It's fair to say that the Ralph Krueger tenure in Buffalo did not work out all that well for the Sabres.
After just 97 games as head coach, going 36-49-12 in parts of two seasons, Krueger was fired on Wednesday by general manager Kevyn Adams after the Sabres got out to an awful 6-18-4 start in the 2020-21 shortened season. Buffalo was also riding a 12-game winless streak at the time of the firing, which has since grown to 13 games after a 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins on Thursday.
Despite being fired in the midst of the season, Krueger seems to have no hard feelings towards the Sabres and the City of Buffalo.
Just hours after the firing on Wednesday, TSN hockey insider Pierre LeBrun shared a text conversation he had with the former Sabres head coach. When asked about his brief time in Buffalo, Krueger was nothing but class, as usual, in his response:
Krueger was hired as head coach of the Sabres in May of 2019 after serving as a chairman for the Southampton Football Club in the English Premier League for five years.
In his first season as head coach of the Sabres, Krueger led the team to a 30-31-8 record in 69 games before the season was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The team finished the 2019-20 campaign in sixth place in the Atlantic Division standings, while missing out on the NHL's Return To Play plan by three points as the 12-seed in the Eastern Conference.
The 61-year-old had previous head coaching experience in the National Hockey League with the Edmonton Oilers during the 2012-13 lockout shortened season. in 48 games as head coach in Edmonton, Krueger led his team to a 19-22-7 record and 45 points in the standings.
Assistant coach Don Granato was named as Krueger's replacement behind the bench on Wednesday on an interim basis.
With their 6-19-4 overall record, the Sabres continue to sit in last place in the NHL standings with just 16 points and a points percentage of .276.
The Sabres will return to game action on Saturday afternoon against the Bruins for a 1 p.m. ET faceoff at KeyBank Center. Pregame coverage on WGR gets started at 12 p.m. ET with Brian Koziol.
