Phil Housley discussion thread

[Baccus]

"Bottom line, whether we like it or not, this team is still in a growing process that can be helped or sped up to a certain degree by our GM, but not to the point where he GMTM's our future away."

We need to stay the course, with a little help from our GM, is a bit different than gambling our future away.

We are NOT Toronto, Babcock would not be enjoying a solid playoff run with this team.

The strawman of gambling our future away is hyperbolic, tedious and false.

All of Babcock, Trotz and Julien would have had a noticeable effect on any of the last 3-4+ years of Sabres rosters. Nobody said it would magically be a 'solid playoff run' but I think you can easily argue that they'd be bubble playoff contenders, even going back to the last couple years under Murray.

Coaching matters.

 

[Jim Bob]

 

[TehDoak]

I actually have been reasonably quiet about Housley so far. I give him a fair bit of credit for the defensive improvements this year.

But, his comments on Sobotka (and his usage) are so far off it makes me question his credibility to coach at this level.

I certainly get that he isn't going to throw a player under the bus on a radio interview. The idea that his comments are flying in the face of every metric we have on him is disconcerting.

 

[kirby11]

I hope you realize Mittelstadt and the need from Management to keep him at center is the ONLY thing keeping Sobotka from playing on one of our scoring lines at this point. Sobotka would get to see time as the center on a scoring line before Reinhart does. This is not hyperbole. We have seen it when Eichel went down.

True...yikes

 

[jcbeze]

If Mitts left practice due to injury, and Phil put Vlad in his spot instead of ERod, that's gotta be the last straw...

 

[debaser66]

It doesn't matter who they hire we all will relentlessly ***** about them 20 games in.

The HC's job is to coach
The fan's job is to know better

 

[old kummelweck]

Any way you slice and dice this, the Sabres still have a void of talent and that's why guys like Sobotka are in the lineup. Personally, I'd go after Pominiville before Sobotka. At least Sobotka PKs and his most recent line mates seem to be doing OK against good line match ups at home.

 

[debaser66]

Holy smokes,

We played the night before too. We outplayed them substantially too with an inferior roster.

Not sure you realize this but Winnipeg is good.

I just hope to God the Pegula's aren't this dramatic when making decisions for this team or we will continually be taking one step forward two steps back.

Goodness

Look at Montreal and the Islanders.
They have even worse rosters than us but they play better hockey.
structured and consistent.
The Sabres show no improvment in consistency.
They are better one game just to be outright bad for the next 2.

He had better players than Blysma yet he put up the worst record last year.
He has the best d (for Sabres standards) in years.
Sure there is improvement..
But Eichel Reinhart plus Skinner.
They didnt have such a potent offense since 06/07 in terms of a first line (tough they gutted the center depth this off season.)

He is a stubborn conservative coach who is not good with roster management.
Took him like 50 games to get Reinhart on his own line...
Imagine if they would have done it in December...
The PP is anemic
(no excuses of inferior players there)

 

[OkimLom]

Look at Montreal and the Islanders.
They have even worse rosters than us but they play better hockey.
structured and consistent.
The Sabres show no improvment in consistency.
They are better one game just to be outright bad for the next 2.

He had better players than Blysma yet he put up the worst record last year.
He has the best d (for Sabres standards) in years.
Sure there is improvement..
But Eichel Reinhart plus Skinner.
They didnt have such a potent offense since 06/07 in terms of a first line (tough they gutted the center depth this off season.)

He is a stubborn conservative coach who is not good with roster management.
Took him like 50 games to get Reinhart on his own line...
Imagine if they would have done it in December...
The PP is anemic
(no excuses of inferior players there)

I'd actually take any of the Bylsma rosters over what we had last year quite easily.

 

[Der Jaeger]

"Hello Phil. This is Mike from the analytics department. Can we talk about Vlad? No? Ok, I'll be here if you change your mind."

 

[SwedeDreams]

Why isnt he playing the Young players ?
Pilut. Olofsson....

 

[GellMann]

I'd actually take any of the Bylsma rosters over what we had last year quite easily.

I don't know if it's still true, but this year in those games when Jack was out and everyone else healthy, in a higher scoring league, that lineup was pacing for like 40 goals fewer (in an 82 game season where they would all play) than what the lineup in 16-17 without Jack would wind up scoring, even taking into account the fact that some of those guys missed plenty of games.

 

[sabremike]

I lived through the horror and depravity that was Pierre McGuire coaching the Whalers. Not even Doug Weight sucked as hard as Pierre, whose own team wanted to kill him. The Jeff Jacobs kicking of his coaching corpse in the Hartford Courant is probably the greatest piece of writing in hockey history. So I never thought I could say this, but now I must: Phail Housley sucks just as bad as the human penis with glasses.

 

[OkimLom]

I don't know if it's still true, but this year in those games when Jack was out and everyone else healthy, in a higher scoring league, that lineup was pacing for like 40 goals fewer (in an 82 game season where they would all play) than what the lineup in 16-17 without Jack would wind up scoring, even taking into account the fact that some of those guys missed plenty of games.

I'm just discussing the roster construction and the players in roles. For the players, that were not on those rosters but on Bott's rosters, I'd take Dahlin, Skinner, Pilut, and Scandella only.

 

[GellMann]

I'm just discussing the roster construction and the players in roles. For the players, that were not on those rosters but on Bott's rosters, I'd take Dahlin, Skinner, Pilut, and Scandella only.

Right, I'm supplying data to your suggestion that Bylsma's rosters were better outside of Jack. It was true by a lot for a while there, though I don't know how the recent surge in secondary scoring changes that.

 

[Jim Bob]

 

[Jim Bob]

 

[oldgoalie]

earth-shattering news, Phil. simply...mind altering.

 

[Dahlin 2 Eichel]

Anyone know how long the contract he signed is

 

[Jim Bob]

Anyone know how long the contract he signed is

That information was never released by the club.

 

[1point21Gigawatts]

That information was never released by the club.

All hail, Head Coach for Life: Lord Phillip Housley!

 

[Buffaloed]

The only way to be certain that Housley's days are numbered is if the Pegula's give him an extension.

 

[Baccus]

What happens if we give the Pegula's an extension?

Inception? BRAAAAAWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!

 

[jc17]

I'd like love to hear someone ask housley about the stats.

I'm sick of the canned questions the media asks which only result in canned answers.

"How do you feel about sobotka?" is only going to result in the same d- zone faceoff responses .

At the very least I want to hear him admit to the fans, owners, and hockey world that they use none of the plentiful resources at their availability.

The fact that its 2019 and this team appears to be operating in the stone age is embarrassing. With the amount of information available there's no excuse for some of his decisions but he's not asked in any depth about it...

 

[Gordo21]

Again: watch the team that is probably going to kick our teeth in tomorrow night and get back to me on the whole "coaching doesn't matter" thing. Also do you think it's an accident that the Montreal team everyone thought was a tire fire has blown miles ahead of us? Coaching matters.

Housley exhibited nice coaching tonight!