Confirmed with Link: The Coaching Search is Over! Sabres Hire Bylsma, Presser at 4PM

[Jame]

Pit gets the better of the isles or Canucks pick. Offersheets is still alive.

confirmed?

if so, yay!

 

[Tapu Coco]

Seemed like the next best option. Hopefully his keeping up with the game, analytics, and the like brings success. Can't really say I know too much about him but the problems that PIT fans keep warning us about shouldn't be too much of a problem here

 

[Woodhouse]

confirmed?

If so, yay!

 

[Jacob582]

Pit gets the better of the isles or Canucks pick. Offersheets is still alive.

This has to be one of Murray's simplest trades. Still, he loves his conditions.

 

[Sabretip]

What's the over/under on number of questions asked before Babcock comes up>

I think the 2nd question - and 1st fielded to Bylsma - will reference who the Sabres chased as their 1st choice.

I'm excited more than most for this signing, I think he is a premier coach and the Club is better with him behind the bench

I look at it similarly, kind of like the lottery: odds were slim that Babcock or Blashill could be had but much stronger with Bylsma, who was my 3rd choice. I'm a lot more encouraged with him on board than I would have been with the alternatives like Richardson, DeBoer or Boucher.

What I want to hear about:

Assistant coaches and Irbe
Impressions of Eichel at WC
Rochester's future
Things learned and new approach on analytics

What I expect to hear:

What's it like to be sloppy seconds to Babcock?
How come the Sabres didn't have a presser to end the season?
Did you like Rex Ryan's video?
How come you ruined the Penguins?
Do you approve of track suits?

The thing is I bet you're not far off the mark. Our media is so embarrassing.

They should only let Vogl in.

Here's another guaranteed question that will get thrown at Bylsma - "how do you compare working with Jack Eichel to Sidney Crosby?".

And another one sure to be pointed at Murray - "you didn't get your 1st choice in Babcock. What did you see in Dan that made him your next choice rather than Luke Richardson, who was widely rumored to be a candidate?"

Sad that it's so easy to predict the antagonistic questions from the TBN staff but I guess we've all witnessed so many past PCs with these kinds of questions that it's almost logical to expect more of the same.

 

[Rhett4]

That's an idiotic compensation rule, but at least we kept our actual pick in case it's necessary. #RFAhunt2015

 

[sabresfan129103]

Gleason: Welcome Dan, Bucky Gleason from the Buffalo News. Has Tim Murray informed you of plans to tank this season? How many games do you plan on throwing?

Harrington: This is for Ted Black. Since you didn't have a season ending presser, I have some questions from then:

Who is on your short list for head coaches since you have unjustifiably fired Ted Nolan for his last place finish?
Do you think Buffalo will be able to attract a head coach given they are an embarrassment to the league?
When can we speak to Terry Pegula?
Where you aware that OTHER teams had a season ending press conference?
How many twitter followers do you have? BLOCKED

Sullivan: Hey Terry, who will be the bills starting QB and why will race be a factor?

Dan, Mike Harrington from the Buffalo news. How does it feel to be the backup plan of the Sabres when the team clearly wanted Mike Babcock.

 

[Sabretip]

confirmed?

if so, yay!

This had to be negotiated by Murray - and motivated by a likely desire to have offer sheets as an option for this summer.

 

[Gras]

I think Bylsma fell in love with the Org when he played for Rochester, thats why he decided to sign.

 

[N.Y. Orangeman]

The compensation for hiring a fired head coach is ridiculous. As I've said before, I can't wait for the agents to go at this one.

 

[Jame]

i;m more excited about offersheets... lol

 

[Myllz]

Is there a link to any streams yet? Don't see any on sabres.com or the WKBW site.

 

[Sabretip]

Some insights from TSN that will surely be added to in next few days:

The buzz around the potential hiring of Dan Bylsma – the Buffalo Sabres appear to be zeroing in on him as a candidate – continues to intrigue me. For a guy who won 63% of the regular season games he coached (and 55% of playoff games he coached), there’s an awful lot of talk about systemic and stylistic flaws he carries.

I find his battered reputation -- despite an overwhelmingly impressive coaching record -- fascinating for myriad reasons. One, the Pittsburgh Penguins were routinely decimated by injury during his tenure – more on this later. Two, Pittsburgh’s front office struggled mightily to acquire and/or develop depth talent, which frequently submarined team performance (see here, here, and generally here for starters – the draft record wasn’t much better). Year after year, Pittsburgh’s elite top-six tried to smooth out a dreadful bottom-six that did little more than try to drag the team into mediocrity. Be it a lack of available cap space to add talented players or poor player development or poor external acquisition (likely a combination of all three), a whole lot of blame for Pittsburgh winning just one Stanley Cup with years and years of opportunities can be apportioned to guys higher up the food chain

This is unspeakably impressive, and one of the big reasons I’m such an ardent supporter of Dan Bylsma getting another coaching gig – be it in Buffalo or elsewhere. Without Crosby/Malkin in the lineup, Pittsburgh still scored 51.6% of the goals and generated 51.9% of the scoring chances at even-strength – a shade below their norm, but still well above break-even. And, their Corsi% -- the rate at which they controlled play at 5-on-5 – actually improved by a sliver, to 51.8%.

Any time you are above 50% in one of these team metrics, you are doing something right

So, to be clear: In more than two regular seasons worth of games played under Dan Bylsma and without one or both of Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin, the Pittsburgh Penguins were objectively a top-ten hockey team at even-strength.

This is precisely why I have such a hard time accepting the notion that Bylsma was the one dragging Pittsburgh into the muck. The raw win/loss record says enough about his success, and no longer can anyone hang their hat on the ‘Crosby and Malkin carried Bylsma’ teams argument, because the data just doesn’t support it.

If I’m Tim Murray, I lock up Dan Bylsma’s contract…as soon as I finish reading this sentence.

http://www.tsn.ca/bylsma-can-stand-on-his-track-record-1.293813

 

[TehDoak]

I really hope the press conference is just Terry, Ted, Tim, and Dan talking to WGR on a stage and they don't take any questions from the press corps

 

[Chad Thundercock]

Yes, because a coach who has the potential to improve an entire 23 man roster is less valuable than a 10% chance for a middling NHL roster spot. [mod]

I wish I saw the insult.

They would have hired another coach, and he might be more effective than Bylsma who provides nothing special with his 'resume'.

And 3rd round picks can be used as assets, which other people are mentioning here with offer sheets. So, whatever.

Yay, new coach, gonna win da cup now dere yanno

 

[Leafs2020]

Is there a link to any streams yet? Don't see any on sabres.com or the WKBW site.

http://www.wkbw.com/watch-live

 

[jBuds]

Some insights from TSN that will surely be added to in next few days:





http://www.tsn.ca/bylsma-can-stand-on-his-track-record-1.293813

Awesome. Needed something like this.

 

[Myllz]

http://www.wkbw.com/watch-live

Gracias.

 

[Woodhouse]

is there a link to any streams yet? Don't see any on sabres.com or the wkbw site.

[nhl]826567[/nhl]

 

[TehDoak]

Only two chairs lined up @ the press conference

#WheresTerry2015

 

[Tapu Coco]

With the new lottery odds, I'm not so keen on offersheeting the 2016 1st away...Id wait another year

 

[Dahlin 2 Eichel]

I'm happy with the decision

 

[Jame]

With the new lottery odds, I'm not so keen on offersheeting the 2016 1st away...Id wait another year

i'd be throwing offersheets around one after another... **** the 2016 draft.

Toffoli, Tarasenko, Hamilton, and on...

 

[Sabretip]

This had to be negotiated by Murray - and motivated by a likely desire to have offer sheets as an option for this summer.

The Penguins, who had Bylsma under contract for one more season, are entitled to draft-pick compensation. The details of the compensation -- by rule, a third-round pick -- reportedly held up the deal. The Sabres have no third-round selections next month, but they own four in the 2016 draft

http://sabres.buffalonews.com/2015/05/28/sabres-hire-dan-bylsma-as-head-coach/

Yup, Murray had to probably arm wrestle this one to his benefit

 

[sjci]

Battista sighting on the wkbw stream