BFHS 10/16/25: Sabres get off the mat…for now

BFHS 10/16/25: Sabres get off the mat…for now

Good morning everyone. The Baker Fairburn Hockey Show is live here on Thursday, October 16th, 2025 following the Sabres 84 doubling of the Ottawa Senators Wednesday night down at Key Bank Center. I’m your host Chris Baker here as always with your Sabres B writer from the Athletic, Matthew Fairburn. You can find all of Matthew’s work at the athletic.com/sabers. And Sabres finally got another win last night. Matthew. Um, pretty interesting game flow, I guess. You know, if you look at things and just kind of step out of the result for a minute. Sabres kind of had a very weak first period. They exploded in the second period. Third period wasn’t exactly their greatest effort, but they did pot a few goals. So, let’s just kind of do the rundown real quick on how they got to that 8-4 victory. Jack Quinn, Jason Zucker, Ryan Mloud each with a pair of goals. Alex Tuck with a goal and an assist. Yuri Kulich adds an empty netter. Notable effort from Zack Benson, and we’ll get into this, I’m sure, with four assists. And Josh Don continued his nice start to his Sabres career with three assists. Alex Lion stops 32 of 36 to get his first victory in a Buffalo Sabres uniform. So again, this is another morning edition of the Baker Fairburn Hockey Show. If you’re watching on YouTube on your way in, hit that like button on the video, subscribe to the Sabres Prospects YouTube channel, hit that notification bell so you know when Matthew and I go live. You can find the Baker Fairburn Hockey Show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get podcast. If you could, please leave. Hey, five star review. That’s a tougher one early in the morning. Matthew, I was running out of breath there. But let’s talk about warms you up there with that uh that quick intro. Gets the lips moving, baby. Gets the lips moving. So sat down to watch the game last night. We didn’t kind of know what was going to happen with Yuri Koulik entering the lineup. I had some concerns that Lindy was going to outright just not play him, which would have been a catastrophic error, I think, for Lindy Ruff. So glad to see that he came to his senses and alerted you as such in his morning briefing. But to me, before I throw it to you, I’m just going to say like this was kind of what we talked about when we got together on Tuesday morning was like this team really missed Zack Benson through the first three games and I think it kind of showed last night. Agree or disagree? 100% agree. And it probably is a good place to to start off generally with Benson and the injuries, right? Because I think there’s a couple points to make about the injuries. We said that Benson was probably the guy they were missing the most out of out of the group. And I think that showed up last night in a key way. I I mean, you could sum it up in one word, energy, right? And I was going to say effort, but yeah, one of them team had the team played with energy and passion. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they did so with Benson in the lineup. This does not I don’t think you come out of this game saying, “Wow, all the Sabres need to do is get healthy.” Right? I don’t think even Lindy Ruff would go that far. because he did mention right that they’ve been banged up after the game. He’s like, you know, when he was talking about how badly they needed a win, he’s like, you know, we have been banged up, but we also can’t make excuses. Like, we didn’t earn enough in those first few games. We didn’t deserve enough. We didn’t fight enough. The exact quote from him was, uh, you still have to fight your way through the tough parts of the season. Our fight wasn’t good enough in the first three games. I don’t care whether we’re hurt or not. We didn’t earn enough. We didn’t deserve enough. We didn’t fight enough. And I thought tonight we fought for everything we got. And Zack Benson is the type of player who fights for everything he gets. He plays, but he’s also not just I I think he gets mistaken for just an effort guy at times, too. But last night and during the preseason, I am seeing the next level of playmaking from him. The game is slowing down a little bit for Zack Benson. He is making passes, making plays that are next level that will get his offensive production to where everybody wants it to be. You know, we did a a wrap around all 32 bold predictions in the Athletic and I filed it, I think, an hour before he got hurt at practice. But my one bold prediction for the Sabres was 60 points for Zack Benson. Of course, he gets hurt and I’m thinking, um, you know, what did I do here? But last night, I’m thinking I undersold him a little bit. Like, you know, I I think 60 is going to be an interesting number to track. It’ll be a It felt a little bold when I when I made it, but it feels realistic at the same time with the the role that he’s getting. You know, he’s got some made a great play short-handed like he’s getting extra ice time. He has fully earned Lindy Ruff’s trust and I just see a a bit more quickness. He’s stronger and the playmaking, like I mentioned, they all seem to have taken a step. And the energy, the tenacity, the smarts, none of that went anywhere, right? This is all baked into his game. Everything else is starting to come. And so it’s one night, you know, and it wasn’t perfect for him, but he made a huge difference to a team that started playing with energy and a little bit of fire and they were having fun. And isn’t that just Zack Benson? Like this guy just loves playing. He’s out there every night bringing it. And it was notable to me, too, that they the crowd was really into it. Not a good not a large crowd, just under 14,000, but they got into it on Ottawa’s second goal when there was the scramble around the net and the refs reviewed it and they’re booing the refs. They’re going nuts. They’re booing the refs after the challenge and then that short-handed goal that Zack Benson set up with a great pass. The place went nuts. And maybe it’s just because it’s been so quiet in there and been so angsty in there the first couple of games, but it was like, man, that’s quite the pop for 14,000 people. And I think the players noticed it and fed off of it. And they got into that scrum with the Senators. All people want, anybody who’s listening to this, anybody who was in the building last night, all they want is a team that plays, frankly, the way Zack Benson plays. So, good call out by you. good place to start because I think he is the straw that stirs the drink in a lot of ways. No, I think he is. Um, you know, definitely showed last night. I think you just kind of captured it succinctly there. His impact on the lineup, his impact on the crowd. Uh, you know, we’ll see if they can carry that over on your 60point prediction. I think he kind of made up for missing the first three games. He’s now on pace for 316 after the four assist effort last night. I think that’s a point per game. Even if you if you like, you know, if you had gone pointless in the first three, it’s like, all right, he’s a point per game now, you know, on an 82 game. Uh so yeah, it’s pretty that was a a a good start for him. If he gets some special teams time, it’s like 60 points is he is a playmaker, man. It’s kind of interesting. You know, Lindy could have named probably 10 or 12 players in his pregame availability in the morning. And I think it was in response actually to a question that you asked, but he named some players specifically that he had to pull aside and have a one-on-one talk with, you know, because it really again the the question coming into the game was was he going to scratch Erie Koulik? It looked like that was possible on Wednesday, I’m sorry, at Tuesday at practice um with some uncertainty, right? land in the morning of I think you were asking him about other players or you know like how do you pick your spots I think was how you frame the question of when to pull a guy out or when to talk to him but he mentioned specifically he didn’t mention Jack Quinn he could have easily but he mentioned Ryan Mloud Jason Zooker Alex Tuck as guys that he needed maybe to get more out of and those guys came and showed up last night I thought that that was kind of interesting the guys that he named specifically in the press and in the morning of. I’m not sure they were listening, but I’m sure whatever message that he had wanted to give to them in their one-on- ones or whenever he was pulling them aside seemed like it sunk in. Those guys showed up. But I don’t want to sit here and say that the game last night was just all peachy. They came out in the first period, they had three shots on goal. They only had four shots on goal in the third period. again, they really rode the the momentum of a of a strong middle period. And we talked on Tuesday about the Sabres best players needing to be their best players to get them out of this. And what did you see from the Sabres best players? Like we know like you know the middle of the pack kind of showed up. We just named a couple of those guys, but what about Thompson? What about Dene? What What did you see from them last night in this 8-4 win? It’s easy to look at this the result and say, “Oh man, Ta and Rasmus must have had excellent games last night.” But I’m not sure that was the case. No, I didn’t think in particular Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dene were they weren’t the Sabres best players last night. Um they Tage Thompson in particular had some ugly numbers at five on five. He was on the ice for three goals against uh not on the ice for a single goal four at five on five. Scoring chances were 11 to1 in favor of the Senators when he was out there. High danger chances were six to nothing. So he was not a major contributing factor to this game. Uh not in a positive way anyways. And remember, this is a Senators team that was without Brady Kachchuck uh and playing a backup goalie who did not have a stellar night. Raasmus Dene Savers were outscored two to nothing with him on the ice at five on five. Out chanced 12 to four. High danger chances were six to do. Dene did pick up, you know, a point, a couple points. Yeah. So he he was a bit better than than Thompson, but um that top group seemed to to have, you know, a little bit of trouble. I thought Alex Tuck played well. Um got the goal at the net front. His energy, you know, was was notably better. And uh I spoke to we’ll get into to Alex probably a little bit more in his situation, the contract, everything else. I know he’s kind of a a focal point for the fan base in a lot of ways. I spoke to him yesterday for a story that’ll probably run uh either later today or early tomorrow morning. But his energy has an impact on the rest of the group, you know, on and off the ice. And I thought, you know, the the look on his face when he scored the goal and, you know, you could see him kind of in between uh whistles over at the bench, like they need that. And I give this team credit. Like we could definitely poke holes in what happened last night and they could turn around and lay an egg on Saturday and rattle off a couple more losses. Like it it doesn’t change a lot of what we talked about on Tuesday. But what I give the players credit for because a lot of what we talked about on Tuesday wasn’t necessarily directed specifically at the players, right? Like they’re in a tough situation where when they lose three games out of the gate, it’s different than if almost any other team in the league loses three games out of the gate. Yeah. Because of the context that they have a hand in, but it’s not entirely on them. And they undoubtedly feel the weight of that. Now Jason Zooker is a master of the postgame press availability of just diffusing everything and think he’s like you know in the room it wasn’t as big a deal as it was to everybody outside you know we were we were keeping it levelheaded and I’m like h I don’t know if that’s totally the case based on the way on the outside it’s three games in 14 years Jason well I also don’t know if it’s totally true what he says because Ta and Dene were pretty frustrated after the game the other night Now, were they able to snap out of that the day after? You know, maybe. But I think Zooker has a way of of speaking that diffuses thing. Think about after the Devils game where he was like, “Oh, we didn’t see it.” You know, he was able to kind of deflect away. And after the opening night loss, he was he was funny and and kind of disarming. But there’s no doubt that these guys were starting to feel some of that weight. If they go to 0 and4, the weight would have just got heavier and heavier. And they allowed that goal that made it two to one. Lindy challenged, which I thought was a desperate and careless challenge. Yes. For goalie interference. And you’re sitting there thinking, “Oh boy, it’s two to one now. They have to kill a penalty. This could get away from them.” And they score a short-handed goal. Get the crowd into it. start to run away with it early in the third period. They let up two goals in the first 2 minutes and 15 seconds. Their lead goes from 5 to2 to 5 to four. On the flip side for Lindy calls a great timeout. Well, you know, well timed, gets everybody settled down and they score two quick goals coming out of that. Uh and they pull away. So, two moments where they could have, you know, if they played to the narrative, if they played to what everybody on the outside thinks of them, they would have fallen apart. But they didn’t. And I I give them some credit for that. It’s got to be more than a one night thing, of course. But there were some encouraging signs that they really loosened up as a group, had some fun, played fast, loose, and they let up some chances as a result, and the game was a lot more entertaining uh than some of the ones they’ve played early in the season. But a good response from them, a needed response cuz they couldn’t they couldn’t go to 0 and4. No, they couldn’t go to 0 and4. They needed to play free. We talked about this on Tuesday. Body language, watching those dynamics on the ice, off the ice, on the bench, and so on. I thought that it was a better effort, but let’s not kid ourselves. That start to the game was not good. The faceoffs are not good. I don’t want to focus on the bad. I think the team should be happy to get the win, but they do need to get off to a better start. It’s I think it’s going to be very rare. It’s going to be a rare event in the league this year that they’re going to have two bad periods statistically anyways and not get a lot of scoring chances, not get a lot of shots, get out chanced and come away with a victory like they did last night. But I appreciate you calling out the improvement in the attitude, the energy. It was visible. They need to get the crowd in the game when they’re at home. They need to get off to better starts, though. I can’t get off that in my mind. Three shots on goal. I think all of them were on the power play last night in the first period. It’s but that’s part of that fight that they had to do within the game to get it back on track. Come out in the second period, do their thing. Couple notable performances from last night. I think there’s two players that we should talk about. One you’re, you know, that I want to go to and one that maybe one quick before you gohead jump to those players. You texted me in the second period last night, you know, are they going to feel like they they accomplished something like this six to five, you know, loss is going to is going to really be a kick. I did. I said it’s going to be a kick in the nuts when they lose six. Yeah. And they scored those first two goals and I was like in in the third period the Senators did and I was like, “Oh boy, like you might have nailed this.” But uh but yeah, go ahead with those those other two players because I think just like in the course of a game where you’re like, are they going to feel like they accomplished something? Are they going to wake up? Are they going to get to practice on Friday feeling like they accomplished something or are they going to start to stack stack these efforts together? No, it was good. It was a good response for them to keep fighting even after that bad start to the third. To your point, I I was I’m I’m happy for Sabres fans to get that win. I’m happy, you know, for a day that they can just kind of let their hair down a little bit. But my point is is that to your point, can’t rest on your laurels with that win because I think it was kind of an anomaly in the in the grand scheme of things. But two players that I think that we need to call out. One is more just a statistical note and I’ll start there. Owen Power, four hits last night recorded from Owen Power. This is a player that has taken a beating from fans a lot. sometimes from you and I about using his body more. Did he wake up when he took a little jab in the face from Jiru? He did and that scrum at center ice a little bit more of it was one of the first times. I’m trying to remember the exact moment, but you mentioning power. He slipped my mind in the uh postgame column I wrote. But I’m glad you mentioned that because there was a moment I can’t remember the exact spot in the game that it was like the first time I can remember seeing his initial reaction after the whistle to be to go after a guy like not waiting until he gets shoved to like half-heartedly shove back. like the whistle blew, someone was in there and he he was like mad and I was like, “Okay, this guy is capable of getting mad and playing a little bit that way.” Look, nobody is expecting him to evolve into Chris Pronger overnight, but if he can play a little bit pissed off. Yeah, I think that is that would be a nice development. You know, I I think you don’t you don’t want him to really play that way all the time because it’s not his game and part of what makes him great is his poise with the puck. But when he doesn’t have it, if he’s got a little bit of fire, that’d be that’d be a good thing for this team. And let’s not forget, first few games, he was coming off an illness and coming off an injury late in camp. And he’s coming off the injury in general in the summer that, you know, impacted him a little bit. So, we’ll see if he gets going. But yeah, good call out by you because that slipped my mind. Something that was interesting. I think it’s something to watch. you know, if there’s this progression where and I don’t even know how else to say it, you know, physicality. I was gonna say like watching his balls drop, right, in that physicality department this year would be a monumental event for this blue line as they come together and as you have big guy Murka in the pipeline is going to come up and he’s going to bring that game. You know, I don’t want to go too far down the line in two years and say, “Wow, you know, this could be something on the blue line.” but power playing that way because of the minutes that he commands with his skill set. Adding just a little bit of that could go a long way for the team. So, I thought that that was interesting. Kessle Ring is not even there next to him yet. So, you know, bringing it back to the point off the top, it’s like Kessle Ring we thought would inject some a much needed element into this lineup when they traded for him and he’s still, you know, still not skating. So, it’s not like he’s coming back tomorrow, but when they get out there together, you know, what’s that going to look like compared to having, you know, when everybody starts to slot back into their appropriate places, this can be a different team. I don’t think anybody after the first three games was totally dismissing the injuries that this is a better team when they are healthy. But you want to see a team that can stay afloat because if you can’t stay afloat when you get injuries, it won’t matter when you get healthy cuz you’ll already have dug a hole too deep. So an ongoing challenge for them. But yeah, Power with Castle Ring, I’m I’m looking forward to seeing it because if if Power can have a little bit more of that and maybe he stands even taller when he’s got Kessle Ring who has that component to his game, the the physicality, then you’re right. I mean, that changes what the blue line looks like. It changes how they play. Maybe he can stand a little bit taller when he’s got, you know, some of those other guys sprinkled throughout the lineup. They’re not the Florida Panthers the way they’re assembled, obviously, but they do have more of that with Benson, you know, showing a little bit of that. Don showing a little bit of that. And Castle Ring’s got that to his game. Danforth plays pretty heavy. He left the game, didn’t return last night, but they they’re they need to play that way. And clearly the crowd wants to see it. So, uh the the bar is low for Sabres fans. Like, as bad as it’s been, they’re like, just just play hard. Show me that you care. Just play with passion and play hard. And they did that last night. You mentioned Don. He was the other player that I think we need to call out. It was hard to call out Josh Don as a bright spot when we got together on Tuesday, just because the taste of being 0 and3 was in everybody’s mouth. But it’s clear that when you just watch him play every shift, he’s the guy going. The forchecking, the speed, the urgency to get to a spot, to beat a defender to the spot, the way that he’ll use his body for position at in all areas of the ice in all different situations is notable. Good game last night statistically with the three assists. gotta just call him out, I think, because when you you can’t talk about Benson at the top without following close behind and bringing up Josh Don’s effort. We talked about him when he was acquired. He was a dog. You and I talked about him early on before the trade was even made. And what were we saying? We’re like like I don’t know that that’s a player that they want to give up. And then it kind of came out later after the trade. Some reporting was like, yeah, maybe there was a little bit of holdup with giving up Don. not because his father was a franchise legend, because of what he means to the team. And I think Sabres fans are starting to see that now very early in the season. I want to hear your perspective because you’re around the team on a daily basis at practice in the room. You’re down at the arena in the games, the impact of Josh Don, just kind of tell us what you’re seeing from your lens. Yeah, on the ice, I think he’s been their most consistent forward. It’s only four games, but I feel like if he’s not he’s one of their three best forwards every night so far. And you know, last night he didn’t he wasn’t one of the ones who scored, but I think you could make a case he was their best forward in the game. I mean, I love that they have him on the power play. Um, not even just for the net front, but he’s got he’s just a smart hockey player. So, like he’s got some playmaking to his game. He’s like you said, eager to beat, you know, players to the puck, right? Like eager to win puck battles, but strong enough to to consistently do it. And one of, you know, there’s I did a story on him over the summer, so I talked to, you know, people who know him and I believe it was his college coach, maybe his strength coach, who said he’s going to like the more ice time he gets, like as the game goes on, it’s like he he continues to rev up. And you see that like he doesn’t wear down, he wears the other team down. like they get sick of getting shoved off the puck and like you said his body positioning is really good but it’s also his attitude and I think his attitude is really important to this group in particular because not just because he comes from the outside and like the 14 years and all that doesn’t weigh on him the same because he’s fresh and new to everything. I mean, this will test this aspect of his attitude, but everything I’ve heard from people who know him and also everything I’ve seen uh and experienced interacting with him, he has a relentlessly positive attitude and his dad was the same way. his his whole family like this is the Don family when when you talk to people and I think that really matters in a room like this in a situation like this. He’s only 23 years old but he is a leader in that way and just a a guy that comes to the rink with a smile on his face. not in a naive or immature way, in a constructive trying to get things done way. We’ve talked about a lot that they need players who are drawn to fixing things, not guys who are, you know, going to be upset that they’re in Buffalo. Guys that are going to embrace the challenge. His dad told him when he got traded here, like, “Wow, that’s awesome. What an opportunity, right, to wake up and revive a hockey hungry fan base. Like, this is awesome. Go wrap your arms around it. He’s done that. Like, he is and it’s incredible. Yeah, he like h how many other people would have that reaction to being traded to Buffalo, right? like or how many other people like in an honest conversation with with their family would that be but that’s why he’s wired that way like he’s Shane Don’s son right Shane Don was that way in his career loyal to a team and in some dark times was trying to find ways out of it trying to find ways to fix it and committed to his franchise to his community to his teammates Josh Don is the same way and it’s only four games, but he’s also a good hockey player. Like, you know, he I don’t know exactly what the upside is scoring wise. I think it’s there. I really I really do think it’s there. But even if it’s, you know, 50 points, 40 to 50 points, like everything else he brings defensively, poor checking, power play, it’s it’s a it’s what this lineup is sorely lacking. JJ Purka had another goal last night, but the way Don is playing, I I don’t think Sabres fans are missing him all that much. No, it’s hard to say Sabres fans are missing Purka after they post eight goals, right, in a game, which got, you know, it just seems like it’s been a while. Somebody tweeted me last night and they’re like, I’m going to I’m going to start referring to this as the dome trade and I was like, fair enough. No, that’s that’s that’s nice to hear from the fan base in a way. I’m not here to be pompoms for the Sabres. I think you know that. But it is nice to not even for a day to maybe just not be constantly sucked into that negativity vortex, which listen, you could argue if you watch the podcast on Tuesday that maybe we did not help the negativity vortex. You know, we’re not here to like be positive all the time. You know what I mean? But you have to acknowledge the bright spots. You have to acknowledge when they put forth the effort. And that’s what we’re doing here today. I still want to see more of it. You know, you got it’s got to be more than one night, you know. It’s got to be more than one night. And I think yeah, I just I want to see better starts. I’m just I just the same things all the time that we talk about the starts with this group. Why? You know, but I don’t want to go off on that tangent, you know. It’s still on my mind apparently. It’s pretty clear. I mean they are it just has to be you have to see it more consistently to truly believe that the change is happening and I think over the course of an 82 game season we know they’re going to have games like they have last night right we know that every team in the league is going to have those games that’s just the league uh over the course of 82 games and we know the Sabres are capable of scoring goals. So, I mean, to score eight goals when you scored two in your first three games, it’s like um the power play finally got going. It’s just about to go there. Yeah. But, you know, it’s like just like last season. I did have the thought last night so much of this comes down to like the psychology that of that locker room and like you said on Tuesday we a lot of our focus was there it was like where is this going to how are they going to respond to all of this how are they tuning out the staff for a night at least they didn’t right you mentioned all the guys that were you know either called out by Lindy or had one-on-one meetings with Lindy responded So, it’s like, okay, let’s see if that, you know, you can stack some of those efforts together. But that was sort of the focus of of what we were talking about. Could they respond to some of this adversity? Could they respond to the people leading them? And I think that’s still going to be an ongoing conversation because the senators are off to a pretty slow start themselves. They were without their captain, Brady Kachchuck. They were playing a backup goalie who had a bad night. So, the defending champs are coming to town on Saturday for a 1:00 puck drop. They’ve got a ton of injuries of their own that they’re dealing with, but they’re still the Florida Panthers. Another test. And then you got the Canadians who are just a high energy, exciting, fun, young team that got to the playoffs last year, passed Dubai, and then you’ve got more division games, Detroit, two games against Toronto. Like, this is not going to be uh the solution. One game against the Senators, but they needed the weight off their shoulders. There’s no doubt about that. Yeah. And a player that needs some weight off his shoulders. You know, we mentioned some of those guys that did respond to Lindy’s message that they needed more out of. There’s still one that’s kind of sitting there and I think that we got to talk about Koulique a little bit and kind of figure out. It’s still early in the season. We know he’s a capable player. I think he still has star potential in this league last night. Empty netter. Great. It counts. You know, Jack Quinn had a ton of empty netters, didn’t he, last year? Or at least, you know, like he didn’t score a goal on a goalender for Cloud had five of them. So, uh, they, you know, got him to 20 goals and got him a big fat contract. So, so Koulik though, so I was concerned that, you know, Lindy could maybe go down this path of, we’ve seen him do this in the past, you know, Vanic and some of these other young players, ride him a little harder in the beginning of the careers, bench him, scratch him, whatever. Be concerned. I would be concerned if he did that, played that card here with Koulik. I’m glad that he didn’t last night that Koulik got out there and played, moved around. The lines in this game were all over the damn place for various situations that we can kind of get into. But did Koulik do enough last night? Cuz Lindy said, “I want to see what he does with this game.” He didn’t do enough. Um I don’t think he did enough. Yeah, that’s kind of where I’m going. Um I mentioned those five on five numbers from Taage Thompson. and Yuri Kik was right there with him cuz he played a decent amount with him. And I think the final tally at five on five for him was like a 9% expected goal share or somewhere in that neighborhood. Like, you know, not not great. But Lindy’s tone after the game, and this is where it’s on Lindy to handle this situation properly, his tone after the game was that he he still wants to see more, that there’s more there, and that he needs to grab hold of his confidence. And so that is where, you know, every player is going to be different. they’re not going to respond to everything the exact same way. Which is actually why I, you know, initially yesterday uh asked about Koulique, Ruff was like, I’m not revealing the lineup. So, when I followed up, I just said when you’re dealing with a situation like Koulique or any other as a coach, like how do you determine where to pick your spots? because in a situation like this, you could probably point to five guys that you could yank out of the lineup and send a message to. And he went out of his way to say, well, first of all, he caved and he was like, if you want to know, he’s playing and I I want to see, you know, how he responds. But he said, this is not about Yuri Koulik. There’s a lot of guys. And that’s when he singled out some of the guys you mentioned. And within that, he said Lindy himself did not have a meeting with Koulik, but he had Seth Appert sit down with him, which is probably smart. You know, the history uh in Rochester, and Seth Apperts probably had a lot of these difficult conversations with Koulie because he was not the most consistent player in the AHL despite, you know, the point totals. And to your point about how you were you were worried about this, right? I think the reason you were worried is, you know, the same reason like I wrote about the other day is like they need him. You don’t have Josh Norris. Like if you really want to make a point with somebody, you better be careful because you don’t have center depth even when he’s in the lineup at this point. you know, when Mloud’s playing the way he did last night, you’ve got a little bit of it, but like you don’t have a lot of a very strong center depth chart at the moment. So, yanking out arguably your highest upside center. I mean, I know Ta Thompson’s playing center right now, but like in an ideal world, they have him on the wing. It’s it’s a risky move because he’s still so young and if his confidence goes in the tank like you need this guy going, you know, you don’t sending a message is is tricky. So, they started him on the wing on the fourth line. They moved him up. He was playing with Tae Thompson for a while, but yeah, he never got going in this game and he did have a preseason injury, but Ruff hasn’t mentioned the injury as as an excuse for him at all. Like I think he would go out of his way to say like, “Yeah, he’s battling through something.” So if we’re to assume he’s healthy, like maybe it’s just one of those things where he’s got to get going, right? Like Ryan Mloud mentioned last night, he’s like, “I just didn’t feel like I had my legs in the first few games.” And you know, I don’t that can happen for various reasons, right? You know, you you pushed it too hard in camp or maybe you didn’t show up to camp the way you should have showed up. Like who knows exactly why that happens or why it’s happening with Koulique, but they’re going to need him. And and the legs are what Lindy Ruff keeps mentioning with Koulique. It’s like he’s not skating the way that he did. He’s not like carrying the puck out of the zone the way that he did. And this doesn’t work. This lineup doesn’t work without Koulique playing pretty well. He doesn’t need to be a 70point guy overnight, but but he needs to get going for sure. My hope was that Lindy was kind of toying with the idea of sitting them by giving him the lack of practice attention, right? Like he put him in the extra group and maybe my thought was that should be enough to wake the kid up. You don’t need to outright scratch him for the game because you do need him, but also send him the message in practice. See if he shows up in the game. Now I’m sitting here saying, “Okay, is he going to be in the game the next time the Sabres go out there?” And cuz now it’s interesting, right? You lose Danforth. We don’t know what the story is there. Did we get an update on Danforth as far as just lower body didn’t finish the game, so it’s, you know, we’ll see. They have an off day today and they practice again on Friday, but when a guy doesn’t finish the game, it’s usually a little bit of a a red flag. We’ll see. Who knows? But yeah, that’s one of the guys that’s your sort of versatile, can play center, those those right side face offs was playing a lot with Krebs. So, I mean, Kak’s playing pretty well, but I don’t think they want to put too many minutes on him. And so, yeah, they they don’t have a lot of room, wiggle room at center. Greenway’s not going to be ready to be put in the lineup at just at a forward. Let’s just forget center real quick, right? I think you don’t want to put Gearson back in. There is one scenario that if you want to sit Koolik that might make sense in the grand scheme of things again taking that long view is like is it a lever to pull for Lindy? I know you already said the windows closing. You know where I’m going with this when I say that. But I I the the one exception I would make I think to say okay if you’re gonna say Koulik bring up one of those young guys that keep nipping at his heel. Helenius Oslin. I don’t think it’s the best move. I would still prefer that let the kid play his way out of it just because I think from the mindset of the player, Koulik is not a guy that you need to bench. I think he needs to go out there and just play and figure it out. But if you’re going to bench him and listen, Koulik should be worried about anybody taking his bet. He should be. It doesn’t matter who. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 28-year-old guy or a 20-year-old guy. But I’ll tell you what, if it’s a 20-year-old guy or a 19-year-old guy that comes up and starts move, you know, kind of laying on his couch mowing his lawn, you know what I mean? I kind of wonder if uh that’s like enough to say, “Holy the light goes on for Koulique and whatever is it unlocks whatever is holding them back.” I don’t know. That’s just a thought, but it doesn’t sound like that’s going to happen. I think I did ask the other day about Oseland and Helenius specifically because of this. You know, I didn’t throw Roseanne into that bucket because it’s the the center position is the problem. Uh, and you know, Lindy Ruff said it’s been discussed, but because Benson’s coming back, because Greenway’s coming back, like the window might be closing a little bit. And to an extent, I get it from a numbers game standpoint, but also those two guys are wingers. They’re not helping out your center situation. And I think it’s the competition aspect of it is worth pointing out. I think there had there has to be some element with Koulique because we’ve seen him run hot and cold. Like there had to have been some part of him that felt like he arrived a little bit last year, right? Like that’s just psychology for a young kid, 20 years old, playing on the first line, got a lot of trust from Lindy Ruff, who everybody probably told him was this hard ass coach on young players. and he’s thinking, “Well, I don’t know. I’m on the first line. He seems to trust me, okay?” Uh, and so he probably had a little bit of that. I think anybody would naturally, but he needs to snap out of it one way or another because he certainly doesn’t look like somebody who’s arrived in these first four games. He’s been really struggling. And, you know, he wasn’t outstanding in the playoffs for Rochester either. So that’s sort of a continuation here. And Osland would be an interesting one. He’s off to a good start in Rochester and was picked what 11 spots ahead of Koulique and you know kind of this guy that Koulik’s been competing with already and certainly should be close to arriving, right? Like if Koulique is getting time as a number one center, it stands to reason one of his peers could be NHL ready pretty soon. And Helenius, I think you can see and and in the preseason he showed that he’s probably more on the Koolak timeline, right? Where like he can get to the NHL a little bit quicker than probably Osland, you know, just from an age standpoint because of the way he plays. He plays a different game. He he forchecks hard. He’s willing to hit. he’s got confidence and and and some swagger. So, I think it makes sense. Like, I almost reflexively lean away from that sometimes because it feels like I know it’s sort of the knee-jerk reaction from fans to just want to go to the next young guy, go to the next young guy, the next, but I also think it’s a unique situation, though. There’s logic to it here. And the and there’s two players who maybe they’re not ready to be full-time NHLers, but they could inject a spark offensively to a team that they had eight goals last night. So, for the time being, the the offensive concerns uh you know, took a night off, but they still had two goals in their first three games and lost their number one center, who’s a one-time 35 goal scorer. So, I don’t know that the scoring concerns are totally gone. and you have two players with creativity and and skill that maybe they’re ready. The scoring concerns aren’t gone. They had 27 shots on goal. 20 of them came in one period. I think those were the number something like that. Okay. The concerns aren’t gone. I And in the big picture when it comes to the young guys, I’m still in favor of philosophically suppressing the young guys a little bit, pushing them down, keep them hungry. But you got a lot of injuries right now. You have a player that you need to get going and it’s a it’s a short-term lever to pull maybe. That’s all I’m saying. Trust me, I agree. I’m not changing the philos. We had a conversation a couple weeks ago about why have they been rushing all these guys? Why have they been rushing all these guys? But at the same time, it’s also part of a developmental plan. Bring a guy up for a couple games, give him a give him a taste, send him back down. They could do that here and it accomplishes multiple goals. Get Koulique going. get the player that you’re trying to develop and some exposure, send him back. Something to consider. Again, I didn’t like that Lindy said that window is closing. It might not if Koulik doesn’t go, that window might not be closed. Well, and the reason I don’t love the idea that the window is closing is you have two guys on your roster right now at forward who aren’t aren’t helping your offense, right? Like Josh Dunn is not solving that problem. I like Josh Dunn. I like how he played in the preseason and how he’s played, but he’s not solving the problem offensively. I don’t think Mason Gearson definitely isn’t solving any of your problems offensively. And through four games isn’t solving any problems. He skated in warm-ups last night. Do we think that had the Ottawa Senators like shaking in their boots, you know, like maybe Gearson’s going to play? Uh, I doubt it. Um, he hasn’t he hasn’t fought yet and hasn’t been a notable physical presence. He only played four minutes each in the two games that he played. So, it’s like you do have room. You know, if you sent those two guys down, Greenway comes back, you still got a spot. right now. Lucinan’s going to come back and you got to figure out the goalie situation and so like there’s going to be some roster gymnastics, but also to your point, like Lindy said, the window is closing. Well, doesn’t that mean you should maybe take a chance on it before it closes, right? While you still have some of this flexibility with guys out, it would be sometimes that is the true motivator, right? We talked about this, you know, a lot of times with the whole accountability when that was the word of the summer a couple summers ago. It’s like the accountability happens when there’s somebody there to take your job, you know, when there’s somebody there that can truly push you. We’ve seen that with Lucinan at times, you know, when Levi comes up and now, you know, kind of a a side conversation here, but somebody has taken Ukopalucin’s job. I think Alex Lion, this is his net right now. Um, Rasmine gave him the sword last night. It looked like he was going to impale someone with it. Um, if you saw the video that they they posted after the game, he’s swinging it around and looked like a pirate. Um, but they gave him that, I think, because they realized, not because last night was his best game. I thought he played pretty well, made some good saves early when they were getting outshot heavily, but also because they recognized that in the first three games, he probably deserved a win somewhere. And it could have been a lot of wor it could have been a lot worse for the team. Those scores could have looked a lot uglier. Yes. And psych psychologically that would have been challenging I think and would have you know been even worse for the piling on that’s been happening with this team. So I think it is very much Alex Lion’s net just knowing Lindy Ruff and the way he likes to ride the hot hand. He played him he’s played him in every game. Four games in seven days he’s played him every game. So that’s probably my concern is that he had Lindy Ruff also has a tendency to kind of ride a goalie into the ground a little bit. But I don’t think Uko Pekalukan is just going to walk back into the same workload he had early last season. I think this is going to be much more at best for Lukan in 50/50 and I think he’s going to have to earn it back or Lion’s going to have to give it up. And that’s been that was a major question I had coming into the season. But um Lion has answered it early, has to keep it going, but he’s looked steady and the and the veteran poise reading the game, like it’s it’s all been there. So, it’s a a tangent, I know, from your your point about about the the kids coming up from Rochester. But, um when we’re talking about internal competition, Lion has created some for Lucin. Hey, listen, that that’s a great situation for the Sabres to be in. They don’t need to rush Lucin back. It’s a great situation for Lucan and if he has the maturity to see it that he doesn’t have to rush himself back to try to come in and save the day and no I think it’s great and I’m all you know how I feel about creating competition internally at every position every level all the time so no very he’s the bright spot with Don and now Benson those are the three stars of the first four games of the season in my opinion for the Sabres and I don’t think there was any debating there really shouldn’t be two other quick notes or questions for you before we get out of here this morning because we’re getting to be it’s getting to be time. Ryan Johnson, he only played a couple minutes last night. Nine shifts, a little over five minutes or just under six. Um I test for me pace again, that urgency, getting pucks out of the zone. I think he belongs. I don’t know why he didn’t play as much as he did last night. Something to monitor. Do you have a thought on Johnson? I’m with you that I thought he was playing well, but only five minutes when Jacob Bryson got 10 tells you tells you where he stands. I mean, Johnson Johnson’s the one who took the penalty in front of the net, right? Um hauling a guy down, but Bryson took a penalty flipping the puck into the stands. So, it’s like I’d rather have the one with the guy, you know, doing his job in front of the net than the guy putting the puck, you know, giving everybody a souvenir. This is going to be an ongoing thing, I think, is is where Johnson because of his situation where he doesn’t need waiverss and because Bryson’s more experienced that Johnson’s going to have to really go above and beyond to Yeah. to beat him out. and he I think has played pretty well, but he probably hasn’t made it such a no doubter that they’re willing to put Bryson on waiverss. So, I think if they get, you know, when they get to a situation where everyone’s healthy, it’s probably Johnson who’s who’s going to be playing for the Amirs. Fair enough. And I don’t disagree. Um guys can go down sometimes because they can. And that’s kind of exactly where Johnson is. You know, we’re talking about contractually. Uh, lastly before we wrap up, Dylan Cousins made his return to Buffalo last night. Do you think there was any juice there from the Sabres to maybe go a little bit extra with the energy and the effort to get a win in Dylan Cousins return with the Ottawa Senators? There could be. There could be. I mean, whatever works, right? Like I think Oh, yeah. Whatever motivator you can throw on the board. I just wondering if you felt anything, heard anything. saw anything. Not a tremendous amount of direct evidence on that, but look, the the conversation was certainly going to be, you know, it had the potential to become, look, the Sabres lost another trade, you know, if he scored a couple goals and if he, you know, and let’s not forget like this was a guy that called the team out as soft a couple years ago. A lot of those guys are still in the room. I don’t know if that what else, you know, was said behind the scenes if he was saying that publicly. He wasn’t wrong, by the way. But, um, he did have a tendency to to speak his mind. And so, yeah, I’m sure there was, look, this guy got to play in the playoffs last year. He’s, you know, he he’s probably thinking pretty highly of himself right now, feeling good about getting out of this situation in Buffalo. And if that played a role, then good, because they should have some pride uh in a situation like that. They should not want those guys to come into the building and and walk all over them. And unlike Jack Eel and Sam Reinhardt, who are not only superstars, but don’t have as much connection to the current group of players like Cousins does. Yep. You know, Cousins was supposed to be part of this core. uh supposed to be part of had a letter the group that changed things. Yeah. Had a letter. Yeah. I mean this was had a letter and the contract to go with it, right? And he he let them down in a lot of ways. I think let down the guys in the room the way he played and the way he led probably at times too. So, if that played a role, then then good on them because um I think fans are sick of seeing former Sabres come into the building and walk all over this team and make the team the the topic of conversation nationally the next day about all their failed trades cuz have they won that trade? No. like obviously uh Josh Norris is out for two months and um Jacob Bernard Docker is out of town so not not looking uh not looking great but you know have the senator you know his cousins what’s cousins going to become it’s still going to be interesting to track but they didn’t let him get the upper hand last night one assist three I think right one assist- three team high five shots on goal and one uh just over 69% of its draws for Ottawa in an 8-4 loss to the Sabres. So, that’s where we’re going to end it today. Matthew, another little coffee with Matt edition here at the Baker Fairburn Hockey Show. I’m liking these early shows again. I’m just going to keep kind of pinging you. Say, “Hey, you want to go in the morning? Want to go in the morning?” We just need we need a a local coffee shop to get on board and and sponsor the show. The uh the coffee with Chris, the wake and bakes. Uh that’s right. And there you go. Hour. And look, late night last night with the game, so the turnaround. I was curious to see how it would go. But this just wakes me up in the morning. And we didn’t even get into Alex Tuck, which we thought we would we would get to. But I think that’s good. I think it’s good to put a pin in because I’ve got a story coming first of all. So then Okay, do your plugs. We can talk about I’ve got a a story coming on Tuck that we can you know I had a conversation with him uh in the morning yesterday before the game on on Wednesday and I think we can put a pin in it because it’s you know it’s going to be an ongoing it’s an evergreen conversation until he signs a contract but you know they win a game and and the feelings are good you know nobody’s last night saying Alex Tuck is uh looking for the first ticket out of town. He looked like he had a hell of a time and um had a good conversation with him that he’s been pretty levelheaded about this whole thing. He’s not riding the same roller coaster that the fans on. So, that story will be coming. I have a postgame story from from last night that went live as we were recording this here so people can check that out and always find everything at the.comsabers. like this video so that Chris doesn’t get cranky and jump into the comment section. The comment section was lively. It’s almost like the uh the chat migrated to the comment section which is good for the algorithm. So, we like that. Keep that going. Likes are good for the algorithm. Comments are good for the algorithm. But your viewing, which we always appreciate, is also very good for the algorithm. Saber’s back in action Saturday 1:00 start. Matthew will be feverishly covering all the action of the Sabres as they take on the Panthers. And you never know, maybe we’ll be back for a live show very soon. Hit that notification bell so you know when that does happen. For Matthew Fairburn, you can find everything that Matthew does at theathletic.com/sabers for the production crew who is not used to me sitting with this ring light so early in the morning, but here we are. I’m Chris Baker. Thanks everyone again for watching the Baker Faber hockey show. We’ll see you again very soon.

Kris Baker and The Athletic’s Matthew Fairburn discuss everything Buffalo Sabres.

Follow Matthew at The Athletic. His game story from the Sabres’ 8-4 victory over Ottawa: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6721753/2025/10/16/sabres-senators-josh-doan-zach-benson-win/