I said the timing of it not the decission and that s what was different about following the Sabres and the Bills at one time.They both handled things differently then other cities and organizations. - buffalo 1
Team has a slow start and they fire their coach. We've seen this repeatedly... Flyers in 09-10. LA Kings last year. The St Louis Blues. What am I missing here? Have no idea what youre so grumpy about.
Location: We need a You're an Ass button, NY Joined: 09.07.2006
Feb 20 @ 7:03 PM ET
Agree especially when it come to offering Lindy another job for his years of loyalty to the Sabres.I think this is embaressing to your city and the organization.Most fans just see it as a firing but I see it as an example of how ownership has little respect for its employees and past history. - buffalo 1
Ive seen people lose their jobs after 25 years . If they were to make it all rosey , it wouldn't be a firing . Look around . lots of people in WNY have lost their jobs doing a lot more .
Ruff hasn't won us anything . I liked him but its been the same stale Sabres for too long now .
Enjoy the new step . Hope it starts in the right direction.
Location: I don't want to say Greztky was a dude when I was watching. Mentalorgasm5 , NY Joined: 07.16.2006
Feb 20 @ 7:03 PM ET
Whoa whoa whoa, are we actually complaining about the lindy firing now?
Who saw that coming - Putzfrau
I'm waiting for you to post another gem like this one.
After much thought, i've decided to make my first post after being only a quiet reader for a while now.
I'll agree with everyone here that the lack of response was a little... disappointing, i think would be the most appropriate word. however, after storming away from the disaster that ended up being that game, i watched what happened immediately after the hit several times, and tried to think about it from a less impassioned stance.
the first thing that came to mind was the good ol' ottawa brawl in 2007. sabres went through a lot of rigamarole afterwards (fines, suspensions, hearings), things that were specifically directed towards the NATURE (purely retaliatory) of Ruffs decision. Something tells me the nhl took a hard stance against buffalo, due to the nature of the event (buffalo sends out its goons specifically to throw down). The nhl is CLEARLY trying to move away from that type of play... everything they say and do indicates they are trying to move away from a game policed by players, and instead towards a game that makes players NOT want to make those hits and take those suspensions and fines.
To an extent I can agree. No other professional sport is more "enforced" by the players then hockey, and in the past it was an even larger component of the sport. allowing players to enforce their own sport runs the inherent risk of "trading players" in a physical sense. You take out our goalie so we take out yours. You throw a dirty check on one of our stars, so we send out a goon to rough up your star (or your whole team). It can quickly lead to a situation where you have "dispensable players" whos only purpose is to take people out, and to a situation where you have less physically capable, talented players, who avoid certain parts of hockey that put you at a greater risk.
I feel strongly that the nhl should work similarly to how the nfl is handling it's violent aspects. Rarely is there a brawl over a hit in the NFL, no matter how hard. Instead you regularly see 50 thousand dollar fines, and massive 200 thousand dollar fines for repeat players. The impact it's having on the game is visible.
A team should be emotional and rightly pissed when one of its stars gets leveled by a "dirty" hit, but the first response shouldn't be an equally dirty hit to the bruins goaltender, or a bench clearing brawl. Roughing lucic up and WINNING THE GAME would have sent a strong enough message. They had every opportunity to win that game, and they didn't.
On a personal level i would have loved to see lucic get railed, but the dude is huge. Realistically the only people that fight and that could have handled him were kaleta, mccormick, and gausted. kaleta just came off a 4 game suspension. mccormick is nursing stitches in his face from the last fight, and gausted was tied up IMMEDIATELY by chara AND horton.
For the rest of the game after the hit you can also see the refs taking a proactive stance to attempting to stop any scuffles before they even began.
For me the most painful aspect, beside the injury to miller, is the absolute disaster the game became afterwards. We could have showed merely a more physical presence to establish that we, as a team, aren't pushovers. They could have capitalized on the numerous power play opportunities that would have shown that we have the skill and talent to punish you if you're going to take stupid penalties. We did neither. As many people have pointed out, we did nothing. Doing nothing was exacerbated by the absolute beatdown we received.
Basically i find the fact that we weren't able to put that emotion onto the ice and win a hockey game that we had every opportunity to win more disappointing then us not "gooning it up". we aren't a goon squad. we'll never be the boston bruins (at least not with the players we have now) and we shouldn't try to pretend or act like we are. Our response should never have been "okay lets go lay out thomas" that's not our team.
In a perfect world i would have liked to see a more frenzied effort to get after lucic following the play. After that was over, i would have expected us to come out with a little fire and rack up the goals. The game should have been a blowout in buffalos favor after a hit like that, not the other way around.
It shouldn't have sucked the life out of them, and instead should have lit a fire under them. I dont need to see an equally dirty/physical play for "retribution".
edit: i apologize for such a long post! apparently i should have vented in several more reasonable length replies instead of bottling it all up for one huge rant. - Putzfrau
Location: We've had our pee pee slapped here, NY Joined: 02.21.2007
Feb 20 @ 7:06 PM ET
It had to happen, the message got stale. Now lets see if Rolston can get the most out of these guys. I like that they are giving him a shot - CaptPantalones
Location: We've had our pee pee slapped here, NY Joined: 02.21.2007
Feb 20 @ 7:07 PM ET
BUMP!!! and keep it going
I was going to boycott the season because of the strike and then this happened.
I hope that the Sabres are bringing Ruff upstairs to help with the management decisions and that they are not just parting ways....he brings a lot of hockey knowledge and he should help get rid of some of the deadweight on the team.
There are some sorry lads on this team that are getting some big dollars...it is one of the biggest payrolls in the NHL. McCormick should have gone to the minors a long time ago, but he will end up on another team in the East.
Although I like Ruff and Reigher, it does not look like they are folks that can win.
Leadership cannot be passive, when people tend to work only to survive from year to year, then there is no success. It is a recipe for collapse from within.
The economy sucks because no one is willing to take risks...the old guys running companies never want to change because they like the way things are and they want things to stay that way until they retire.......well that's not what sports is all about.
And that is also not what brought Terry Pegula success.
Not winning the Stanley Cup is one thing; not making the playoff still another;
Losing games on the road, ok; but not winning at home and not icing a team with grip and grind, or entertainment value, well that is just totally unacceptable.
The team has attracted Passive people and they in turn surrounded themselves with introverted people. Nothing against Reigher's ability or Ruff's coaching style. However, the players like Miller or Pomminville - they would not know how to yell at someone if they had to....their interviews put me to the sleep when I'm running on a treadmill. Ott is a move in the right direction, but not enough.
We need a few players with charisma and drive; and we need a coach like Tortellera or Roy to put some drive in and nails in the rears of a few other players. Maybe even Shoenfield.....to tell the refs to eat some more donuts....that would get the adrenalin going....instead I can fall asleep running on a treadmill watching these guys!
Use the minor team....give some of the no name players a chance...not just the prospects.....find out where your character guys are? be inventive? not Hechtive!
So what if we brought back Hasek and maybe even Satan and we had some controversy in the changeroom, maybe a couple of guys stepping it up, calling each other out and punching each other out. Maybe thats what Connolly and Roy did, but the first sign of extraverted behavior, we had to ship them out. So what if we pulled Connolly off waivers when he goes on re-entry?
Philadelphia thought they had the right idea last year....too much extroverted adrenalin here they said....lets get rid of Richards and Carter.....the introverted LA KINGS got that message and look what happened......I rest my case! - RicoMartin
Agree especially when it come to offering Lindy another job for his years of loyalty to the Sabres.I think this is embaressing to your city and the organization.Most fans just see it as a firing but I see it as an example of how ownership has little respect for its employees and past history.
