After The Whistle

To be honest with everyone I was a fan of both of these players I’m 52 and grew up in the era with tough physical play wear your hard hat and lunch pal and they bring that energy everyday and are fair and critical of the organization we love Great job fellas!!!!!!!!

I listened incredulously to the latest edition of this show in which a host repeatedly stated “Kevyn Adams is not to blame” for the Sabres currently ranking last in the Eastern Conference and third last overall. The thrust of his argument is that a general manager is not to blame for key players performing poorly, and that due to its harsh climate and its status as a woebegone franchise, the GM job in Buffalo is next to impossible. The first argument is illogical—general managers get credit when players perform well and blame when they underperform. It might be a tough grading system, but you’re graded on wins and losses and making the playoffs. As for the Buffalo argument, it’s the organization’s job to make players proud to wear its jersey. Winnipeg is smaller with winters the equal of Buffalo and a tougher tax structure on players to boot. How come the Jets fare so well? I was stunned when Adams said his hands are tied because Buffalo lacks palm trees. True or not, it’s a defeatist attitude that doesn’t help anything improve. Getting back to the podcast, I appreciate the passion and good insight of the two former players, but after 4.5 years (an eternity for NHL coaches and GMs) it’s time for change.

Big fan of how these guys don’t sugarcoat it. They alternate being positive and being doom and gloom (which is often warranted for this franchise). I only wish they’d do a mailbag segment where they take a couple questions from the fans.

Other than being able to swear, the show isn’t nearly as good as the former instigators, which was a real time live interaction with fans with phone calls and tweets. This is so canned and bottled and sometimes past the expiration date on current information it’s actually kind of stale and stiff. Find a way to do it live again and you’ll have a winner. YouTube? Twitch? Everyone’s doing it join the club These are still entertaining guys, but the show still suffers from isolation. It’s an echo chamber- still zero fan interaction that made it good and now they’ve had some success with ratings. The ad drops are through the roof and there are sometimes days behind with being current on what’s happening. You can be a little late, but you can’t be wrong because you’re late