Sabres stay focused in first practice to prepare for Stanley Cup Playoffs
“The second you make a game bigger than it is, you put more pressure on yourself,” Buffalo Sabres center Josh Norris said. “I don’t think that’s a good thing. You go about your business, like another day at work.”
Josh Norris insists there wasn’t much of a difference between Thursday’s practice and any other practice day for the Buffalo Sabres.
The Sabres skated Thursday afternoon, a little more than 14 hours after ending the regular season with a 4-3 shootout loss to the Dallas Stars on Wednesday at KeyBank Center.
“Just like any other practice,” said Norris, the Sabres center.
Buffalo Sabres center Josh Norris skates with the puck against the Dallas Stars on Wednesday at KeyBank Center.
Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
But here’s the difference: The Sabres are practicing for the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They haven’t practiced to prepare for a first-round playoff series since 2011.
Consider that this time last year, the Sabres were wrapping up another season, having end-of-season meetings with coaches, packing their gear and scattering across the globe to begin the summer for the 14th consecutive year, while 16 teams were growing playoff beards and starting best-of-seven elimination series.
This year, the Sabres are one of those 16 teams. But they’re not letting themselves exceed the moment.
“The practice was basically just a status quo skate,” Sabres right wing Beck Malenstyn said. “Nothing different. We’re very excited to be here today and not packing up our gear. This was our goal when we came in at the start of the season. It’s exactly where we want to be. It’s what we want to do.”
Norris takes an even-keel approach to the playoffs. It might come from the fact that he has never played in the NHL postseason in seven seasons as a pro. Or it just might come from his even-tempered personality.
“The second you make a game bigger than it is, you put more pressure on yourself,” he said. “I don’t think that’s a good thing. You go about your business, like another day at work.”
How do the Sabres achieve that balance? They’ve broken the longest NHL playoff drought in history. They won their first Atlantic Division title earlier in the week. They are one of five NHL teams with at least 50 regular-season wins.
The buzz around town, the league, and even the dressing room is palpable.
“There’s definitely a balance,” Malenstyn said. “The season we’ve had, the history we’ve been able to put behind us. There are a lot of special moments to this season, and I think we would be foolish not to sit back and enjoy and appreciate the amount of work that went into that. But it’s really a balance for being able to soak in that energy, use it as motivation, and not get overwhelmed by that moment. You don’t need to try to do too much.”
Malenstyn is one of a handful of players on this year’s Sabres roster with playoff experience. He played in four postseason games with the Washington Capitals in the spring of 2024, when the New York Rangers swept the Capitals in a first-round series.
He has a philosophy on what works in the playoffs, even from that four-game sample size: Don’t overcomplicate things.
“The biggest thing in these games, that we’re going to find very early on, is it’s not massive plays that are going to make differences,” Malenstyn said. “It’s how willing are we to put that extra emphasis, extra battle on those small moments on the ice. That’s what’s going to push us to the right side of things.”
Norris did give away this much:
“This group’s been so fun to be a part of,” he said. “It’s a lot of guys’ first playoffs, and we have to lean on each other. We have some older guys that have been around and been in the playoffs, but just trusting each other and not putting more pressure on us than everybody else. There’s going to be a lot of talk, but we don’t care about that. I’m just excited to go into battle with these guys.”
Injury report
The Sabres will be without one of their key trade-deadline acquisitions for the first round of the playoffs. Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said Thursday that center Sam Carrick would not be available against the Bruins; Carrick sustained a left-arm injury in a fight with Anders Lee of the New York Islanders on March 31.Ruff left a window open for the return of forward Noah Ostlund, who hasn’t played since March 25, after he sustained an upper-body injury in a 4-3 overtime loss against the Bruins.
“There’s a definite possibility,” Ruff said of Ostlund. “Carrick, no.”
Sabres right wing Alex Tuch did not practice after playing on Wednesday against the Stars. Ruff said Tuch took a day off as a maintenance day.
Goalie Colten Ellis also did not skate after making 25 saves on Wednesday against the Stars. Ruff said Ellis is “day to day with maintenance.” Ruff also said he anticipated that goalie Alex Lyon would rejoin the team for its next practice on Saturday. Lyon sustained a lower-body injury on April 8 during the morning skate at Madison Square Garden, ahead of the Sabres’ 5-3 win against the New York Rangers.
“He felt really good today,” Ruff said of Lyon.