Buffalo Sabres Head Coach Calls Out His Team

The Buffalo Sabres were supposed to take a giant leap forward this season but it's been anything but. While the Jack Eichel trade rumors have once again started via Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, now it's the coach's turn to speak his mind.

The Sabres loss to the Washington Capitals on Thursday showed their bench boss one thing, his team has no confidence. Ralph Krueger had this to say to the media about his team's morale:

One of my biggest takes out of that game was the fragile psychological state of the team right now. And (the importance of) managing that properly so that there is an edge, but that the edge doesn't go over to being too tight - which is exactly what is our biggest enemy at the moment. Everybody's trying to play within the right principles, they're trying to execute properly and almost squeezing our sticks too hard.

They're fragile right now. They don't believe in themselves and they don't see themselves celebrating; they see themselves missing the net, hitting the shaft of the goalie, not finding the hole between the legs that they usually find.

Never good when the head coach calls his team fragile. The Sabres have been struggling most of the season and you throw in some COVID-19 and not playing for two weeks of February and things are getting messy in Northern New York.

The Sabres have lost three in a row and hope Jack Eichel and Taylor Hall can get hot, as they've only combined for three goals so far this season.

If things continue to turn sour for the Sabres, we could see some fireworks from management. 

Photo credit: Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire