Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR) - The Buffalo Sabres lost their fourth home game in five tries on Wednesday night, collapsing in the third period and losing, 2-1, to the Ottawa Senators.
After the game, Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff was very critical of his team in all aspects of the game.
Ahead of Friday's matchup with the Columbus Blue Jackets, there are some changes coming to the Buffalo lineup.
Sabres forward Ryan McLeod is being benched in favor of Jiri Kulich, who returns to the lineup after missing five games with a concussion. He was hit in the face with a puck in practice.
In addition, defenseman Conor Timmins will make his season debut Friday after being hurt in the team's final preseason game. He will play in place of Louis 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 this season, and is a team worst minus-7 in 15 games.
"I think he knows he needs to be better," said Ruff after Friday's morning skate. "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."
On Ottawa's first goal Wednesday, McLeod lost the faceoff to the left of the Buffalo net, and he then let Senators forward Shane Pinto go free to the net for a rebound goal.
However, Ruff says his benching is more than just that specific play.
"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," he said. "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 1-on-1, 50/50 battles have 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 Friday.
"It's frustrating being out of the lineup, but it's just getting back to basics," said McLeod with reporters. "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. He admitted that was, indeed, the case.
"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," McLeod acknowledged. "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. 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 6-foot-8 defenseman is having trouble figuring out what's expected of him in 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.
"I think the world of him," Ruff said of Crevier. "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. 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. We may just use seven [in a rotation] on a more regular basis."
The Sabres opened the season playing very poorly against the Blue Jackets, losing 6-3 in Columbus. Buffalo has points in 8-of-10 games, going 5-2-3, but are 0-2-0 at home in that stretch. Overall this season, the Sabres are 3-4-0 on home ice.
Ruff is starting to alternate goalies again, as Colten Ellis played well on the California swing against the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks, while Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen also played well in Los Angeles against the Kings. Ellis then put up another strong performance in the loss to the Senators.
Now it's Luukkonen turn again in goal, where he has helped Buffalo earn 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 this season, Luukkonen is 4-3-3 with a 3.40 goals-against average and an .874 save percentage.
With McLeod off the penalty kill, Josh Doan may get an opportunity to step in. In the last two games, the team has killed 6-of-7 penalties, putting them 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 in place of McLeod and Doan.
Buffalo is 7-5-3 this season, which gives them a points percentage of .567. That's 10th in the Eastern Conference.
Ottawa holds the eighth and final playoff spot in the conference with a points percentage of .618.
FRIDAY'S LINES:
Forwards:
Benson - Krebs - Thompson
Doan - Östlund - Quinn
Kulich - Norris - Zucker
Malenstyn - Kozak - Carrick
Defense:
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 visiting Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, 7-2.
Cam Talbot was in goal for both of those games for the Blue Jackets. That means Jet Greaves may get the start against Buffalo.
Greaves is 2-5-0 this season with a 3.11 goals-against average and an .883 save percentage.
Before the season, Columbus acquired forward Matthew Knies in a massive trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs. In his first game with the Blue Jackets against the Sabres, he had two goals and an assist. In his next game, he had an assist.
Since then, though, the winger has played 12 games and picked up no goals and just 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 Eastern Conference.
Join Zach Jones and Derek Kramer for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6 p.m. EST when you'll hear from Ruff, Luukkonen, Kulich and McLeod.
Ryan McLeod and Louis Crevier will be coming out of the lineup
Ryan McLeod and Louis Crevier will be coming out of the lineup
