BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 In his first full day as Sabres general manager, Jarmo Kekalainen pointed to Buffalo\u2019s depth of talent for giving him every reason to believe the team can climb back into playoff contention.<\/p>\n
For that to happen, Kekalainen on Tuesday placed an emphasis on building team character and consistency \u2014 qualities the Sabres have been criticized for lacking during their NHL-record 14-year playoff drought.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think character is the biggest part of talent … and that\u2019s the talent we need to focus on,\u201d said Kekalainen, who initially was hired by Buffalo in May to serve as a senior adviser.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been games this year where we looked like it was going to be easy, and then we lost because we got outworked. That\u2019s unacceptable,\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s going to be something that we\u2019re going to focus on each and every day, because the talent, the skill alone is not going to get you wins.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kekalainen\u2019s message was not so much ground-breaking or different from the four GMs who preceded him over the course of Buffalo\u2019s drought. And they include Kevyn Adams, who was fired on Monday after five-plus seasons on the job.<\/p>\n
Adams gets credit for rebuilding the team through a youth movement that led to Buffalo parting ways with Jack Eichel (traded to Vegas) and Sam Reinhart (Florida).<\/p>\n
Missing during Adams\u2019 tenure was sustained success. After topping out with 91 points in 2022-23, when they missed the playoffs by one win, the Sabres have regressed, finishing with 84 points the next season and 79 last year.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Fans) have every right to be frustrated,\u201d Kekalainen said. \u201c(But) we have some really good core pieces here. We\u2019re close. Now we just have to take the next step.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 59-year-old from Finland distanced himself from Adams, who a year ago blamed high taxes and cold winters as reasons for having difficulty attracting and retaining talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWinning hockey games is the most important ingredient,\u201d Kekalainen said, drawing on the 11 years he spent as the Columbus Blue Jackets GM. \u201cEverybody wants to play for a winner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kekalainen said he has full authority in overseeing the hockey department and has owner Terry Pegula\u2019s approval to spend to the salary cap limit.<\/p>\n
Kekalianen\u2019s observations, as much as his hiring, provide the Sabres a reset in a season they\u2019ve spent yo-yoing between demoralizing skids and encouraging winning stretches.<\/p>\n
At 14-14-4, Buffalo opened the day sitting tied for last with the Columbus in the Eastern Conference standings but only six points back of the eighth-place Boston Bruins. And after splitting a six-game road trip, Buffalo is riding its first three-game winning streak of the season.<\/p>\n
With the exception of meeting with Kekalainen on Tuesday, players had the past two days off, and resume practice Wednesday, a day before hosting Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Kekalainen didn\u2019t rule out making changes, while backing coach Lindy Ruff by saying: \u201cLindy\u2019s resume speaks for itself … And I\u2019ve really enjoyed my time so far with Lindy.\u201d Ruff, the team\u2019s winningest coach, is in the second season of his second stint with Buffalo.<\/p>\n
One change on the horizon will have Buffalo moving ahead with two rather than three goalies, though the decision on who will be the odd man out can wait, with Colten Ellis on injured reserve. Ellis, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Alex Lyon must first clear waivers before being demoted.<\/p>\n
Kekalainen also placed a priority on resuming negotiations to re-sign top-line forward Alex Tuch, who is in the final year of his contract.<\/p>\n
As for other potential changes, Kekalainen said he\u2019s still evaluating. His promotion came after spending last week in Finland to be with his father, who died on Sunday following a lengthy illness.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been quite a roller coaster of emotions for me this weekend. So I\u2019m just starting today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kekalainen is Buffalo\u2019s 10th general manager, and first with past GM experience since Scotty Bowman held the job from 1979-1987. And based on Kekalainen\u2019s track record in Columbus, he brings a no-nonsense approach and is unafraid to make bold moves.<\/p>\n
In the summer of 2022, Kekalainen signed the late Johnny Gaudreau in free agency. In 2019, he stood pat by not trading top stars Artemi Panarin, Matt Duchene and Sergei Bobrovsky to keep his roster intact for the playoffs, despite eventually losing all three in free agency that summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the last seven months, he\u2019s shown to me that he is capable of leading our organization into the future,\u201d Pegula said while introducing Kekalainen. \u201cHe\u2019s made bold moves in the past … and just has a confidence that I believe will help our organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kekalainen said the one thing he won\u2019t do is cut corners simply to make the playoffs and end the drought.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told the players to forget about the 14-years thing that\u2019s kind of hanging around like a black cloud. And I\u2019m going to do the same thing,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to sacrifice the ultimate goal for the sake of making the playoffs and then not having any sustainability for our goal as a team to take the next step.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/p>\n
John Wawrow, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 In his first full day as Sabres general manager, Jarmo Kekalainen pointed to Buffalo\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-349643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}