Buffalo Sabres Need Help Replacing Assistants
The Buffalo Sabres returned to reality, which in their case is very bad. Retaining what they already have ruined a throwback. Moving to the future with a prominent name from the past is tough while accompanied by names from an unfortunate present. The team is curiously proud of detailing how coaching duties will be split for coaches who should split. Nostalgia sustained us for about a week.
Lindy Ruff will be saddled with Matt Ellis. The only thing worse than keeping anyone connected to the drought is keeping a crop-killer. His record is established. Like noting anything associated with the Sabres during Terry Pegula’s exhausting tenure, that’s not praise.
Ellis shows that working hard may not pay off. The greatest superstars have easier circumstances whether or not they realize it. Peyton Manning can claim that most of his challenge as a player was mental, which is easy when you’re Archie’s son. By contrast, there are many coaches who applied getting the most out of limited abilities to overseeing players such as, say, Sean McDermott and Lindy Ruff.
But satisfying the condition of failing to be an all-star is insufficient on its own. A hardworking marginal pro is not necessarily going to be an amazing coach. Toiling in fourth-line obscurity cannot be the only qualification. We call that the Matt Ellis rule.
Ellis maintains his important role of telling Rob Ray during the first admission that the roster must keep working to overcome the thing not working. His work as a public relations flack has been invaluable to those who don’t pay attention. As for actual coaching, you’re just going to have to let the trainee have more practice time.
Successful businesses know it’s important to maintain all the wonderful aspects everyone has enjoyed. Ellis is renowned for the unbeatable extra-man tactic of players staying in place. Hold still and defenders might not see you. Save molecule movement for possible later use. Inertness is a perfect metaphor for a team that needs and won’t get a complete staff overhaul.
Fans are lucky if the team should maintain their recent strategies, which they should not. The power play has been a crime against hockey that has represented ineptitude through an unprecedented woeful stretch. Baffling inertia hasn’t just figuratively summarized misery: the infuriating lack of productivity despite the advantage of having one more player than the foe has helped keep a low-scoring entity banished.
Now-former Rochester coach Seth Appert is the one franchise employee who had a chance at success. Naturally, he didn’t taken it, and naturally, he gets ahead. The Sabres shrewdly losing regularly has allowed them to stockpile youthful talent, although the average age is rising rapidly. The cunning plan would presumably allow a farm team to rack up titles. But let me introduce you to this organization. Defensive lapses are a great way to test a young goalie.
The Sabres became predictable during exile. For example, they presumably just promoted their next coach. Appert’s real new task is waiting for Lindy to take a front office position. Fans who’ve noticed how things have gone during the HDTV era are not as thrilled by apparent continuity.
Promoting internally is great as long as the business doesn’t suck. Is there a way for a pro team to track that? Changing culture should be paramount to a group that is enduring an ignominious postseason absence. I can think of one franchise that should look everywhere else for employees. The Sabres prove the Peter principle past the first level of incompetence.
Firing everyone would be insufficient yet the closest this club gets to creating fulfillment. It won’t happen, of course. Every overreacting social media fan is correct if they follow the Sabres. Make one fuming tweeter general manager if it’d lead to Ellis helping Kevyn Adams run a hockey school.
People never change. Always remember rule number one. Meanwhile, the Sabres don’t know the rules of hockey. Franchises owned by sadly consistent humans don’t, either. It sure looks like the Pegulas are pleased with how all the stuff’s going. No edition of Buffalo’s alleged NHL member has moved to the knockout stage in what seems like awhile, but I don’t want to be negative by checking how many years in a row it’s been.
A moment of clarity is traditionally associated undertaking fundamental alterations. The Sabres realized everything they’re doing is super. Employed hockey experts are way smarter than rash critics who want to change everything just because the performance has been worse than anything in league history.
As a coach, Ellis is respectable as a player. I really liked how he toiled to his utmost before he got his current post overseeing guys who don’t do the same. It’d be mean to expect him to look for a different job just because he can’t do his current one. How would he ever find another? You should be against his family starving just because he’s unskilled.
It’s almost a relief to not feel optimistic. How do followers of good teams maintain that all offseason? The Sabres prefer not resurfacing the ice to enable settling into ruts. Retaining Ellis is like curing shortness of breath by smoking more. They don’t have the excuse of cigarettes. Like having zero clue of how to win games, some habits are hard to break.
