I also believe that we need to really evaluate if Bylsma is indeed the right guy long term.
I wasn't jumping up and down when he was signed here, but am willing to let it play out into 3 full seasons. By the 3rd we should have enough talent and his system to have been in place long enough to judge his effectiveness.

Personally, I do think he is a good coach during this rebuild to implement and teach structure and defensive responsibilities. Those are very important for a young team to learn and make second nature.
That said, he needs to convince me that he is the right coach when we have the right horses...can he be enough of a motivator, tactition, strategist to get this team over the hump...I think the jury is out on that one.
- IonSabres

I am not going to dismiss that coaching could be the problem either.

We're not in year 1. We're in year 3 or 4. The rebuild started in 2013-2014. People want to liken the Sabres to the Blackhawks or even the Penguins in their "tank mode". When they were at this stage, even though they weren't playoff teams yet, the players they brought in were doing what they were brought in to do, namely score goals and put up points. The Sabres aren't doing that, not even in proportion to the amount of goals scored now versus 2006, 2007, and 2008.
- buffalofan19

Nope, rebuild was capitalized expressly to separate from the tear down in which prospects were acquired at the purposeful detrement to the team on ice.
Tear down was years 1 and 2 for the Sabres.
The rebuild occurred in Year 3...this year.

I also believe that our problem isn't necessarily that the guys who are meant to be here long term aren't fulfilling expectations...but that there is considerable older resources who simply aren't contributing anything...the usual suspects...Moulson, Gionta, Legwan, Franson, Ennis....along with other guys who were expected to provide secondary scoring support are just ineffective in that regard...Larson, Girgenson, Foligno are primary examples.

I also believe that our problem isn't necessarily that the guys who are meant to be here long term aren't fulfilling expectations...but that there is considerable older resources who simply aren't contributing anything...the usual suspects...Moulson, Gionta, Legwan, Franson, Ennis....along with other guys who were expected to provide secondary scoring support are just ineffective in that regard...Larson, Girgenson, Foligno are primary examples.
- IonSabres

So a point here is...when you have that many guys who all sh!t the bed at the same time...is it coincidence or is there a common root cause. I'm leaning to root cause...and Coaching come up big in terms of a potential area to examine further.

We're not in year 1. We're in year 3 or 4. The rebuild started in 2013-2014. People want to liken the Sabres to the Blackhawks or even the Penguins in their "tank mode". When they were at this stage, even though they weren't playoff teams yet, the players they brought in were doing what they were brought in to do, namely score goals and put up points. The Sabres aren't doing that, not even in proportion to the amount of goals scored now versus 2006, 2007, and 2008.
- buffalofan19

Chicago was lucky to get kane and toews...pitt got malkin and sid. .we got samson and eichel...what goal scorer could we have gotten instead of kane and ryan that you are upset about? This is the same dumb arguement people make about the bills and say they should just get a franchise qb.

Also we had a gm that didnt make the moves and held on just in case later he would have those "could haves"....when he didnt move vanek for seguin and staff to the isles...what did sitting on our shatty players do for us?

Chicago was lucky to get kane and toews...pitt got malkin and sid. .we got samson and eichel...what goal scorer could we have gotten instead of kane and ryan that you are upset about? This is the same dumb arguement people make about the bills and say they should just get a franchise qb.
- lung3r

I think we got the supposed best young players on the market at the time. Don't think anyone really saw Johansen and droiun becoming available.