“We Did A Lot Of Good Things” | Lindy Ruff After 4-1 Win Over Carolina Hurricanes | Buffalo Sabres

“We Did A Lot Of Good Things” | Lindy Ruff After 4-1 Win Over Carolina Hurricanes | Buffalo Sabres

Why has your team gotten better when you get a bad break or something doesn’t go your way? They seem to be able to respond to it and say, “Okay, let’s just keep moving.” Uh, you know, I think it’s, you know, something we talked about a lot last year. We couldn’t get through. And it’s that dealing with adversity where sometimes uh stuff isn’t going to go your way and you got to move on fast. Um, you know, I thought we had to deal with some tonight for sure and I thought we did. And, you know, the way we were playing, I was comfortable with the fact I thought we were going to still push ahead. I I’m glad I’m not a benning man because I would have lost a lot of money on that one. Um, it’s it’s one I totally disagree on. Um, I respect, you know, them looking at and what they said, but Yeah, we’re going to get things are going to get pretty tight when I look at a couple of goals that we’ve had called to get taken away from us the last last couple games. Was your backbone today? Just what have you seen from him these last couple that maybe wasn’t there the first few starts? Well, you know, I think uh he’s battled through that, you know, through camp and injuries and um you know, hadn’t been quite right, you know, and I think when he stepped into Colorado, I thought they did a nice job for us in that game. Uh came in a couple goals last game had nothing to do with him. Two tip goals you can’t do anything about. So, I thought gave us a good effort in a you know, in a game that was a lowevent game for him when it comes to chances. I thought tonight he he really played great. Uh that second and third, you know, a couple big opportunities. First, I thought we could have put the game away in the second period with all the opportunities we had. We didn’t let him kind of hang around, but I thought when we gave up some looks and they’re they’re they’re a good team. He made the save that we needed. What do you think about a volume of shots at the end of the day? Were they all great? I mean, not not too many great a No. You know, I think any team has a little bit of a tendency when when you’re leading that um you’re going to try to stay away from the higher risk type of forch check, which we’re getting better at. Um, you know, I think our puck management and our managing the time of game from where we were at last year to even maybe the start of this year a little bit. Um, if you don’t give up the high quality, the the odds go way down. The other team’s going to not going to score. So, yeah, we gave up some volume, but uh uh I thought we could have been better like possession wise in the offensive zone, but we didn’t give up anything real big. The other night, so you kind of live on that, but how much in this game was full of little things, you know, Don and Byron backing and Samuelson with the hit and the block. You guys were doing a lot of winning things that don’t necessarily show up in a stat. Yeah, you know, and I think that you just mentioned the things that make you a winning team. The block shots that uh not very often get uh headlines for uh the physicality, you know, if you look at the way Sammy’s been playing, um how physical some of the plays he’s made with the puck, the his goal scoring, um his defending against every top line every night, it has been has been real good. And Uh but there’s a lot inside that game. You’ve mentioned the tracking back, getting sticks on lateral passes. Uh so we did a lot of good things that allowed us to to win the hockey game. Won four of the, you know, four very last five games. What does it need to do to sustain that? Like you said, some of those little things like blocking shots, tracking back. Uh you know, I think part of it is, you know, we’ve got a couple we’ve got a couple players back in the lineup that have helped us. Zooker’s really helped us. I thought tonight Benny played really well. Um, you know, puts us makes us a little bit deeper on line. So, you look at the We might as well talk about the highlight reel goal that Melanchine scored. Um, you know, getting that type of depth of scoring is, you know, it’s important and it it’s fun for the team, too. I mean, those guys in the bench were so happy for him. It was like, you know, wow. Remind you of Brad. It it looked a little bit like that. Um, I showed him my card and I said, “I’m taking you off as a second penalty killer and I’m bumping you to the first power play.” He had a forward. Yeah. Kind of like Palville 20 years ago. Forward and go. Yeah, that was one Palmville goal is one of my favorite uh um and similar, you know, went around went around, you know, I think Mel’s I think Mel’s goal is even better, but I mean at the time Palmville scored it was more important. Um especially I mean you you would think Palmanville can do it. You we haven’t seen Melanstein do it and but he drew a penalty let’s say seven eight games ago. Same type of play. Went outside inside. The guy dumped him at the start of the game. It was a good start for us but I think it was against Detroit. Um so I’ve seen him do it a couple times. I you know with the you know the hernia surgery that he’s had um and he had a couple of them. uh just strengthwise he’s not he’s not in a good enough place and I think we you know we’ve talked about it for you know couple weeks now like how can we get you stronger how can we get you faster uh so we’ve kind of put a plan together like just basically a load management plan where he can maybe he can lift for three days um build up strength play a game not worry about playing back to back play every three or four days and let’s see if we can get you to a lot better place back to the miners. Um, what could I mean, this is obviously his most successful state in the NHL. What can he take from from these few weeks he how well he played the impact he had for us? Uh, you did a real nice job. Uh, you know, I think the previous conversations were, you know, when you come up, you got to be able to make a difference. And he he made a difference for us. His play was was noticeable. Played very well. You know, told him that, you know, it’s not the last we’re going to see of you this year for sure. Uh it’s just the fact the numbers are coming and got to make some decisions.

Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff spoke to the media after a 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on November 23, 2025. Ruff talked about the team’s ability to fight through tough calls and adversity on the ice to pull off the win. He also talked about the strong play of goaltender, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Ruff gave an injury update on Jordan Greenway and the decision to send Isak Rosen to Rochester.

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