“He’s Earned His Way” | Lindy Ruff On Zach Metsa Call Up | Buffalo Sabres

Z has beat long odds to get here. Just what stands out about his his journey, you know, just starting on an AHL deal and doing what he did in the minors before getting here. I think he’s he’s earned his way. He’s played well down there. Um, like I said, he’s a guy that has battled to get where he’s at. You got to admire, you know, a player like that. He’s, you know, we kind of go by the rule. If you’re if you’re going well down there and we need somebody you’ve called up more of what he was doing or what kind of led to the decision to I think part we want to get R.J. we want to get him down playing some bigger minutes. Uh he’s thought he struggled a little bit some of his puck decisions and you know playing limited amount. Uh, you know, I think, uh, sometimes a little bit nervous play. You know, this puck play wasn’t as good as I thought. 12 minutes. He didn’t really get in a rhythm. So, just want to get him down, get him playing, and get him playing well again. Back like Zack Benson goes off on a four-point night. Um, what can you look forward to as guys start to come off the injury list and make their way back in the roster? Well, I, you know, I think you saw the impact, uh, Zach made for us. Uh, you know, if you look at last year’s line of him, Koulie and Tmer were our top line and then we start the season with Norris and him and Tomer and we lose two of the guys. It definitely had an impact on our, you know, on our offense. I thought as a group we played a lot quicker game. That helped us. Uh, we want to focus on playing a lot faster, but I think, you know, putting him in in the lineup, he’s a guy that can handle a puck. He can make the small plays. I thought he helped our power play. uh did a lot of good things in the game. It was it was good to see. He’s really, you know, he had a good camp. He really skated well, and it uh was just kind of a tough blow for us to see him take a puck in the face there and miss a few few days. Of course, we know who’s not going to be there, but with the guys that are there, you still know you’re going to get a heavy game, aren’t you? And and a good game from that hockey team. Yeah, you are. Uh like you said, they know how to win. Uh they’re a deep team. I mean, they’re missing a couple big pieces, but you know, we still got a Marand, you still got Reinhardt, you’ve got there’s you got Ecklad, you got a defense that’s really good, you got a goalender that’s won two Stanley Cups. So, we still know we’re in for we’re in for a heck of a battle. What’s the lesson that you take from a team that can go to the finals three years in a row, they come back the next season, and they go through it all again just in terms of the consistency with which they play and approach everything? Yeah, I think it’s it’s the fight in them that is impressive that they’re able to dig in. Uh, you know, you get a couple years of of short rest and they’ve still been going back year after year. So, um, they’re a pretty connected group when it comes to defense and the way they play and and the pace that they play at uh, when it comes to offense, too. Lindy, you’re in a stretch of games, six in a row against all Atlantic Division opponents. Why is the stretch valuable slash important for your team? Well, it first because of the start, it uh you know, it’s important that we win games. You know, you look at it, we just we took a look at the schedule in whole. Just this week’s schedule where you’re playing five games in eight nights. Um we know it’s basically just going to be after today, it’s just going to be playing hockey. There won’t be a lot of practice. uh got a great opportunity to pick up around on a lot of people in terms of that stretch and you know having the practice effectively be during that game time. Um what are some of the things that you carry on the bench in terms of the way that you operate and the way that you make corrections or uh plan things on the fly? Well, you know, I think that like I said, our transition game was a lot better. Um, if you look at last game, you know, a couple of adjustments, we we gave up three or four big opportunities the inside just from just positioning not being good enough. Uh, so we looked at that type of stuff and a couple of our drills were sort of made, tailor made to try to get guys back in the inside first. Earlier this week, being patient and waiting for those opportunities. You go to Tuck from the other night. Just how was it? kind of see that play out. Yeah. You know, I think if you look at previous games, we were kind of fanning out looking for one-times. Nobody went to the net. Uh you look at Tuck’s goal against the rebound. You look at Mloud’s goal with Tuck and him. A flash screen by, you know, Tuck going through the front of the net again. Um so you look at the goals in a whole. I thought, you know, we got we got inside. Part of it was uh uh the pace we got off base, which didn’t allow them to get a lot of bodies back. tell us what you might want the opportunity to get him into a game. Uh it possibility we’re right now just totally focused on tomorrow and we’ll visit that uh after after the game. Thanks

Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff spoke to the media after practice on October 17, 2025. Ruff talked about the team’s decision to call up Zach Metsa from the Rochester Americans and what he feels he can bring to the team. He also previews the matchup with the Florida Panthers on October 18, and how the team can build on the success they had in their win over the Ottawa Senators.

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