You raise a good point. I hadn't considered us potentially starting to win after a coaching change lol
Say take firing Phil at game 40, after a third straight loss and 5th in 6 games, the Sabres are 21-13-6 (48 points) and their season is on the brink...
Let's just compare the teams that changed coaches in season winning percentage to the Sabres final 42 games where they went 12-26-4 (.333 winning percentage):
Crawford, Ottawa, .417... Sabres at that pace finish with 83 points
Desjardin, LA, .449... Sabres finish at that pace with 86 points
Hitchcock, Edmonton, .484... Sabres 89 points
Gordon, Philadelphia, .529... Sabres 92 points
Murray, Anaheim, .558 (AS A FIRST TIME EVER NHL COACH AND HANDLING GM DUTIES)... Sabres 95 points
Berube, St. Louis, .651... 103 points
Every single one of them had a better winning percentage than Phil and the Sabres over that span, the joke that was Murray behind the bench, Desjardin's terribleness in LA, even Crow with a ghost of a roster in Ottawa. Ever. Single. One.