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Ted Nolan is taking a ‘less is more’ approach early on

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After winning in his return to Buffalo on Friday, Sabres players raved about head coach Ted Nolan giving them a fresh start. Nolan’s coaching assistant Joe Sacco implies to the Buffalo News that he’s not adding too much clutter to that clean slate, either.

“Right now he just wants to try to keep things as simple as possible, not change too much early on,” Sacco said. “That’s just going to add confusion to everything. His message has been pretty clear to the players and the rest of the other coaches. Less is more right now, just letting them go out and play.

For a player who went from promising to troubling like Tyler Myers, a strategy that’s currently about aggressiveness (and living with mistakes) instead of over-thinking things is a breathe of fresh air.

“Ted came in and basically had one-on-ones with every guy in the room,” Myers said. “One of the things he brought up was don’t be afraid to jump up as much as you can. There’s mistakes that are going to be made, and that’s part of hockey. Don’t worry about it. It was a good feeling to hear that.”

Maybe it won’t mean a drastic change in the standings, but it seems like there’s renewed optimism - or at least a little bit more of it - in Buffalo.

Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins