What teams can learn from Sabres’, Blue Jackets’ recent success

As we get set to head into the Olympic break, many teams might take a look around the NHL to see what has been working for others, and gauge what they might have to do to find more success.

As of late, two of the hottest teams in the NHL are the Buffalo Sabres and Columbus Blue Jackets. For years, the two franchises have struggled, hanging near the top of the Eastern Conference. However, since the Sabres fired general manager Kevyn Adams and the Blue Jackets brought on Rick Bowness as head coach, the two teams have caught fire.

Since the firing of Adams, the Sabres have been on a tear, going 18-4-2 over their past 24 games, moving up to third place in the Atlantic Division. The Blue Jackets have won nine of the 10 games played under Bowness, and are back within five points of a Wild Card spot.

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Jonny Lazarus and Carter Hutton discuss how other teams around the league might take a page out of Columbus or Buffalo’s book.

Carter Hutton: I think more shocking in the sense of the change [in Buffalo] coming at the management level and having such an impact on the team. I think back to playing the NHL…Sometimes the general manager is irrelevant to the team. You’re not even around him. You have no idea. You see him come and go. He’s on the plane when you get on. That’s about all you deal with by any means.

Then, when you talk about a head coach, this is someone you’re in the trenches with, right? So the impact that this has had in Columbus makes more sense to me. Where, in Buffalo, it’s like just the managerial change and to have this much of a dramatic impact to go from .500 hockey to 18-4-2 is unbelievable in my personal opinion. Where, when we look at Columbus 9-1 under Rick Bowness, it makes more sense to me, right? I understand the change. … As we see these two changes from GM being fired to a head coach being fired, do other teams look at this template and say like, ‘Okay, we have a good core. We need to tinker somewhere else and make that change.’ You know, you think about the Philadelphia Flyers, they were booing Rick Tocchet last night. You think about some of these teams where is there a coaching change or GM change a little more imminent because of the results of these other teams?

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…