Zach Benson Expected To Return To Buffalo Sabres Lineup Against Hurricanes | Head Coach Lindy Ruff

Zach Benson Expected To Return To Buffalo Sabres Lineup Against Hurricanes | Head Coach Lindy Ruff

Hey, is Zach Benson going to be able to go for you? Uh, it looks like it. Yeah. Actually, and you have to feel relieved with that. Yeah. Uh, you know, getting another piece back for us. Uh, you know, getting Zucker back helped, uh, hopefully getting Benny back. Uh, another good forward going back in the lineup. Any lingering impact on Byron from what happened the other night? Uh, yeah, he’s still in the, you know, we’re not sure. We’ll dress an extra guy for warm-up and um we’ll see what what he looks like after warm-up. Who will uh come out of the lineup for Benson to go in if you’ve decided? Um well, right now uh right now I’m not going to disclose who’s coming out. Uh but you know, obviously somebody will have to come out. You saw the impact of Zucker in that game Friday, five and five and the power play. I mean, you kind of were wondering what what you were going to get based on Neil’s situation. How impressed were you of what you got in that game? Uh, good. You know, I just thought he gave us a great game. I I thought that line gave us a great game. I thought, you know, we’ve had the the puck in that area that, you know, the pass that was made from Quinn to him and, you know, we’ve missed those opportunities. We we talked about missed opportunities and I think you look at the his shot was, you know, perfect and that is really what you need when you get those great A’s. um is to put it away. Uh and you mentioned his power play play I thought was good. And I think getting uh Benson back and getting him back on the power play is going to help us too cuz he was doing a real good job with that. You’ve beaten this team four times in a row in this building. What has led to that success? Because you know how difficult they are to play. What has led to that success recently against them here in this building? You know, I think uh they get such hard matchups against us in Carolina that it’s been tough. I think getting away from matchups here has really helped us. Uh you again, you have to take we’ve been able to, you know, even looking back at our, you know, our last game we played against them in our building, we we took advantage of of the opportunities they gave us early and and we played well, you know, away from away from the puck. Again, the Carolina game, we didn’t start well. We gave we were playing pretty well, but we gave them that the the two on one where, you know, they got inside and we just gave him a we gave him a freebie. You can’t give them the free opportunities. We got to make them earn them. What kind of difference does Dene make in dealing with this team, Carolina? Oh, I mean, you put, you know, I think you’ve you’ve seen since he’s come back and been in the lineup. Uh um and I don’t even I don’t think he’s he’s at full throttle yet, but you know, I think you you’ve seen the the impact he’s had coming back into our lineup for us and you know, we’re winning games. You put him back in the lineup and we’re winning games. And he has a big he has a big part to do with that. Does Pton Krebs maybe loss that he had last season? Um, you know, he made a lot of strides last year. I don’t know if he’s quite had that this year. Um, when you say what he’s lost, what do you mean what he’s lost? He he had a I guess maybe a certain tenacity on that. I think he still has that tenacity. Uh, I think he’s he’s got to get around the net front more was the biggest thing for me. Uh, his tenacity. I mean, couple games ago, he’s in a scrap. He’s he’s been physical. His his tracking uh I I think he’s deferring on on occasion. He’s deferring to he wants to find a better play and it’s a little bit of the disease our team has at times. Uh I think that’s and it’s conversations I’ve had with him about, you know, more pucks got to get to the net. you yourself have to get to the net in that dirty area. And it might be the little bit. I don’t know if it’s like if he’s lost it. He’s got to do a better job with it. That’s all. You mentioned how hard this team Carolina is to play against. What is it about their forche in particular that that makes them tough? Uh you’re they’re basically forcing you into all one-on-one. So that you know we talked about with the battles with with with Calgary. We’re forced into a lot of hard one-on-one battles. We got to win. We didn’t win enough in in the Calgary game. I thought we we did a great job in the Chicago game. We got to follow that job up against a a team that’s probably the best of the league or close to the top in the league at it. Jacob Bryson got a couple of points the other night and I just asked this. I know he’s not gonna be Rasmus Stalling, but are are you encouraging him maybe to get up and play a little bit more than he does? Uh I encourage all our D to get up. It’s part of the game when it’s their turn to get up. You got to get up. You got to be that outlet. And I think you’ve seen that where you know that weak side breakout where we’re breaking out and the offside D is going. Um, when our D is in offensively, if he’s part of the play, we want him to stay in because if you peel out now, we’re playing two guys against three usually. Uh, until that part of the play’s over, we don’t want you out of there. And we want we want you to be part of the offense. If our part of that offense is to get to the net front and be that middle drive guy and you’re part of that guy that has joined, which you see quite a few times from RD, then you have to execute that part before you leave. Who’s your backup go away today? That I like that. That’s a good one. Yeah. You know, because I’m going to go I don’t disclose the starter now. Who’s the backup? I like it.

Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff spoke with the media ahead of the team’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes on November 23, 2025. He gave updates on Zach Benson, and gave lineup news for the game.

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