The day I decided that Ruff was neutered...

Posted by Thumper:

3.20.2009

Lalime was Gomez'd by Carcillo....Considering what happend to Miller, you'd think that this situation would be like a ticking time bomb that just finally went off. But on the contrary, not one player on the ice did anything. Not one player that saw it happen from the bench did anything. Lindy Ruff didn't instruct any of his players to do anything, much like he didn't instruct any of his players to do anything to Gomez. He may have even instructed his player to not do anything in retailiation.

Thomas Vanek, this teams proverbial star player, comes to the defense of Tim Connolly in front of the Flyers net. Thomas Vanek, fresh off of a broken jaw injury, while still wearing his protective cage gets put into a fucking head lock for coming to the defense of Connolly. Tell me, fellow fans...You tell me what collection of players on any NHL team would watch their superstar get put into a head lock (even without a recent broken jaw injury) and not even react to it in the slightest. I didn't even know that was possible in hockey. I don't care how good or bad any team is...When your star player gets harrassed, someone always goes ape shit, as they should. But not on this team.

There was a time when Ruff and his team would stick up for their star players and stick up for their goalies. It doesn't matter if there aren't enough players with the balls to do the dirty work. There are still players that would, if their coach told them too. Kaleta and Gaustad weren't on the ice when any of these situations happend. Perhaps if they were, retailition may have taken place. But considering they weren't on the ice, no one can tell me that if Ruff had told Kaleta or Gaustad to take a run at Lundqvist or Biron, or to put Carter into a head lock, or to challenge Carcillo, that the players wouldn't have done it. They would have done it because it's in their characture to, if their coach instructed them to do it. Its very possible that he instructed the opposite. Whether he did or not, the fact that it didn't happen at all, to me, I look at the head coach and blame him for that.

This roster is made up of mostly soft players. But there are a couple of players that have in their chemical make up to respond. When they don't respond, there's a reason.


Posted by budman90:
I agree fully with thumper on this topic. And it wasn't just that philly game that showed me that the sabres are a bunch of pussies. During the Ranger game Avery grabbed Vanek by his cage and jerked his head down after the play. And what happened after that? Absolutely nothing. Vanek didn't even push Avery off of himself. What a bunch of fucking pussies.


Posted by MauvaisSang:
There are countless examples of this throughout the season. Ruff shouldn't have to tell his players, it should be a damned reflex to stand up for your teammates (the way Stafford did for Drury.) I've seen that from this group very rarely this year - Rivet is about the only person I can think of who has immediately come to the aid of a teammate more than 3 or 4 times.

Posted by The Common Man:
Ruff shouldn't have to tell them. Buf if they're not doing it on their own, he needs to encourage it.

But Ruff is on the record as saying NOT to retaliate when Miller got ran...isn't he?

Something about playing 5 on 5?

Lotta good that did.

Posted by LALALALALALAFONTAINE:
He also said don't retaliate against Philly after Campbell's destruction of Umberger.

The problem is that people don't think Briere and Drury and even Campbell weren't tough. They were. Being tough doesn't mean being big (like Gratton), but having the toughness to go in front of the net, in the corners and so on. And when you have a small guy like Briere, he can call anyone out. Paille was one guy who AVOIDED contact. How can you get someone who's afraid of getting checked to be tough? Simple. Replace the pussies with guys like Briere and Drury who are tough. It ain't the size of the dog in the fight, yada yada yada...


Posted by Thumper:
Briere and Drury had a level of grit that very few players on this team have. Grit in a way that they'd do whatever it takes to score goals from being in or very close to the blue paint of the goal crease.

Vanek has the intangible. Stafford did for a little while when Vanek was out....But Vanek is probably the only one that is consistantly willing to stand in there and take the beating.


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Why the [Sabres] aren't in the playoffs '09...

Posted by:DJNIK
(DJNIK is a Sabres fan from Belgium)

Look at the Canes ans the Pens, they were on a play off push and they moved their asses! You see where they are now..

Here's what i think about some gheybres players now:

- VANEK: incredible misses since his return, less explosivity than at the start of the season where he was all over the ice.

- STAFFORD: since the VANEK CONNOLY STAFFORD line has been broken, he's a ghost.

-CONNOLLY: play where and when he wants...

- POMMINVILLE: what can we say anymore?

- HECHT: look at pomminville comment..

- MAC: 10 GOALS at the first half, how many in the second...

- OUR D: too soft, too many lose pucks, no Goltending protection...

- OUR STAFF: deadline moves were awfull, and they will be the same next summer. You will see regier resign the majority of the team like last year and there will be no changes to this unexplosive team.

My only satisfactions in this team:

- ROY: after a bad season beginnning, he's first in points and regular.
- BUTLER: good young D.
- KALETA: if all the sabres were skating like him, we will get a dynamic team.

I think now we will end behind toronto and ottawa...


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Denver in a Corner...

Posted by Hayden Fox:

Post #1:
OK, the Broncos are going to have to trade Cutler eventually. And it's assumed they'd want a decent quarterback in return. Is Edwards the best they could possibly get? Think about it...

Jets: Without question, Kellen Clemens is not as good as Edwards.

Browns: Brady Quinn might prove to be better than Edwards, so I could see him to Denver as a realistic possibility.

49ers: Shaun Hill came on late last year, but who the hell wants to replace Cutler with him? He's 29 years old and has proven next to nothing.

Rams: Crickets.

Lions: Drew Stanton? :puke2:

Bears: Kyle Orton?

Panthers: Crickets.

Buccaneers: Crickets.

If the Bills want to do this -- maybe they do, but maybe not -- I think they'd have a great chance to land Cutler. Denver has to move him, it seems, and I think the Bills and Browns could make the best case for him IF Denver wants a good QB prospect in return. The Broncos could always sign a guy like Garcia and draft a QB in the first round, but I've read that they want a QB in return for Cutler. Plus, why replace Cutler with another first-rounder? I'd rather have Edwards or Quinn, who have shown flashes, and a couple of picks than a completely unproven commodity such as Mark Sanchez or Josh Freeman and a couple of picks.

Post #4:

I'm down with Trent, but Cutler here is an exciting prospect. The beef with Trent with me is twofold: 1. Durability. He has gotten consistently hurt for significant stretches year in and year out since college. And as I've said about 400 times, the idea of Rory Fitzpatrick (fuck calling him Ryan) throwing the ball to Terrell Owens is enough to make me...
.

Cutler, on the other hand, hasn't missed a start in his two full years. 2. The arm. I think Edwards' arm is better than his detractors say; with that being said, though, Cutler has an elite arm. No matter the conditions, whether it's wind, rain, snow or a combo of all three, he can get the ball to his WRs for big plays. He has an exceptional arm.

If the Cutler trade doesn't go down, OK. As I said, I support Trent 100 percent. But Cutler on this team would be incredible, not to mention it would keep him away from the Jets (which is just as big a victory as acquiring him).


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Lindy Ruff - "Doing more with Less..."

Posted by LALALALALALAFONTAINE:


Sabres Playoff History Under Ruff

1998
Sabres (89) beat Flyers (95) BEAT BETTER TEAM
Sabres (89) sweep Habs (87) BEAT WORSE TEAM
Sabres (89) lose* to Caps (92) LOST TO BETTER TEAM

1999
Sabres (91) sweep Sens (103) BEAT BETTER TEAM
Sabres (91) beat Bruins (91) BEAT BETTER TEAM
Sabres (91) beat Queefs (97) BEAT BETTER TEAM
Sabres (91) lose* to St*rs (114) LOST TO BETTER TEAM

2000
Sabres (85) lose to Flyers (105) LOST TO BETTER TEAM

2001
Sabres (98) beat Flyers (100) BEAT BETTER TEAM
Sabres (98) lose to Pens (96) LOST TO WORSE TEAM

2006
Sabres (110) beat Flyers (101) BEAT WORSE TEAM
Sabres (110) beat Sens (113) BEAT BETTER TEAM
Sabres (110) lose to Canes (112) LOST TO BETTER TEAM

2007
Sabres (113) beat Isles (92) BEAT WORSE TEAM
Sabres (113) beat Rangers (94) BEAT WORSE TEAM
Sabres (113) lose to Sens (105) LOST TO WORSE TEAM.

So in Ruff's coaching history, we've
Beaten a better team: 4
Beaten a worse team: 6
Lost to a better team: 4
Lost to a worse team: 2

So, overall, we've won much, much more than we were supposed to in the playoffs, beating teams with better records.

But look at the losses.
4 times we lost to a better team. 1 of those was due to the Brett Hull skate in the crease. 1 was due to other NHL reffing fuckups that they actually did apologize for (Caps).

And if you look at the teams we were supposed to beat, the 2001 Pens and 2007 Caps.

2001 Pens. The Pens trailed us by 2 points in the standings, so we were the better team, officially. However, Lemieux only played 43 games during the season, scoring 76 points in those games. If he plays a full season, like he played a full series against us in the playoffs, the Pens would have wound up higher in the standings.

2007 Sens. We had the Sens by 8 points, 113-105. However, there are no ties or SOL in the playoffs, which explains this difference. We were 10-4 in SO, Ottawa was 2-6, which is more than that difference. We really didn't lose to a worse team.

So Ruff has consistently beaten teams that he's supposed to beat in the playoffs and teams that he's not supposed to beat, but hasn't really lost to anyone except those we're supposed to lose to - and we still beat them more than they beat us.

That's a telltale sign of a good coach.

The other is special teams (especially PK), where the Sabres always have ranked high under Ruff.


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Spacek/Lalime/Lydman...

Posted by Thumper:

Those 3 were the biggest reason the Sabres won the most important game of the season last night.

Spacek: Just huge on the penalty kill. Tremendous shot blocking. Scored his 8th of the season. Seriously, can we find a way to sign him?

Lalime: When he's on, he's really on. The top end of his play may not last for much more than a week at a time before he comes back down to reality, but I really believe that when he's on his game, he slams the door shut just as well as Miller. Miller is just capable of doing it for much longer stretches.

Lydman: He played very physical, blocked shots as well, and was very intelligent with the puck in the Sabres zone.

Without the excellent play of those 3, the Sabres lose last night.

Honorable mention to Dan Paille for scoring in the biggest game of the season.

Side note: Harry Neale sucks at his job. If I want stats during every break in the play, I'd use my lap top and find the stats myself. Break down the play on the ice. Break down the periods of hockey we're all watching. Break down a certain player from either team and explain how certain things happend. You have to be capable considering you were a fucking head coach some how. Realize that Thomas Vanek has already scored since coming back from his broken jaw injury. He scored versus the Sens. So even the extra information you attempt to give is wrong half the time. Pull your freaking head out of your ass and understand that the fans listening to you could probably read stats just as well as you and be wrong just as often as you. Change that.


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Ruff has to be on the hot seat...

Posted by Thumper:

Absolutely, dasaybz. Ruff is on the hot seat. When you're teatering on missing the playoffs for the second consecutive year, the head coach's performance is always going to be questioned.

But I look higher. Let's look at what the GM has done since putting together one hell of a team post lockout.

He made poor decisions on who to spend money on in the off season, prior to the 2006-7 season. Spending on players like Kotalik and Kalinin over Dumont was a mistake.

Fast forward through that season, and what happend? We lost our top two centerman at the free agency period. I'm not even blaming Regier for that, although some around here would. But I still blame Regier for what has happend since then.....And what that is, is failing to address the losses of your first and second line centermen.

How many centermen has Regier acquired since Drury and Briere left? The answer, pathetically, is 1. Dominic Moore. And that's 2 full years after losing his organizations top 2 centermen. How can you ignore the pressing need up the middle of this organization for that long? Even with Connolly being available and then getting hurt, he never addressed the center position. This team went through most of last year with wingers playing center. Softer type wingers at that.

Those are my first complaints about Regier. There are other apsects of his job that he's been reactionary too, instead of proactive as well.

About 90% of his time here, he's waited until players have played well enough to cash out big time before signing them. Now I know that in some cases, players will wait to sign on purpose, knowing full well that they'll bank bigger if they wait. But not every case has been like that. I look at the Tim Connolly situation first and foremost. Based on less than 30 games of a healthy Connolly, Regier decided to spend 9 million dollars on him in order to keep him. There were people on local message boards that were screaming for Connolly to be resigned before he came back. I thought these people were crazy and/or stupid. But they were 100% correct. They had the foresight in which an NHL GM should have. Are you going to tell me that Connolly wouldn't have signed another deal while he was out? He would have been crazy not too.

I look at Daniel Paille, Andrej Sekera, and Drew Stafford. Now perhaps 1, 2, or all 3 of them wouldn't sign a semi-long term/cheaper deal. But if you take a young defenseman like Sekera and recognize his potential early on, like many of us have, who's to say that he wouldn't accept that kind of deal? Who's to say that Drew Stafford, coming off of last season in which he struggled pretty hard at times wouldn't sign a 5 or 6 year deal worth 12 million in guaranteed money during last years off season? Hey, if you miss on a young guy like that, you're only spending 2 to 2.5 million per year on an average player. If you hit on a young guy like that, then your roster is constructed very similarly to the '05-'06 roster. Cheaper players that are still developing and performing beyond their years.

I also look at how the league has changed and which players Regier has decided to invest the most money in. I admit, you couldn't predict that a player like Hecht, who's usually good for around 50 points, would just fall off the train like he has. A player like Pominville, another guy that Regier waited too long to extend. He waited for Pominville to score nearly a point per game before inking him long term. That's a bad buisness decision that he's repeated. Once or twice, maybe you let it go. But now it's Regier's routine.

Now I look at Regier's recent trade deadline acquisitions. This year, on a team that is completely filled with 3rd line players that are defensively reliable, he just added another one.

Really? That's your guy? That's your playoff push acquisiton? Nothing against Dominic Moore, but what's he really supposed to be doing to help this team make the playoffs again? I like that he added a centerman, because it's the first fucking time he's done that since Briere and Drury walked. But the center position should have been addressed in the same off season that we lost 2 centermen.

I look at last seasons trade deadline acquisition. He acquired a player that really didn't help much at all to gain 4 points to make the playoffs. It was a player that wasn't even wanted by the organization when all is said and done. Another botched move.

I see many, many, many more reasons to hold Regier responsible for this teams troubles than the head coach that is also dealing with the mistakes and gross overpayments, as well as his failure to address the pressing needs on this roster that his GM has made.


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"I'm on board with Lindy"

Posted by treYdaWg:

So we shitcan Lindy, who do we replace him with? Do we honestly think we're going to replace him with a better coach?

The thing is, no one really agrees with what Darcy has been doing. Darcy is the problem here. Did anyone honestly think Dominic Fucking Moore was going to make this team a playoff contender? Darcy has to go.

Posted by The Common Man:

Somebody has to go. I don't care if its Darcy, or Lindy and Darcy or whoever.
It has to include Darcy though.
And if Darcy scapegoats Ruff I think I'll be done with hockey for a while.

Posted by JMNY83:

I agree Trey. Don't we always hear that Darcy puts people on the team that Lindy doesn't want? How do you expect to win when the GM and coach are on 2 different pages?

Posted by MauvaisSang:

I've wanted Regier gone all year. I simply don't believe he's going to implement the changes they need to be a real contender.

Posted by Acoustic-Fury:

If the past two seasons are any indication...this mostly falls on Darcy for not getting this team the tools it needs to succeed. I really believe that Ruff is doing the best with the garbage he has...

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Amazing (stuff)...

Posted by DJNIK:

You know i m a hot fan from belgium since 1 or 2 years now. But i just noticed that the organisation had the possibilty to offer Briere and Drury new contracts and it failed because of one or more millions...

And when i see the contracts of Hecht, Pominville or Connoly (when he's hurt), i really think that Darcy is a piece of shit. You know, i watch all the games of the last two play offs session from 2006 and 2007 and dudes, this team was fuckin damn good.

This team was in harmony with the Buffalo's fan enthusiasm? And now? The majority of the players don't kick their ass for this great city.

Send me back three years ago please!

If Darcy doesn't make some decent(s) move(s) in those two days, i think i'm gonna be nostalgic of 06 and 07 for such a long time....

Posted by Thumper:
Darcy Regier absolutely needs to admit to himself a few mistakes he's made, and cut ties with a few players before the trade deadline. If that means he sells players off for less of a return, just to rid the organization of a few bad contracts, so be it.


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