Leafs bad narrative >> Babcocks actions.So you're mad at the messenger, not the fact he was an abusive and borderline psychopath?
GMKA should have done this...but he didn't quite clean house...A big mistake, imo, was resigningtwo veteran "leaders" - Girgensons and Okposo...Both of them were well versed in losing....They both should have been let go....Feel bad for Buffalo fans. It seems the problems are deeply embedded from the owner down to the players. Outside of getting a new owner, GM, and coach, I’d really shake the team up big time. Cut the thread from the previous 15 years and start fresh even if that means trading their best players. That probably won’t be popular with fans but if I was a fan I’d want to sever all relations with the franchise from the last 15 years. There is probably a deeply rooted culture/mentality/status quo type problem in their franchise
Leafs bad narrative >> Babcocks actions.
Actually Babcock did make a horrible mistake going to Toronto as it ended up destroying both his career and his legacy. If he went to Buffalo the expectations would've been nowhere near as high and I think he would've gotten the Sabres to be competitive and making the playoffs within a season or two and considered a success.Remember after the McEichel draft their fans claimed they "We're years ahead of Toronto in their rebuild and Babcock made a mistake when he chose the Leafs over the Sabres"
Letting in 4 against a leafs team on a b2b after you have lost 9 in a row. This is just sad. Buffalo ownership is what needs to go. They just don't know how to run a hockey club.
Sabres fans seem to say that the complete opposite is the case with his two teams. The Bills front office have managed to insulate themselves from Pegula's meddling, which gives him more time to screw around with the Sabres- a team that he's always been a bit more controlling over.IMHO, nothing will happen so long as the Bills are doing well because they are probably occupying Pegula's time, not that Pegula's decisions when he does pay attention to the Sabres have been particularly good.
CronyismKevyn Adams will have been Sabres GM for 5 years in June. He's gone through 3 coaches and traded away players like Eichel, Reinhart, Montour without significant improvement to the team. How he still has a job is beyond me.
The Sabres are Pegula's passion project, he believes he's a hockey guy since he played hockey in college.Sabres fans seem to say that the complete opposite is the case with his two teams. The Bills front office have managed to insulate themselves from Pegula's meddling, which gives him more time to screw around with the Sabres- a team that he's always been a bit more controlling over.
I think they just lack an identity and direction and the culture of losing has rubbed off on and negatively impacted the talented players they do have.
The team seems like a random collection of guys who have some talent and have had success at lower levels but don't know how to win in the NHL.
Good or bad. I don’t care. But it’s definitely what happened. No Marner fiasco, no Leaf’s stint, and he’s still coaching in this League. That’s a fact. Sorry that it triggers you, it doesn’t trigger me though. Just stating the facts.
Was a mirage. Their offense 2 years ago was ballooned by unsustainable shooting percentages and a powerplay which was over performing due to nobody in the league knowing that Tage Thompson had a rocket of a one timer yes. If you take a deeper dive into the season, the offense was already trailing off during the second half of it when teams figured out all they had to do was shut down Tage on the pp.Feel bad for their fans, this kind of futility is ridiculous. They seemed so close to turning the corner two years ago too, they were a powerhouse offensively. How'd they manage to go backwards from that
They tried that by dealing Eichel and Reinhart ; yet here we sitImo the Sabres need to make a trade they find painful. That means one or two of their core guys has to go for depth. This cannot continue along the same path year after year. Their core isn’t a bunch of inexperienced players.
Very special playerI think what we are learning is that Dahlin is responsible for the majority (all?) of the Sabres wins. Which isn’t that surprising to me, but might be eye opening for the fans that are highly critical of him as he carries the weight of all these losers directly on his shoulders every game.