BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Sabres walked into their locker room for practice on Monday morning and the NHL standings were staring them in the face. On the television screen in the room, the Western Conference and Eastern Conference standings were on display.
Lindy Ruff isn’t one of those coaches who subscribes to the theory that players shouldn’t be worrying about the standings. Ruff started the season saying the Sabres needed to have urgency from Game 1. This is just the latest way he’s trying to send that message.
“The standings are part of what you need to look at,” Ruff said. “You need to know where you are, whether it’s a point or two out of a wild card or three or four or five points out of the third spot in your division, you need to have that awareness. Some people say they don’t like to look at the standings. Well, we’re playing games where, for me, you have to know where you’re at if you want to know where you want to get to.”
The last couple of seasons, Don Granato didn’t have any of that signage in the room. He didn’t want to introduce more external pressure on a young team still trying to take the next step. But Ruff is taking a different approach. In the 2005-06 season, when Ruff was in his first stint as the Sabres’ coach, then-captain Chris Drury implored the team to put a picture of the Stanley Cup on the wall in the locker room. The reasoning was similar to Ruff’s. You need to know what it is you’re chasing and be reminded of it on a daily basis.
As of this writing, the Sabres are two points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, but there are also three teams between them and the Bruins in the standings. According to The Athletic’s playoff projection model, the Sabres have a 13 percent chance to make the playoffs. Money Puck has Buffalo’s chances projected at 16.8 percent. The Bruins, Senators and Islanders are all higher in both models. If the Sabres didn’t feel the urgency of the playoff chase, they should now.
“I think a lot of years we’ve been chasing at the end and we had that urgency in the last 20 games,” Sabres center Peyton Krebs said. “That’s not what you want obviously. We’re coming into this spot now where, ‘Let’s play like it’s the last 20 games.’ Because we don’t want to be chasing in March. That’s the goal and we put that up to show where we’re at because we need to get going here. There’s a few teams that have separated themselves and other than that, it’s anyone’s ball game really. That’s obviously exciting. But you don’t want to be in that little group that might, might not. You want to separate yourself. We just have to play every game like it’s a Game 7. You have to take every frickin’ game like it’s your last. Every point matters.”
Realistically, the Sabres are battling for either third place in the Atlantic or the second wild-card spot. The Panthers and Maple Leafs have built a nice cushion as the top two teams in the Atlantic, and the Lightning are in the driver’s seat for the third spot. The Hurricanes, Rangers, Devils and Capitals all look like strong bets to make the playoffs in the Metropolitan Division.
The Sabres, meanwhile, haven’t gotten over .500 at any point this season. They are 0-4 in games when they have a chance to get above .500. They are 21st in the NHL in expected goal differential, according to The Athletic’s model. They are 20th in expected goal share at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick. They’ve earned their place in the standings.
The Sabres have repeatedly learned the lesson that there are no easy games in the NHL, but it needs to sink in. They got beat handily by the Flyers on Saturday after losing to the Canadiens early in the week. They also have losses to Detroit, Columbus, Pittsburgh and the Islanders. That’s six losses to teams currently outside the playoff picture. Yet the Sabres have wins over the Rangers, Stars and Panthers, proving they can rise and fall to the level of their competition.
“It’s all about consistency right now,” Sabres center Tage Thompson said. “We know when we commit to playing the right way we’re good. Right now I think it’s just us being a little immature and thinking we’re better than we are instead of relying on what has gotten us results. I’ve said this before but we get a couple of wins and start to feel good about our game and we try to rely on skill over work ethic and think we’re going to get an easy win here or there. There’s no easy win in this league. Anyone can win on any given night.”
Thompson said he loves having the standings in the room because it can be easy to lose sight of where you are in the race when you’re grinding through the season. It’s easier to keep the wins and losses in perspective when you can see the big picture.
“That was an ugly loss to Philly, but we’re still two points out of third place in the Atlantic,” he said. “We’re in a good spot. That gives you a little more perspective on where we’re at, how valuable these points are and how much more desperate we need to play.”
The Sabres assigned goalie Devon Levi to AHL Rochester on Monday. (Kevin Sousa / NHLI via Getty Images)
Quick hits
1. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is set to return this week after missing the last two games with an injury. With Luukkonen healthy and James Reimer back on the roster, the Sabres decided to send Devon Levi down to Rochester. I wrote about that possibility on Saturday after Levi had another challenging night mostly due to poor play from the team in front of him.
Levi’s circumstances haven’t been ideal this season. He’s had long stretches between games, and the team hasn’t always been sharp when he’s in. But Levi is also not playing as well as he did at times last season. He’s fourth to last in the NHL in goals saved above expected, according to Money Puck, and has a .870 save percentage along with a 3.95 goals-against average.
“He needs to play, simple as that,” Ruff said. “This is the first time in his career he’s dealt with this. I think it was one game in a month. That’s not easy on a goaltender. It’s not easy on a young goaltender. You need to find some rhythm and see game-like chaos, which you don’t get in practice.”
That’s the exact challenge Levi and I spoke about last week. Having three goalies on the roster wasn’t going to help Levi’s development, either. The Sabres do play a back-to-back on this trip out west, so it’s likely Reimer will get a game against either the Ducks or the Sharks, two of his former teams. How Reimer plays could determine how soon Levi gets another chance to play in Buffalo.
2. The Sabres were without Alex Tuch and Jordan Greenway at practice on Monday. Tuch is dealing with a minor injury and his status for Wednesday is uncertain. Greenway won’t travel with the Sabres and will land on injured reserve with an injury Ruff described as “week to week.” Ruff said it’s a mid-body injury. With Greenway out, the Sabres recalled Isak Rosen from Rochester. The 2021 first-round pick has 13 points in 14 games in the AHL this season.
3. Buffalo will need Rosen as insurance on this trip because Thompson is also still dealing with a lower-body injury. Ruff wouldn’t commit to Thompson being available on Wednesday when the Sabres play the Kings. Thompson said practice was the first real test of the injury and he felt it a bit after the skate. The lower-body injury is one Thompson said can be reaggravated, so he doesn’t want to rush back too quickly. He’s close to ready, though.
4. Henri Jokiharju is going to draw back into Buffalo’s lineup on Wednesday. Jokiharju has been a healthy scratch for the last six games after starting the season as Rasmus Dahlin’s partner on the Sabres’ top defensive pair. He, Dennis Gilbert and Connor Clifton all rotated on the third pair in practice.
While Ruff has tried to get Jokiharju to play with more physicality and also make a strong first pass coming out of the zone, Jokiharju’s had impressive underlying statistics this season. The Sabres have a 1.65 goals-against average when Jokiharju is on the ice in all situations. That’s the best among all of Buffalo’s defensemen.
(Photo: Bill Wippert / NHLI via Getty Images)
