“Our Best Game” | Lindy Ruff After 5-1 Win Over Edmonton Oilers | Buffalo Sabres

“Our Best Game” | Lindy Ruff After 5-1 Win Over Edmonton Oilers | Buffalo Sabres

was one of your better wins efforts of the season. Yeah, I thought both sides of the puck probably our best game were even leading in the third period uh made a lot of really good decisions with the puck stayed away from any type of high danger opportunities. You know, you talk about decisions with the puck and your defense certainly made plenty of them. What about the the job Ellis did in managing the game? There were times in the first period where he killed the plays for you when you needed to and it just seemed like he was in control in sync with his guys. Yeah, I you know I think that in control is a pretty good word. I think that he was able to sense a little bit the danger at times and whether he broke the puck out or whether he just held it for a whistle. You know, there was times where he knew what we needed. You know, I said this morning that his puck play has been real good. But I thought tonight was his puck play was excellent and um that tied into trying to keep their you know their top guys out of the middle of the ice. You should have some forwards back in the near future. I mean Noah’s playing. There’s only about nine of them lined up at the dress room there. Um I mean Noah’s making a strong case to stick around. I mean is he making the decision difficult and he’s playing very well? Uh you know I think the the progress of these guys has been has been real good. I think you know how well they played down in Rochester and now how they’re starting to feel a little bit more comfortable. I think any, you know, young player, if usually when they’re brought up, it’s it’s kind of a limited role. They’ve been because of the amount of injuries and and the type of people we’ve lost, they’ve been cast in a real big role, and they’ve given us as much as they could, and I thought tonight, uh, you know, the power play goal by Austin, those those two guys working together down low. Um, but I think you’ve seen through the road trip, uh, a couple really good games and another good game tonight. So, um, you know, they’re making steps toward being a regular NHL player. Talk about his ability to fit in on that line. You know, kind of a different Who are you talking about? Uh, Noah fitting in on that line with Beck and and Don, like different skill sets, obviously, but show you a little something different with Noah that he could fit in with those guys, too. Yeah, you know, we tried to, you know, put a little balance to to the lines. Uh, and we knew we were going to have to have a couple lines that are going to have to play, you know, against the McDavid line. And we knew it, you know, McDavid and Dry Cidle will get put together sooner or later if you’re if you’re winning. And, uh, but I thought it was a real big effort out of the, you know, our third line, our fourth line, if you want to look at, uh, what they produced offensively. the uh you know Mal even you know a big moment late in the game and a you don’t have to block a shot there but the willingness to say to his goalender you’ve had a great night I’m going to help you out here he went down blocked a shot um you know Noah’s play off the face off to score the goal and that was I think Melanstein standing right in front of the net on that play so u it was a night we needed everybody I think we had everybody and you know I think everybody contributed into a into a good win for you try to when you play it and you want to limit the damage with McDavid and dry idle, but you guys went far past that. I mean, how how encouraging is it to see that they were pretty much dominant and pretty silent most of that game? Uh yeah, you know, you you know, we stressed staying try to stay five and tight. Uh you know, we knew we’d probably have to give up some ice through the neutral zone, but make sure we have numbers back where we’re not given the easy opportunities. I think what killed us on the road trip was, you know, you look at the start in Colorado, we gave up breakaway and we give up another big opportunity. We didn’t give up those big opportunities and we didn’t give up uh maybe one or two inside opportunities tonight to those guys. Uh so it it was a good night to to have everybody, you know, doing the right thing at the right time. Another thing your team did well is you created traffic in front of Steuart Skinner and created chances in front of him. Why was that key against Edmonton tonight going down and deep? Well, you know, I think we try to create traffic. There’s some nights we defer a little bit outside of that tonight and on the goals and couple of goals we did a great job of taking the goalie’s eyes away. Uh and there wasn’t a lot he could do about uh you know the shot that was coming. Uh so you know again uh you look at the way the first period was being played wasn’t a lot of shots. Uh there was a lot of possession time. Um I thought we managed to puck well. We had the puck a lot. We didn’t we didn’t attack a lot, but we had it a lot. Um and that kept them from from really gaining possession and getting anything going. We talked about on the road trip how there were good moments in all the games really. Certainly Utah is a game you lose, but how much carryover was the way it ended, do you think, going into this game? Does that completely change the feeling? If you go 0 and four in that thing and that game turns around and now you might be going the other way. Yeah. Yeah. Know that I totally agree. I think you can you can look at that period to you know carrying that momentum over to this game like even how important it was to win it in overtime because it’s been frustrating to get into overtime and not win in overtime. So to to have Samson score in overtime um I I think you saw how excited everybody was excited about it. players, coaches, everybody. It was just uh it was a good feeling and I think that really did carry carry over to tonight’s game. Very relieved to score. How happy are you for him that he I am happy. I mean, you know, the job he’s done, penalty killing, how hard he works every night. Um you you want to see those guys get on the board. You want to see them get rewarded. Uh you know, you play the game, you’re a forward, you want to score, you want to help. Yeah, I know you can help in other ways, but you know, when you’re playing the game, you want to be you want to see the puck go in the back of the net. And I was I’m always happy when those guys find the back of the net. Three goal lead. Did you give some thought to letting Austin go out for that? I I did. Uh but we had a plan and I I just felt got to stick with the plan that uh you know, we had two lines that we thought use our penalty killers and and you know, put Mloud on the wing. So, uh, I did if if there would have been less time, I I probably would have thrown him out there, but I I just felt it was important to stick with it at at that that time of the game and not give them any life at all because, you know, I don’t he’s not uh he’s not a shot blocker. He’s not what Mel’s going to do or so or a Greenway who’s a penalty killer. So, um, but if that clock would have wound down and the goalie would have still been out, he would have definitely gone. Thanks.

Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff spoke to the media following a 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers on November 17, 2025. He talked about the success the team had in this game and what went right for them. He also discussed the strong play of Colten Ellis in the game and Noah Ostlund’s success. Ruff talked about the strong defensive effort of the team and how they were able to shut down Connor McDavid.

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