BUFFALO, N.Y. — At the end of last season, Buffalo Sabres players said they wanted to practice harder and be pushed by their new coach. Lindy Ruff granted that wish on the first day of training camp. There was a clear emphasis on pace and back-checking in a lot of the drills Ruff ran in the first 30 minutes of practice. Players were doubled over at times catching their breath. The physicality was evident. The attention then turned to systems after a brief break for the Zamboni to resurface the ice. That portion of practice wasn’t the same pace but was just as intense in terms of the competitiveness in small-area drills.
“I think everyone brought it today,” Sabres forward Alex Tuch said. “Including Lindy.”
Ruff isn’t wasting time with nostalgia. It’s undeniable that his connection to this franchise as a player and coach played a role in his return. He never sold his house in Buffalo for a reason. He cares about this franchise and community, and that matters. And yes, he made calls to season ticket holders and was featured prominently in some marketing materials for the season. The business side of the Sabres’ operation is leaning into the fond memories of Ruff’s prior time spent with the organization.
But on Wednesday, Ruff didn’t have any time to reminisce. Asked if any part of him soaked in the moment, Ruff was stone-faced.
“It’s just work right now,” Ruff said. “Really. I’ve moved on from that point. I’m making sure that we’re trying to cover off every detail so we put ourselves in a place to be where we want to be at the end of the year.”
Here’s what we learned from Ruff’s first practice of camp.
1. Rasmus Dahlin is the player the Sabres can least afford to lose, and he left the practice early on in the first session with what Ruff described as a mid-body injury. Ruff said Dahlin felt some discomfort after passing a puck and left practice as a precaution. For now, it doesn’t seem like a serious cause for concern, but it will be something to monitor as the Sabres evaluate him and figure out what’s going on. The Sabres have other talented puck-moving defensemen, but Dahlin is a difference maker, the team’s best player and likely captain. So that’s not the way Ruff wanted to start his first practice.
2. Because the Sabres don’t have a lot of time before they travel to Europe to finish training camp, Ruff and Adams decided they wanted to get to their NHL roster quickly. They have three different practice groups and the first group that practiced at 9 a.m. will closely resemble the final roster. Here are the 24 players who were on the ice.
Forwards: JJ Peterka, Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch, Zach Benson, Dylan Cozens, Jack Quinn, Jiri Kulich, Jason Zucker, Ryan McLeod, Jordan Greenway, Beck Malenstyn, Sam Lafferty, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Peyton Krebs
Defense: Rasmus Dahlin, Bowen Byram, Owen Power, Henri Jokiharju, Mattias Samuelsson, Connor Clifton, Dennis Gilbert, Jacob Bryson
Goalies: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Devon Levi
The Sabres can bring 27 players to Europe. Goalie James Reimer would make sense as insurance. Defenseman Ryan Johnson and winger Lukas Rousek also got NHL time last season and could be added to that group. Otherwise, there aren’t many surprises. In some ways, Ruff said, it hurt him to have to narrow things down so quickly because he knows what these training camp opportunities mean for young players. But there’s an urgency to start the season fast and build a quick understanding of the new systems with the NHL group.
3. It’s still early to determine line combinations and defensive pairs, especially on defense because Dahlin was absent. But here are some of the lines we saw in drills on Wednesday.
JJ Peterka – Tage Thompson – Alex Tuch
Zach Benson/Jiri Kulich – Dylan Cozens – Jack Quinn
Jason Zucker – Ryan McLeod – Jordan Greenway
Beck Malenstyn – Sam Lafferty – Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Peyton Krebs got some reps with both the third and fourth lines. This is close to what I’d expect the team to look like, though Thursday and Friday should provide a clearer picture of the lines. Adams stressed that he’s excited to have more internal competition and that everyone in the locker room should be a bit uncomfortable. To have a player like Krebs fighting for playing time and even some competition for spots in the top six should add to that accountability the players were seeking.
4. It’s notable to see Kulich not just with this practice group but getting mixed into the top six. It’s clear if he’s going to have a spot on this team, that’s the role the Sabres envision. Ruff doesn’t seem like he’ll be as quick to hand out public praise as Don Granato was, but he was gushing about Kulich after practice.
“He had a real impressive prospect tournament, first from just work ethic alone,” Ruff said. “I thought it was really good. He’s got a good shot, skates well. I thought his compete inside the game was good. He did a lot of good things. He was the guy you noticed the most, not even looking at the offensive side of it. He’s got a bullet of a shot. You can’t teach that. You have it or you don’t. He’s got it. To play at this level, can you play away from the puck? His skating has impressed me and I’m impressed with his level of strength in one-on-one battles and keeping guys at bay. He’s a very impressive young man.”
Adams said Kulich was the best player on the ice at the prospect tournament and said if he’s ready to help the team win, he’ll be on the roster.
“If he’s not right in the beginning, it’s just a matter of time until he is,” Adams said. “And we’ll just let that sort itself out.”
For a team that didn’t add a scoring threat in the offseason, maybe Kulich can provide some of that. Peterka and Benson are also both still young players, so having Kulich nipping at their heels could serve as added motivation.
5. Dennis Gilbert skating with the first group shouldn’t be a surprise. I think he’s clearly ahead of Ryan Johnson in the pecking order because of the specific role he can play as a physical defenseman. Ruff will value that experience and the lineup options it gives him. The defensive pairs are going to be interesting with this group, but here’s an early guess at how it could play out when everyone is healthy.
Bowen Byram – Rasmus Dahlin
Owen Power – Henri Jokiharju
Mattias Samuelsson – Connor Clifton
Extra: Gilbert
In that scenario, you could also play Samuelsson with Power and put Gilbert with either Jokiharju or Clifton. That creates a similar competition to one the team will have at forward. There was a lot of mixing and matching between defensive pairs at practice, especially once Dahlin was out. But we also saw Byram with Jokiharju, which opens up the possibility of Power playing with Dahlin. There’s a lot of talent on Buffalo’s blue line. Ruff just has to figure out how it all fits together.
6. The Sabres are sitting on nearly $7 million in salary cap space, which has raised fair questions about the team’s willingness to spend. Buffalo has been in the bottom five of the league in spending each of the last four seasons. They have the eighth-most cap space in the NHL right now, but two of the teams with more, the Bruins and Red Wings, have notable restricted free agents to sign. The other teams with more cap space (Utah, Anaheim, San Jose, Columbus and Calgary) aren’t in the same “win now” window the Sabres have stated they are in. Adams pointed to the restricted free agents (Peterka, Quinn, Byram, McLeod and Devon Levi) the team has coming up next summer as a reason he was hesitant about handing out longer-term deals in free agency.
“For me, it’s never been about that,” Adams said when asked about the cap space. “It’s been about putting a roster together that we believe can win. And I will say, it could be in training camp, it could be in October, it could be at the trade deadline but if we think there’s a deal out there that’ll help us get better, we’re going to attack it. There’s never been any issue from (Sabres owner) Terry (Pegula) on that. He’s provided every possible resource since I’ve been the general manager.”
At this point, what matters is whether the roster Adams built gets to the playoffs. There have been opportunities to spend more money the last few offseasons, but Adams has stuck with this core of players. He did revamp the bottom six this summer, too, through trades and free agency. He’s banking on that, and a coaching chance, being enough to get this team back to the playoffs. Maybe he’ll use that cap space during the season, but this franchise has given fans plenty of reasons to be skeptical over the last 13 years.
7. On the topic of cap space, most of that $7 million the Sabres have is from the savings generated by the Jeff Skinner buyout. If not to spend that money, why did the Sabres opt to get rid of Skinner now rather than wait another year to buy out his contract?
“It’s a tricky question because I have a lot of respect for Jeff and I’m certainly not going to say anything other than positive about who he is as a player and person,” Adams said. “We made a really tough decision because we thought we could be in a position to win more hockey games. Those aren’t easy but that was the decision we made. I think when you look at did we fill the spot or not in terms of goals, I think part of that goes to the young core and the players we have we believe will take steps. For me the talent is there and now it’s how do we make sure we’re playing the right way and doing all of those little things that help our team improve and players improve individually. We feel confident that they will.”
8. The Sabres will name a captain, but Ruff wants to spend some time with the group on the ice before making the final decision. Adams smirked when asked whether it would be Dahlin but said, “I can’t tell you that.” He did note that he was impressed by Dahlin getting a group of players together to train this summer in Europe and he recently played golf with Dahlin to gauge his feel of where the team is heading into training camp.
9. Adams said he didn’t think Krebs’ contract negotiation needed to take as long as it did and “you would have to ask his guys” why it did. Krebs signed a two-year contract worth $1.45 million per season the day before camp started. When asked why an extra year and more money for Krebs than his qualifying offer, Adams said it gives Krebs time to develop and establish his role in the lineup and it was a number the Sabres are comfortable with. He also stressed Krebs will need to earn his spot given the offseason additions.
10. One thing that was apparent with the Sabres’ new additions is the speed they bring. Malenstyn, Zucker, Lafferty, Aube-Kubel and McLeod can all fly. Tage Thompson noted that those guys are strong on pucks, too, and it really limited the time and space he had to work during some of the battle drills in practice. Ruff wants the Sabres to be quicker to kill plays in their defensive zone and better about breaking the puck out in a hurry. Some of that will come from systems and mentality, but a lot of it will be about the personnel Buffalo added, too.
“I didn’t think we were a slow team by any means, but we’re definitely harping on the idea of playing faster,” Tuch said.
(Photo of Rasmus Dahlin: Jerome Miron / USA Today)
