Buffalo Sabres and NHL 2024-2025

[PromoTheRobot]

12 hours ago, The Jokeman said:

UPL has played well but Levi who was supposed to be the savior has been a major disappointment. 

 

Levi isn't a disappointment.  He's still developing.  Goalies take longer. He's doing quite well in the AHL.

 

In fact Levi is probably happy in Rochester looking at what the Sabres have become. UPL should sue for non support.

Edited December 18 by PromoTheRobot

[QCity]

Down 0-2 in the 1st period to the worst team in the conference. Even a sadist couldn't watch this. In 2 hours they get to actually wear the title of worst team in the conference pacing for 67 pts.

 

Adams said he'd go to war with these guys, well that feeling certainly isn't mutual.

[May Day 10]

Don't worry.  Just a touch more collaboration with Terry and it'll all be fixed!

[RiotAct]

clean house.

[Jauronimo]

33 minutes ago, QCity said:

Down 0-2 in the 1st period to the worst team in the conference. Even a sadist couldn't watch this. In 2 hours they get to actually wear the title of worst team in the conference pacing for 67 pts.

 

Adams said he'd go to war with these guys, well that feeling certainly isn't mutual.

I'd send these guys to the front.

[thenorthremembers]

Just tuned in to see how motivated these guys were after the meeting yesterday.  Yikes man.   

[jayg]

6 minutes ago, thenorthremembers said:

Just tuned in to see how motivated these guys were after the meeting yesterday.  Yikes man.   

 

Yeah,  they're done like dinner.  

[oldmanfan]

Get rid of every defenseman on the roster and get guys who aren’t afraid to play hockey

 

[BillsFan4]

14 hours ago, May Day 10 said:

 

First, I don't expect pegula change his stripes at this point.  He believes he has a great management structure, loves the communication and trust between him and adams.  If they have to make a move, it'll be a russ brandon shuffle where everyone just changes job titles.  Seth appert is overtly being groomed to be the head coach and will take over sooner or later, again with no coaching search for the 3rd coach in a row.

There is a tapestry of bad decisions and mismanagement.  These results are going to continue into perpetuity, well after appert's replacement is groomed and takes over.

The absolute ceiling is snaking a wild card spot (16th of 32 teams) one year and losing in the first round.

 

If pegula changed, and put someone with credibility at the top who was free to do as he pleases, with a more open budget, I would sign up for another rebuild in a second and be excited about the team acting and being structured as a professional franchise.

 

This existence is no existence at all and the Sabres are nothing to me as an entertainment product. My hockey loving kids couldn't care less about them (which is sad).  

 

 

Let this be a cautionary tale for bills fans who want to turf McDermott and/or beane.  We better hope their tenure here out-lives terry.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6000113/2024/12/17/sabres-terry-pegula-meeting/
 

Quote

“When we were in detailed discussions with Jason and how we felt we needed to move forward — effectively, efficiently and economically running this franchise — we felt that there were too many differences in opinion,” Pegula said then.

He then added, “I’m not going to sit here and, you know, dish on Jason Botterill, but we have a vision and we want to see our vision succeed.”

Nothing is going to change until Pegula decides to take a step back and hire experienced people to run hockey ops.

 

but he won’t. 
 

Quote

Five games into this winless streak, Adams held a defensive news conference in which he said he was keeping all of his options open regarding trade talks but made it clear he wasn’t going to panic.

 

“I’m going to go to war with these guys,” Adams said then. “I will not change. I will not back down from that. I believe in the people in our room.”

 

Adams also angered the fan base during that news conference when he said Buffalo was “not a destination city” for free agents. He said the team would need to win to change that because “we don’t have palm trees. We have taxes in New York. Those are real.”

 

The next day, the Sabres lost 5-2 to Utah in what Ruff called, “mentally one of the weakest games I’ve seen.” 

Things didn’t get much better from there. The Sabres lost two more home games before the pair of road losses to the Washington Capitals and Leafs this weekend. Their record is 11-16-4 heading into a road game against the Canadiens on Tuesday. A loss would put the Sabres in last place in the Eastern Conference.

And now to add to the above, they are playing maybe their worst game of this 11 game losing streak after a speech from Terry Pegula where he professed confidence in the Adams, the coaches and players.
 

Not sure what that says/means, if anything.

 

Edited December 18 by BillsFan4

[EasternOHBillsFan]

1 hour ago, QCity said:

Down 0-2 in the 1st period to the worst team in the conference. Even a sadist couldn't watch this. In 2 hours they get to actually wear the title of worst team in the conference pacing for 67 pts.

 

Adams said he'd go to war with these guys, well that feeling certainly isn't mutual.

 

Try down 1-6... you thought it was bad being down 0-2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Some speech by Terry, huh? 

 

HE NEEDS TO PERSONALLY APOLOGIZE TO PAT LAFONTAINE ASAP AND BREAK THIS CURSE!!!!

[QCity]

"The solution is within this room."

 

                   - Terry Pegula 12/16/2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BADOLBILZ]

2 hours ago, BillsFan4 said:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6000113/2024/12/17/sabres-terry-pegula-meeting/
 

Nothing is going to change until Pegula decides to take a step back and hire experienced people to run hockey ops.

 

but he won’t. 
 

And now to add to the above, they are playing maybe their worst game of this 11 game losing streak after a speech from Terry Pegula where he professed confidence in the Adams, the coaches and players.
 

Not sure what that says/means, if anything.

 

 

 

I think it's pretty clear that the players don't have much(if any) respect for Terry Pegula.

 

The fact that he thought a speech from HIM about anything would make a positive difference underscores how clueless he is about how they perceive him and his stewardship.  

 

He's literally the one constant in the 14 years of failure.   These are young men.   By nature they are just as prone to buying completely into narratives to explain their roles in failure as they are to being coaxed into playing better by charismatic leadership.      Terry Pegula is the losingest owner in the history of the NHL.  At a point it no longer matters if you are well intentioned or if the players think you are a pleasant old fart.  

 

No respect, no buy-in.

[Jauronimo]

29 minutes ago, QCity said:

"The solution is within this room."

 

                   - Terry Pegula 12/16/2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The solution is in the room but the question isn't what Terry thinks it is.

[That's No Moon]

50 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

I think it's pretty clear that the players don't have much(if any) respect for Terry Pegula.

 

The fact that he thought a speech from HIM about anything would make a positive difference underscores how clueless he is about how they perceive him and his stewardship.  

 

He's literally the one constant in the 14 years of failure.   These are young men.   By nature they are just as prone to buying completely into narratives to explain their roles in failure as they are to being coaxed into playing better by charismatic leadership.      Terry Pegula is the losingest owner in the history of the NHL.  At a point it no longer matters if you are well intentioned or if the players think you are a pleasant old fart.  

 

No respect, no buy-in.

Out of all the previous rock bottoms, have they finally plumbed a new depth tonight?

[BADOLBILZ]

10 minutes ago, That's No Moon said:

Out of all the previous rock bottoms, have they finally plumbed a new depth tonight?

 

 

Probably not, IMO.   Because there is at least still a statistically legitimate argument to be made that they are too young to be "expected" to be a playoff team.   By stacking young players instead of building a team properly they've created an abundance of young, dumb players and they seem to be at a point where they don't know what it takes and don't yet care enough about their legacies/careers to work hard enough to overcome their lack of know how.   To me the most memorable aspect of the Bills "drought" was watching one GM after the next drafting another 20 year old underclassmen onto their rudderless ship and wondering why nothing ever changed despite some of those guys being great talents.   When they finally made the playoffs it was with one of the oldest teams in the league.   At some point you probably need a bunch of very good veteran leaders if you are going to break a losing culture.   

[That's No Moon]

1 minute ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

Probably not, IMO.   Because there is at least still a statistically legitimate argument to be made that they are too young to be "expected" to be a playoff team.   By stacking young players instead of building a team properly they've created an abundance of young, dumb players and they seem to be at a point where they don't know what it takes and don't yet care enough about their legacies/careers to work hard enough to overcome their lack of know how.   To me the most memorable aspect of the Bills "drought" was watching one GM after the next drafting another 20 year old underclassmen onto their rudderless ship and wondering why nothing ever changed despite some of those guys being great talents.   When they finally made the playoffs it was with one of the oldest teams in the league.   At some point you probably need a bunch of very good veteran leaders if you are going to break a losing culture.   

I dunno, tonight looked a lot like capitulation.

[BADOLBILZ]

11 minutes ago, That's No Moon said:

I dunno, tonight looked a lot like capitulation.

 

But it's likely that nothing important will come of it.   Some shlub interim HC isn't going to be a substantive change.   Trading B talent for C talent for the sake of shaking up the roster won't do that either, IMO.  It's not a typical NHL franchise that's easy to re-direct.  Terry has really outdone himself with this iteration of the rebuild.

[Jauronimo]

4 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

But it's likely that nothing important will come of it.   Some shlub interim HC isn't going to be a substantive change.   Trading B talent for C talent for the sake of shaking up the roster won't do that either, IMO.  It's not a typical NHL franchise that's easy to re-direct.  Terry has really outdone himself with this iteration of the rebuild.

Which is why I posed the question upthread, what changes do people reasonably want to see?  Mostly I've seen demands for human sacrifice or to send every player to bed without dinner and call up the entire AHL squad.  I don't see any realistic moves that change the trajectory of this season by firings or trades.  Trading while free falling down the standings isn't exactly a position of strength. 

 

We have one bad long-term contract on the books in Cozens. Sammy's contract isn't great but its not huge.  Our long term commits are Tage on a nice deal, Dahlin and Power on big deals that Power has yet to live up to but the talent is there.  There are a decent amount of pieces that have value between Kulich, Quinn, Benson, Tuch, and Peterka that can be used to re-work this team.  The results are the same this year but a few years ago we were tied to Okposo and Skinner and the prospect pipeline was looking pretty dry.  

 

Firing Adams or moving Tuch at the deadline seem like potential moves.  

 

 

[davefan66]

7 hours ago, thenorthremembers said:

Just tuned in to see how motivated these guys were after the meeting yesterday.  Yikes man.   

I guess the team responded to Terry in a big way.

[\GoBillsInDallas/]