Kukla's Korner Hockey
Farewell Ralph Krueger
by Paul on 03/17/21 at 09:24 AM ET
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from Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News,
Farewell to The System, whatever it was supposed to be.
Farewell to The Principles, which were clearly never adhered to by the players.
Farewell to Synergy, another of Ralph Krueger's infamous buzzwords.
Krueger's shelf life expired in stunningly quick fashion with the Buffalo Sabres after just 97 games as his firing was mercifully announced Wednesday morning. These players, many of whom have been through this before, quit on yet another coach. This recent stretch felt much worse than the final days of Dan Bylsma and Phil Housley.
The Sabres should be firing about 20 players here, but we know how this goes with any team: The coach always takes the fall in these situations.
And there's plenty of blame to be directed at Krueger.
Krueger's hire was hailed as out of the box and overdue by the oogling Canadian media when it came in 2019. Krueger, remember, was fired via Skype by the Edmonton Oilers in 2013 after just one lockout-shortened season. Clearly, he made a lot of media pals north of the border by being a background source for Team Canada at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
The praise was far and wide, especially when the Sabres started last season 8-1-1. When the Sabres fell apart at the end of the 2019-20 campaign and proved utterly noncompetitive through much of the last 15 games of this one, there was nary a peep about Krueger being an issue from the other side of the border until the last few days. Funny how that works.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Buffalo Sabres, | KK Hockey | Permalink
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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.
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