The coaches.

When your team wants you to tank but you and your players refuse to and still finish last, then it's time to go.

 

I was actually starting to get a queasy feeling when Ted Nolan was not the first coach to get the axe today. Now I feel a lot better about the start of the postseason. Nolan was liked by many of his players, but it also clear that some - prime example: Cody Hodgson - did not respond well to his approach.

You could claim that he got a raw deal given the talent. But, he got the chance to be behind an NHL bench for a year and a half. There simply was not enough evidence to suggest he was moving the team in the right direction. There is a great deal of statistical data that the team regressed under his coaching.

I do not know who will be the next coach, but the Sabres are an attractive opportunity for any coach. The team will look much better next year; I expect a 15-20 point improvement in the standings. The team started to blow things up three plus years ago. With the assets in the organization it should not take them that long to be back in the playoffs. If some of the prospects develop quickly they may even be a contender in that time period.

 

cody hodgson has had trouble with coaches since he came into the league under AV. sir wine-a-lot deserves his nickname for his failure to work on his game. cody wanted to be a 1st line center but can't win face-offs. cody wanted pp time but can't find space or passing lanes. cody the coach killer. don't worry ted, buffalo will call you back to be the interim coach after the next one fails.

 

Cody Hodgson has scored plenty of goals in the NHL. He also works very hard in the postseason. His problem is that he's a defensive liability. Nolan was not the right coach to teach him to play a complete game. After listening to his interview today, he seems sufficiently humbled. Especially under a new coach, I think he'll come to training camp with a good attitude. I still expect he will prove to be a better NHLer than Kassian.

I will have no problem if Nolan is brought back in the future. That is if he has to wait the same 15 years as he did last time. Meanwhile there is no reasonable basis to expect the next Sabres coach to fail.

 

Come on Dan, they are the Sabres.

 

Nolan had too much pride to tank the team, there's no doubt that they would've let him go earlier if he started to screw up the tank.

 

I've got no problem with the crack; the team earned that this year. However, the team was the fourth best winning team from 1970 through 2012-13.

The Sabres will restore the natural order of things soon enough.

 

winning in the east is kinda easier than the west, you could climb the mountain next year if you dumped hodgsen and others...nice def young core and guy in the pipeline. still I think it is 3 yrs away from a playoff spot with a good coach.

 

kassian is actually a hairy troglodyte, which I prefer over a momma's boy that can't play def and can't win face-offs. that trade means nothing. now the trade with calgary for sven baertschi for a second is golden.

 

VAN will be winning a lot more trades than they lose since they hired Benning. Darcy was not fired because of his trade record, that's for sure. I believe both teams deserve to be excoriated for drafting these players where they did. It kinda looks like both teams lost the trade. Hodgson is more talented and he's still young enough to get over his momma's ways. Once-a-prick-always-a-prick will stick with Kassian for a while.

 

Covered every main point I was going to make.

I was going to add onto the Hodgson thing, Moulson blew chunks this year.


Following up on more minor points; I can't imagine the FO overlords were happy to see any value behind two very large contracts diminished so effectively so quickly. I can get my head around a mixed bag of results with prospects (I thought it was a net negative but others disagree). I can't get my head around less than great developmental strides AND blowing the market value of two players that would have had many gms at least interested in them enough to kick the tires on a trade.


What I'm really curious about is the philosophy or priorities Nolan was operating under.
Was he just trying to coach, as in just playing to win no matter what he had
Was he managing minutes?
Was he focused on slotting players (watching some games and looking through game logs both leave me confused on this one if that was the case)?
Was he focused on developing certain players?
Was he told to keep an eye on pumping up player values?
Was he just there to teach professional habits outside of games?
Was he there to let his offensive players "explore', let them fly around without a system to see what they can do? (I think most coaches, like Q, Babs, Clode, Sutter, Hitch, etc., stifle offensive creativity for structural soundness, defensive/system play, and playing the % with decisions)

Anyway, I really wish I knew what he was trying to do. Unfortunately, we probably won't find out.

I was so confused that he was there the whole year, and I don't think Pegula was worried about his 2 years on his contract. This definitely wasn't a Renney in Edm scenario as the Sabres weren't trying to turn the corner, so I'm left scratching my head.

So besides Babcock *HELP* , who gets hired next?

 

This line made my morning. Good stuff.
There's no slowing down Sabres' nation. They will have none of it.

 

For what's probably a late 2nd, I really like that trade. What a bounce back for Vancouver, I love the approach and the body of work for the year moving forward. After watching ANA and SJ flip rosters on the fly over the years, I'm surprised more teams haven't gone the route Vancouver took this year. They developed, cashed in picks for cost controlled assets, didn't waste good years from good players, AND they won alot of hockey games.

It's tough for chicago fans to hate Vancouver this year, but Burrows can get us back in Canuck hatin' mode.

 

Fucking A right you are there, Bob. Fucking A right!

 

So which coach do you or your brothers and sisters of Sabres nation want to see behind the bench?

 

There are two names that I hear the most: the AHL Binghamton Senators coach, (I'm too lazy to confirm his name this morning; I think it's Richardson). He won a Calder Cup and has a history with TM. Babs will be mentioned as a candidate to fill every vacancy this year.

Incidentally, I am not ignoring your longer message. But I think TM's presser highlighted that Nolan was too ambiguous in just about everything. I do not know if anyone can really put their finger on exactly why he was canned. It was a gnawing sense - at least to me, and in what TM revealed for public consumption - that he simply needed to go. TM did speak about their relationship; it was not strained, but it also was not close. I think that gives insight into where TM will go if he truly has the power in Buffalo. (Of course, Terry Pegula has the power, so it's a matter of how much he's willing to delegate.)

The Sens AHL coach could be his man. I do not know enough about him to form a solid opinion yet. I had several months to vet GM candidates a year ago, and I should have started digging in sooner, but the morass kept me unfocused.

I am not sold on Babs for this job. Money is not a problem, hell that's an advantage for BUF if that's what it comes down to. Babs has always had a veteran team and that will obviously not be the case. If Babs is hired I think it'll indicate that TM has a fairly short lease on demonstrating meaningful progress.

I believe there are a lot of highly qualified young names available this year. I really do not care today who the next coach will be; I just know that they cannot afford to screw this up. We need someone that will not cry because he's been given the chance to coach this team. (For somewhat understandable reasons, that was Teddy's immediate response.). We need someone with big brass balls, who KNOWS X's and O's, and is confident enough to delegate authority for keeping the youth on board to key veterans.

 

There are two specific matters that swayed me to the Ted-must-go camp, FWIW:
- As discussed, Hodgson sucked this season to the point where there's serious talk that he could be bought out. I hope not, this team cannot afford to burn assets, and he gets them $4MM closer to the floor. His strengths and weaknesses are well known, and I think it's clear that Nolan bungled his attempt to correct his deficiencies. He's a player's coach as long as they buy into his rigid dogma. Cody may be a pussy, but he's very gifted offensively; I think he should have sheltered him by putting him in during offensive opps. like the PP, etc.
- Ted had a reputation since 1997 for saying the wrong things about the FO at the wrong times. At one point he was questioned about why Pysyk was in Rochester and he said it was "politics". That's a dumb-ass thing to say even if it were true. It doesn't help the player's cause, and it will grate on the FO.

 

lol, that's kind of the theme I picked up.

I think they can get away with a partial mistake for a year. So many growing pains and moving parts still. I think Buffalo can be flexible shifting the staff and the roster over the next 3 years...as long as the coach isn't a disaster.

I haven't looked into many of the AHL coaching candidates and I have no idea about who's ready to jump to the NHL or not. Hitchcock and McLellan might be available this spring/summer too. I'm reading various names, not sure what's best for that mix but it will be very interesting to see what happens. Renney and Eakins did a faceplant with a team coming out of the tank, and so did guys like Savard in Chicago, Lewis in Boston, etc. Then guys like Campuono, Yeo, and Big bad Bruce can ride the suckage into the light.

 

Yeah, there's a lot of growing pains, no doubt. But I think it's critical for the team to establish their identify in 2015-16, and the coach will be instrumental there. As an organization, the Sabres have been rather stable behind the bench. With the exception of a few vets., the players that will turn this team around are very young. I think the rebuild will be faster if they get the right coach now, (literally any time up to about two weeks before the draft).

The Bills have cycled coaches a lot, and that hinders player development. Although the main reason for being stuck in abject mediocrity is their draft record. The Sabres have good young talent - from Elmira to Buffalo they need to know where they're going.

 

Question is will Kirk Mueller get another shot at a head coaching job? Kirk did ok, with the Canes, and with a year at St. Louis is he ready for another try at it. He did have some bad luck his first season had the Canes in 1st in the SE and on thier way to a playoff and wham Cam gets hurt and is out for the season and peters couldn't stop a basketball going to the net.