News Article: Lehner goes into detail about his time in Buffalo

[Reddawg]

I seem to remember the Sabres being very supportive of Lehner when he needed mental health counseling. Did I imagine that?

No, they supported him even after he left the team.

 

[jBuds]

Though if we see pics of Reinhart with a tattoo of the state of Florida on the back of his neck, maybe a conversation about the culture here would be appropriate

 

[Chainshot]

One of the few things that Botterill appeared to do right was how he handled Lehner at the end of Robin's tenure in Buffalo - getting him into treatment, helping him over that summer, never slagging him.

That said, Robin might want to take a look at pushing his own issues onto another source than himself again. Perhaps if he had put himself into treatment earlier and all that - who knows if his drinking had any impact on his injury or his recovery from it. It certainly showed in how he performed and the criticism of him from paying fans? Pal, you play a f***ing game for a living, making more money on an ELC than most Buffalonians make in 10 years, so how about showing up sober, clean, having gotten the help you need and in something other than the conditioning of an alcoholic?

Every time I start to think "yeah, as someone who deals with depression and anxiety, I get where he is coming from" but then he opens up his mouth. And in a few months he'll walk this back too.

 

[Buffaloed]

Sabres notebook: Director of player performance loses his job

The nutrition plan put in place by Finlay’s performance department hit a snag with players early in the season. While the smell of pizza and wings often wafts near the visitors’ room after games, Buffalo’s players were discouraged from indulging in savory snacks. The policy was later eased.

Who can forget the glory days when if things didn't go right we'd dig another hole?

 

[Jim Bob]

This is an interesting thread. It does seem that they did not take the best approach to Lehner’s high ankle sprain. But, we will never get the whole picture.

 

[Jacob582]

Sabres notebook: Director of player performance loses his job

The nutrition plan put in place by Finlay’s performance department hit a snag with players early in the season. While the smell of pizza and wings often wafts near the visitors’ room after games, Buffalo’s players were discouraged from indulging in savory snacks. The policy was later eased.

Who can forget the glory days when if things didn't go right we'd dig another hole?

We need to trade for McKinnon and his chickpea pasta.

 

[Sabre Dance]

This sucks to hear. Buffalo already struggles to attract worthwhile talent and this is just one more thing to make the organization look bad. Have to say I wouldn't hold back if I were Lehner though. Can't be mad at him for mistakes the medical staff made.

This is what agents do to get players traded. The public pressure typically gets these trades done. There is damage being done to the organization's reputation but hopefully the Pegulas understand that if they make a terrible trade and continue to lose their reputation will be worse.

This won't be the last time this happens. Media will ask former players and coaches all about their time in Buffalo. Only negative stories will go viral.

 

[5 Minute Major]

If they didn’t get him on a bike he would have weighed 400 pounds by the time he was ready for physical activity.

 

[N.Y. Orangeman]

Glad you are doing well, Robin. Goodbye

 

[explore]

As much as I want to join in on the attack on Lehner’s mental health (I don’t), I think his contention with the Sabres was that they had him doing 300 lb leg presses with a high ankle sprain that he says made things worse and necessitated surgery

“The (stuff) they did to some of the players when I was there and especially to me regarding my ankle sprain, it was crazy, man," Lehner told former NHLer Cam Janssen and St. Louis Blues rinkside reporter Andy Strickland on their "The Cam and Strick Podcast." "I had a high ankle sprain. They had me on a bike one week after I had fully torn everything, worst-grade ankle sprain. One week after (the injury), they put me on a bike with a special boot. I should have been walking on it maybe six-to-eight weeks after I got it. They had me doing leg presses with like 300 pounds three weeks into it, and I re-sprained everything and ended up having surgery.”

The Sabres had no comment. Dr. Oliver Finlay, their director of sports performance at the time, did not respond to a request for comment. He signed a long-term contract worth $4 million in July 2015, The Buffalo News reported at the time. He was fired after only eight months, the result of pushback from players, The News said.
Finlay works as an independent consultant for a number of pro sports teams and is founder and managing partner of Beautiful Game Group, a sports investment company that focuses on European soccer. Former Buffalo Bills general manager Doug Whaley is listed as a managing partner of the company.

 

[Jim Bob]

As much as I want to join in on the attack on Lehner’s mental health (I don’t), I think his contention with the Sabres was that they had him doing 300 lb leg presses with a high ankle sprain that he says made things worse and necessitated surgery

Yeah, I am leaning towards Lehner having legit complaints about how the rehab of his high ankle sprain was handled.

I find it interesting that people on here have no issue complaining about how long guys have lingered on IR over the last number of years. And when a former player says that the training staff is the issue that people pile on the player and defend the team.

I guess it is the mindset that only insiders can critique the team. As soon as someone from outside critiques the team, that is too much!

 

[Montag DP]

Yeah, I am leaning towards Lehner having legit complaints about how the rehab of his high ankle sprain was handled.

I find it interesting that people on here have no issue complaining about how long guys have lingered on IR over the last number of years. And when a former player says that the training staff is the issue that people pile on the player and defend the team.

I guess it is the mindset that only insiders can critique the team. As soon as someone from outside critiques the team, that is too much!

He may have legit complaints, or he may not. The issue is the source. This is a one-sided account coming from a guy with a history of publicly trashing the organization.

 

[2 others]

He may have legit complaints, or he may not. The issue is the source. This is a one-sided account coming from a guy with a history of publicly trashing the organization.

Exactly, this is the tragedy of today's news process.
Look at who was reporting in the twitter message, some nobody. She didn't fact-check anything, just forwarded it in drama-style. The need for clicks and hits in online-content (social media) has become a plague that erodes the very foundation of journalism.

 

[Fezzy126]

For what it's worth, PHam was on WGR yesterday and basically confirmed Lehner's gripes about the training staff. In fact he mentioned that many players complained at the time. But he also followed up and said that the disconnect with the players was the reason that Finlay was fired so quickly (8 months into a multi-million dollar contract).

The team tried out a cutting edge approach, paid a lot of money to do so, and when it didn't work out reacted quickly. The team now shares medical and training staff with the Bills, so I don't think there are any issues today.

My biggest issue with this story are the parallels that people are drawing to the Eichel situation. There's been a ton of turnover since then, and while assuming that the Sabres are trash organization and completely incompetent is a popular POV right now, Lehner's comments are a non-issue for me.

 

[Montag DP]

My biggest issue with this story are the parrallels that people are drawing to the Eichel situation. There's been a ton of turnover since then, and while assuming that the Sabres are trash organization and completely incompetent is a popular POV right now, Lehner's comments are a non-issue for me.

Yup. The timing and the context imply that it could still be an issue and have something to do with Eichel's situation, even though there's no evidence of that. Lehner left three years ago, and the medical staff has been overhauled since then.

 

[sabremike]

Yeah, I am leaning towards Lehner having legit complaints about how the rehab of his high ankle sprain was handled.

I find it interesting that people on here have no issue complaining about how long guys have lingered on IR over the last number of years. And when a former player says that the training staff is the issue that people pile on the player and defend the team.

I guess it is the mindset that only insiders can critique the team. As soon as someone from outside critiques the team, that is too much!

The problem isn't criticizing the team, the issue is the very clear agenda being pushed which is to position the Sabres as the bad guys in the Eichel thing and pressure us to just give him away for nothing.

 

[Jim Bob]

The problem isn't criticizing the team, the issue is the very clear agenda being pushed which is to position the Sabres as the bad guys in the Eichel thing and pressure us to just give him away for nothing.

There are ways to do that beyond dismissing Lehner's experience while injured here and the personal attacks on him that have taken place.

Simply saying that Lehner has legit points about how his injury was handled but things have changed since then is easy enough. Bashing his mental health issues, his weight, and his skate sharpening habits is a bit much for me.

And the complete dismissal that the Sabres could have bungled his rehab that some have done is baffling to me.

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

I'm no Doctor, but I'm pretty sure you don't rehab while the patient is experiencing pain, or particularly use rehab that causes acute pain.

That he re-injured the ankle during rehab and required surgery shortly there after is prima facia evidence: trainers botched this one badly.

 

[Jim Bob]

For what it's worth, PHam was on WGR yesterday and basically confirmed Lehner's gripes about the training staff. In fact he mentioned that many players complained at the time. But he also followed up and said that the disconnect with the players was the reason that Finlay was fired so quickly (8 months into a multi-million dollar contract).

The team tried out a cutting edge approach, paid a lot of money to do so, and when it didn't work out reacted quickly. The team now shares medical and training staff with the Bills, so I don't think there are any issues today.

My biggest issue with this story are the parallels that people are drawing to the Eichel situation. There's been a ton of turnover since then, and while assuming that the Sabres are trash organization and completely incompetent is a popular POV right now, Lehner's comments are a non-issue for me.

Just because the names have changed does not mean that the new people involved are any better than the prior ones.

The Pegulas did follow up the Murray hire with Botterill, after all.

The organization is not doing themselves any favors with how they are handling the Eichel situation. And with the team choosing to not respond to Team Eichel's going public, it is not surprising at all that they are taking their lumps in the court of public opinion.

 

[Fezzy126]

Just because the names have changed does not mean that the new people involved are any better than the prior ones.

The Pegulas did follow up the Murray hire with Botterill, after all.

The organization is not doing themselves any favors with how they are handling the Eichel situation. And with the team choosing to not respond to Team Eichel's going public, it is not surprising at all that they are taking their lumps in the court of public opinion.

Well, if there have been no reported grievances since Finlay has been fired, it kind of does imply that they're better, doesn't it?

 

[jc17]

Just because the names have changed does not mean that the new people involved are any better than the prior ones.

The Pegulas did follow up the Murray hire with Botterill, after all.

The organization is not doing themselves any favors with how they are handling the Eichel situation. And with the team choosing to not respond to Team Eichel's going public, it is not surprising at all that they are taking their lumps in the court of public opinion.

Medical training is at least more structured than nhl gm training. Bad doctors exist, but I don't think it can be compared to hiring multiple bad GMs in a row when there's really no standard education in the field.

And again, its generous to even refer to the guy that was fired as a team doctor or training staff, because he wasn't, he was a "high performance " guy, that either terry or tim gave too much influence

 

[Fezzy126]

Medical training is at least more structured than nhl gm training. Bad doctors exist, but I don't think it can be compared to hiring multiple bad GMs in a row when there's really no standard education in the field.

And again, its generous to even refer to the guy that was fired as a team doctor or training staff, because he wasn't, he was a "high performance " guy, that either terry or tim gave too much influence

I'm sure we'll have 10 more pages of people conflating medical diagnosis/treatment with PT & rehab, which are two completely different fields...

 

[Jim Bob]

Well, if there have been no reported grievances since Finlay has been fired, it kind of does imply that they're better, doesn't it?

We have seen all sorts of issues of players being out on IR for a lot longer than the team initially indicated over the recent past. Just go look at the injury threads for the past few seasons. @Chainshot probably has a few dozen posts about the issues, for instance.

So, just because players aren't publicly upset does not mean that the new staff is better than the old staff.

 

[Jim Bob]

Medical training is at least more structured than nhl gm training. Bad doctors exist, but I don't think it can be compared to hiring multiple bad GMs in a row when there's really no standard education in the field.

And again, its generous to even refer to the guy that was fired as a team doctor or training staff, because he wasn't, he was a "high performance " guy, that either terry or tim gave too much influence

High performance is the trendy term for a Strength and Conditioning coach. With the explosion of research into sports science, new terms have been developed to cover people who are all about helping athletes perform as best as they can.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

Just wondering who will be next to shit on Buffalo after departure?