BUFFALO – Sabres coach Lindy Ruff cut off a reporter, refusing to let him finish the question.
“Bull(crap). Bull(crap),” an agitated Ruff interjected when asked about the perception his team did not respond properly Sunday afternoon when New Jersey Devils winger Stefan Noesen hit leading scorer Tage Thompson in the head, knocking him out of the Sabres’ 4-3 win. “Let’s go. Next question.”
Ruff said Thompson, who scored one goal and three points as the Sabres extended their winning streak to three games, passed all of his tests and is fine. The winger did not return to the game after Noesen leveled him after he lost the puck inside the New Jersey blue line 5:11 into the third period.
As a helmetless Thompson knelt on the ice trying to collect himself, none of the Sabres went after Noesen, who also cross-checked winger Jason Zucker after he scored in the second period.
Noesen received a five-minute match penalty and a game misconduct. The suspect hit will possibly earn him a suspension.
But Sabres did not make him pay for an illegal hit to perhaps their biggest star.
“That’s definitely on us,” defenseman Mattias Samuelsson said of how the Sabres reacted to the hit. “I was on the ice, I take some responsibility for that, I didn’t really know what happened or who did it. It’s bull(crap), too, when the guy gets kicked out and you can’t respond afterwards.
“Yeah, I do think, myself included, needs to do something about it. I think there was a lot of confusion and stuff going on.”
Zucker, who was also on the ice, said he did not see the hit.
“If you watch the replay, I immediately turn, I’m looking.” he said. “I thought it was a different guy. It was really hard to tell. It happened quick.”
Ruff, who noted he watched the replay after the game and did not like the hit, said a couple of Sabres wanted to go after Noesen right away.
“Where we were at in the game, there was going to be a time we were going to even the score,” he said.
That time will have to wait. The Sabres and Devils don’t play again this season.
“Our response is we won,” Zucker said. “He can hit me from behind – we scored a goal. So, I mean, he made two plays that cost their team a win, so we’ll take that all day. We can talk about responding, but you’re not gonna go do something that’s gonna cost our team a win when you don’t know what happened.
“So I could’ve dropped my gloves and tried to fight someone, but … I’m gonna get kicked out of the game. If I respond differently after he hits me after my goal, I’m going to take a penalty and that’s gonna cost us, possibly. So a lot of the time, the best response is to not do anything.”
Captain Rasmus Dahlin said the Sabres “probably didn’t know who” hit Thompson.
“We have to work on that,” he said of their response. “I think that’s a thing that cannot happen.”
Tage Thompson takes a high hit from Noesen, received a match penalty #Sabrehood #NJDevils pic.twitter.com/8A7pbXRvfP
— Buffalo Hockey Moments (@SabresPlays) February 2, 2025
The Sabres, who led 4-2 when Thompson left, gave up a short-handed goal to superstar Jack Hughes during their five-minute power play.
If the Sabres had pulled away late, then perhaps they would’ve gone after other players to send a message. Instead, they killed two late penalties and eked out a win a game in which they led by three goals twice.
“We’re getting better at grinding,” Ruff said. “I like the aggressiveness, even the last 30 seconds. We went after them. … We’re still making some really ill-advised decisions with the puck that are costing us, but we are getting better at grinding.”
It would help the Sabres if they made that grinding part of their identity and life tougher on their opponent. New Jersey has sandpaper to match its skill.
“I think it’s hard to play against teams that have that edge to them, for sure,” Samuelsson said. “I definitely think it’s something we could get definitely better at in our game.”
The Sabres pounced on New Jersey early, opening a 3-0 lead by the 19:31 mark of the first period before the crowd of 15,710 fans in KeyBank Center. Thompson scored at 8:11 before winger JJ Peterka made it 2-0 at 15:50. Center Ryan McLeod scored on a short-handed breakaway to give the Sabres a seemingly commanding lead.
Still, the Sabres, who have a penchant for blowing multi-goal leads, let New Jersey back in. Paul Cotter scored early in the second period before Zucker responded late.
Then Cotter scored again 18 seconds into the third period, beating Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen from an odd angle on the left wing.
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Devils center Nico Hischier, their captain and one of the NHL’s best all-around players, missed the game with an upper-body injury.
Ruff, having coached Hischier for four years, has a special appreciation for his talents.
“That’s significant because he’s your faceoff guy, he’s your power-play guy, he’s your penalty-killing guy,” he said. “He was a guy that I trusted in every situation, played against every top line. I likened him to (Patrice) Bergeron in Boston, that’s how much I thought of him.”
He added: “I think his game is … underappreciated.”
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Sabres defenseman Henri Jokiharju has been named to Team Finland’s roster for the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off as an injury replacement.
Luukkonen, Jokiharju’s close friend, is also on Finland’s roster.
The tournament runs from Feb. 12 to 20 in Boston and Montreal.
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The Sabres dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen, using Dennis Gilbert as an extra on the blue line.
They scratched center Tyson Kozak (illness), defenseman Connor Clifton (illness) and forward Sam Lafferty (healthy).
Notes: Thompson’s assist on Peterka’s score was his 300th NHL point. Ruff said he’s available to practice today. … Owen Power recorded nine shots on goal, the most by a Sabres defenseman since Christian Ehrhoff on Feb. 3, 2014. … Dahlin registered two assists, giving him 331 career points and breaking a tie with Mike Ramsey for the second-most points by a defenseman in franchise history. … New Jersey pulled goalie Jake Allen after the second period and replaced him with Nico Daws.