How the Sabres are trying to rally from 3-game skid: 'OK hockey isn't good enough'
Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff doesn’t want his players to focus on incremental progress. The mission, he repeated, is to win, which the Sabres (4-7-1) aren’t doing.
Lindy Ruff blew his whistle to halt practice Monday morning only a few seconds after the Sabres’ first drill began.
One of the NHL all-time winningest head coaches didn’t like what he saw and reminded his players that skating that way during a game will result in a crucial mistake.
“He tells us what he doesn’t like, and he tells it straight up,” Sabres center Dylan Cozens told The Buffalo News afterward. “He says it like it is, and we like that.”
The Sabres’ training camp in September showed the different ways in which Ruff was trying to implement his system and raise the standard for a franchise that has missed the playoffs for 13 years in a row.
Players did push-ups after losing certain drills. Ruff often used his wry sense of humor to get a point across to them during practice. On one occasion, he gave Mattias Samuelsson the chance to end an on-ice session by hitting a 200-foot shot into the empty net, which the defense proceeded to do to conjure a teamwide celebration.
The approach changed once the regular season began. Ruff isn’t accepting mediocrity, and he is reminding his players that doing so isn’t an option in the NHL. He was blunt with the Sabres after their special teams failed them in a 2-1 loss at Detroit, and they were unable to score on their 13 shots during the third period.
Sabres coach Lindy Ruff wants his team to focus on winning, not incremental progress. Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
Ruff, 64, doesn’t want his players to focus on incremental progress. The mission, he repeated, is to win, which the Sabres (4-7-1) aren’t doing. They’ve lost three in a row and entered Monday with the second-worst points percentage (.375) in the league.
“Not accepting that’s good enough,” Ruff said, describing how he is pushing his team to play its best for an entire game. “Not accepting that we’ve done a lot of good things. We’ve got to win games. That’s the key. Raise the standard, raise the expectation.
“We talked again about the standard, about playing quicker, about don’t accept what went on in Detroit as OK. OK hockey is not good enough.”
Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams’ first significant move of the offseason was buying out six-time 30-goal scorer Jeff Skinner. Skinner, 32, didn’t look like a $9 million-per-year player last season. The winger was turning the puck over more often. Most of his offensive success comes while playing out of structure, which wouldn’t fit with Ruff as coach, and it started to come at the expense of the team trying to win games.
Adams preferred to use cap space on veterans who would complement his core players and help the Sabres form an identity. Ruff envisioned them playing fast and creating their offense through shutdown defense. Jason Zucker, Ryan McLeod, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Sam Lafferty and Beck Malenstyn brought skill sets that are different than anyone on the roster last season.
None of the five has a recent track record of scoring goals, raising questions about whether the Sabres could improve offensively after they ranked 23rd in the NHL in goals per game. Adams told reporters that he was “not concerned” about his team’s ability to score, even though he parted ways with Skinner and traded one of his best forwards, Casey Mittelstadt, for defenseman Bowen Byram in March.
Adams was counting on a new coach to get more out of the returning players, and expressed confidence that forwards such as Jack Quinn would return to form after being held back by injuries.
The plan hasn’t produced the results that Adams was expecting. The Sabres are worse in almost every statistical category through 12 games, compared to the same stretch last season, when Don Granato had them at 6-6 and ranked fifth in goals scored. They’re averaging fewer goals per game and allowing more goals per game, despite having a better 5-on-5 save percentage. Their power play is 32nd in the league, while their penalty kill is 27th after allowing five goals over the past three games.
The Sabres lead the league in missed shots (200, compared to 137 through 12 games in 2023-24) and they’ve been credited with fewer hits and blocked shots, even though Adams invested cap space and draft picks to add physical fourth-line forwards. There has been incremental progress in terms of the types of goals Buffalo is scoring.
The club is creating more opportunities around the net, rather than getting stuck on the perimeter, and Ruff has fixed the bad starts that plagued the team last season. The Sabres scored first in eight of their 12 games, but they’ve earned only seven of a possible 16 standings points after taking the early lead.
“We’ve done a lot of good things,” Sabres center Tage Thompson said. “Consistency is still something we need to get better at. We are better, as far as consistency, game to game. Within the game, though, we have to get more consistent, whether it’s period to period or shift to shift. Maybe get too high on ourselves when we’re playing well and try to change the way we’re playing.
“Same thing when we go down, trying to change the way we’re playing instead of sticking to the game plan and trusting that process will give us the results that we need. At the end of the day, you need to get results, so it’s tough to sit here and say, ‘I’m happy with the way we’re playing,’ but at the same time, we’re making it tougher on teams than we have previously. We just have to find another level.”
Starting the season in Prague didn’t help. The Sabres’ NHL roster played two preseason games in North America against mostly minor-league players and prospects, then faced a German professional team on Olympic-sized ice. They didn’t look ready for the New Jersey Devils’ speed when the season opener was played Oct. 4. Gradually, the Sabres began to look like they did during training camp. There is a clear identity with this team when it is quickly exiting its zone, connecting on outlet passes and creating scoring chances with forwards getting to the net.
Individual mistakes, particularly bad penalties, caused the Sabres to lose games they shouldn’t have, specifically the home opener against the Los Angeles Kings. They went on a 4-1-1 run to climb the standings, scoring at least four goals in each of those six games, but the slide began last Monday with an ugly loss to the Florida Panthers in which they looked overmatched.
Adams and players were calling for accountability when Granato was dismissed after a season in which he guided the Sabres to a top 13 finish in 5-on-5 goals scored and against. Ruff has scratched prominent players – most recently defenseman Connor Clifton, who is under contract through next season – and others have been benched during games. The leadership group, led by captain Rasmus Dahlin, also has pushed player-driven accountability. Thompson explained that Ruff’s system, which features man-to-man principles in the defensive zone, makes it obvious who is at fault and easier to call out someone for a mistake. The attitude in the dressing room also has changed with a different coach and veteran players added this offseason, according to winger Alex Tuch.
“A lot of the emotion and feeling in the room isn’t just based around if a guy is producing or not,” Tuch said. “Obviously, there are guys in here that are going to be more frustrated if they don’t produce offensively than others. I think they’re in that position, but a lot of it is team-driven, team-focused, team success, and that’s what it is. That’s all it is – we’re having fun when we’re winning and we’re doing the right things and we’re selling out to block a shot and we’re making a good backcheck.
“When we make a good offensive play, when we make a good defensive play, when we take a hit to make a play, it’s an avalanche effect. That’s been more present here than it has the past few years, and that’s really good.”
The Sabres have shown flashes of promise, but they haven’t been able to sustain a high level of play. They’ve blown a two-goal lead in three of the five games in which they earned at least a point in the standings, and almost suffered the same fate in a close-call win over the Red Wings on Oct. 26.
The recent three-game slide, during which Buffalo scored only two 5-on-5 goals, has the Sabres tied for last place in the eight-team Atlantic Division. The challenge doesn’t get easier this week. They host one of their division rivals, Ottawa (6-5), Tuesday night, then hit the road to play the New York Rangers on Thursday before a Saturday matinee against the Calgary Flames.
The early season struggles a year ago snowballed on the Sabres. Their confidence was shaken. They didn’t win three games in a row until February. Thompson, Tuch, Skinner and Quinn were rarely available at the same time during the first half of the season because of injury. Ruff continues to change his lineup to try to find the right mix, particularly up front, where Cozens and Quinn have combined for only two goals, but only a few forwards have produced during their second losing streak of the season.
We’ll soon find out if this team is unlike the one a year ago, or if it is bound to endure the same growing pains that occur when you’re the youngest team in the NHL for a third consecutive season.
“It’s tough anytime you go on a losing streak and battle that, mentally,” Thompson said. “Obviously, it’s tough. That’s when you rely on your structure and system and trust that if you play the right way and don’t veer off that you’re going to get results. Our group is confident enough in our systems and what we’re preaching that there isn’t really any worry. With that being said, we need to find another gear and bear down on chances and find ways to win games. That’s what good teams do.”
Sabres vs. Ottawa Senators
Faceoff: 7 p.m. Tuesday, KeyBank Center.
TV: MSG. Radio: 550 AM. Season series: First meeting.
Buffalo Sabres
(Through Sunday)
Power play: 3-35, 8.6%, 32nd.
Penalty kill: 28-39, 71.8%, 27th.
No. Player Pos. G A Pts.
4 Byram D 1 5 6
8 Gilbert D 0 0 0
9 Benson LW 0 0 0
10 Jokiharju D 1 2 3
12 Greenway LW 2 2 4
17 Zucker LW 3 6 9
19 Krebs C 1 2 3
20 Kulich C 1 0 1
22 Quinn RW 1 1 2
23 Samuelsson D 1 0 1
24 Cozens C 1 3 4
25 Power D 3 6 9
26 Dahlin D 1 6 7
29 Malenstyn LW 1 1 2
71 McLeod C 4 2 6
72 Thompson C 7 6 13
75 Clifton D 0 2 2
77 Peterka RW 4 4 8
78 Bryson D 0 0 0
81 Lafferty C 0 0 0
89 Tuch RW 4 6 10
89 Aube-Kubel RW 0 0 0
No. Player W-L-T Sv% GAA
1 Luukkonen 3-4-1 .893 3.16
27 Levi 1-3-0 .878 3.91
Ottawa Senators
(Through Sunday)
Power play: 12-36, 33.3%, 3rd.
Penalty kill: 24-31, 77.4%, 18th.
No. Player Pos. G A Pts.
2 Zub D 0 0 0
3 Jensen D 0 5 5
7 Tkachuk LW 7 8 15
9 Norris C 4 4 8
12 Pinto C 1 2 3
17 MacEwen RW 2 1 3
18 Stutzle C 6 10 16
19 Batherson RW 5 7 12
21 Cousins C 1 3 4
22 Amadio RW 0 2 2
23 Hamonic D 0 0 0
24 Bernard-Docker D 0 2 2
28 Giroux RW 5 6 11
38 Ostapchuk C 0 1 1
43 Kieven D 0 1 1
51 Reinhardt D 0 1 1
57 Perron LW 0 0 0
71 Greig C 1 0 1
72 Chabot D 1 5 6
73 Gregor LW 2 0 2
81 Gaudette RW 6 1 7
85 Sanderson D 1 7 8
No. Player W-L-T Sv% GAA
31 Forsberg 3-2-0 .910 2.65
35 Ullmark 2-3-0 .902 2.62
40 Sogard 1-0-0 .765 6.96
