Lol, what's the strawman? I didn't skew anything.
They still finished with more points than Housley every season with Dan regardless of where they sat in the league/division.
I like when you make points for me-- like how D-lo played better elsewhere than he ever did under Bylsma, or that Redmond even had to play games-- the team had to dig even deeper for bodies to fill minutes because all the injuries coincided.
No, just saying that being a contender right now would be much better than where we are. Acting like we're in the best position ever while still being horrible, is silly.
That helps me greatly. Bylsma got more out of the team with less. I guess every serviceable player according to you wasnt roses and peaches for Bylsma.
Which is why blaming the GM/coach tandem is basically the easiest cop out answer possible for any bad team. It's never technically wrong. Especially if you ignore context... ie. Botteril had half an offseason, expansion draft and a limited FA pool to turn over half the team, which had about equal chance of working out or not working out. Of course, even the best players on the team were already largely disgruntled from the seasons prior so what were the odds of it working out really.
I dont disagree with that. I am glad Bylsma is gone, I just wish we went elsewhere when shopping for a head coach than Housley.
Housley had Nolan.. Are you arguing that Des was a better player than Nolan because they had near equal outputs?
He didn't have to play him as much as he did. Also singling out one player as the downfall to Housleys season isnt helping you at all.
Botterill’s process for his first offseason was inarguably bad. He didn’t realize he had severely compromised his forward depth, and his communication with Housley was so bad that neither realized none of the team’s defensemen could play their new system. They also put needless barriers in front of in-house upgrades in the name of “development,” even though most of that group didn’t benefit from overripening.
Depth in general was severely compromised WAY before Botts took the job.
I don't think that's necessarily a lack of communication? How would they know how well players would really take to the new system before actually seeing them try it in a real game? Once they did, and realized that the team apparently couldn't play pro hockey if it wasn't stretch passes and dump & chase (not that they really could with that either)... Housley pretty quickly tried to simplify things, but the long-standing toxic locker room and confidence issues made it too little too late. Until the pressure was off at least.
The problem wasn't "overripening", it was that Rochester shared the same attitude and talent issues as the Sabres. Rochester has the ability to be really good next year with all the young NHL upside talent coming in... so long as our fear of "overripening" prospects doesn't lead to them depleting Rochester for another year. Tempting as it may be.
Those numbers should be reversed. Nolan set a career high in games played in a season.
Half the team should've been scratched 6 dozen games.
