Ruff is angry and making changes

Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) - Buffalo Sabres winger Zach Benson called Thursday's 4-0 loss to the Dallas Stars unacceptable. Lindy Ruff is still angry about it and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Konsta Helenius and Jiri Kulich are just three that are paying the price.

Colten Ellis will get his second start of the season and Helenius and Kulich are sitting in favor of Sam Carrick and Tyson Kozak.

What really is sticking in Ruff's head is the level of compete. Ruff said,

"If you want to stay in the lineup you have to play hard and you've got to be bringing something to the table every night."

Let's start with Helenius. He has struggled in the first four games and Ruff said,

"When it gets right down to it it's hard compete, compete on pucks, there's a lot of details that goes into every shift whether it's 50-50 help on faceoffs, so the compete part is the heavy compete on pucks where we got smoked the other night.

"He's going to be a good player, just part of being young is that up and down, that consistency part and some of it is the details for the game."

When it comes to Kulich, he did suffer an elbow injury and left the Dallas game, but did come back and play. Ruff said he's not sitting because of the injury,

"It's the hand-to-hand combat, it's the puck compete around the pucks, everybody gets a little beat up, I'd like to see that part of his game to be a lot more tenacious. He got hurt, but he can play."

Ruff said he was very blunt in the team's film session,

"Just really talk about the process, talk about the details of the game, you've got a 35 second shift that starts with a faceoff. I can show you o-zone faceoffs where we didn't get into the way, so it didn't allow us an opportunity to maybe get a scoring chance. In my eyes we probably get one, but we didn't hold up or we didn't get in the way.

"I can show you where if we middle lane drive instead of pull up, we're either going to get o-zone time or we may get a scoring chance. I thought some of that was missing in our game."

Buffalo has some tenacious forecheckers in Beck Malenstyn, Carrick, Josh Doan and Zach Benson. Ruff said he pulled two of them into the office,

"I had a meeting with Benson and Doan this morning about just what they brought to our team, that tenacity, the puck pressure they created, first on pucks, I don't think we've done as good of a job as a group not just those two but as a whole group, we haven't done a good job at first on pucks, winning puck battles and staying in the battle, the message this morning was, stay in the battle or we're going to be a team that scores two goals per night."

The Sabres are 24th in the NHL at 2.50 goals per game. They're the only team in the NHL that doesn't have a power play goal and they're 28th in penalty kill at 63.6% killed.

Alex Lyon is still practicing, but Ruff said he isn't ready.

"I don't think yet, but getting a lot closer."

Ellis was in net for the only good game this team has played. He beat the Minnesota Wild in overtime 3-2. That gives him a 1.86 goals against and .900 save percentage.

The Utah Mammoth got off to a good start beating the Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets and New Jersey Devils. There was a 4-2 loss to the New York Rangers mixed in there, but on Thursday, they got blasted in Boston losing to the Bruins 6-1.

Utah went 0-for-7 on the power play, but are still first overall in the league at 40%. Nick Schmaltz, is third in the NHL with five goals. He and Dylan Guenthier both have three goals with the extra man. Schamaltz and Clayton Keller both have seven points which is ninth overall.

Karel Vajmelka played in that game and gave up three goals on 14 shots in 43:49. Sebastian Cossa played 15:51 and gave up three goals on eight shots. Vajmelka has played every game except the Columbus game. He's 2-1-0 with a 2.43 goals against and .892 save percentage.

Buffalo has never beaten the Mammoth in four tries.

Join Pat Malacaro and me for the pregame starting at 6:00 when you'll hear from Ruff, Benson and Justin Danforth.

SATURDAY LINES:

Norris - Thompson - Doan

Benson - Ostlund - Quinn

Krebs - McLeod - Danforth

Kozak - Carrick - Malenstyn

Dahlin - Power

Zellweger - Samuelsson

Metsa - Crevier