The day after the Buffalo Sabres\u2019 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\u2019s game against the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been good enough, really,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cWe 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\u2019t been where it was last year. He needs to be a better player for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if Kulich would be scratched, Ruff said, \u201cI don\u2019t know. We\u2019ll take a look at different things and make that decision in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruff certainly isn\u2019t wrong about Kulich. He\u2019s 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t been up to the task.<\/p>\n
Of course, he\u2019s 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\u2019ve played. But Kulich is the one who got the message on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
When Ruff is contemplating whether to follow through with scratching him against the Senators, this isn\u2019t 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\u2019t have a lot of scoring threats among their forward group. Kulich, when he\u2019s playing the way he did last season, can be one of those players.<\/p>\n
Without him, the Sabres\u2019 forward lines looked like this at practice:<\/p>\n
Zach Benson \u2013 Tage Thompson \u2013 Alex Tuch
Jason Zucker \u2013 Ryan McLeod \u2013 Josh Doan
Jack Quinn \u2013 Peyton Krebs \u2013 Justin Danforth
Josh Dunne \u2013 Tyson Kozak \u2013 Beck Malenstyn<\/p>\n
It\u2019s fair to look at that lineup and wonder where the scoring is going to come from.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Asked whether the Sabres have talked specifically about Helenius and Ostlund given the team\u2019s need at center, Ruff suggested that wasn\u2019t going to happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talk about all options for sure,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cI\u2019ve watched some of their games and talked to (Amerks coach Michael Leone) about it. When you look at where we\u2019re at roster-wise now with Benson coming back and (Jordan) Greenway coming back, that window is kind of closing.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Greenway will help, too, but he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of training camp, general manager Kevyn Adams was asked about that and said, \u201cHonestly, to me, it\u2019s less about who\u2019s 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\u2019re up a goal in the third period, and maybe you\u2019re not extending your shift, or maybe you\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019ve generated the fifth-fewest high-danger chances per 60 at five-on-five and haven\u2019t scored on the power play. They also have a 3.17 shooting percentage at five-on-five, which is bound to improve.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t had an answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at our entries, I need more effort,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cThe focus on today\u2019s meeting, which was lengthy, was the effort once we reach the other team\u2019s effort. It has to be greater than their effort to defend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruff still wants this to be a rush offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are higher quality opportunities,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cI prefer those. They\u2019re harder to get sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
This core has also struggled to become a better defensive team while maintaining that rush offense. They also don\u2019t 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Greenway said the first surgery he had on his injury last December didn\u2019t take all of the pain away. He was managing it well in the early part of the summer but he couldn\u2019t get all of the pain to go away, so he needed another surgery. He said this injury has been \u201cmentally the most frustrating thing I\u2019ve been through in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n Benson should be able to play Wednesday. Luukkonen and Greenway still need more time.<\/p>\n 2. Mattias Samuelsson and Michael Kesselring weren\u2019t at practice on Tuesday. The team got an encouraging update on Samuelsson, who is listed as day-to-day. Kesselring, meanwhile, hasn\u2019t started skating yet. He got hurt on Oct. 1 and was ruled week-to-week. The fact that he still hasn\u2019t skated suggests a return isn\u2019t imminent.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The day after the Buffalo Sabres\u2019 No. 1 center Josh Norris went down with a long-term injury, coach…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":305836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[1720,293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-305835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-buffalo-sabres","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115379224296078075","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}