Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) – The Buffalo Sabres left for New Jersey on Tuesday, as they finally get to continue the 2025-26 season on Wednesday when they face the Devils. The team has 25 games remaining on their regular season schedule.

It was last Tuesday when the team got back to Buffalo, and had meetings with the coaching staff. Then it was a tough week of practices for the players, but winger Alex Tuch doesn’t equate it to the work the team puts in at training camp.

“Coming into training camp, you’re still trying to get into shape. You workout all summer and you get into conditioning, but you’re not really in game shape,” said Tuch following practice late last week. “Here, it’s you take a week or so off and you don’t really lose everything you’ve done. You just want to ramp it back up, get back into the mindset, compete a little bit, and it’s a lot easier to jump back in.”

The Sabres were 21-5-2 in their 28 games before the Olympic break, which was the second-best points percentage in the NHL behind the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tuch says while that’s great, nothing has been accomplished just yet.

“We’ve had some time to reflect on it, to appreciate what we’ve done, especially in the last couple of months. But not to rest on that,” he said. “It’s a couple of good months and a playoff race, and we’ve got to bring it home. We’ve got to make sure that in the last 25 games here, it has to be our best 25.”

Before the season started, Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said he breaks the schedule down into five-game segments. The goal he set for the team is get six points in every five-game segment, and the team will make the playoffs.

Here’s a look at how that’s gone to this point:

Segment 1: 2-3-0 (4 points)
Segment 2: 2-1-2 (6 points)
Segment 3: 1-2-2 (4 points)
Segment 4: 2-3-0 (4 points)
Segment 5: 3-2-0 (6 points)
Segment 6: 2-3-0 (4 points)
Segment 7: 5-0-0 (10 points)
Segment 8: 4-1-0 (8 points)
Segment 9: 4-1-0 (8 points)
Segment 10: 3-1-1 (7 points)
Segment 11: 4-1-0 (8 points)

So in these 11 segments, Ruff was shooting for 66 points, and he got 69.

For many on this team, this is their first time in a playoff run. Tuch was in the playoffs all four years he was in Vegas with the Golden Knights, so he can pass along advice to teammates on what they’re in for.

“Playoff hockey starts a lot earlier than in April. You see it starting in the end of January,” Tuch noted. “Right before the break, I thought everyone had a big push. Then you’re going to get everyone back in, and it’s going to be a weird stretch the first couple of games. The Trade Deadline is right there around the corner (March 6), you see what teams are going for it and what teams are bowing out. And that’s when it really picks up. That’s when everyone is playing that playoff hockey mindset, and it’s just pedal to the metal and you’re just trying to get as many points as possible.”

Tuch doesn’t have a contract extension in place, so I wondered if he was worried as the deadline approaches.

“No,” he simply put. “I haven’t focused on that. I’m just focused in on playing in the next game. Focused on being a Buffalo Sabre and doing whatever I can to help our team win.”

Tuch is on pace to score 32 goals and 38 assists for 70 points this season. Last season, he had 36 goals and 31 assists for 67 points.

Before the Sabres left for New Jersey, they called up forward Anton Wahlberg from the Rochester Americans.

With Tage Thompson possibly missing Wednesday’s game due to being at the State of the Union address in Washington with Team USA on Tuesday, Buffalo needed a forward.

Wahlberg was drafted in the second round of the 2023 NHL Draft. It was a pick acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers in the Rasmus Ristolainen trade.

The 20-year-old has six goals and 19 assists for 25 points in 47 games this season with the Amerks. He’s a natural center, but has played a lot of wing in Rochester. He’s listed at 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds.

In his last nine games, the young Swede has seven points.

The Buffalo Sabres have recalled forward Anton Wahlberg from the Rochester Americans (AHL). pic.twitter.com/ltEpKwzLJH

— Buffalo Sabres PR (@SabresPR) February 24, 2026