SABRES 0311 said:

We keep coming back to the bold every couple years.

They just aren't and haven't been a "team" since the tank.  I don't have an issue with Dahlin as a captain, the guy cares, and you can tell after 3 games that he is not a happy dude getting frustrated watching it all unfold.  They're just a bunch of players, some good, some with traits, but nothing cohesive. 

[mjd1001]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

To the bold: a great point, and the answer is a resounding “no”, of course. Adams should be fired if you believe in accountability to results. 

As for the rest, the same stuff I (and for some of it, others too) was vehemently railing on to increasing apparent annoyance, as a warning, all offseason long:

-“sabres had enough scoring” to what, finish bottom 10 again?

-JJ Peterka loss was, as always, worked over time in a frenzy into “addition by subtraction”. Only his faults mattered once we dealt him 

-we could simply “choose” to play better D while retaining offence cause players would just “pick up the slack” up front. Shell game thinking need not apply 

- players weren’t “injury prone”, they were just, coincidentally, hurt all the time 

- oh the GM made a ton of changes! 25.414436 percent of the roster since the start of the LAST year we didn’t make the playoffs. Pay no attention to the fact every team does on the fringe adjustment every year as a function of the league itself. Danforth is our impact addition.

- when you don’t acquire good players, you theorize maybe the players we did get will be “harder” to play against. Whatever that means 

- maybe the Adams set up of requiring 34 consecutive coin flips to go your way isn’t the *best* strategy even if it’s strictly possible! 

Adams time is up, but you are putting way too much of this on just one person.

[Thorny]

12 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

Adams time is up, but you are putting way too much of this on just one person.

I don’t know how many times I have to post that “Terry is the big bad” before you make the small effort required to understand what I’m actually saying. Or don’t. I’ve lost patience with the argument 

Terry being the big bad does not supersede or belittle the argument that Adams deserves to be, and should be, fired 

“Adams should be fired” doesn’t require a caveat. “I'm ok with Adams being fired” need not apply. 

Should. He should be fired. That’s it. Saying he should be fired is not me saying it fixes the Pegula issue. It doesn’t matter that it’s not saying that. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Thorny

[PerreaultForever]

 

[Flashsabre]

 

[Night Train]

They play like frightened kittens.