Sabres look to get back after three losses in four games

Washington, D.C. (WGR) - Only in the NHL can you lose three of you last four (1-1-2) but have points in four of your last five games, (2-1-2) which is a points percentage of .600. The Sabres are in Washington on Saturday to play Alex Tuch and the Capitals. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will play in his sixth consecutive game. Until the last game which was a 3-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, Luukkonen was starting to improve his play by making more big saves than he had in his first three games. Lindy Ruff said,

"Looking at it trying to get 'UPL' some reps back-to-back to see if he can get into a groove and we got points in those three road games and like I said, we played a pretty strong first 40 in the Philly game and just was disappointing in the last 20, but we know 'Ellie' (Colten Ellis) will have to step in and play for us for sure."

This season Luukkonen is 3-3-2 with a 3.53 goals against and .864 save percentage. Ruff did confirm to me that Ellis will get at least a start in California. Luukkonen is 6-2-2 in his career against Washington.

Ruff was asked about coaching Noah Ostlund and he mentioned he's easy to coach. I was then curious if when they're sitting down talking about his play if he picks Ostlund's brain to see what he's thinking? Ruff said,

"When you sit down with a player, there's always things that you think, why did the player do that? And when you're done you kind of understand what he was thinking.

"Maybe on a certain play where you thought I have this, 'What the hell' moment and when you're done with it you go, 'Well now I understand why he did what he did,' so sometimes their read on the ice is a little bit of a different read, I mean I can tap the space bar a lot and get to a place where I want to get to on my video, and in real time there's some understanding that a player's out there and a puck might be coming at him at 60 miles per hour and he might be in a place you don't like, but you can try to figure out why he got to where he got to."

Jiri Kulich left Friday's practice after getting hit in the face with a puck. Ruff said,

"The tests were good, I talked to him this morning in Buffalo and he's got some further testing to go through, but said he was feeling good."

Ruff said if he gets through his testing then he would meet the team in California. Tyson Kozak takes his place in Saturday's lineup.

Buffalo has fallen seven points in back of the first place Boston Bruins. The Sabres are four points out of second in the Atlantic Division.

Last season Washington went 2-0-1 against the Sabres and have earned points in 16-of-21 games against them going 12-5-4.

Tuch has five goals and two assists for seven points in nine games.

Logan Thompson has played a lot in goal playing 6-of-7 games, but he's injured so Charlie Lindgren gets the call. Lindgren is 1-1-0 with a 3.06 goals against and .897 save percentage.

The Caps are in the middle of a five-game homestand and are 2-1-0 so far. Overall they're 5-4-0 as both teams have 10 points in the Eastern Conference.

Ryan Leonard is Washington's leading scorer with four goals and four assists for eight points. Alex Ovechkin has played all nine games and only has one goal and three assists for four points. In 70 games vs the Sabres he has 42 goals and 31 assists for 73 points.

Join Brian Koziol and me for the pregame starting at 6:00 when you'll hear from Ruff and two of Tuch's best friends on the team, Tage Thompson and Peyton Krebs.