VanGnome

Culture is definitely a part of it, but I'm getting a feeling there's more to the story.  Housley is pretty soft on the players.  You can hear it in his post-game pressers.  That's not good when the players see that they have little to play for.  As soon as it was evident that the team was out of the playoffs, some of the people on the ice followed a few of the others who were already playing disinterested hockey.  A better coach would keep his players motivated.

The ball will be in Jason Botterill's court again soon.  What will he do to change things up?  New players?  New coach?  Neither?  Both?

too easy to blame housley

elite hockey players are self motivated

a bad culture can undermine that

look at riley .. apparently identified a one of the players that needed to be moved to try to correct problems in the sabres culture

he is in a new culture and excelling .. .it took some time . but he managed to transform

he is now a key cog in the blues resurgence

sabres have better talent then the blues

i don't think it is a talent or coaching issue with buffalo, but culture

but i also think it is not as chronic an issue with them as with the oilers

i think the sabres will be a different team in their outlook next season

i think the oilers have aggravated their situation by allowing mcdavid this year and last, and draisaitle this year, to use the last part of a season to chase individual production goals

that is soul sucking for the rest of the team

and negatively impacts the poor culture that already exists

Like I said in my last post, culture is definitely a part of it, but I'm not thrilled with the way Housley is so soft on his players.  He doesn't need to go all Tortorella on them, but I'd be happy if he occasionally got angry with them and benched them for playing like they had somewhere better to be.

Botterill uprooted the locker-room last year in an effort to change the culture.  He may have to do something similar again this off-season.