The day after the Buffalo Sabres’ No. 1 center Josh Norris went down with a long-term injury, coach Lindy Ruff said the first plan to replace him was putting Jiri Kulich into that spot on the top line. Four days and two games later, Kulich was centering the fifth line at practice and could be a healthy scratch for the team’s game against the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday.

“It hasn’t been good enough, really,” Ruff said. “We need to be better. He needs to be a better player. He needs to make more plays. He needs to skate more. His skating inside the game hasn’t been where it was last year. He needs to be a better player for us.”

Asked if Kulich would be scratched, Ruff said, “I don’t know. We’ll take a look at different things and make that decision in the morning.”

Ruff certainly isn’t wrong about Kulich. He’s been a non-factor for the Sabres despite some prime ice time on the top line and the power play. The 21-year-old doesn’t have a point in three games, has managed only seven shots on goal and is minus-4. Only four of those shots have come at five-on-five, and the Sabres have earned only 36 percent of expected goals when Kulich is on the ice at five-on-five.

After he had 15 goals in 62 games as a 20-year-old last season, the Sabres came into this season counting on Kulich to be one of the players who could help replace the offense they traded away in the JJ Peterka trade. Through three games, Kulich hasn’t been up to the task.

Of course, he’s not alone. The Sabres have scored only two goals as a team through three games. Jack Quinn and Ryan McLeod would have been worthy of a similar message based on how they’ve played. But Kulich is the one who got the message on Tuesday.

When Ruff is contemplating whether to follow through with scratching him against the Senators, this isn’t the simplest time to yank the 21-year old out of the lineup. For one, the Sabres are on a three-game losing streak. The urgency to get a win in front of a restless home crowd should be high. The Sabres are also desperate for offense, and because of injuries and the way the roster has been built, the Sabres don’t have a lot of scoring threats among their forward group. Kulich, when he’s playing the way he did last season, can be one of those players.

Without him, the Sabres’ forward lines looked like this at practice:

Zach Benson – Tage Thompson – Alex Tuch
Jason Zucker – Ryan McLeod – Josh Doan
Jack Quinn – Peyton Krebs – Justin Danforth
Josh Dunne – Tyson Kozak – Beck Malenstyn

It’s fair to look at that lineup and wonder where the scoring is going to come from.

When Norris went down, the Sabres called up Josh Dunne from Rochester. He had a strong preseason and played well against the Avalanche on Monday, but the 26-year-old is not known for offense. He had 10 goals for the Rochester Americans in the AHL last season and his career best is 20 goals in the AHL in 2022-23.

Meanwhile, 2021 first-round pick Isak Rosen, 2022 first-round pick Noah Ostlund and 2024 first-round pick Konsta Helenius are all still in Rochester. Rosen has two goals and an assist in Rochester’s first two games. Ostlund has three assists. Helenius is without a point but has gotten time at first-line center. He was also a standout in the preseason for the Sabres, showing a willingness to forecheck hard and play the physical style Ruff wants.

Asked whether the Sabres have talked specifically about Helenius and Ostlund given the team’s need at center, Ruff suggested that wasn’t going to happen.

“We talk about all options for sure,” Ruff said. “I’ve watched some of their games and talked to (Amerks coach Michael Leone) about it. When you look at where we’re at roster-wise now with Benson coming back and (Jordan) Greenway coming back, that window is kind of closing.”

Getting Zach Benson back will be a boost to this lineup. He missed the first three games after complications from taking a puck to the face in practice the day before the season opener. He said his face swelled up to the point where he needed to go to the emergency room and have blood drained from his face. He was able to resume skating on Sunday and was back with the team wearing a full shield. He has a strong chance to play against the Senators and has been eager to get back in the lineup.

Greenway will help, too, but he’s not going to be scoring a ton of goals for the Sabres. He skated with the team for the first time since last season on Tuesday. Over the summer, he needed a second surgery on the injury he had surgery for last December. Greenway is finally pain-free and feels close to getting back into game action.

Still, this lineup is noticeably lacking scoring pop. The fear of the Peterka trade was how the Sabres would replace his scoring output. They finished last season with the third-most five-on-five goals in the NHL, but Peterka was a significant piece of that.

At the beginning of training camp, general manager Kevyn Adams was asked about that and said, “Honestly, to me, it’s less about who’s replacing the goals and more about how are we not giving up as many, and what are we going to do to be better defensively? How are we going to manage the puck better? How are we going to just play a more mature game? When you’re up a goal in the third period, and maybe you’re not extending your shift, or maybe you’re not trying that extra play, a behind-the-back pass, those type of things. We were very intentional about this in the offseason. Less worried about the talent and the scoring and trying more to get that harder-to-play-against, two-way, veteran players that understand how to play in this league.”

The current lineup construction reflects that mentality. Obviously offense has been an issue through three games. The Sabres have two goals in three games, worst in the league by three goals. They’ve generated the fifth-fewest high-danger chances per 60 at five-on-five and haven’t scored on the power play. They also have a 3.17 shooting percentage at five-on-five, which is bound to improve.

But the offense looks disjointed beyond the personnel issues. This is a team that generated the seventh most shots off the rush in the league last season, according to AllThreeZones tracking data. Teams have tried to take that element of their game away, and the Sabres haven’t had an answer.

“When you look at our entries, I need more effort,” Ruff said. “The focus on today’s meeting, which was lengthy, was the effort once we reach the other team’s effort. It has to be greater than their effort to defend.”

Ruff still wants this to be a rush offense.

“Those are higher quality opportunities,” Ruff said. “I prefer those. They’re harder to get sometimes.”

This core has also struggled to become a better defensive team while maintaining that rush offense. They also don’t yet excel at dumping the puck in and wearing down the other team in response to the way teams are defending. Buffalo ranked near the bottom of the league in offense generated off the forecheck last season. The Sabres added strong forecheckers like Josh Doan and Justin Danforth, but there needs to be a team-wide buy-in for that playing style to work. Right now, the Sabres aren’t adjusting well enough. And the concerns about effort seem persistent. Maybe the Kulich message will be a wake-up call to the rest of the group.

Notes

1. The Sabres got Benson, Greenway and goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen back at practice on Tuesday. Luukkonen said he felt a deep muscle cramping during the preseason game against Pittsburgh and that led to him missing time. The injury was close to his other injury but not the same.

Greenway said the first surgery he had on his injury last December didn’t take all of the pain away. He was managing it well in the early part of the summer but he couldn’t get all of the pain to go away, so he needed another surgery. He said this injury has been “mentally the most frustrating thing I’ve been through in my career.”

Benson should be able to play Wednesday. Luukkonen and Greenway still need more time.

2. Mattias Samuelsson and Michael Kesselring weren’t at practice on Tuesday. The team got an encouraging update on Samuelsson, who is listed as day-to-day. Kesselring, meanwhile, hasn’t started skating yet. He got hurt on Oct. 1 and was ruled week-to-week. The fact that he still hasn’t skated suggests a return isn’t imminent.

3. The Sabres will be wearing their white jerseys at home when they host the Senators on Wednesday. Ottawa is wearing its red alternate jerseys. Buffalo is trying to avoid its first 0-4-0 start in franchise history.