Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) – Training camp and preseason seemed to take forever, but opening day is finally here as the Buffalo Sabres host the Rangers. New York opened the season Tuesday in Madison Square Garden and lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-0.
Buffalo went 3-2-1 in preseason, but haven’t played a game since Friday and Lindy Ruff is ready,
“I think we’re all excited, we’re all tired of looking at preseason video and practice video and now let's put it to the test against the other team’s real lineup and let’s go to work and prove that what we’ve been working on will make us a winning hockey club.”
Last year the Sabres started the season with two games in Czechia against the New Jersey Devils and came home 0-2-0 scoring a total of two goals. They then lost the home opener to the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 before beating the Florida Panthers 5-2. That was followed by an overtime loss in Pittsburgh blowing a 3-1 lead and a 5-4 lead with 9:04 left in the game.
The next night they lost 6-4 in Columbus starting the season with one win in six games. Ruff thinks that’s unacceptable and it can’t happen again,
“We didn’t get off to a good start last year and you get behind and you’re chasing it all the time, then there’s not a lot of room for error.
“Even though in a couple of months we got ourselves into an OK spot, you have no room for error, but when you start off in a good place, it allows for those couple of injuries not to kill you and it allows for a tough week here and there.”
Near the end of last season, Ruff stood at the podium rather emotional, admitting he let the team and the fans down with the way he coached the season. He’s determined to make sure that doesn’t happen again,
“Honestly I feel like we’ve put ourselves in a good spot and you do feel it (pressure), but first and foremost you want something for the fans to wrap their arms around and for me that’s important.
“Come to the rink and see a team that’s going to work extremely hard, that’s going to claw and scratch for every inch and get themselves in a place where you’re competing and putting yourself in the playoffs by the end of the year.”
If you go by practice on Wednesday, it looks like Jacob Bryson will get the first chance to play for the injured Michael Kesselring instead of Ryan Johnson. It looked like in camp Johnson would get that opportunity, but 254 NHL games compared to 44 NHL games played into the decision,
“Both players have played well, and I think Bryson’s experience gives you a little edge sometimes where late last year he was playing against some of the top lines and doing a real nice job for us," Ruff said.
“With ‘RJ’ we know we’ve got a guy that can add a little bit more of a physical side to his game, he can be the type of guy that can get to pucks in a hurry and him and ‘Bryce’ are really good skaters, so we’re comparing the physicality to the veteran savvy.”
Jiri Kulich will be starting the season with Alex Tuch on his right and Jason Zucker on his left. Ruff said that isn’t by coincidence,
“You look at his role last year late playing with Benson and Thompson and doing a real good job.
“We really liked his game and know he can be a guy that can score big goals.
“He can skate with the best of them, he can defend well and we’re looking at a guy like Tuch who can score and can those two guys compliment each other the way him and Thompson did or the way Norris and Thompson are and that would give us a really good one-two punch with the top two lines.”
Join Schopp and the Bulldog” for the pregame starting at 6:00 when you’ll hear from Ruff, Thompson and starting goalie Alex Lyon.