Sabres' Dan Bylsma on Patrick Kaleta: 'I have a hard time not wanting to kill him'
Dan Bylsma is trying to put his competitive feelings about Patrick Kaleta aside, but the Buffalo Sabres head coach says it hasn't been easy.
"I have a hard time not wanting to kill him," Bylsma told reporters at training camp Saturday. "I've told him that."
Bylsma faced the longtime agitator as head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins for six seasons from 2008 to 2014.
"I let him know, 'I'm trying to like you. I'm trying to put it behind me,'" Bylsma added. "But ... he still does inspire that in me."
Kaleta has impressed his new head coach.
#Sabres Coach Dan Bylsma said Kaleta has "stood out" at #SabresCamp & he's doing exactly what he has to do thus far.
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) September 19, 2015
The 29-year-old forward is in camp on a professional tryout contract after signing a one-year AHL deal earlier this month.
"When you go into a season and look at contracts and you try to put people with those contracts into situations, we don't have a lot of opportunity," Bylsma said.
"But I think as a veteran and as a guy in Pat's shoes you have to come out and do exactly what he's doing in camp, which is play his style, play his game."
Kaleta appeared in 42 games for the Sabres last season, registering three points and racking up 36 penalty minutes. He has 542 PIMs in 348 career games over parts of nine campaigns with Buffalo.
The Sabres made him a sixth-round pick in 2004.