“Heck Of A Game Tonight” | Lindy Ruff After 9-3 Win Over Chicago Blackhawks | Buffalo Sabres

Almost everything you spoke about this morning you got from your team. It seemed Yeah. Uh we got the start we wanted. Uh response we wanted uh uh the battle on the puck was a lot better. We won uh won a lot of battles and it resulted in a lot of goals. In your mind, what was the key for a guy like Tuck who’s maybe been struggling to find himself the last few games to really be on his toes and be that kind of an impactful guy? Um, you know, I think it for me it just it comes down to the competing skating. You know, when he when when he’s skating, um, he’s he’s a tough man to to track down. I think, uh, skating creates room and he’s got room. He makes he makes good decisions and yeah, I thought we got a heck of a game out of him tonight. You talked about the response from the other night. How about the response in the game when Chicago scored a goal and maybe they wanted to try to sneak back into the thing if they got another one. It seemed like you always had a response in pretty short order. Yeah, you know, I was I was comfortable with the way really every line was playing. They were all producing. I thought if you look at the the energy every line brought um you know a little unfortunate u at with a couple of their goals but uh you know it was a really good defensive effort too at the same time tonight. We can talk about how Jack Quint’s been generating a lot but not rewarded. How happy are you to see him finally get rewarded with a couple nice Yeah, you know I just said if you keep doing the right things that good things will happen and he’s done a lot of good things. He made a heck of a play on on Zucker’s goal uh and then walked into the middle and he’s had probably a dozen of those shots that haven’t gone in and finally found the back of the net. I think he’s the type of guy that once it starts going in, I think it it’ll continue to go in. What do you attribute the top line’s productivity to tonight? What worked for them? I I’ll just I’ll talk a little bit again about skating and competing. Um we were on top of the puck. I thought our forch check was good. I thought uh the speed and filling lanes through the neutral zone was something that was evident. Uh crisp puck movement which some nights really puts us in trouble when when we don’t have that part of our game going. I thought that was a big part of it. The chemistry that you have with Tuck and Thompson, but Don seems to have been able to jump right in with them. Why why has he been able to jump in with two of them? I think in some ways he’s a good match. He’s a guy that uh he can skate with them, but he’s a he’s a guy that likes going around the front of the net. He’s a he’s a good puck hound. He’s a he’s a little bit of a version of Tuck when it comes to taking pucks away and and coming up with loose pucks. Uh and he can make good plays. So, uh it it’s been a good fit. Bo, did it look good for Bo? Then he’s right back on the ice. Just what do you think of him coming back? Yeah. Uh it didn’t look good initially. You know, I was pretty worried that was a guy we weren’t going to see come back. Uh we’ll see what tomorrow brings. But for him to finish the game, I thought we should be okay. He didn’t have a lot of action. He made some big saves. Um you know, I think the the biggest save was the breakaway that was at a big moment in the game. And you know, I think we’ve talked about big saves at the right time. Um you know, the last goal was tipped. uh first goal. I mean, I haven’t taken a real hard look at it, but if you look at I think the save he gave us on the breakaway was a big moment inside the game. Could have made it 5-3 at the time. Got the response from Wednesday that you wanted. How important is it to get the right type of response to a game like this? Also, yeah. Well, here we took advantage. Let’s we don’t want to get too excited, but we took advantage of a tired hockey team. Um you know, they played last night. uh you you could tell that they were a step behind and and a good team can sense that and keep keep the foot on the gas and I thought we kept the foot on the gas. Um and and we did it the right way. We did it with everybody on board and we did it with playing the game the right way. The guys were saying in the room just like the other night, you can’t get two down. They said they got to be careful now to get two up for Sunday’s game. Yeah, I I said post game. We’re moving on to Sunday. Um game was great. It was good win, but u now it’s all about getting this team back to 500 and winning a game against probably one of the toughest teams to play against. What do you think about you’re getting out of Matias Samuelson this season? Well, I think it just speaks for itself. He’s he’s given us really good hockey. Um you know, I think I said he’s been he’s been our best defenseman. He continues to be our best defenseman. Um he’s a shutdown guy. Offensively, he’s I mean he ripped the shot that that went in. Um and I think when I look at the last 30 games of last year, um he was our best defenseman in that segment, too. And I think he went and had a great off season. Uh got himself in in unbelievable shape, and I think he’s it he’s getting dividends for it. difference do you notice with him like off the ice just confidence-wise when things are going this well? Yeah, I mean he’s he’s actually got he’s he’s a pretty funny character when things are going and the guys, you know, they got they can ride him a little bit and uh he likes it.

Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff spoke to the media after a 9-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on November 21, 2025. He talked about the team’s repsonse to their loss in their previous game and how they were able to find so much success. He also talked about the play of Alex Tuch who had four assists on the night. Ruff talked about what they can do going forward in a matchup against Carolina next.

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