Sabres having fun with ‘nice chemistry,’ having enjoyable throughout push for playoffs: GM

MANALAPAN, Fla. — The Buffalo Sabres’ gorgeous turnaround began across the time they named Jarmo Kekalainen common supervisor, however he will not take credit score. 

The potential was already there. That’s what drew him to Buffalo within the first place.

“The timing of it?” Kekalainen stated with fun on the NHL GM conferences. “Who knows? The winning streak started before I took over.”

Kekalainen joined the Sabres as a senior adviser May 30, 2025, after they missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the 14th straight season, the longest lively drought within the NHL. He moved to Buffalo and watched each sport to begin this season — if not reside, then on video.

The Sabres have been 11-14-4 on Dec. 8, final within the Eastern Conference and thirtieth within the NHL. They defeated the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in time beyond regulation on Dec. 9, then the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 on Dec. 11 and the Seattle Kraken 3-1 on Dec. 14.

Kekalainen changed Kevyn Adams on Dec. 15. Buffalo prolonged its successful streak to 10 video games afterward.

Since Dec. 9, the Sabres have gone 31-6-2, one of the best file within the NHL in that span (.821 factors share), throughout which they’re second in targets per sport (3.77). Most importantly, they’re first in goals-against per sport (2.49). They at the moment are first within the Atlantic Division and tied for third within the League.

What modified?

“The skill has always been there, but you can’t win games just by always trying to score one more goal, letting in four or five, so I think that’s been the big difference in our play,” Kekalainen stated. “And once you have a little bit of success in playing the right way, I think there’s going to be always more buy-in, and that’s what’s happened. The snowball started rolling the right way, and it’s been fun.”

Kekalainen, who was GM of the Columbus Blue Jackets from Feb. 13, 2013, to Feb. 15, 2024, stated he had just one message for the Sabres when he turned their GM.

“Everybody’s going to get evaluated not just on their skill but their character and work ethic and competitiveness,” he stated. “I felt like there were games that we got outworked and beaten by teams (that were) just working harder than us, and to me, that’s always unacceptable. If you get beaten by a better team, so be it, but if you get beaten by a team that simply just works harder than you, then that’s unacceptable. That’s really the only thing that I talked about.”