country club...all country club all the time...
cue up the merle haggard "just some good ole boys"
Wasn't that Waylon Jennings?
Regier, Rolston fired; Pat LaFontaine-President of Hockey Ops; Ted Nolan-coach
Now there's some action... The owner is going back to the old days, Teddy will get the Sabres playing, I don't know how long he will last but he was liked when in Buffalo back in '95..
When all else fails, bring back your own retreads.
This would be like making Geoff Sanderson president of hockey ops and sticking Gerard Gallant behind the bench.
True... except the guys the Sabres have brought back knew how to win and did... I don't think Nolan will coach next season, the new GM (whoever that will be) will probably hire his own guy...
Lafontaine's only experience with winning was the 1996 World Cup, when he was about the 8th-best forward on Team USA.
Nolan's four years of NHL head coaching netted him exactly one playoff series win and two years out of the playoffs entirely. His first year in Buffalo was worse than the previous year with John Muckler, and his second year (that everyone went nuts over) was still worse than under Muckler the year before that. His first year with the Islanders was 1 point better than Steve Stirling's first year there, and his second year was 1 point better than the year that got Stirling fired.
Hell, Ned Harkness had a lot of success at lower levels and couldn't do much in the NHL. Plenty of coaches have had success at the lower levels and couldn't translate it.
They are winners... and when compared to Sanderson as President and Gallant as coach it's not even close.
In the CHL, the Saint John Sea Dogs went 161-34-9 in the regular season under Gallant. In the QMJHL playoffs, they were 46-11 (7 of those losses coming in a single year, meaning the other two years were 16-3 and 16-1), winning two league championships. They were 6-3 in Memorial Cup play, winning one. The year after he moved on, the Sea Dogs went from 50-15-3 to 23-44-1.
That's an overall record of 213-48-9.
In Nolan's five years with the Soo Greyhounds, they were 174-129-27. They missed the playoffs one year, lost in the playoffs twice, and won two OHL championships. They won a Memorial Cup (through the backdoor with that goofy host series playoff they did). In his year with the Moncton Wildcats, they went 52-15-3, then 16-5 in the playoffs en route to a QMJHL championship; they lost in the Memorial Cup.
Pat Lafontaine was part of the USA's 1996 World Cup winning team. Geoff Sanderson was a part of World Championship wins in 1994 and 1997, plus a Memorial Cup in 1989.
When Lafontaine was with the Sabres, they did not win. They had one playoff series win in 1992-93, then were swept in the next round. That is all. With Nolan as the coach, they won a seven-game series against Ottawa (who finished below .500), then were swept in the next round.
...am I missing the part where they won something? Anything?
I was thinking of winners in the sense of mentality as much has anything.. You can have Gallant, I'll take Nolan..
Very happy to see Nolan get another chance in the NHL.
I was thinking of winners in the sense of mentality as much has anything.. You can have Gallant, I'll take Nolan..
I was thinking of winners in the sense of mentality as much has anything....
Dmitry Chesnokov @dchesnokov 56s
It looks like Nik Zherdev is ending his relationship with his 3rd KHL club since the end of last season. Has not scored a goal this season.
It's too bad. He's the Nuke Laloosh of hockey. Million dollar talent, 10 cent head. His talent is definitely worthy of the NHL, he just doesn't have the maturity to handle professional sports apparently. Another waste of talent. It's a shame, he's still in his 20's and his career is likely over.
Since there is not yet a GDT for us in which to post this, I'll put it here. This link is for the Bruins GDT, which is fairly epic:
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1537809
It's too bad. He's the Nuke Laloosh of hockey. Million dollar talent, 10 cent head. His talent is definitely worthy of the NHL, he just doesn't have the maturity to handle professional sports apparently. Another waste of talent. It's a shame, he's still in his 20's and his career is likely over.