“He’s Going To Be Out An Extended Period” | Lindy Ruff On Michael Kesselring Update | Buffalo Sabres

“He’s Going To Be Out An Extended Period” | Lindy Ruff On Michael Kesselring Update | Buffalo Sabres

Lindy, can we assume that the Greenway and Sam are maintenance? Just maintenance. Yeah. Uh Ellis, just maintenance, too. Is there anything further on Michael Kler? Yeah, he’s going to be out extended period of time. U you know, on the longer side, weeks. Ask about uh how Zack Benson’s progresses. Uh good. I talked to him this morning. He’s doing well. Um, I think he’ll join Morning Skate tomorrow, so he’ll be that close. Ta is willing to play anywhere, but um, you know, after the game in Denver, he expressed how much he felt better at center, and he said that he’s he’s told you guys that, uh, he likes playing there better. Um, would you ever consider just leaving him there for a bit or like is it just an easy fix? Either Why would you assume I wouldn’t consider it? I I don’t know. Um I I guess just I mean he’s a natural center. Do did you you know do you think he’s he’s better than like or do you I can just tell you his numbers last year playing with who he was when he was at center and his numbers when he played the wing his points per game were better. So it kind of leaned to having him over there. Um right now it leans toward leaving him right in the middle. Uh he’s playing well, skating well. Um, it’s a it’s a great it’s a great situation to be in. Has he been even more like he’s always been assertive player, but has he been more assertive in the last few games? I mean, he’s just he’s moved with authority. I mean, he’s we’ve seen him go. Yeah. I you know, I really I really think he’s he has skated well. Um, you know, but we’ve changed a little bit of our structure the last little bit, too, which I think has helped us. In what way? Uh, just stuff I’m not going to get into really. um with Isach and and Noah, you know, obviously they’re they’re never going to be the biggest like strongest guys on the ice, but I’m curious in your experience in the league, like what separates the guys that make it even when they’re not like the biggest strongest guys versus guys that that uh you know, quickness, lateral movement, um the ability to to handle a puck in just small areas really quickly usually separates you when you’re a smaller player. I I really think the the biggest thing is how quick you can get away from somebody. Uh you know, the cutbacks stopping on a dime and turning up and making that next play where a lot of times a bigger guy, longer stick doesn’t make those type of plays. Jack Quinn has been he hasn’t scored in a while, but I think a lot of nights he’s been pretty noticeable, assertive. Like I guess what? Yeah, he’s he’s really he’s leading the like he led the chances in the Detroit game like twoon- ons and great a chances and then last game again real good grade a I really thought the more grade A he would get you know would go in the back of the net hasn’t gone yet but I I sort of envision that as soon as this does start going in it could be one of those ones where all of a sudden Jack’s a good shooter we saw that last year I mean um he isn’t I mean, last year he didn’t get nearly as many chances and scored. This year he’s getting twice as many chances, but it hasn’t fallen the back of the net. Um, but it will. About McDavid and Triidle last night, you talked about staying five in tight with them. There were also some times where guys stepped up to make a hit. How do you balance trying to get a body on them knowing how dangerous they are if you miss? Uh well, you know, just part of your structure really of you you have a second guy supporting that that first guy because both those guys are tough to handle oneonone. Um you know, McDavid is his cutbacks are are better than anybody in this league. He can get away from anybody. Uh so, you know, if you’re inside, if your first guy misses, you you’ve got that secondary help. Uh, but I thought we did a good job of having, you know, most times having five guys back. Um, so, you know, you send a second guy, you know, you’re going to open up somebody else, but most of the time that guy was on the perimeter. Cole Ellison has had to have been patient. I mean, he started in the East Coast League, then he goes to the American Hockey League, then he goes on Waverly, and he comes to Buffalo, then finally gets his opportunity at age 25. How important is it for a young player to understand the development and understanding he has to be patient? Uh well I think there’s Paul as you know there’s lots of there’s lots of great stories about the patience. I mean we I was here the first time when we put Jason Palmanville on waiverss and um you would have never thought uh anything like that and where he ended up and what his career looked like afterwards too. Uh some guys take a little bit longer. Uh goalies, defenseman goalies typically take longer and I think that’s because of the stress of the situation. You know, you make a mistake as a defenseman, you’re giving up a a big chance. You make, you know, a big mistake as a goalender, it’s in the back of your net and all eyes are on you. As a forward, you know, I’ve always referenced it’s kind of easy. You make a mistake, sometimes it doesn’t get noticed because you got DA that cover you up or goender covers you up. Um, so it uh a lot of times with a, you know, a guy like Ellis, he’s it it takes time. It takes a good period of games before you can really become, I would say, seated in this league. You talked at the end of camp when you picked him up that he was a guy, there were a few young goalies out there. He was a guy that you guys had on the radar. How much of that, you know, came from, you know, intel from Rochester, too, when they saw him in Springfield? Um, you know, some of it you got to give our our scouts a lot of credit that saw him play. Uh, you know, management scouts were the guys that, you know, had had him targeted as a guy that, um, if he went on waivers should be somebody we we would look at. Uh, so maybe it was right place at the right time. What made him able to seize this moment? because we see a lot of goalies get playing on waiverss and they get a look and then they you know whatever they go back on waiverss or something happens but I mean he seemed just really obviously ready for his opportunity but you know I don’t know if you can answer that. I think you answered it yourself. He just seemed like he was ready for this opportunity. Had never really been given one. Um it had a if you look at his American League numbers the year before the save percentage and goals against uh real good real good numbers. And you know, I know sometimes maybe that doesn’t correlate, you know, when you come up. Uh sometimes that goalie will will come up and he’s he he might have had a been playing in front of a real good team in the minors and he comes up and he’s maybe not playing with as good a team in the NHL. And it’s kind of a mix of, you know, what has to happen for a goalie for him to take advantage of that chance. Do you feel like you’re getting close to a point where the the three goalie thing isn’t going to be sustainable or do you feel like I mean you got some guys coming back from injury where you’re going to have some decisions to make? Yeah, you know, I think we we as soon as we get players coming back, it it’s going to force, you know, some decisions whether that means, you know, an extra forward has to go down, uh, or, you know, short term you carry 6D, whatever, whatever that is. It it’ll the the three goalies will force us into a hand that, um, we’ll have to make, uh, make decisions. Not dressing. Is that just a way basically just to to rest and uh you know kind of planning out if if you’re not going to play and you’re going to use him let’s say we use him Friday or whatever it is why have him sitting on the bench as far as Tyson Kak goes his assist last night just he looked off a guy I mean it was was a nice assist. What does that illustrate to you just the way he created that play? Um, you know, the I think the the growth really of not just turning and whipping that to the net, you know, I think there’s such a balance because you can see some of the chances we passed up in the first period where, you know, I could hear you guys giving it the oo boo, you know, or maybe wasn’t you guys might have been that was Paul and I knew it was somebody. But anyways, you know, so he doesn’t shoot that. If if that pass goes past that forward over there and hits the wall, you know, you’re going to go, “Oh god, why didn’t he shoot it?” Uh, so, you know, it’s hard to criticize, you know, what they see on the ice. Um, you know, you just can’t scream shoot the puck all the time. Um, you know, if if a goalie has clearsighted vision and you’re shooting from there, the percentage chance of that going in is very very small. Uh, getting him to move and fight through a little bit of traffic, odds go way up. Uh, so, you know, we we try to balance that. We’re getting better at balancing that.

Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff spoke to the media after practice on November 18, 2025. Ruff gave injury updates on Michael Kesselring and Zach Benson, and talked about how the team has been handling so many injuries. He also talked about the previous win the night before against the Edmonton Oilers. He discussed the success the team had on offense and how they were able to shut down Connor McDavid and the Oilers offense.

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