Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) - The Buffalo Sabres have never started a season 0-4-0, but they host the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday with a 0-3-0 record.
Buffalo will welcome Zach Benson into the lineup for the first time this season after he was hospitalized from getting hit with a puck in the face.
His tenacity will be a welcome addition to a team that has shown very little tenacity in the first three games.
Buffalo has been decimated by injuries, but that can’t be used as an excuse not to compete like we’ve seen in many stretches this season. Lindy Ruff isn’t going to be using it as an excuse,
“I don’t want to hear about guys being out of the lineup.
“We can’t spend any time with Josh Norris being out of the lineup. We need more out of the guys that are in the lineup. Your chance comes when somebody gets injured and you step up. It’s the chance you’ve been waiting for and we need guys to grab hold of that and take it right now!”
Jiri Kulich was demoted on Wednesday to a line with Mason Geertsen and the injured Jordan Greenway. Ruff said he hadn’t spoke to Kulich, but the team’s problems aren’t about him,
“I haven’t really met with ‘Kuli.’ I put him on that line to see what the reaction would be, how hard are you going to work? Other guys I’ve met with personally, but this isn’t about Kulich and he’s playing tonight. I want to see his response tonight.
“It’s not about one guy, we could mention Zucker, McLeod, Tuch, we’ve got lots of guys in that category, it’s not about one player. I have met with those other guys and if we’re going to get better we need to play faster and we need to get inside.”
McLeod has been a huge disappointment in the first three games after a career year last season. Buffalo’s two-way center has no points and is a team worst minus-5. What’s the most shocking is his faceoff percentage is 34.1%. Last year it was a very good 52.3%. Ruff lamented that losing faceoffs is killing this team. They’re constantly chasing the puck. As far as McLeod's play Ruff said,
"He's got to get inside, he's got to be more competitive on the inside and defensively the same thing, it comes down to getting into people, it's not good enough."
A bright spot has been Alex Lyon. He has kept Buffalo in all three games and has a 2.73 goals against and a very good .919 save percentage.
Buffalo has won four straight games against the Senators.
The Sabres are 0-for-11 on the power play and 11-for-11 on the penalty kill. Ottawa’s penalty kill is 29th in the league at 64.3%.
Ottawa has lost its captain Brady Tkachuk for a month or more with a hand injury. The Senators do have some good injury news as Drake Batherson is slated to return as he hasn’t played yet this season due to an upper-body injury suffered in training camp.
Ottawa won on opening night beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-4, but have since lost to the Florida Panthers 6-2 and the Nashville Predators 4-1.
Former Sabre Linus Ullmark isn’t off to a good start and has played every minute so far with a 4.07 goals against and .842 save percentage. Since leaving Buffalo, Ullmark is 4-3-0 against his old team with a 2.61 goals against and .918 save percentage.
Dylan Cozens has a goal and an assist in three games, but is minus-4. Shane Pinto leads the way for Ottawa with four goals and five points.
The Sabres will be wearing their road white sweaters at home on Wednesday.
Join Schopp and the Bulldog for the pregame starting at 6:00 when you’ll hear from Ruff, Benson and Greenway.