JohnC

I'm not being overly critical of the Sabres rebuild. It's going to take time. I'm aware of that. So my expectations are not as grand as you think. But let's be honest about when our rebuild started. It wasn't two years ago. It started when Regier was our GM. He started shedding veteran players before his departure. If I'm not mistaken wasn't Vanek let go during his tenure? You may be right that it is not completely fair to compare the Sabres to Ottawa. However, in fairness to Ottawa they didn't go through the indignity of a fan numbing tank job strategy. In comparison to Toronto they are unquestionably ahead of us in the rebuild process. They took full advantage of selling off their assets and got in return pieces, picks and cap space that accelerated their reconstruction. Please stop using the excuse that we've had to deal with the misfortune of having injuries. All teams are subjected to that affliction, some more and others less. Tough! It's part of the game. The loss of players is also an opportunity for the replacements. As a Buffalo fan who has been subjected to inept stewardship of its teams I will no longer tolerate excuses. Baby crying over an inevitable part of these crash sports is not something I find endearing. My mantra is simple and clear: No more excuses! I may be a schmuck but I will not be a schmuck who accepts excuses.

Thanks for the input. Still surprising that more information didn't leak out as to why? If Rex was so hands off with the offense then there had to be some other pressure points such as Whaley and maybe the owner. I'm not blaming Rex or anyone in particular with the firing of a coordinator so early in the season. However, it was unusual. With a Rex coached team there is always a commotion. Some people run a tight ship and others are a lot looser. His style is looser than most. Not a criticism so much as an observation.

The school yard retort. Impressive.

Do you have any insights into what happened between Roman and Rex? Were they in conflict? Was GR ignoring the instructions of the HC? Did Rex feel that Roman was being too conservative with TT and that Rex wanted to open it up a little more? It's also a unique situation that such a quick and surprising departure so early in the season didn't come with much explanation.

The owner hired the same coach he fired. Some coaches work 100 hrs a week. Other coaches work 40 hours a week. Some coaches are fully engaged with the players while other coaches are very aloof. Some coaches delegate more and others less. Was Rex ever associated with the word discipline? No. Was Rex ever associated with the word smart? No. He was associated with words such as bombastic, blubbery fool, obnoxious, chaos, antics, stubbornly inflexible, underachieving etc.etc. The owner hired a huckster who during his stint with the Jets had a losing record and a concluding 4 win season. He bought the bullshiiit that the dumpster fire he left in NY was due to others. No matter what was attempted to prop up this talkative fool it wasn't going to work. When you hire an incompetent you get an incompetent. You don't have to do a deep analysis to determine what happened here. Whether Rex worked 100 hours a week or 20 it doesn't matter. The owner got what he bought; he got what he deserved. It was the boss's ridiculous mistake that he rectified by firing him after the second season of watching chaos on the field.

Do you know what they call excuse makers? Losers. You can always tell when a Buffalo Bills fan posts. Their checklist for excuses is very long. When some people are constantly facing the harsh reality of what's happening on the field they often resort to living a life of delusion to soften the blow. No more excuses!!

A team that isn't getting a lot of attention but has done a good job in reshaping its roster and performing well is Ottawa. Although their quiet rebuild has been done without much fanfare it has climbed higher up the ladder than the Sabres. Their record is 24-15-4 for 52 points. It appears that the uncle GM is schooling the nephew GM on how to do one's job. That freaking Lehner deal still gets me riled up.

Are you trying to tell me that bigger isn't always better? Tell that to the GM when evaluating goalies!

He didn't rip off Pegula----Pegula ripped himself off. It was a ridiculous hire. The contract length and terms were obscene for a coach who lost more games than he won and who was recently fired. Rex didn't hustle Pegula--- he hustled himself. Even for a billionaire this was a costly mistake.

I respectfully but strenuously disagree with your view. The best way to compare progress to compare teams to one another. Teams don't compete against themselves; they compete against one another. If your team starts off as being as good as another team but then the other team improves at a faster rate you can't say that your team is better than the competition because relatively they have surpassed you. Toronto is not a flash in the pan. They have made a quantum leap over the past couple of years. They are mostly young, and those young players are going to get better. I hate to say it but the obvious is obvious: The Maple Leafs have done a better and smarter rebuild job than the Sabres. Hometown bias does not alter reality.

At this time I resolutely say no. He has recently demonstrated that he can play (somewhat better) within the confines of the unit. If you examine his scoring most of his goals are in good scoring positions. His smarter play seems to coincide when he got playing time with Gionta. I recognize that he is still a work in progress but right not he is our best five on five scorer. When you have a dearth of scorers why is it sensible to get rid of one of the few natural scorers you have and make your paltry offense even more impotent? Whether you are artful or not in expressing your thoughts on this issue I am not altering my view. However, everything is subject to change with me. Equivocating is something I do with great frequency. With regard to the highlighted area the comparison between Bailey and Kane is like comparing Rosie O'Donnel to Kate Upton. Your view of beauty is freakishly different from my view of beauty.

The attached link is from WGR and the Instigator Show. Craig Button talks with the hosts about the Sabres and a variety of other topics. Good hockey talk. It is a 17 minute piece. http://media.wgr550.com/a/118152673/01-19-tsn-s-craig-button-with-the-instigators.htm

He's going to San Fran to be HC.

What has increased the frustration level with this team is that Toronto, a team that many analysts said was behind us in the rebuild, clearly turned out to be ahead of us. That turn of events just magnified the local reaction and disappointment. What the Toronto organization smartly did was get rid of their expensive veterans who were still good and in return got an infusion of young talent that has accelerated the rebuilding process. The problem with the Sabres is that the veterans that we dealt had little value.

Whether the Bills keep TT or not do you think that the organization believes that he is their long-term franchise qb? I don't think they do. If it did it would embrace him more by their deeds and words. That's not the case here. My position on this issue has changed. So I can't fairly say that I have been consistent on this issue. My recommendation as of now (still fluid) would be to keep TT and use their first round pick to select the the highest rated qb on their board. If the Bills used the first pick on a safety I will go crazy! If they use it for a receiver to help put TT in a more favorable position I will with some reluctance acquiesce to that approach. Is Cardale considered to be an accurate passer. His physical attributes are appealing. But if he doesn't have that natural accuracy required by NFL standards then my interest in him precipitously falls.

I'm not suggesting what you are saying doesn't have merit because it certainly does. But the reality is that this team lacks enough talent to be a well rounded team. As you and many others have pointed out our blue line deficiency is so glaring that it bleeds over to the forward lines. When the Sabres played a game in Chicago, a game they lost in OT, regardless what the score was the Blackhawks dominated us on the ice. They simply had more better players. Most recently when the Sabres played the Maple Leafs what was obvious to me is that the opposition had more better young players than we did. Sometimes the eye test is more telling than the stats. This team simply isn't good enough yet to keep up with the really good teams. I hate coming to this conclusion because the expectations were high entering the season. But you don't get better and find solutions by not facing the reality that at this point were not good enough.

When you have money in the bank you don't quickly take it out unless you are undisciplined. Be patient and let the asset grow before being tempted to get rid of an asset that is steadily growing in value. Some of you hockey afficionados have me perplexed. You act as if scorers grow on trees. When you have one you should value it more. Filling a hole to create a bigger hole is an act of futility. There is a need here to be more restrained with one's trade impulses.

You are a recalcitrant! It would be a terrible mistake to get rid of one of the few scorers on this barren team. I'm not against trading anyone if it would upgrade the team for the long-haul. But right now the best strategy to take is to have him showcase his natural scoring talents and increase his market value. As I (and others) have said his game is not very cerebral and it is too untamed for many. But steadily he seems to be limiting his wildness and conforming his game more to the confines of his unit.

You are hereby banished from this hockey forum for the seditious suggestion of promoting trapping, a cancer on this sport. For punishment you will have to watch 100 consecutive hours of Jersey Devil games under Lou Lamirello's gut wrenching style of play. Until you cleanse your soul from that impure thought you will be scorned until rehabilitated. Teams resort to trapping when they lack talent and can't keep up. The more acceptable approach and aesthetic approach is to get a better mix of talented players. Do you know what is worse than losing? Being boring to the point of suffocation. Your trapping suggestion has gotten me riled up. Repent or be gone! You bring up a player that has disappointed me. I really thought Bogosian was going to be a good player, second pairing type of player. He has the physical attributes such as size, skating ability and skill. But something is missing? The parts don't add up to the whole. Maybe the accumulated injuries have taken its toll? Maybe the better approach for him to take is to be less of a banger and be more of a puck mover i.e. less muscle and more finesse. The bottom line is that I'm disappointed in a player I had higher hopes for. I respectfully disagree with your assessment that Columbus shouldn't be brought up in the Robitaille analysis. From a talent standpoint you are right that they had a larger base of talent to work with compared to Buffalo and Toronto who were starting from the ground up. But the point that Mike Robitaille was making in referring to Columbus was that something jolted this underachieving franchise. Was it the tiresome new hard-arse coach or was it a player/s subtraction or addition to change the dynamic of the team? That was the point he was getting at. I thought it was a keen observation.

I appreciate your response or should I say conjectures. That's the point! No matter how we try to consider the options what is clear to me is that Whaley is not enamored with him. That is not to say that he won't keep him. But if he does it will be for the unenthusiastic reason that he has no better option. Many of us have made the point (and I think you are in this category) that maybe the best route to take is to keep him, even as a stop gap qb, and put him in the best position to succeed with a better supporting cast at the receiver spot or two and bringing in a player or reshuffling the line to rectify the gaping hole at right tackle. I make no apology for equivocating on the TT issue. I have switched my positions more than once. Right now my position is to keep him and continue with the quest to find a young qb prospect for the long haul. Sometimes things work out dramatically different from expectations. When the Bills played the Seahawks and TT went against Russell Wilson there wasn't much difference in play between the two players. And when the Bills played the Dolphins at home TT played a sparkling game making high end throws all over the field. On this issue I make no apologies for being perplexed and baffled more than I usually am.

The consensus prior to the season was that the Sabres were ahead of the Maple Leafs in the rebuild. That assessment has clearly changed even when both teams are fully healthy. The problem for the Sabres is that their deficiency on defense is so glaring that it detracts from the forward lines not only from a defensive standpoint but also an offensive standpoint. As Mike Robitaille on the WGR link pointed out both Columbus and Toronto were behind us last year. The Sabres were on a pace for the second half of the season last year to be a playoff team. The trajectory was in the right direction. But even when accounting for injuries, which all teams have to contend with, something has gone wrong this year that has derailed that positive trajectory.

Why do you think that Whaley and the organization are inclined (it appears?) not to keep him? Is it mostly salary and cap factors or does their lack of enthusiasm for him (it appears?) has to do with the perceived limitations of his game? It's more likely a combination of the two reasons but something is perplexing here. The Bills currently have a qb that from a statistical standpoint should be more appreciated. His salary doesn't seem to be onerous, at least for his position. Even if he was only considered a stop gap caliber of qb why would an organization with few options to replace him still seem very unenthusiastic about him?

The story that stood out to me in the link was BB kicking his primary running back off the team for not showing up for a meeting. No excuses were accepted. Just get the hell out of this building and don't come back! Foolishness is not going to be tolerated from the best to the worst players. To Brady's credit not only does he accept being coached hard he demands it. There is no excuse for any player not to give maximum effort when your HOF qb is outworking everyone else. I remember Randy Moss complaining about his contract situation in a post game lockerroom media setting. He was shortly called in to the office and told to clear out his locker and find another place to work for. At a later time the future HOF receiver stated that he regretted acting like he did when he was with the Pats.

If another team would have taken him in the second round it would have been their mistake instead of ours. The end result would have been the same i.e. a wasted pick on a player who wasn't good enough!

How long do you think that Dareus would last if he played under BB? What do you think BB would do if Mario blatantly quit on him? His locker would be cleared out before the game was over. BB acts like an insufferable priiiick. There is a method to his madness. He is the best HC in the history of the game. What a stark difference between a Rex coached team and a BB coached team! One coach is about bullshiit and the other is all about business. The word culture gets loosely mentioned when discussing different organizations. When discussing the Patriots it actually means something. Does anyone think that Chris Hayes is not happy where he is now compared to where he came from? It might be less demanding playing for the losing Bills but it has to be more rewarding playing in the more demanding Pats winning organization.