Buffalo Sabres<\/a>, the real story is just beginning.<\/p>\nTwo weeks after ending the longest playoff drought in NHL history, the Sabres held their first postseason practice Saturday at KeyBank Center. While there\u2019s still excitement surrounding the milestone, players say the focus has shifted to the work ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a healthy blend of excitement, but we have a job to do,\u201d goalie Alex Lyon said. \u201cYou don\u2019t get too many chances at this, so you have to make it count.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said the team has already experienced a playoff-like atmosphere in recent weeks, thanks to strong fan turnout at home games. He believes that energy will help prepare the group for what\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d rather have our players too jacked up than not jacked up at all,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cOur fans have given us a great taste of that down the stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buffalo closed the regular season with multiple sellout crowds, including a high-intensity matchup against Tampa Bay that players pointed to as a preview of postseason hockey.<\/p>\n
Still, Alex Tuch says the message inside the locker room is to stay focused and take it one game at a time.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery team comes into the season wanting to win the Cup,\u201d Tuch said. \u201cNow we\u2019re in a position to compete for it, but it starts with Game 1. We\u2019re not looking too far ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
That opener comes Sunday night, when the Sabres host the Boston Bruins. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. in Buffalo.<\/p>\n
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is expected to start in net, with Alex Lyon backing him up.<\/p>\n
After more than a decade without playoff hockey, the Sabres now face a new challenge, proving they can compete once they\u2019ve arrived.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sabres ended a historic playoff drought and now gear up for a new challenge, focusing on making…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5099],"tags":[154,95,5132,530,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-555647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-bruins","8":"tag-boston","9":"tag-boston-bruins","10":"tag-bostonbruins","11":"tag-bruins","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116428518340165074","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}