BUFFALO – Friendly reminder, gang, while Seth Appert is the assistant coach in charge of the Sabres’ power play, it’s Lindy Ruff’s show. He’s the head coach.
Oh, and goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen posted a .909 save percentage last season. Yes, the Finn struggled at times in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But he still enjoyed a strong campaign.
Why do these things bear repeating just one game into the season? Well, the Sabres lost Thursday’s opener 6-3 in Columbus, an underwhelming start fresh off a rollicking 109-point season.
The power play, which struggled late last regular season into the playoffs, converted zero of its five chances against the Blue Jackets.
Luukkonen stopped 17 of the 22 shots he faced. The goals he allowed materialized from breakdowns or other problems. They shouldn’t be pinned on him.
He made some critical saves late with the game still in reach, including a breakaway stop on Matthew Knies.
The reaction from fans on social media to the O-fer on the man advantage and Luukkonen allowing five goals was, well, typical.
Change who runs the power play! Connor Hellebuyck, the suspended Winnipeg Jets goalie, is available. Trade for him!
Of course, the Sabres, who host old friend Bowen Byram and the hapless Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday in the home opener at KeyBank Center, must keep wonky efforts like Thursday’s to a minimum as they defend their Atlantic Division title.
The NHL’s most competitive division in 2025-26 might be more difficult this year, with the Florida Panthers poised to bounce back following a down season.
But the Sabres, who open a five-game home stand, should be pretty darn good again. While they traded Byram and sent winger Alex Tuch to the Washington Capitals in a sign-and-trade deal, players have said the Sabres are a better team this year.
Is it lip service or a real belief? Players have said the maturity they developed together last season as they endured adversity has only made them stronger.
They know their path to the postseason or another division championship will almost certainly be tougher this year.
“We’ve had meetings and talked about (how) we’re not going to surprise anybody,” Ruff said. “Nobody’s going to take us for granted. We’re going to get a lot of respect for the year we put in. I think teams around us have improved, which at the same time is going to make it more difficult than it was last year.
“So there’s a lot of elements that we’ve talked about that now expectations are higher. With success comes those expectations, and that’s where you want to be.”
Two parts of Thursday’s game stood out: the confident play of Jack Quinn and the weak special-teams performance.
After dealing Tuch, attention turned to Konsta Helenius, Jiri Kulich and Noah Ostlund, all of whom appear ready to seize more opportunities.
Quinn, who at 25 is more seasoned than those young forwards, has the potential to showcase more growth than perhaps any Sabres forward.
He proved that in Thursday’s loss, scoring a nifty goal from the left circle and nearly tallying another one late when he zoomed down the slot and hit the post. He also killed penalties for the first time in years while skating a career-high 20 minutes, 46 seconds.
Fresh off a career best 20-goal, 51-point season, he stood out in Columbus and appears poised for a breakout campaign.
“I think I took a step,” Quinn said of last season. “It was my best year in the league, so it’s great for the confidence, and I think I can take another step this year.”
“When I looked at a lot of his opportunities to make a difference in the game, plays that I thought he could have made a difference that maybe he missed his shot, there was probably an opportunity there to score 35 goals last year, that they didn’t quite go in for him,” Ruff said.
Ruff said Quinn’s growth can be traced to the work developing his body and skating.
“I’ll use him as an example from the previous year to last year, getting his body in a better place,” he said. “His skating was better, his shot was better. His … one-on-one strength was a lot better. And I think he’s taken another step. He’s a guy that can help in leadership, and a guy that can make up for goals that we lost to players leaving.”
Quinn was a part of the power-play and penalty-killing units that cost the Sabres dearly in Thursday’s opener.
Not only did the power play go scoreless, it couldn’t convert during a two-minute, two-man advantage early in the second period. The penalty killing allowed two goals in three tries.
The Sabres generated chances on the power play – center Tage Thompson said they had about 12 – but couldn’t convert.
To improve their power play, Appert said coaches did a “deep dive” with the team’s analytics group, which studied key factors that generate success during the man advantage and produced a 50- or 60-page report. Appert distilled that information into about five pages for players.
Early in training camp, Appert said the power play worked to solve pressure on the ice.
Meanwhile, Ruff, who lost three of his top killers in Byram, Tuch and winger Jordan Greenway, said following Thursday’s loss the Sabres will experience “a little bit of pain early on” killing penalties.
For example, he said forward Josh Norris, a new killer, was about a foot away from stopping Knies from scoring. Norris, however, moved too high.