Toronto, ON (WGR) - On Wednesday Lindy Ruff joined The Jeremy and Joe Show and he didn't have positive news about injuries.
Goalie Alex Lyon had been practicing for over a week with a shoulder injury, but Ruff said things aren't going well,
"Alex Lyon had a little bit of a setback, so he won't be on the ice for a few days."
Rasmus Dahlin left in the middle of Monday's Florida Panthers game holding his back. He missed Tuesday in Montreal and Ruff said,
"No real update, I would say it's probably doubtful (For Thursday in Toronto), so we'll see what today brings."
Tyson Kozak had just gotten into his first two games of the season and now he is injured too Ruff said,
"Had an upper-body that we sent him back to Buffalo and he's being evaluated."
In Tuesday's 4-3 shootout loss to the Canadiens, Montreal went 1-for-3 on the power scoring on a 5-on-3. Buffalo's penalty killing is 30th in the NHL killing at just a 60.9% rate. The Sabres have given up a power play goal in six of their seven games. Buffalo lost a premiere penalty killer in Alex Tuch and and very good killer in Bo Byram in the off season. Conor Timmins is a shot blocking machine and is an excellent penalty killer. He hasn't played yet with a lower-body injury. Ruff said,
"That's a work in progress for us, we had a pretty good run there as a group, but no excuses, we've made some mistakes on our kill, we've left some people open that we didn't want to leave open, it's something that we're working hard to clean up, Timmins and Dahlin with Samuelsson and Owen Power and even Bo Byram, we got ourselves on a good run, but we'll get there again, it's just we're a step behind in a few places where we can be real aggressive and when you're not connected, you're a second late and we give up that opportunity that we don't want to give up."
Zach Metsa is getting a real good look at the penalty kill and it hasn't gone well. He's been on the ice for over 50% of the nine power play goals against. The Sabres can't keep losing games because of this and need to get the penalty kill figured out soon.
As far as Montreal goes it was the Sabres first back-to-back games of the year and if it wasn't for Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stealing the show, there's no way the Sabres comeback from two goals down in the third period to get one point. After the game Ruff called the second period their worst of the season. Jacob Fowler should've been charged admission, because he only had to make two saves in the second and he just stood in his crease and watched. Ruff said,
"We were just a step slow last night, we don't want to blame it on back-to-back, I thought Montreal, especially in our zone was a step ahead of us and then some of our puck play wasn't near as sharp last night especially in the second period we turned pucks over just inside the blue line, we turned to puck over late in the game, so our puck play really hurt us."
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had an average start to the season. The team played very poorly in front of him leaving him to fend off wide open layups, but he also realized whether they were good goals or bad goals against, he can't be giving up four per game. In the last two games he's played 98 minutes and has been spectacular making multiple big saves at big times picking up 3-of-4 points. Ruff knew Luukkonen would work to be better,
"Boy he played a heck of a game for us last night, he made an ESPN reel save on that 2-on-0 that was a big game changer for us on a big mistake we made up ice, he looked really comfortable for the first time and that's a great sign for us."
One thing that was very promising in Montreal is Ruff has been begging his team to shoot and stop being pretty with the excessive passing. All three goals they scored were with multiple bodies at the net. Thanks to that they got two dirty goals off the leg of Canadiens defenseman Adam Engstrom.
At 3-3-1, Buffalo and the Toronto Maple Leafs are three points behind first place in the Atlantic Division. Both the Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins occupy that top spot.
The team has Wednesday off in Toronto.
Lyon had been practicing after suffering a shoulder injury in preseason.
Lyon had been practicing after suffering a shoulder injury in preseason.
