GDT: Sabres @ Jets, December 5, 2025 @ 7PM on MSG, TSN, ESPN+

[Sidc3000]

4 hours ago, Spoonman said:

What a bunch a Twerks! 👀

After a 4-1 loss to the Jets in Winnipeg on Friday night, the Sabres are 11-13-4 through 28 games. Through 28 games last season, the Sabres had an identical 11-13-4 record. The only difference is that this season, that record is good for last place in the Eastern Conference with a .464 points percentage.

So you’re saying they are consistent

 

[Pimlach]

32 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Tage is not a center. He needs space to be effective. The problem isn't that the players are unfamiliar with each other as it is a bad fit. 

The Sabres needed to add another top 6 player to the roster. The scrawny GM didn't do it. He's a small-minded staffer who's an incrementalist in a big picture position. In other words, he's a typical Pegula bizarre bad hire who he is comfortable with. Hiring him for the position was bad enough. But keeping him on after five plus years is an inexcusable malfeasance by the owner who appears to simply not care. 

The Ruff coaching era should have concluded with his Jersey stint. He had a good career that ran its course. This was a nostalgic hire made in a fraudulent search process by the impenetrable owner. It's bad enough that the owner makes bad decisions, but it goes beyond that to the point of making weird decisions. That's where we are at. 

The Sabres have a third-rate owner with a third-rate GM (being kind) with a third-rate coaching staff. This bozo hockey brain-trust has put together an ill-fitting roster. And no matter how you manipulate it will not be suitable fit. That's where we are at. 

😅  I really get a kick out of your colorful and descriptive narratives (see bold). 

Even though the GM has done another poor job in the off-season, I do think this roster is better than their record and I expect more from them.   Dahlin and Thompson are vets now and I expect more from them.   

Injuries aside, last place in the conference is a huge underachievement for this roster ,and it says something bad about the coaching staff, and it also points to internal leadership in that locker room.

It may not be a playoff roster, mostly due to goaltending, but they should be in the thick of the race and instead they are starting a free fall.

When you are in last place the big test is always the next game.   They need to find a way to win the next game.  

 

[quill]

14 hours ago, HumanSlinky39 said:

Say what you want about Granato, but his teams could execute an offense pretty consistently and actually had a really good power play during his tenure. There were things they were bad at for sure, but they didn't look like an all around mess. Since Lindy came, what are they consistently good at besides penalty killing. They look like one of the worst coached teams in hockey...sloppy/lazy offense, brain dead defense, they can't even execute smart/crisp line changes. 

Totally agree. From whatever the players said about him before he was fired, it was evident they liked playing for him. Granato had to coach with an even worse goal tending situation than what we have now. I don't think he even had UPL step in until the very end of his coaching tenure here.

I have always believed that Granato was fired as a scapegoat just so KA could keep his job. No, it wasn't Granato's fault, Kevyn, it was your fault and you should have been fired back then for so many reasons, but most importantly for never getting us the obvious missing link, a goalie. 

[sabresouth]

If you want goals from Tuch and Thompson you have to play them together.  They're the only ones that seem to have chemistry together. They can't seem to find it with anyone else.  They should each be able to drive their own line but they can't. Put them together and at least have one good line.

[quill]

14 hours ago, Thorny said:

Is Timmins always like this 

It really annoyed me when Adams only got Timmins of all people and a minor league player for Connor Clifton PLUS what would have been the 39th pick (2nd round) in the draft. The Sabres are the 5th team Timmins has played for in the last 5 years. What could Adams have possibly seen in Timmins? Doesn't he look at past history?

[JohnC]

4 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

😅  I really get a kick out of your colorful and descriptive narratives (see bold). 

Even though the GM has done another poor job in the off-season, I do think this roster is better than their record and I expect more from them.   Dahlin and Thompson are vets now and I expect more from them.   

Injuries aside, last place in the conference is a huge underachievement for this roster ,and it says something bad about the coaching staff, and it also points to internal leadership in that locker room.

It may not be a playoff roster, mostly due to goaltending, but they should be in the thick of the race and instead they are starting a free fall.

When you are in last place the big test is always the next game.   They need to find a way to win the next game.  

 

There is another aspect to this systemic failure that I worry about: the persistent losing and being a part of an irrelevant team (from a player's perspective) having a demoralizing effect. I see it in the periodic spiritless play of Tuch, Dahlin and Tage and others. Players are not stupid. They can recognize what a quality organization is compared to a what a mediocre franchise is in the hockey business they work in. Unless they are stupendously obtuse (and they are not), they can recognize that they are stuck in a mediocre organization. You don't think that when they are watching the playoffs on their couches and see players they know participating in meaningful playoff games, they ask themselves: I would love to be on a team and be part of that playoff experience? 

I recognize that I often, to the understandable irritation of many, repeatedly blame this unreachable owner for the failure of this franchise during his ownership tenure. However, when a franchise has never gotten on a serious track yet continues to do what it has been doing without meaningfully attempting to get on another course, then that it is outright stupid and outrageous. This silent owner makes me angry. We deserve better. 

[Sidc3000]

This team is just bad and there is no fixing it with the players/staff they have. Developing players in the NHL is an epically bad plan especially when you give them the Temu of coaching staffs.
 

Unless there is huge influx of money and wholesale changes this offseason I think I’m done with the Sabres. There is no future for this organization under Pegula. He is fine using this team as a tax write off and keeping fans chasing the carrot with their bulls#it and they will always have fans believing it. 

[SwampD]

Krebs was really bad last night. He wasn’t alone, but he did stand out to me.

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, quill said:

Totally agree. From whatever the players said about him before he was fired, it was evident they liked playing for him. Granato had to coach with an even worse goal tending situation than what we have now. I don't think he even had UPL step in until the very end of his coaching tenure here.

I have always believed that Granato was fired as a scapegoat just so KA could keep his job. No, it wasn't Granato's fault, Kevyn, it was your fault and you should have been fired back then for so many reasons, but most importantly for never getting us the obvious missing link, a goalie. 

Fired as a scapegoat?   He was fired for his record, and because his teams were one-dimensional, but he got little help in term of resources from Adams and Pegula.  

[quill]

26 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Fired as a scapegoat?   He was fired for his record, and because his teams were one-dimensional, but he got little help in term of resources from Adams and Pegula.  

I will give Adams a tiny bit of credit, and I mean tiny, when he fired Granato for whatever reason you can call it because I remember he did at least put some of the responsibility of the team's poor performance on himself as well as on the players back then. Well if Adams truly wanted to take some of the responsibility for his performance, then he should take some serious responsibility for his atrocious overall performance ever since being hired and RESIGN immediately.

Edited 3 hours ago by quill

[Taro T]

8 minutes ago, quill said:

I will give Adams a tiny bit of credit, and I mean tiny, when he fired Granato for whatever reason you can call it because I remember he did at least put some of the responsibility of the team's poor performance on himself as well as on the players back then. Well if Adams truly wanted to take some of the responsibility for his performance, then he should take some serious responsibility for his atrocious overall performance ever since being hired and RESIGN immediately.

Yeah, he did his normal trope about how everyone needs to be better and he needs to be better, but at this point, all that was and is is merely words.  The actions don't match.  

Personally, expect this team is ready to rejoin the NHL because there are actual NHLers at every spot and there are kids in Ra-cha-cha that have demonstrated they can handle playing in the NHL without getting caved in should callups be necessary.  But, that's where they were 13/14 years ago at the time they decided to blow everything up.

Don't expect they actually WILL join the NHL until Adams is gone.  Hoping Christmas comes by NYD this year but by no means am expecting it.

[Spoonman]

3 hours ago, Mr Peabody said:

Lindy agrees -said a big shakeup of the lines might be necessary.  Stay tuned.

Shake up Front Office. 
 

KA does not understand this is not a hockey daycare, (he wants guys who want to be here - gives no confidence in BUF as a destination, blames BUF climate & NY taxes). He is WRAK.
 

He is unable to let guys he likes go. Then they force his hand (Eichel, Reinhart, O’Reilly (lost his love of game in BUF! For God’s sake!).

Fire KA, Kacko make GM decisions as interim rest of year. 

Start with doing something with 3 mediocre G situation. 

p.s. While this has logical basis, won’t happen with Terry McScrooge Pants. JFC - EVERYONE is on expiring contracts. Really TP?

[Pimlach]

41 minutes ago, quill said:

I will give Adams a tiny bit of credit, and I mean tiny, when he fired Granato for whatever reason you can call it because I remember he did at least put some of the responsibility of the team's poor performance on himself as well as on the players back then. Well if Adams truly wanted to take some of the responsibility for his performance, then he should take some serious responsibility for his atrocious overall performance ever since being hired and RESIGN immediately.

Not me.  I give Adams ZERO credit, and I think he handled Granato's firing in a sleazy way .  

I recall that Adams threw Granato under the bus.  Adams touted the need for a "veteran coach and NHL  experience", and he promised to do a  thorough coaching search.  Adams somehow got his players to repeat those same comments in their locker room cleanout season ending interviews. 

Granato was a popular coach with his players and I expected more defense for him, and some regret, and even some accountability from the players.  There was very little of that, the players moved on, Adams gave them their excuse for getting their coach fired.   

Adams is not the guy to fix this team.  

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Pimlach

[quill]

16 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Yes, it's always this. Giveaways, turnovers, lost puck battles along with bad net front coverage. Those things lose you games even when you play half decently.

My comment on the game is really just same, same. It's always the same. 

I don't like some of Ruff's line match ups and decisions on who plays and with who but that's nuance not even worth bothering with given the above core problem. Greenway tried to be physical at least. There was that. 

Yup, Greenway was a physical presence last night. I like that line. The 4th line with Greenway, Malenstyn, and Krebs were about the only half way fun line to watch last night. 

[JohnC]

2 hours ago, quill said:

I will give Adams a tiny bit of credit, and I mean tiny, when he fired Granato for whatever reason you can call it because I remember he did at least put some of the responsibility of the team's poor performance on himself as well as on the players back then. Well if Adams truly wanted to take some of the responsibility for his performance, then he should take some serious responsibility for his atrocious overall performance ever since being hired and RESIGN immediately.

The usual avenue for a GM departure is by being fired. It's not very often that a failed GM volunteers to leave his position. Usually, the POHO and/or the owner make the decision for the staffing change. In a sense, the owner is also the acting POHO. The onus is on the owner to take the step that is obvious to most everyone. It shouldn't be a surprise that this particular reclusive owner hasn't done so.   

[SwampD]

3 hours ago, Pimlach said:

Fired as a scapegoat?   He was fired for his record, and because his teams were one-dimensional, but he got little help in term of resources from Adams and Pegula.  

Sooooo,… he was the scapegoat, then.

😀

Edited 1 hour ago by SwampD