"The other side of it is we'd like to generate more offense. You can look at individual players and say, "Well, they normally don't miss in those situations.' Right now they're missing. I think there is some pressing.
"The good part is, we know offensively that we've got players that can produce at a higher rate than they're producing. We just have to stay with it, not press, and it will come."
Can this top six produce more? Certainly. However, this group of forwards has had two consecutive underachieving seasons. I don't know if this is just Darcy not revealing his hand (he said he didn't have many moves to make, then went out and signed Grier, etc), but if he feels the same way privately and wants to ride out the current top six, it might be another long season.
Darcy is not worried because the goal of the team is not the Stanley Cup. He has zero pressure on him. Why would he even pick up the phone and try to get a two way defensemen? He will let it ride this season and then Lydman and Tallinder will walk for nothing in return and he will overpay some 35 year old free agent to play defense for us. Or some idiot like Brent Sopel will come here.
Darcy is not worried about anything, why would he ever be? Complete job security. He could always blame Ruff first later in a few years.
Darcy should ask why Vanek only played 1 minute on the pp out of 3 pps. Maybe that is why he is not getting pp goals. Vanek needs to produce more but he is not going to score pp goals on the bench.
Sabres backups are 0-3 so far, and Patrick Lalime is certain to see the net more. Regier is OK with his backup situation.
"I think we'll be fine there," Regier said. "Ryan's going to carry the bulk of the load.
"The backup position is a tough position because you're not playing very often," Regier said. "I think Patty will be fine."
I remember when Marty B was out for the Devils they didn't miss a beat. buffalo has crap back up goalies. Don't worry folks, Darcy is not worried about it, why would he be?
Darcy is either A. oblivious to what's going on around him or B. refusing to admit that he picked the wrong core? Surprise, surprise.
He's grossly incompetent. You'd have to be, to go from contender to bubble team in a single offseason. And make no improvements for 3 years straight.
Other than the ownership, Darcy is the single biggest problem this team faces. In fact, almost every other problem we have - keeping Ruff long past his expiration date, all the myriad problems with the current roster and contracts, the bungling dealings with UFAs in the past, etc. all fall squarely on his shoulders.
Um....guys? His comment was "this slump won't last". IE the play over the past 4 games.
And frankly, he's right. Not that this team is a real contender in the East, but this team, with a healthy Miller, was slotted right around the 5-6 slot in the Eastern Conference last season. There's no reason to expect any different if he can stay healthy. And yes, it will be a season full of inconsistency, because that's just the way our top 6 operates.
The goal of the team is to make a profit at minimal financial risk. It is almost certainly not to win the Cup, in my opinion. And if it is... they are failing miserably.
The goal of the team is to make a profit at minimal financial risk. It is almost certainly not to win the Cup, in my opinion. And if it is... they are failing miserably.
The GOAL is a Stanley Cup.
The budget he has to work with that allows them to profit are the one of the PARAMETERS.
Winning a Stanley Cup guarantees the highest profit margin.
Winning a Stanley Cup guarantees the highest profit margin.
No, actually it doesn't - there's no way to guarantee a Cup. The risk required to win a Cup is much higher than to just make the playoffs, and it is, apparently, a risk this ownership group is unwilling to take.
Again - the primary goal is not the Cup. The goal is first to make a profit, and the way to get a profit while minimizing risk is to simply make the playoffs. I should say this is what I believe their logic to be. I don't think it's reasonable to have any goal other than "best team possible given our resources" - the league is just too competitive and complex to try and do anything else with any accuracy. But it's what I think the company line from LQ is.
No, actually it doesn't - there's no way to guarantee a Cup. The risk required to win a Cup is much higher than to just make the playoffs, and it is, apparently, a risk this ownership group is unwilling to take.
Uh.. I never said they can guarantee a cup. I said winning a cup guarantees the highest profit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jlr
Again - the primary goal is not the Cup. The goal is first to make a profit, and the way to get a profit while minimizing risk is to simply make the playoffs. I should say this is what I believe their logic to be. I don't think it's reasonable to have any goal other than "best team possible given our resources" - the league is just too competitive and complex to try and do anything else with any accuracy. But it's what I think the company line from LQ is.
I guess we'll just agree to disagree. I have no doubt in my mind what Darcy and Lindy's goal is. Since they have the most control over the team, I say what their goal is can be called the team goal. Larry and Tommy G give them a budget to work within. Again, that's not a goal, it's a parameter.
Darcy was on WGR 550 radio in Buffalo and was asked what the goal of the team was. He said "The goal of the team is to just get through the season", he was asked again and Mike Schopp hinted about the Stanley Cup and Darcy said again(like a robot) "The goal of the team is to just get through the season". If you go to wgr550's website you might be able to find it in the audio vault.
I never hear Darcy ever say anything about winning a Stanley cup. If he really truly wanted to win then in 05 when he had 10 million in cap space he would have picked up some veterans for the playoff run like most other teams do that win. The Canes picked up Recchi and Weight and they beat Buffalo. Buffalo had zero NHL defensemen as backups. Rory Fitzpatrick sucked and after that it was only rookies who never played in the NHL. He gets paid to think ahead but failed to do so. The Pittsburgh Penguins lost 4 defensemen to injury in the 91 playoffs so it has happened before.
P.S. I've met the owner before and he could careless about winning the cup. I hate to break the news to you. He never even goes to games now and has moved to Florida. (if you want proof I can send you pictures of me in the suite and in the owners house)
Darcy was on WGR 550 radio in Buffalo and was asked what the goal of the team was. He said "The goal of the team is to just get through the season", he was asked again and Mike Schopp hinted about the Stanley Cup and Darcy said again(like a robot) "The goal of the team is to just get through the season". If you go to wgr550's website you might be able to find it in the audio vault.
I never hear Darcy ever say anything about winning a Stanley cup. If he really truly wanted to win then in 05 when he had 10 million in cap space he would have picked up some veterans for the playoff run like most other teams do that win. The Canes picked up Recchi and Weight and they beat Buffalo. Buffalo had zero NHL defensemen as backups. Rory Fitzpatrick sucked and after that it was only rookies who never played in the NHL. He gets paid to think ahead but failed to do so. The Pittsburgh Penguins lost 4 defensemen to injury in the 91 playoffs so it has happened before.
P.S. I've met the owner before and he could careless about winning the cup. I hate to break the news to you. He never even goes to games now and has moved to Florida. (if you want proof I can send you pictures of me in the suite and in the owners house)
I cannot fathom how anyone can think Darcy's goal is anything but to win a Stanley Cup. It's not an "AT ALL COSTS" goal, but it is the goal.
I cannot fathom how anyone can think Darcy's goal is anything but to win a Stanley Cup. It's not an "AT ALL COSTS" goal, but it is the goal.
The end game is to win the Cup. For any GM.
Quinn and BTG's goal is to make a profit, or at least to not lose money.
Darcy's goal is to remain employed as an NHL GM, preferably with the Sabres. He's not willing to take on the risks required to actually build a contender. He won't fire an under-performing coach. He won't trade under-performing players. He repeatedly overpays for "home grown" talent because it's a known quantity - ie low-risk. He tolerates Quinn's meddling influence.
The list goes on and on. To me, his actions are not the actions of a someone who is building a contender. So I disagree with your statement that the Cup is THE goal. Obviously he'd be thrilled to win the Cup. But it's tangential, it's gravy, it's the icing on the career cake.
Of course this is largely conjecture and opinion, and there are going to be different opinions. At the end of the day, no one other than Quinn, BTG, Regier himself, and possibly Ruff know what his real intentions and goals are.
Bumping this thread because I saw an article that reminded me of jlr that think the Sabres aren't in the business of winning. Yes, this has to do with baseball, and yes, the economics of baseball are very much different than the NHL. But Rob Neyer makes a point that is very applicable to the Sabres as well.
No, I really do. Oh, I don't mean to suggest that there aren't any accounting tricks in there, or that someone's not paying his daughter good money to show up on Thursdays and smile a lot. Those things do happen. But looking at the big picture, I do believe the Pirates are using the great majority of their revenues to try to win baseball games.
Why wouldn't they? Nobody gets into the baseball business to lose baseball games, or to make money. They get in to win baseball games, and get their names in the newspapers, and maybe come out in the end with a bit of a profit.
Much of my "career" has been based on criticizing losing teams. But I'm almost always critical of what I think are poor decisions and occasionally downright incompetence. I've rarely criticized a team for being too cheap. Because that is very rarely the problem.
Go ahead and replace Pirates with Sabres and baseball with hockey while you read that.
His point basically is, the Sabres aren't cheap, and they spend what they bring in, but they can be ridiculed for poor decisions/incompetence, i.e. Tim Connolly, Jochen Hecht, etc. I think that's a bigger issue than just flat out "the Sabres don't want to win a Cup, only turn a profit".
His point basically is, the Sabres aren't cheap, and they spend what they bring in, but they can be ridiculed for poor decisions/incompetence, i.e. Tim Connolly, Jochen Hecht, etc. I think that's a bigger issue than just flat out "the Sabres don't want to win a Cup, only turn a profit".
I think he's being a bit naive - professional sports is a big money industry, and to say people don't go into baseball (or hockey) to make money is ********. That said - my opinion has always been that the Sabres are either A. trying to squeak into the playoffs in order to make a small profit / not lose money or B. very, very bad at their jobs. Or quite possibly both. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Incompetence is always an option. And I think Darcy, Larry, and BTG all have different goals to an extent. I don't see how you look at Darcy's career and think winning a Cup is his primary goal. He would never put up with Quinn's meddling if that were the case, or the whole bankruptcy thing before it. He would have left long ago if a Cup was his primary goal.
Quinn almost definitely falls into the incompetent category - it doesn't even matter what he wants, because he's too clueless to have any idea how to get there. And Golisano just doesn't give a ****. He's an absentee owner at this point, has been for a couple years now, and I don't see how anyone can even try to argue otherwise. He didn't care about hockey before he bought the team, and I don't think he cares now.
Would all three of them love a Cup? Absolutely. But that would require holding players, coaches, and GMs accountable for their actions. It would require making the Cup the primary goal of the entire organization. Not a secondary goal, or a nice to have bonus. THE goal. It would require risk. Darcy hasn't made a single risky move since I've followed the Sabres. He's shuffled fringe players around, let UFAs walk, overvalued home-grown talent, and in almost any case where he's had to choose between 2 players, he's picked the wrong one. How much money has he flushed down the toilet on Connolly just because he's a known quantity (ie low risk)? Letting Drury and Briere walk. Not committing to either buying or selling at the deadline last year. How many more seasons will be waiting for him to address the problems with the top six? Etc, etc. So I'd say he's walking proof that it's possible to both not have the Cup as your primary goal, and to be incompetent.
And for the record, I'm not saying the Sabres are cheap, per se. Just because you spend close to the cap doesn't mean you're committed to winning.
Incompetence is always an option. And I think Darcy, Larry, and BTG all have different goals to an extent. I don't see how you look at Darcy's career and think winning a Cup is his primary goal. He would never put up with Quinn's meddling if that were the case, or the whole bankruptcy thing before it. He would have left long ago if a Cup was his primary goal.
You're trying to simplify it too much.
He can have a primary goal of winning the cup while having other factors that influence that goal as well. Quinn meddling is something he simply has to live with if he wants this job. Maybe he wants to win here for some reason or another. They are not mutually exclusive of him having a primary goal of winning the cup.
Again... primary goal of winning the goal within the constraints he is given is a logical and sensible way to look at it.
"Win the cup at all costs" is not an option because he is not given that power.
