Sabres fire coach Krueger after 12-game skid

With their losing streak hitting 12 games, the Buffalo Sabres fired coach Ralph Krueger on Wednesday.

The Sabres have the fewest points in the NHL with 16. They sit in eighth place in the East Division, a full six points behind the Devils, who have two games in hand.

New Jersey beat Buffalo 3-2 on Tuesday night. Buffalo’s winless streak matches the third-worst in team history and is the longest since Buffao lost a team-record 14 straight midway through the 2014-15 season.

The 61-year-old Krueger was in his second season with Buffalo. Last season, the team improved slightly with a 30-31-8 mark but still finished sixth.

This season, star Jack Eichel has missed significant time with an injury, high-priced winger Jeff Skinner has been a major disappointment and even big free-agent acquisition Taylor Hall hasn’t lived up to the hype.

Buffalo is well on its way to matching the NHL record for missing the playoffs at 10 straight seasons.

Since Eichel came into the league in 2015-16, he will now be skating under his fourth coach and third general manager.

Krueger’s only previous NHL experience was coaching the Edmonton Oilers for 48 games in the 2012-13 season, when they went 19-22-7. Before that, he was coach of the Swiss national team. After his stint with the Oilers, he moved over to soccer and held various front-office positions with English Premier League teams.

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