BUFFALO – Long before Sabres winger Tage Thompson scored the overtime goal that clinched Team USA’s first gold medal at the World Championship in 92 years, the demands of the tournament had left a lasting impression on him.
“I know it looks like it boils down to that one play … but it’s an accumulation of things throughout the tournament from everybody, which is something that I think I learned and took away from that experience, which was very valuable,” Thompson, who has never played an NHL playoff game, said Thursday following the first session of training camp in KeyBank Center.
After a grueling season, the prospect of sightseeing around Europe probably entices some players to participate in the tournament. They certainly don’t want to get injured and spend their summer recovering from an injury.
But Thompson, who scored in Tuesday’s 2-1 preseason win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, said Team USA “had guys blocking shots and doing all the things that it takes to win.”
“You just see how much it takes to win over there,” said Thompson, whose goal on May 25 secured a 1-0 win over Team Switzerland in Stockholm, Sweden. “And, obviously, the last play that gets it done is a cool experience.”
His two weeks starring for Team USA gave Thompson, who turns 28 on Oct. 30, what he called “that hunger going into a season.”
“Get a little bit of a taste,” said Thompson, who recently attended the US Olympic orientation camp for the upcoming Milano Cortina Games.
While he has enjoyed personal success over his first eight seasons – since 2021-22, he has scored 158 goals, the NHL’s 10th-highest total – Thompson has endured a lot of losing.
He has always spoken passionately about being part of the solution. He sounds energized for another chance to end the Sabres’ NHL-record 14-year playoff drought.
Thompson knows two of the Sabres’ key offseason additions, winger Josh Doan and defenseman Michael Kesselring, having won the gold medal alongside them and also trained with them in Arizona.
“Blue-collar guys, work extremely hard, guys that put the team above themselves, and … they’re both hungry, they’ll do whatever it takes,” he said. “I think those are attributes you need on a team, and it can’t just be one or two guys. It has to be everybody.”
Sabres coach Lindy Ruff believes Thompson, Doan and Kesselring share a special bond.
“I don’t care what event you’re playing in, if you win it, it brings you together,” he said. “It shows you that you can be a winner. Tage got a real good taste for that. The winning goal was on the end of his stick. I think it will drive players. It has driven him.”
Without a dynamic offensive season from the 6-foot-6, 220-pound Thompson, the Sabres likely won’t end their embarrassing run of futility.
Fresh off a 44-goal, 72-point campaign in which he scored an NHL-high 25 goals in 36 games from Jan. 20 until the season ended, he expects more of himself.
“I’d love to hit 50 goals and 100 points … but I think the priority is winning,” he said. “I think if I’m doing those things, we’re probably winning. But for me, I think more to give means more about just consistency, being dominant every single night, not having any games where maybe I wasn’t as noticeable or I didn’t have as big of an impact on the game.
“I want to be someone that impacts the game every time I step over the boards, every time the puck is on my stick.”
Thompson attributes some of his torrid second-half production to being left off Team USA’s entry at the 4 Nations Face-Off last season, a snub he has used for motivation.
“It was a big goal of mine to make 4 Nations,” he said. “Didn’t happen but I believe that everything happens for a reason, and I think because of not making it maybe it helps the second half of the season, and going into Worlds just kind of gave me that extra little bit of fire in. … my stomach; kind of get me going to another gear, maybe that I didn’t think was possible.”
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Ruff’s happy the Sabres, whose lineup featured a mix of NHL regulars and youngsters, had to eke out a win against Columbus’ B squad.
“I’d rather have been tonight been in a close game, which we were in, because you battle harder,” he said. “One mistake costs ya.”
Winger Jason Zucker’s goal 11:57 into the third period put the Sabres up 2-1.
The Sabres killed a late hooking penalty assessed to forward Konsta Helenius and held off the Blue Jackets after they pulled goalie Zach Sawchenko for an extra attacker.
Ruff has been emphasizing six-on-five situations throughout camp.
“I think we’re going to continue to make that part of our regular practice,” he said.
Sabres goalie Alex Lyon stopped 13 of the 14 shots he faced in the opening 40 minutes before Devon Levi replaced him and stopped all five shots he faced. Columbus mustered just two shots, including zero at even strength, in the second period.
Columbus’ Miles Wood scored a power-play goal at 8:37 before Thompson tied it late in the second period.
The Sabres announced a crowd of 9,903 fans.
Tage Thompson makes USA GOLDEN! #MensWorlds #IIHF @usahockey pic.twitter.com/exwtHHDrsA
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) May 25, 2025