Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - After a three-game road trip this past week, the Sabres return home to KeyBank Center to kick off a stretch of games seeing eight of the next 10 contests taking place in Buffalo.
Early on this season, the Sabres have struggled, at times, to get any sort of "puck luck" on their side. However, in the past three games, they've had great success while playing at 5-on-5, scoring 13 goals. This, paired with more consistency in their play style, has led to a few good outings from the team.
Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff feels, though, there were a couple games recently that his team should have deserved better.
"I really feel the Pittsburgh game, we took too many penalties, too many ill-advised penalties. Maybe tough calls, but you still can't take penalties," said Ruff during his weekly appearance during the "Jeremy and Joe Show" on WGR. "I think we got back to playing our game in Chicago. Played a strong two-way game, and end up winning a hockey game."
Ruff wants his group to try and establish some consistency in their play in the games going forward.
"I think every team has a way they want to play or a way that they think their group can create. For the most part, each team has that scheme defensively, whether it's a little bit more man-on-man or if it's a little bit more collapsed zone that you can take advantage of. We're just going to continue to work on our game," Ruff said with Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase.
The Sabres started the 2024-25 campaign overseas in Europe for the NHL Global Series, and haven't had much time on home ice in Buffalo. Now, the Sabres will not only return home for this upcoming stretch of games at KeyBank Center, but they will also have some separation between games.
"We'll play this game [Tuesday against the Dallas Stars], and then we have three days [off] again. It's important that we really just keep working on what we do best," Ruff said. I think the 5-on-5 play has been good, our 5-on-5 scoring is right there at the top of the league. Defending, we've had a couple games get away from us, but overall, our defending, we're getting out of the zone a lot quicker, which, when you don't play in your own end, gives you a better chance to get a place and create offense."
Over the past few seasons, home ice has not been kind to the Sabres. They have had a better record on the road than home ice in recent years, which has led to a few sour moments between fans and the team.
However, this is a fresh season where the team has only played two games at home, and have so far split those games, 1-1.
"I would say play better and win games. Play better, get emotionally involved in the game," Ruff said. "Emotionally involved for me is start off by winning your battles, win your puck races, the other stuff will all take care of itself. When you see added effort or second effort, or second effort coming back or blocking shots, those are all, for me, high indicators of just being engaged in the game and stay engaged in the game. You can't control bad bounces or you can't control maybe a bad call, and all of a sudden you're getting scored on. But you can control your effort inside the game. Those are the areas that I'd like our guys to focus in on."
The Sabres and Stars will square off Tuesday night for 7 p.m. ET, with pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6 p.m. ET with Mike Schopp and the Bulldog.