GDT: #33 – Sabres at Islanders – Fri Dec 23, 7:00PM ET – MSG-B

[AustonsNostrils]

It is the coach - this is a fairly talented roster. I can only think of a few players who are garbage, up front Deslauriers and Grant and they're 4th liners - on defence Gorges who at this point should be a 7th dman mentor.

All the rest of the players have some talent to fill the various roles on a good hockey team.

 

[Dex]

We have, and for him to double down on his criticism of the team is horse ****. He knows what he did and how he said it.

To whom are you referring insofar as the criticism is concerned....

 

[SabresFan26]

I think our coach is the biggest problem right now. I do think Murray needs to be held accountable for Bylsma and our poor defense corps. Mike sullivan replaced Mike Johnston early in his second year.

 

[Jame]

We have, and for him to double down on his criticism of the team is horse ****. He knows what he did and how he said it.

What's this in reference to?

 

[sba]

Murray needs to be held accountable for Bylsma

hmmmmm nope, try again

 

[kirby11]

Can they win a few games in a row just so we don't have to hear the endless war cry from Sully, Harrington, and Gleason of "WE NEED THE OWNERS TO HOLD A PRESS CONFERENCE"

 

[La Cosa Nostra]

What will it take before Murray and the Pegulas are allowed to be criticized ? Seems like they are still untouchable and to utter one bad word about either is blasphemy

Murray is a laughingstock and the whole league and other teams fans know he gets dominated in every trade except the O'Reilly one. The Pegulas are great for the city but aren't winners.

 

[dkollidas]

Jeeze, we need Liljegren. Just re-start a new tank.

 

[Myllz]

Can they win a few games in a row just so we don't have to hear the endless war cry from Sully, Harrington, and Gleason of "WE NEED THE OWNERS TO HOLD A PRESS CONFERENCE"

Are they actually doing this again?

 

[kirby11]

Are they actually doing this again?

Mostly Harrington at the moment. I'm sure the other morons will parrot him soon enough, though.

 

[Myllz]

Mostly Harrington at the moment. I'm sure the other morons will parrot him soon enough, though.

Unreal. That guy has some weird obsession with press conferences.

 

[sabremike]

Guys I think Sparky just scored a goal!

 

[AustonsNostrils]

The Buffalo News reporters are creeps. I don't blame the Pegulas for not granting them interviews. The Bills and Sabres are a private company, they are the owners, they hired executives to run the teams, who make regular appearances on WGR550 and to give them credit they don't do the interviews with any conditions on what's asked - they've been asked pretty tough questions.

The Buffalo News just wants to bully them, get some 'gotcha' type questions in hopefully to get Terry Pegula to say something stupid and then use that against him. The man has invested billions into the city, he's not comfortable speaking in public. He doesn't owe the fans press conferences or state of the union type speeches about the teams. If fans aren't happy with things they can stop supporting the teams with their wallets.

I sometimes joke about the News being some kind of money laundering front because I really don't understand how the biggest newspapers in the country and also the Toronto Star and Sun in Toronto have been laying off reporters by the dozens and dozens while the Buffalo News in little Buffalo is still sending multiple reporters to cover the Sabres and Bills on the road and nobody from their sports department has lost their job. I'm on Hockey Twitter and it's seriously a blood letting on there, every other day I'm seeing journalists bidding sad farewells to their fellow journalists who've just lost their jobs sometimes after decades and decades.

 

[Savitar]

I am not going to call Tim Murray a failure until I see how his prospects perform at the NHL Level. Guhle, Nylander, Asplund, Pu, Fitzpatrick etc play I am not going to call him a faliure. He deserves at least one more offseason or two until his plan comes to fruition. Rebuilds take time and another high pick this year to go along with Eichel, Reinhart, Nylander etc. And he just signed a new contract .

Bylsma well that's another story, this team has been underachieving all season in what was suppose to be another year of progression . This team is sub par at best with Bylsma coaching. If this team finishes bottom 10 (bottom 7 at this point) there should be consideration for him to get canned.

If the Pegulas are going to fire Rex Ryan in year two of a 5 year contract. They will do the same with Bylsma year 2 in a multiple year contract

 

[OkimLom]

hmmmmm nope, try again

Does need to be held accountable, but his job shouldn't be at risk.

 

[OkimLom]

It's weird that you can view the talent on this team and expect a playoff push, and when things don't go that way you blame the roster construction/GM... Your basically saying you are a terrible judge of talent and roster construction.

(Hint: it's the coach)

YEAH? BUT WHO HIRED HIM??? MURRAY!!!!! #GOTCHA

 

[sba]

Does need to be held accountable, but his job shouldn't be at risk.

I am pretty sure Murray had very little to do with Bylsma, I think it was a Brandon/Pegula thing.

 

[joshjull]

They were projected to be a bubble team with an outside chance of making it.

They were predicted to be any where from the worst team (most analytic sites) to a playoff team. A prediction of a "bubble team" that has an outside chance of making was not a consensus nor a common theme. Even if it was, its fairly irrelevant to what Murray expects.

As if Tim Murray will sit there and say the team won't make the playoffs.

Before last year when asked about the playoffs he said (paraphrasing) -> he would never rule it out but its a long shot. We would need a lot of things to break our way.

Before this season, one of many comments about expecting the playoffs (not an outside chance) “I’ve said to you guys a lot that we just want to improve every year and I think we have done that to a pretty good degree,” Murray said, via Sabres.com. “So that will be our statement to the players that, yes, our goals is to make the playoffs and we actually do expect that we can do that.” http://fansided.com/2016/04/11/sabres-tim-murray-playoffs-reasonable-goal-2017/

For a GM who is pretty straightforward, I kind of find it funny that your dismissing what he said as GM speak.

And I didn't say Eichel and Reinhart are the only reason, read again

I didn't say you did. You may want to "read again" yourself. I said they aren't going to "get it" by themselves or in a vacuum.

 

[OkimLom]

I am pretty sure Murray had very little to do with Bylsma, I think it was a Brandon/Pegula thing.

I don't agree with this at all. But even if true, Murray is still responsible for Bylsma.

I personally think that Murray hired Bylsma because he has a history of coaching young guys (Malkin/Crosby) and probably felt he had a lot of teaching to provide while Pegula probably LIKED him more than the other candidates(if there were truly any others)because he was probably one of the biggest names out there, he had a cup to his name(regardless how much/little he had to do with it). He was a former Pittsburgh guy. I'm sure Terry used his Pitt Connections(maybe T.Black?) to see how the guy was. Pegula is all about making Buffalo a destination for players to come to. Bylsma was a players coach, had a ring.

Murray, IMO, hired the guy, but Pegula had no problem with the hire and okayed it pretty quickly.

 

[joshjull]

I am pretty sure Murray had very little to do with Bylsma, I think it was a Brandon/Pegula thing.

Was Brandon even involved at that time? He was named Sabres President 7/27/15. Disco was hired 5/28/15


I've seen little to indicate that Murray wasn't driving force behind Disco being here. Thats not to say the Pegula's weren't involved. But I see little reason to believe Murray was on the outside looking in when the decision was made.

 

[OkimLom]

They were predicted to be any where from the worst team (most analytic sites) to a playoff team. A prediction of a "bubble team" that has an outside chance of making was not a consensus nor a common theme. Even if it was, its fairly irrelevant to what Murray expects.



Last year when asked about the playoffs he said (paraphrasing) -> he would never rule it out but its a long shot. We would need a lot of things to break our way.



Before this season, one of many comments about expecting the playoffs or that its a realistic goal for the season (not an outside chance) “I’ve said to you guys a lot that we just want to improve every year and I think we have done that to a pretty good degree,†Murray said, via Sabres.com. “So that will be our statement to the players that, yes, our goals is to make the playoffs and we actually do expect that we can do that.†http://fansided.com/2016/04/11/sabres-tim-murray-playoffs-reasonable-goal-2017/

For a GM thats pretty straightforward I find it kind of funny your dismissing what he said as GM speak.

For Anti-Bylsma fans, the season imploding might be the best case scenario if you want to see Bylsma canned. If the team goes backward in improvement, which they are showing signs of, it does not bode well for Dan's job security. Tim may be give Dan the rest of the season to dig himself and the team out of the hole he has us in currently, but I think if we continue to sink or not change the core aspect of his "system", Dan may not make it to next training camp.

 

[joshjull]

 

[CatsforReinhart]

To me that is a shot at the coach.

 

[joshjull]

To me that is a shot at the coach.

It sure sounds like it.

 

[buffalowing88]

Agreed. Gionta has no reason to comment if he isn't feeling like there's some kind of dissonance in the locker room.