Like any team when a decision-maker gets fired, the Buffalo Sabres recognize they\u2019re somewhat culpable for Monday\u2019s move, which saw Jarmo Kek\u00e4l\u00e4inen replace Kevyn Adams as general manager.<\/p>\n
The Sabres, though currently riding a three-game winning streak<\/a>, have played .500 hockey (14-14-4) for two-plus months and sit six points out of a playoff spot. And Kek\u00e4l\u00e4inen began Tuesday\u2019s introductory press conference by demanding harder work and more consistent compete<\/a> from his roster.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething that we don\u2019t take lightly is that it\u2019s on us,\u201d Alex Tuch said after Wednesday\u2019s practice at KeyBank Center. \u201cWe\u2019re a big reason why a man lost his job. We weren\u2019t getting the results that needed to happen, and we feel terrible about that. We need to be better in this locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n Added coach Lindy Ruff: \u201cI felt sad, felt like I let my GM down, that I didn\u2019t get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n All that said, the Sabres are intrigued by the new guy at the helm, who was originally hired as a special advisor in May. The last few months have provided a runway for Kek\u00e4l\u00e4inen to familiarize himself with the organization \u2013 and for the players and coaches to get to know the 59-year-old native of Tampere, Finland.<\/p>\n \u201cOur coaches\u2019 room has been open, he\u2019s sat in there and we\u2019ve spent a lot of time talking about players,\u201d said Ruff, who values daily conversations with his GM; Kek\u00e4l\u00e4inen, he feels, offers some fresh insight.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve spent a lot of time talking about analytics, talking about different parts of the game. There was even a day that he shared some analytics on different defensemen in the league, compared to where our defensemen were. Numbers that I hadn\u2019t even dug up that he dug up. \u2026 He\u2019s a guy that\u2019s always looking in different directions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like any team when a decision-maker gets fired, the Buffalo Sabres recognize they\u2019re somewhat culpable for Monday\u2019s move,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-353248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353248","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=353248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}