Buffalo, NY (WGR Sports Radio 550) - The Buffalo Sabres have been able to find their way after a rough three-game start to the 2025-26 hockey season. They now sit at 4-4-1 in the standings, and just outside of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference standings.
Part of the struggle for the Sabres this season has been dealing with players missing time due to injury. The good news, though, is the team is now on the mend, especially with players like defenseman Michael Kesselring set to make his way into the lineup for the first time as a member of the Sabres on Tuesday against Columbus.
Kesselring was a key acquisition for the Sabres this offseason, as he was part of the return with forward Josh Doan in the JJ Peterka trade with the Utah Mammoth. Sabres assistant coach Seth Appert is certainly hopeful the defenseman can contribute to the team's success as much as Doan has been able to in the early goings.
"We're excited about that," said Appert on Tuesday during an appearance with the "Jeremy and Joe Show" on WGR. "That was a big offseason acquisition for us, getting him, and Doan has been outstanding. Adding so many different things into our lineup now offensively, but also physically, we're excited to get Kesselring into that defense, playing really good as it is right now. Adding a player of his caliber and his size is something we're very excited about."
While the start to the season went about as bad as the team could've imagined, Appert certainly feels the last six games have been much better, and up to the standard the group has set for itself.
"We still think we have a lot of growth to do," said Appert with Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase. "We didn't start the season how we wanted to. Now we're 4-1-1 in our last six games, and we felt that we should have had two points in Toronto [on Saturday]. You like getting a point on the road, but you're up 3-2 in the last 10 minutes of that game. Those are games we need to keep learning how to close out, those hard-nosed games on the road. But I think what we've done a really good job of the last six games is we put ourselves in position to win all six.
"You need to play in such a manner with your structure and your talent and your competitiveness that you continue to put yourself in position to win games in the third period. The more times you do that, the more points you can accumulate over time."
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