“I’d Anticipate Him Playing” | Lindy Ruff On Michael Kesselring’s Return | Buffalo Sabres

“I’d Anticipate Him Playing” | Lindy Ruff On Michael Kesselring’s Return | Buffalo Sabres

chance to play tomorrow. Yeah, there is. Um, based on today, uh, things look good tomorrow morning. I would anticipate him playing. I mean, I know we talked about before, but just what does he offer? Um, good two-way player. Um, skates well, uh, moves the puck well, shoots it well. So, uh, um, it’ll be good to get him back in. You I like what I saw her in camp. smile on his face throughout practice as he just had that infectious energy on the ice for the guys. Yeah, you know, I think uh he was so disappointed. It’s you know, he told me it’s the first time he’s really been hurt, never been hurt before. So, um you know, I think he’s just glad to get back in the get back in the mix and get back out there. What does it mean for the stretch of hockey you guys have been playing that it’s a welcome addition, not somebody that you necessarily need back or need to plug a hole? Uh, I just look at it. It’s always good to get bodies back. Uh, you know, we’ve had a lot of bodies going out. Uh, to get bodies back is a is a positive for us. Uh, uh, you know, we think he can be a big part of our defense. I think you look at that defense uh, with him going in another a big guy who can skate and move. I I think you’ve seen this through this segment of games how valuable it’s been with our D getting involved and getting up ice and you know I think he can he can help us with that too. You know the easiest places to defend is to play in the offensive zone and I think we’ve done a better job of that. developed a rapport with Owen Power in the preseason, but Owen has played really well with Conor Timonss. Are you hesitant? Yeah. And not you, you know, I think he’s I had a conversation with him yesterday about, you know, where kind of we’ll start him off, you know, getting him back in. Um, you know, and I think I mentioned you guys, I don’t really didn’t really have anything etched in stone when we were going through camp. I said, well, we really felt we we had some guys that had a connection, but I think right now we’ve Like you mentioned, Timmans and Power have played well together. They’ve played against top lines. Uh I look at it, we got a group of six that, you know, really can play against anybody and now playing as well together as they have in the past. Sam playing real well. So maybe switch it up a little bit. Yeah. You know, I think if you go back to last year that that pair played, Dolly and Samson really played well. I think they, you know, a little bit of compliment each other where um although Sammy’s turning into an offensive guy now, maybe Dolls can do the defending and Sammy gets up. I mean, if you look at the start of the game, the the play Samson jumped right in the hole. Point blank scoring opportunity almost like he had in the previous game. Um, we need that. We need that from from the group to to help create. Think the other day, you know, you’ve used three in the last three games. Do you want to keep them all active? Like is there a plan? Do you want to go with the hot hand? Like do you have any You know, I think I I pretty well went into depth about the three and then it’s it’s really we’re lucky to have three guys that can play uh rather than having a couple guys hurt and and looking for somebody who can play. Um it’s not the most comfortable situation. I don’t think it’s comfortable for them. Um we’ll take it game at a time. Like I said, we, you know, UPPL is coming off an injury that, you know, pushed him out of the lineup last time. Uh, we got to be sure with him, you know, where he’s at. U, but I think we’re really fortunate to have three guys that we can put in put in goal right now. Alex Lion kind of has some leadership to him and that I know it looks different for a goalie to lead, but have you noticed some of that? Yeah, I I do. I think he’s, you know, there’s some years of experience there that, um, in some ways he really understands, you know, how a team needs to play to be to be effective. Um, you know, what saves a goalie has to make to help the team out a lot of times. Um, you know, key saves at key times. And uh uh I think he’s been around teams where he just understands that, you know, if we’re going to get to point B, we’ve got to do, you know, this and this and this and make sure we do it on a consistent basis. And um I I’ve liked I’ve liked him in the room and and goalies aren’t very vocal very often, but uh he is a guy that is not afraid to, you know, talk about the game a little bit. Let’s see. He gets the high, wins his first game, gets interviewed on TNT, then is out Saturday due to the back issues. Back on the ice today. How is he handling kind of the ups and downs of the last few days? I told him he got old man back. He’s not 19 anymore. You know, he’s older and now the back tightens up and um you just, you know, you fight through a little. It’s just a circumstance you fight through. Um he’s handling it well. Um uh awfully disappointed he wasn’t able to play. Uh, which is good, but that’s the unexpected that happens in the game. And again, that’s, you know, we can mention three goalies. All of a sudden, we got three goalies. We got two goalies we can have in the game. Um, there’s a plus for that. Back to normal today. It seemed Yeah, it felt a lot better. Uh, I would anticipate him being, you know, full go. goes he’s I don’t think he’s ever played this much and he’s a guy you targeted in the offse and really liked just what what has he done to earn this ice time well? Yeah, I think you know play well. He’s his penalty killing has been very good. His his defending um he has made a big difference when it comes to killing penalties. has become our, you know, number one right-handed, you know, and I think that right-handed shot is important for, you know, getting pucks out of the zone. When you’re going going back for pucks on, at least in his side of the net, you’re not going back in your backhand. Uh, so I guess number one is defending and penalty killing has been good, but his breakout, breaking a puck out has been really good, too. and he’s done that sometimes with passing and he’s done that sometimes with his legs which uh I think you know has really helped our team doing a five on three is for the power play but today I know you spent some time with the killers it just as much for the power play five on three as it was for the penalty killers today really was for the five for was for the forwards we were just trying to mess with those five guys a little bit trying to confuse them um trying to give them different looks because we didn’t we didn’t adjust very well to the way Toronto uh was killing against us. That was, you know, the area we wanted to improve. So, we were just trying to throw some stuff at those uh at those five on three power play guys that they wouldn’t expect and wanted to see them react to it. You know, like if they’re going to come out and take the flanks away, what are you going to do? Uh if we’re going to sit back, what are you going to do? I think you saw initially great read by Dolls right away. He shot one. If you’re going to give me that shot, I’m taking it. Um the other night they they sat on both flanks and we had three on one down low, three on one down low and we didn’t use it at all. Um and that read was a read we needed, you know, as they came out to get Thompson and and Dalene, we needed the play to go low. So we just just practicing just trying to get better. In terms of the schedule, um kind of clearing out a little bit. Obviously, you play the the five over eight games, but now you have a couple of days to practice to kind of get some more time, some more rest for some of these guys. Is that something that you look forward to during these parts of the season where it opens up a little bit? Uh there’s two things actually can happen. You know, when you’re playing and you’re going pretty well, you like to be playing. uh if you’re not going well, that kind of that break gives you a little bit of time to to work on things that you know you feel the team needs, you know, and you’re always working on something. Uh you know, we’re trying to put more focus on faceoffs. Our faceoff percentage still isn’t near where we need to get it to. You know, some of the five on- three power play. Um so there’s there’s definitely things that we kind of recapped and thought we’re at this point. What do we need to get better? uh little bit of forche being better create more pressure available tomorrow or later this week. I don’t think Jordan will be, but I I would anticipate him being a good possibility for for Boston. Yeah, he should be he should be cleared to play too. Would be available. So, all kind of healthy news. Thank you.

Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff spoke to the media after practice on October 27, 2025. Ruff gave injury updates on Michael Kesselring, Jacob Bryson, Colten Ellis and Jordan Greenway and when the team can expect them to play again. He also discussed the play of Alex Lyon this year and what kind of leadership he brings to the team and other goaltenders. Ruff also talked about the start to the season the team has had and where they can improve on going forward.

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