Krueger has instilled a "small picture" mentality in the Sabres dressing room since the start of training camp in September. Players have lauded his ability to turn the page following wins or losses, an approach Botterill has bought into as well.
Krueger explained how that attitude fits in a playoff race.
"Whether you're 10 points up or 10 points down in the standings from a playoff spot, you're not 100 percent in the playoffs or you're not 100 percent out of the playoffs," Krueger said. "It's just trusting that what we're doing, if we are a group that is continuing to control the things we can control, continue to look for growth every day with a passion, we have to trust that the results will follow.
"So far, that's worked in the environments I've been able to be in and I believe it's going to happen here. All that noise and all those analytics, they need to happen. That's part of the excitement of the National Hockey League and the fans love it and the media needs to feed that. But we, within our working environment, need to continually just bring it in on the things we can change and all we can change right now is to improve on our game from Nashville into the Ottawa game tonight. That's what we need to be doing when we step on the ice tonight and that's what we're going to continue to do every day."
Of course, what happens during the upcoming stretch could impact the team's strategy at the trade deadline on Feb. 24. The Sabres already added to their forward depth with the acquisition of Michael Frolik on Jan. 2, though Botterill reiterated that he's continuing to pursue options up front.
"I think we've been very honest from that standpoint," he said. "… That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to add to our group there, and I think if we can add more to our offensive mix, we're certainly looking for it. I think also, whenever you can add to our speed team up front that's another thing we want to add."
Here are a few more topics the general manager covered Tuesday.