Why are the Sabres better under Ted Nolan?
@matthewwgr Reporting
Matthew Coller
It's not that the Buffalo Sabres have gone from the worst team in the NHL to competing for the Stanley Cup since interim head coach Ted Nolan took over, but it's hard to challenge the idea that they've been better. It has shown up in the records. Ted Nolan is 7-9-3, Rolston was 4-15-1. It's shown up visually with the team playing more competently in both zones. And it's shown up in multiple players who were struggling under Rolston and are now playing closer to up to snuff.
Along with the improvement in record and overall play has come a flood of questions to players about why things are different/better.
But are Nolan's motivational tactics really the difference? On the surface, that seems pretty dubious. After all, shouldn't NHL players be able to motivate themselves? When the players say that Nolan has them more jazzed up to play, aren't they suggesting they weren't giving it their all before?
We'll never know how much Nolan's hardest-working-team message has impacted the Sabres' play, but there are things that the statistics suggest about why the team has played better. It shouldn't be a surprise that the stats say circumstance and luck have played just has much of a role as Nolan's tweaks.