Darcy's days have to be numbered.

I have been wanting Darcy fired for years, but everyone kept saying, give him a chance. Once a new owner is in and the restricitions are lifted, he will be a great GM. Of course everyone was wrong.

I would like to give that same chance to Lindy. If this team was failing with the lineup Anaheim has, then its time for him to go. But the fact is, Ruff is failing with a team full of third line 4 million per season players that Darcy thinks is good enough to win. Lindy's hockey system, which is a very defensive minded system, is based on the fact that with the exception of Vanek, this team does not have any natural goal scorers. If Lindy had Getzloff, Perry, Ryan, Selanne, Kouvu, then of course the system wouldnt be defensive minded. He does what he needs to do because Darcy filled he roster with crap. If you look around the league, Every single team has a top 5 better then the Sabres. If you look at every teams minor league system, again, almost every team has better prospects then us. This season is not because of the coach.

Why Lever as HC? Some better coach's are out there you know. Hell, I didn't even know who Lever was until a saw a highlight real of the 99' Sabres playoff run.:laugh:

I like a Bob Hartley, Craig MacTavish, and Marc Crawford for the job too. I even like what a Mike Keenan might bring if he can get back to his old self!

I only knew a little about Lever when it came to him being an NHL or should I say a potential NHL coach, but recently learned he is considered Top 5 to be next in line for a NHL coaching job. What I did know is that he has paid his dues and won on most levels, most notably in the AHL... What is most impressive is he is well-rounded and local. Not only does he understand and love the game of hockey, but he has ties to this community....

All that said - the coach is only as good as what he surrounds himself with... That's why I like these coaches as a package deal..

Kind of like in Philly, I think the ASST. Coach (Berube) is the silent key to that staff. Maybe "silent" is the wrong word, because I think Berube keeps that team up and gritty every game. Plus if the character of that team is ever compromised that staff makes the tough decisions and sticks with them. Look at the cleaning house of Carter and Richards! Philly plays even harder and that team is tight and has each others back! Similar to waht Berube did in his days in the NHL...

two coaches: Randy Carlyle or (If Pittsburgh gets embarrassed in the playoffs and a dream thought) Dan Bylsma.

If Sabres clean house, Ide like to see Ruff as GM, and then have a young new guy in here to coach.

With Ruff as GM, who else knows what this team needs more then him. Being here for 15 years as coach (which never happens), will actually prove to be beneficial when trying to scout a team in the off season. Darcy only looks at highlight clips of college kids goals. BUT Ruff will watch and see if that same player is able to skate back and forth throughout three periods 60 minutes of a game. Ruff will watch and see if a player can get back in time, incase he looses the puck, and not give up on a play, like Boyes, Stafford, Leino and Roy do every single night. Ruff will fill a team of proven disciplined, gritty character type players. Compared to the,, lets cross our fingers and hope approach, that Darcy has proven to be doing.

For a coach, all that have been mentioned are stubborn coaches. All are set in there ways and they do not realize that they have been fired several times, due to their innability to change. We dont need a Dinasour with an old hockey thought process here. This game changes to quickly and all have been fired from previous coaching jobs, because they cannot adapt. Sabres should try to pry away Cunneyworth from Montreal at the end of the year. He knows Buffalo, He knows our style, and he definetly knows how to deal with developing players. Or they should pry a long term assistant from Detroit, or a franchise like that, who always seem to win every year.

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Originally Posted by sabres11

If Sabres clean house, Ide like to see Ruff as GM, and then have a young new guy in here to coach.

With Ruff as GM, who else knows what this team needs more then him. Being here for 15 years as coach (which never happens), will actually prove to be beneficial when trying to scout a team in the off season. Darcy only looks at highlight clips of college kids goals. BUT Ruff will watch and see if that same player is able to skate back and forth throughout three periods 60 minutes of a game. Ruff will watch and see if a player can get back in time, incase he looses the puck, and not give up on a play, like Boyes, Stafford, Leino and Roy do every single night. Ruff will fill a team of proven disciplined, gritty character type players. Compared to the,, lets cross our fingers and hope approach, that Darcy has proven to be doing.

For a coach, all that have been mentioned are stubborn coaches. All are set in there ways and they do not realize that they have been fired several times, due to their innability to change. We dont need a Dinasour with an old hockey thought process here. This game changes to quickly and all have been fired from previous coaching jobs, because they cannot adapt. Sabres should try to pry away Cunneyworth from Montreal at the end of the year. He knows Buffalo, He knows our style, and he definetly knows how to deal with developing players. Or they should pry a long term assistant from Detroit, or a franchise like that, who always seem to win every year.

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Hell no to Lindy being GM. It would be like Jacques Martin when he was GM and HC in Florida. Rather hire one of Pittsburgh's people or Rick Dudley.

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Originally Posted by EasternStar

Hell no to Lindy being GM. It would be like Jacques Martin when he was GM and HC in Florida. Rather hire one of Pittsburgh's people or Rick Dudley.

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Dudley already coached in Buffalo and was fired. He was the GM in Florida, a team with absolutely no expectations, and was fired there. He went to Ottawa, did nothing there was fired again. Then Atlanta, a team with absolutely no income and no expectations, and was fired there. Completey disgraced Tampa Bay and was fired. And we want him here??? What do you think he brings to the table?

If the choice was Ruff for GM or Dudley, we take three steps back with Dudley, because his hockey IQ is no where even close to Ruff's.

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Originally Posted by sabres11

Dudley already coached in Buffalo and was fired. He was the GM in Florida, a team with absolutely no expectations, and was fired there. He went to Ottawa, did nothing there was fired again. Then Atlanta, a team with absolutely no income and no expectations, and was fired there. Completey disgraced Tampa Bay and was fired. And we want him here??? What do you think he brings to the table?

If the choice was Ruff for GM or Dudley, we take three steps back with Dudley, because his hockey IQ is no where even close to Ruff's.

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Why would you want a coach who coaches like he's going to go bankrupt in a big buisness, Ruff being GM would be the worst. If you don't want Dudley, then what other people do you want as GM with a owner who is soft, not knee-jerked, and a guy with straight hair and glasses, and hell, he kept frigging Darcy "No Heart" Regier here. So tell me, who should be GM and not Ruff. Name some people right now sabres11, I dare you!:mad:

Ruff is a good coach and if he was fired, he would have a new job before he even leaves the arena. What does that tell you? If Darcy got fired, he will wait a while to get hired and when he does, he will be an assistant somewhere. If you look at the job Ruff has done, with the 3rd and 4th line talent Darcy brings in here, Ruff is a good coach. Period.

Its amazing how some of you fans blame Ruff for Roy missing an empty net against the Rangers. You blame Ruff for Erhoff's (Darcy's prize signing) consistant blasts from the point that never ever ever hit the net. You blame Ruff for Leino (another top signing) 3 points 6assist season. This season is a failure because of the talent that is here. NOT THE SYSTEM. Darcy is in charge of talent and we do not have any.

Everyone is excited about our 3 game point streak, however, we only scored 2 goals. Thats a credit to the coaching. Thank the coach for the 5 points in 6 games, because the talent is not getting it done. Gausted, Keleta, finally playing the way Lindy wants them to play is the reason were winning right now.

Here it is. 1 year later from the start of this post and the only changes that Darcy made, after MISSING THE PLAYOFFS AGAIN, was to give up a 70 point center for Steve Ott. Ott, who is the same player as McCormick and Kaleta. Cant have to many of those players I guess.

He ignored the center position again, which has forced Lindy to Keep Grigs up here. Grigs should not be here. As much as a lot of cheerleading fans like him, he is still only 18 and with no preseason and a shortened regular season, this team should have had its roster spot taken by a player who knows the nitty gritty of whats expected in a shortened season.

Scott was a good addition, the Sabres have needed protection for a long time so thats finally a plus for Darcy.

Resigning Hecht was horrible. In the off season, 3 teams were after Scott Gomez. Nobody was after Hecht. How good would Gomez look here winning important faceoffs when we need them the most. The Sabres are winning only 33% of their faceoffs. Thats not coaching. Thats Talent. Gomez would have been so much better to have, but we all know Darcy, he keeps his own. I know Gomez is not and will not light up the scoreboard, but the Sabres have allowed 6 goals this year off of faceoff losses and Gomez could have helped that. Games lost, could have been games won, if we were just a little bit more talented on faceoffs. Darcy is to blame for that.

I still like Myers, but a lot of fans are posting that we should bench him or trade him. Well thats another number 1 pick. Karlsson was still available, uh oh the trend is continuing.

This year our defense was suppose to be are saving grace, what happened. Could it be that PK Subban should have been drafted over TJ Brennan. Could it be Center-TJ Oshie should have been picked over Center-Mark Zagrapan. We do have a scouting department, all these players were on their boards. But in the end, Darcy felt Brennan and Zagrapan were better then Oshie and Subban. Imagine Lindy Ruff's team right now with a stud in Subban on defense and a quality center in Oshie taking faceoffs and helping a second line to score so Vanek doesnt have to do it all. Everything would be different the past 3 years with just those two horrible draft moves alone.

I admitt, I am a Lindy Ruff fan. But after watching these games, we are not loosing because of coaching decisions. We are loosing because Ennis, Stafford, Leino, Gerbe, Kaleta, Hecht, Leopold, Sultzer, Weber, Sykera, McCormick, Thats 11 roster players, are not as talented as the other teams we have to play against. Unfortunetly, Lindy is forced to play these guys. If Lindy coached Pittsburgh, Boston, Detroit, Ottawa, San Jose etc, do those teams miss the playoffs 6 out of the last 10 years? Or is other teams GMs drafting more talent to prevent that drought to continue.

Is Regier's draf record really that bad:

He hit 3 NHL talents in the 1997 draft (Campbell, Afiniganov, Tallinder), 2 in 1998 (Kalinin and Kotalik with Peters sort of being an NHLer), in 1999 he got Ryan Miller, in 2000 Paul Gaustad, 2001 Derek Roy and Jason Pominville, 2002 Keith Ballard and Dennis Wideman, 2003 Jan Hejda, Clark MacArthur and Tomas Vanek, 2004 Stafford and Sekera

I think its his time to go, he's run into a relative dry spell (Though some of these pics are still pretty young) but from 1997-2004 the Sabres were producing huge amounts of talent.

As productive as we think that some of the guys he drafted were, compared to other NHL talent, they werent as good as we think. Which is why we missed the playoffs 6 out of 10 years.

Before Campbells last year, his agent asked for an extension of 6 years 24 million. Darcy declined thinking he wasnt worth it and thought he can get him for cheaper if he had a mediocre final year. That final year raised his worth to an amount of 7 million per year and we got screwed.

Before the final year of Brieres contract, his agent tried to negotiate the same contract, 6 years 24 million. Darcy declined and wanted to take his chances, thinking that some of Brieres injurys would come back to hurt his value, which never did. That final year he out priced himself out of Buffalo.

Imagine if Darcy would have signed both guys prior to their final years. Briere and Campbell being locked up as a sabre for 6 years 24 million would be huge for Lindy and the Sabres moving forward.

The year JP Dumont was a free agent, Curtis Brown was a free agent. Darcy had a choice and he chose Curtis Brown. Why I have no idea. Darcy thought he was younger and physically healthier and that Dumont's best years may be behind him. Again, another terrible calculation that should have cost him his job.

Then think about trade deadline moves. As the Sabres need help and are not to far away from the playoffs, Boyes, Torres, Zubrus, Corkum, Moore, ETC are all he can muster up. As Brian Burke once said, the consencus around the league is nobody wants to trade with Darcy. He over values all of his prospects and he wants too much in return. Burke even gave an example. He said that if Pitt offered Darcy, Crosby for Vanek, Darcy would ask for more, as if Crosby is not of equal talent. When another teams GM calls out Darcy, Pegula should take notice. Its not like Burke is waking up one day saying"hey lets lie about the Sabres GM". Darcy has been a bad negotiater and it is a fact that he has frustrated other GMs around the league.

Remember when we traded Butler and Byron to Calgary for Reghyr and Kotalik. Regehr said no to that trade. He changed his no trade clause because of talking to Pegula himself. That shouldnt be needed to get a trade done. Plus Calgary would have never done that trade if it werent for Buffalo getting Kotaliks contract, which was something that was killing Calgary and they had no other teams willing to help them out.

Gausted for a first rounder was a great deal. However, if we go the rest of the year loosing faceoffs, we may regret that move as well. Plus Nashville had no choice but to give us a first round pick. Nashvilles GM admitted that 3 other western confrence teams wanted Gausted so in order to prevent Gausted from going to their compitition, they had to give up a 1st rounder. Now put the shoe on the other foot. Darcy is the GM for Nashville, does he give up a number 1 pick for Gausted or does he allow Gausted to go to Detroit or San Jose. Nashvilles GM has a win now mentality. Darcy has a future outlook for this team and that is no good. Think about how foolish some of the fans sound when they say, "its ok for us to suck now, we have Armia, Grigs, Gergs and future talent". As Sabres fans, we shouldnt constantly have to cross our fingers and hope for future players. When is it time to watch talent on the ice here and now..

Last year we resigned Gerbe. Why? We had 6 million dollars under the cap. Why not get Thomas Fleishman for a couple million more and give up on midget Gerbe. All Gerbe does for us is nothing. Fleischman scores 30 and leads Florida to a division championship. Fleischman if he had the choice, would have definetly picked us over Florida, but Darcy was not even going to consider releasing Gerbe. Then all year, being so far under the cap, we all assumed a trade is coming and that money saved in the off season would be used for the trade deadline and post season push. As we know, nothing happened. Were still waiting.

Last year nobody wanted Ruff fired. This year, Darcy brings in the same team, with even giving up our top center, for a person who will never help us on the score card, but now everyone wants Ruff Fired. I dont get it.

Just to beat a dead horse some more, check out these great numbers thanks to Darcy.

Since he became General Manager, he has had 30 picks total in the first and second round. This is a closer look at the numbers of 14 players selected in the top 2 rounds. Do the math, nearly half of his picks, that make or break an organazation.

Zigamonis played zero games.
Heisten played zero games
Krukov played zero games
DeCaire played zero games
Ballard played zero games
Fabry played zero games
Guggola played zero games
Scheistel played zero games
Zagrapan played zero games
Persson played zero games

Janik played 10 sabre games
Bartovic played 26 sabre games
Thorburn played 2 sabre games
Funk played 9 sabre games

Now as much as we like Vanek and a few other players drafted, are you people seriously going to say his body of work is worthy of being considered a good GM.

Not making the playoffs 6 out of the past 10 years. Do the math again, its 2013. Since coming into this team in 1999, we now know why this team has missed the playoffs.

You guys cant blame Ruff, he never coached the untalented players who never even played an NHL game. And the players such as Stafford, Gerbe, Etc were just slightly a little bit more talented then the other rejects who didnt play, so what has Ruff had? Nothing.

In free agency and with finally a couple of decent trades a few years back, we went to the playoffs with Drury, Briere, Roy, Vanek, Pomminville, Dumont. Under Lindys system, they all scored goals as well as playing defensive minded. Compare that talent to what we have available now thanks to Darcy and how can we really blame Ruff.

Why do picks only in round 1 or two matter?


Darcy has nailed some late rounders?

As you should know, the most talented NHL Players are drafted in the first two rounds.

While other GM's hit on their first two picks, they also hit in the later rounds as well. As for Darcy, sure he got Miller in the 6th and players like that, but he has absolutley bombed in the first two rounds.

For example his first pick as GM was Defensman, Dimitri Kalinin. The draft book on him was that he is a skilled defensman, but a bit of a project, who some feel lacks intensity. The next defenseman picked, right after Kalinin was, Robin Regher. The book on him was that he is a stay at home defensman who will not score you goals, but his solid play in his zone will not cost his team any goals either. Now imagine going through the year 2000 and so on, with Robin over Kalinin. Its crap like that, that makes or breaks an organazation.

Of course other teams miss as well, but absolutley no team bombs as consistant as Darcy has. Along with his errors in judgement on draft day, the Sabres are also behind the 8 ball when it comes to Darcy renegotiating contracts. He always lets a player go to the last year of their contracts rather than restructure a year before like a good GM should do. By Darcy always waiting to the final year of his players contract, that tells you that he is either hoping that an injury will lessen his value, or that his point production will decrease to lessen value. No good comes from having this mindset, which is why we lost Briere and Campbell.

Along with this crap, Darcy drafted 4 players, but failed to give them qualifying offers, which made them free agents and they reentered the draft. Thats 4 picks that Darcy threw away.

Then its time for trade deadline moves. Sabres were 4 points away from a playoff birth a few seasons ago and the only player Darcy brings in was Corkum. Over the last 5 years we get players like Torres, Moore, Bernier, Zubrus, Boyes and Hodgson. Then we need a center, Darcy's plan is to make Ennis a center, Sign Leino and ask him to play center.

So the first two picks in the draft are very important. The Sabres have missed the playoffs 6 out of 10 years and with better drafted players, maybe that could have changed that outcome. Coaching is far from the reason. Talent wins games, in our division, compare other rosters to ours, position by position. With the exception of Vanek and maybe pomminville, we will pick other players every time. That alone tells you that Darcy is not drafting better than other teams.