EDMONTON — Lindy Ruff was simultaneously thrilled and livid when he stepped in front of the cameras after the Buffalo Sabres’ 4-3 overtime win over the Oilers Tuesday night.
He loved the way his team played through what he described as “the elements.” The Sabres were without veteran forward Jason Zucker in this game. They found out moments before puck drop that Josh Norris wouldn’t be able to play after “tweaking” something in warmups. Starting goalie Colten Ellis was knocked out of the game in the first period with a concussion. And they were playing on the second night of a back-to-back while riding a three-game losing streak in the middle of a six-game road trip.
Despite all that, the Sabres built a convincing 3-0 lead through two periods thanks to a pair of power-play goals from Josh Doan and a goal from Tage Thompson. Then came the “elements” that had Ruff fuming. For the second straight night, Ruff spent a good chunk of his postgame press conference seething about the officiating.
In the second period, the Sabres once again had a goal called back. Edmonton challenged for a “missed stoppage” after Thompson scored off a rebound. A replay showed that the puck went off Alex Tuch’s hand and over to Thompson as Tuch was turning around to find the puck, so it was ruled a hand pass. But when the referee announced the decision in the arena, he simply said it was a “missed stoppage” without any further explanation.
Tage Thompson goal wiped out for a missed stoppage in play. They didnt say what though #LetsGoBuffalo #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/7v1TvQPW6a
— Buffalo Hockey Moments (@SabresPlays) December 10, 2025
“The gloved pass, I don’t know where that came from,” Ruff said. “I don’t think anybody in the league knows anymore where it comes from. … There’s two hands on his stick. I don’t even think he sees the puck.”
Then, at the start of the third period, the Oilers dumped the puck in from five feet in front of the red line. No icing was called, and Connor McDavid got loose for his first goal of the game.
“There’s no reason,” Ruff said. “It’s not even close. It’s just icing and you’ve got to call it. It gave them life.”
McDavid scores 10 seconds into the 3rd period, 3-1 #LetsGoBuffalo #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/CQFwa5SSE7
— Buffalo Hockey Moments (@SabresPlays) December 10, 2025
After that goal, the Oilers got another one less than two minutes later on a net-front rebound. McDavid was able to tilt the ice for much of the third period, and the Sabres were white-knuckling their lead. Through two periods, the Sabres had limited McDavid to two shots, three shot attempts and one scoring chance. That was after they held him without a scoring chance in the teams’ first matchup this season.
Yet in the third period alone, McDavid had four shots, six shot attempts and four scoring chances, including a game-tying goal with just one second left as the Oilers erased Buffalo’s 3-0 lead and sent the game to overtime. That was another play on which Ruff wasn’t happy with the officials.
“I want to know why they didn’t review goalie interference,” Ruff said. “That’s a league review. Why didn’t they review it? Was the guy not in the edge of the crease? Not a good night.”
McDavid, 3-3 #LetsGoBuffalo #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/OI6BnVZUwL
— Buffalo Hockey Moments (@SabresPlays) December 10, 2025
At that point, Rogers Place was buzzing. A McDavid hat trick, or at least an Oilers overtime win, felt inevitable. Instead, Tuch scored 33 seconds in, and the Sabres managed to escape with their first win of this road trip.
“We’ve had by no means an easy season altogether. Faced a lot of adversity. But I think that builds character and makes you stronger as a team. It depends how you face it. I thought we handled tonight really well,” Thompson said.
Thompson added his usual caveat that the team can’t get too high on itself after a single win. But at least for a night, the Sabres reminded themselves what they’re capable of.
“We played one hell of a game,” Ruff said. “We fought every element out there. I just said on the bench, ‘Stay with it and we’ll win it.’”
Quick hits
1. After Ellis left the game with a concussion, Alex Lyon came into the game in relief for a second straight night, making a key save late in the first period. It wasn’t the easiest game for Lyon to manage, given the circumstances. He ended up stopping 21 of the 24 shots he faced but made enough timely saves to get his first win since Oct. 24.
“We love Alex and the save he made coming into the game right away was world-class,” Doan said. “We talk about how smart of a goalie he is and he reads the play really well and that’s a prime example of getting thrown in the fire, your first shift getting a backdoor, offside one-timer. He was huge for us. How fired up he was coming off the ice is something we like to see.”
Added Ruff: “Battled hard. I love what he did. He could have every excuse for not playing well. He went in and battled as hard as the rest of the guys.”
2. The Sabres placed Zucker on injured reserve. Ruff said he played through a significant injury on Monday night in Calgary and will be out week to week. Zucker actually has both an upper- and a lower-body injury. At one point against the Flames, he crashed into the boards legs first. He was also favoring his hand at times.
“That just tells you how bad he wanted to stay in the game and try to win,” Ruff said.
The Sabres recalled Isak Rosen from Rochester and he made it to Edmonton in plenty of time to dress for the game.
Norris was a late scratch because of both illness and soreness. He’s already missed 24 games this season with a separate injury and Ruff didn’t know for sure if this would cause him to miss more time.
“Not related to what he had earlier,” Ruff said. “We had a report he wasn’t feeling well. And then in warm-up, he tweaked something and that was the point we had to take him out of the game.”
With Norris out, Tyson Kozak jumped up to play center between Doan and Zach Benson.
3. Buffalo’s third-ranked penalty kill was a huge factor. The Oilers, who came into the game with the second-most power-play goals in the NHL, went 0-for-4 on the power play, two of which came in the third period with the Sabres protecting a one-goal lead. Ryan McLeod has been an ace penalty killer for the Sabres all season, and he was taking away time and space from the Oilers all night. Lyon stopped all six shots he faced while the Oilers had the man advantage.