The Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings face crucial trade deadline decisions. The Buffalo Sabres' coach, meanwhile, has had quite a turnaround after being on the hot seat earlier this season.
The Buffalo Sabres flipped their season around and took their coach far away from the hot seat.
Coach Lindy Ruff was on TheHockeyNews.com's NHL Hot Seat Radar earlier this season and is back on it, but this time, it's on a more positive note.
The same can't be said for the others on this week's radar – Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving and Los Angeles Kings GM Ken Holland.
The Kings and Maple Leafs have been struggling for much of the year, which is why L.A. coach Jim Hiller appeared on last week's check-in, while Leafs coach Craig Berube was also on an earlier edition.
Treliving and Holland have to make some important decisions about how the rest of their team's season will look. The NHL's March 6 trade deadline will arrive quickly, and although we're not saying they're at risk of being fired, we are saying they should be feeling the heat to put their team in the right direction.
Warming Up: Brad Treliving, GM, Toronto Maple Leafs
The Maple Leafs finished first in the Atlantic Division last year. Now, they're last in the Atlantic and 13th place in the Eastern Conference.
Things may only be getting worse for Treliving & Co., as the Maple Leafs are just one point out of 15th place in the East.
The problems for Treliving are clear: he's not in any imminent danger of being fired, but his seat is getting warmer because he has to make a slew of roster decisions that will affect the Leafs at least through the end of this season, if not longer.
Does he become a seller on a soft retool of the franchise, the way the Boston Bruins did last year? Or does he double down on his roster and acquire experienced hands to attempt a late-season push for a playoff spot?
The choice Treliving makes in that regard could determine the future of potential trade candidates, such as defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and forwards Bobby McMann and Nick Robertson, among others.
Toronto hasn't missed the post-season in the Auston Matthews Era, but there's a very real danger the Leafs become a mushy middle team that fails to make the playoffs and fails to land a top draft pick. And if he doesn't play it right, Treliving's job security could be called into question this summer.
Cooling Down: Lindy Ruff, Coach, Buffalo Sabres
As one of the NHL's most senior coaches, Ruff can truthfully say he's seen it all.
Pulling back from the precipice of losing his job is a result of Ruff steering the Sabres not only into a playoff position but to third place in the Atlantic, just four points out of second place with two games in hand on the second-place Detroit Red Wings.
Since their 7-4 loss to the Calgary Flames on Dec. 8, the Sabres have gone a stunning 19-3-1, and Buffalo has nine wins in its past dozen games.
It's a truly remarkable turnaround, and it's the reason that there's not only zero talk about him being fired, but there's also legitimate chatter about him being a contender for the NHL's Jack Adams Award as the league's coach of the year.
Ruff won the Jack Adams in 2006, and if he deserved blame for Buffalo's poor start to the year, he also deserves credit for pulling the Sabres out of their tailspin and turning them into a team no opponent wants to play.
Warming Up: Ken Holland, GM, Los Angeles Kings
The Kings changed GMs over the off-season, so Holland's job is not in danger. But this team struggling just to get into a playoff spot is unacceptable.
Los Angeles is on a three-game win streak heading into Thursday's game against Buffalo, which brings them one spot behind the San Jose Sharks in the second wild-card spot. Those wins bring the Kings to 7-8-6 in their last 21 games, which is just not good enough in the larger picture.
Holland could make a coaching change if the situation calls for it, considering former Dallas Stars coach Peter DeBoer is available. But even then, that's not going to take the heat off of Holland as he tries to direct his team into a playoff position.
Holland added Corey Perry, Brian Dumoulin, Anton Forsberg and other depth veterans last summer, but he now needs to focus on the future – especially now that Kings cornerstone and captain Anze Kopitar is in his final season.
Will Holland take a chance on acquiring New York Rangers star left winger Artemi Panarin? Or could he make a number of smaller moves? Holland has more than $13 million in salary cap space, and if he wants to reward Kopitar with one final playoff run, he'll need to change things up soon.
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