Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR) - On Wednesday the Sabres lost their fourth home game in five tries 2-1 to the Ottawa Senators. After the game Lindy Ruff was very critical of his team in all aspects of the game and on Friday against the Columbus Blue Jacket there are some changes.
Ryan McLeod is being benched and won't play. Jiri Kulich returns to the lineup after missing five games with a concussion. He was hit in the face with a puck in practice. Conor Timmins was hurt in the team's final preseason game and he will play his first game of the season for Louie Crevier.
McLeod has struggled since last season, but it has gotten worse as he can't seem to find his game. He has one goal and two assists for three points and is a team worst minus-7 in 15 games. Lindy Ruff said,
"I think he knows he needs to be better. It's about what you're creating out there and what you're giving up. The numbers say we're not creating enough and producing enough and the other side of it is we're giving up too much.
"A moment like this is a teaching moment, it's a learning moment and we've got to be better."
McLeod had a horrible play on Ottawa's first goal where he lost the faceoff and then let Shane Pinto go free to the net for a rebound goal. Ruff said it's more than just that,
"He's taken full responsibility for it and understands, so it's not about not playing tonight, it's about what the next game's going to look like. When you meet with a player and go through it, there's a lot more to the game than just that faceoff.
"Anytime you're in that situation, first it's a teaching moment, there's a lot of things where you need to be better. You sit down with a player, you discuss his recent games, this isn't the first meeting I've had with him. Had meetings on the road trip and discussed parts of his game from one-on-one, 50-50 battles has to be better. Better on battles will lead to more opportunities, more offensive zone time, so you go through some video and you try to get the player to where you think you can get him to. We know when he's playing his best, he helps our hockey team win."
McLeod was very professional in talking about the benching after he did extra work in the morning skate. He said,
"It's frustrating being out of the lineup, but it's just getting back to basics, I think they could tell I was struggling and it's a little bit of a fresh start here hopefully when coming back from sitting one."
It seemed pretty obvious that as things were going wrong for McLeod, he was getting frustrated and he admitted that was the case,
"Absolutely, everyone gets frustrated when there's a certain level and standard that they want to abide to and you need to play at that level and I'm going to take a mental reset here and find my game.
"It's not been good, it's not been a high enough standard for where I want to be and I wanted to come into the season and raise my level from last year and I haven't been able to do it yet."
McLeod said the coaching staff gave him some tips at what they want to see out there which may help him regain his confidence.
Crevier was part of the Bo Byrum trade with the Chicago Blackhawks and the 25-year-old is sitting for the first time. It seems like the huge defenseman is having trouble figuring out what's expected of him in Lindy Ruff's system. His ice-time has been getting less and less in the last six games as he's played 8:05, 10:26, 12:39, 9:11, 7:37 and 10:30. Ruff said,
"I think the world of him, we're in a position now where we wanted Timmins to get a game. He's on the right track, he's a very coachable kid, he works extremely hard and there's a lot of great aspects to him and this might just be one game and he's right back in, but we've got things that we want him to work on and get him some extra work and we'll rotate some guys and we may just use seven (in a rotation) on a more regular basis."
The Sabres opened the season playing very poorly in Columbus losing 6-3. Buffalo has points in 8-of-10 games going 5-2-3, but are 0-2-0 at home in that stretch and are 3-4-0 at home overall.
Ruff is starting to alternate goalies as Colten Ellis played in San Jose and Anaheim, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen played well in Los Angeles and Ellis played equally as well against the Senators. Luukkonen gets the call against the Blue Jackets and has points in six of his last seven games going 3-1-3. Against the Kings he stopped 28-of-30 shots in a 3-2 win. Overall he's 4-3-3 with a 3.40 goals against and .874 save percentage.
With McLeod off the penalty kill, Josh Doan may get an opportunity. In the last two games the team has killed 6-of-7 penalties putting then 27th in the NHL in both the penalty kill and the power play. Kulich and Peyton Krebs are now on the No. 2 power play for McLeod and Doan.
Buffalo is 7-5-3 which gives them a points percentage of .567. That's 10th in the Eastern Conference. Ottawa holds the eighth and final playoff spot with a points percentage of .618.
FRIDAY'S LINES:
Benson - Krebs - Thompson
Doan - Ostlund - Quinn
Kulich - Norris - Zucker
Malenstyn - Kozak - Carrick
Dahlin - Samuelsson
Zellweger - Power
Metsa - Timmins
The Blue Jackets were home on Thursday and beat the Dallas Stars in a shootout 2-1. Columbus also beat the Colorado Avalanche 7-2 on Tuesday. Cam Talbot was in goal for both those games. That means Jet Greaves may get the start against Buffalo. He's 2-5-0 with a 3.11 goals against and .883 save percentage.
Before the season Columbus traded with the Toronto Maple Leafs to acquire Matthew Knies. Opening night against the Sabres he had two goals and an assist. In his next game he had an assist and since then the winger has played 12 games picking up no goals and two assists.
Kent Johnson leads Columbus with seven goals and seven assists for 14 points.
Columbus has a points percentage of .500 which has them 14th in the East.
Join Zach Jones and Derek Kramer for the pregame starting at 6:00 when you'll hear from Ruff, Luukkonen, Kulich and McLeod.
Conor Timmins is also playing his first game of the season as Crevier sits
Conor Timmins is also playing his first game of the season as Crevier sits
