“We Had Opportunities” | Lindy Ruff After 2-1 Overtime Loss To Utah Mammoth | Buffalo Sabres

“We Had Opportunities” | Lindy Ruff After 2-1 Overtime Loss To Utah Mammoth | Buffalo Sabres

You guys had a lot of scoring chances in the first period. They had a lot of scoring chances in the second period. Was it kind of weird that way how how that worked out? Yeah, it was uh you know was a game where momentum flows. Um you know we had some big opportunities in the first for sure that we didn’t take advantage of. I thought one of the biggest opportunities I think we missed the net in the start of the third period on the three and one. Uh, you know, I think we limited mainly limited their their rush plays, but uh, you know, they got really good speed inside the zone and that was causing a little bit of problem for us. Alex Lion certainly major reason you got a point game again. Yeah, played great. I think you need your goalie to play great, but the uh, number of bodies and the pieces we had to move around um, we needed our goalie to play well. He played really well for us. Lindy, your team’s had five straight overtime or shootout games and gotten only a second point in one of those. What does this team need to do to close out these kind of games now? You’ve been through it five times. Um, well, I mean, three and three is about winning one-on-one battles. Uh, you know, I think we had our chance. Tuck went down and then our coverage wasn’t good. Wasn’t good enough. We we lost coverage again on on the high cycle and we let Keller walk in. Um he shouldn’t get that easy a look. I mean he can get a look off of, you know, maybe our opportunity going the other way. I thought we should have stopped in front of the net. At the other end, we would have got a change. We even had fresh bodies on. Noah seemed to he spoke to a little bit this morning, but Noah seemed to be building towards something and he scores tonight. I mean, just what did you see see from him tonight? Yeah, you know, I think uh last game he played uh previous to this one was one of his best. Uh uh I like how that line played. You know, I thought for the most part that was uh that was probably our biggest threat usually was when those guys were on the ice. Uh so it was a good night. I thought Noah’s game, you know, defensively played really well. Uh helped us get out of our end in a hurry and uh a well-deserved goal. happened again with Alex Tuck coming down having a great chance right before theirs. You look back at the overtimes. You your your big players, your good guns have had great opportunities to give you those points, haven’t they? Yeah. Well, you look at the Toronto game, we had the opportunities. We had the opportunity again tonight. We didn’t finish. Um I think the biggest difference is when you get that, you have to finish. If if you don’t, you’re giving the other team at some point they’re going to get an opportunity to. You’ve had this run of injuries. just how significant is it that you know Osceland and Rosanne have taken a big step here in terms of what they’re contributing. I mean really we need that uh you know when you look at the the number of people out um you know twothirds of what was your top line um you know we’re kind of moving some pieces around. We need we need their skill. We need their scoring ability that they’ve shown in the minors. Uh this is the next step for them. this is the opportunity they’re waiting for that, you know, all of a sudden they get 14 15 minutes and I think they they’ve taken advantage of it. Uh both guys have played extremely well for us. You have to have more patience with the power play because of all those guys paying out. Well, the power play I mean all the different pieces that we’ve moved around and uh I I still don’t think we execute. I we can execute better than that. I’m not going to make excuses. We we made some poor decisions with the puck that has nothing to do with personnel that’s out or some of our entry plays. Um, you know, I don’t think we we executed at the level we needed to execute and then, you know, that led to pucks going down the ice. Do you feel like you guys are pressing in overtime as opposed to being a little bit too patient? Um, there’s no such thing as I mean, we went down the ice. I would have liked to seen our guy stay in like after the shot on goal instead of uh Tuck backing out. I’d like to see him stay in. We were still above the puck. It wasn’t pressing. I thought it was the opposite. We backed out and said, “Here, you guys come at us.” Uh so it wasn’t about pressing. I think you get your opportunity, you get your look, you got to take it. Um and we took it. But then I I just didn’t I didn’t like the way we processed the play after that.

Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff spoke to the media after a 2-1 overtime loss to the Utah Mammoth on November 4, 2025. He talked about the strong play of Alex Lyon in this game and what the team did well to earn a point in overtime. He also talked about how the team has battled to overcome injuries and play of Isak Rosen and Noah Ostlund stepping up. Ruff discussed what the team needs to do to finish games in overtime and secure the win.

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