How have things gone this badly this quickly for the Buffalo Sabres?
The Sabres are only two games into an 82-game season, so of course there’s plenty of time for things to turn around. But for a team that is trying to end a league-record 14-year playoff drought, it’s hard to imagine a worse start to a season than the one the Sabres have had. It started with an uninspiring 4-0 loss to the New York Rangers in front of a sellout home crowd. In that game, Buffalo’s No. 1 center, Josh Norris, left with an upper-body injury that will keep him out long-term.
Then, Saturday night, the Sabres came out completely flat on the road against the Boston Bruins. The Bruins outshot the Sabres 17-2 in the first period. If not for a sensational night from Sabres goalie Alex Lyon, the Bruins’ win would have been more lopsided than the 3-1 final score. The Sabres’ game was so lifeless early on that Lindy Ruff said afterward: “We have to raise our level of compete. I thought our compete was terrible. Worst level of compete and skating and moving the feet that I’ve seen.”
Again, this is two games into the season. I’ve lost count of the number of times the Sabres have talked about needing to compete harder over the past few years. Ruff was brought in before last season to “raise the standard” and “bring more accountability” to this team. This training camp, with a new strength and conditioning staff, the Sabres talked about how demanding practice was and how a long list of players reported to camp in great shape.
Now, for the third straight season, the Sabres are 0-2 to start. For any other NHL team, an 0-2 start to the season is no big deal. Two games are a sliver of an NHL season, a sample that wouldn’t be a big deal for most teams. But the Sabres aren’t most teams. Losing is so deeply ingrained in the fabric of this franchise that every slow start has the potential to snowball. The team has looked unprepared to start the season.
In the first 10 minutes of the Sabres’ opening game, they mustered two shots. In the first 10 minutes against the Bruins, they had one.
“We’re too much on the fancy side,” Ruff said. “Until we put the boots on and go to work and realize the only way you’re going to win hockey games is to outwork the other team.”
Injuries haven’t helped the Sabres. Norris was supposed to be the top-line center, and he’s already hurt. Zach Benson is the first-line left winger, and the earliest he’ll make his debut is next Wednesday because of a freak injury a day before the season started. Michael Kesselring, one of the big offseason acquisitions, hasn’t played yet because of an injury he suffered in training camp.
But this isn’t all about injuries. Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch and Rasmus Dahlin had one scoring chance apiece against the Bruins. Thompson has one high-danger chance through two games. Those three are all without a point in two games. And the secondary scoring isn’t there. Buffalo’s flaws have been familiar and predictable.
It took until 10 minutes left in the third period for the Sabres to get their first goal of the season. It came when a Jason Zucker shot on the rush deflected off a Bruins defenseman and beat Jeremy Swayman. At that point, the Bruins already had a two-goal lead. A late empty-netter pushed the final score to 3-1.
Jason Zucker is on the board ⚔️#LetsGoBuffalo pic.twitter.com/LWZUA0y5YI
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) October 12, 2025
The Sabres have an off day Sunday before a home afternoon game Monday against the Colorado Avalanche to try to avoid an 0-3 start. After that, the Sabres have games against the Ottawa Senators and Florida Panthers. Things aren’t about to get easier, and the Sabres have already dug themselves a hole.
Here’s what else we saw in another concerning loss.
1. Alex Lyon is a bright spot
There haven’t been many bright spots for the Sabres early in the season, but Lyon has been one of them. Goaltending was a major question entering the season, with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen hurt. He has a 2.55 goals against average and a .919 save percentage in two games. Unfortunately, two solid games from Lyon have gone to waste. This game was particularly impressive for Lyon. He faced 10 high-danger shots and stopped all of them. Of the two goals he allowed, one was a fluky deflection. If Lyon maintains this level of play, Luukkonen’s job won’t necessarily be waiting for him when he gets back.
2. Josh Doan gets pushed up the lineup
You can make a case that Doan has been the Sabres’ best forward through two games. He and Zucker are the two forwards who have competed the hardest and been the most consistent early in the season. The Sabres had a 6-3 advantage in scoring chances when Doan was on the ice at five-on-five against the Bruins. That caused Ruff to bump him up the lineup to try to spark the top line.
3. Buffalo’s power play is still a problem
The Sabres’ lackluster power play was another offseason focus, and the early returns haven’t been promising. Buffalo has started the season 0-8 on the power play after another 0-4 showing against the Bruins. Considering the loss to the Rangers was a one-goal game until five minutes remained and this loss to the Bruins was also close on the scoreboard, a useful power play could have flipped the script on either game. Instead, the Sabres had just four shots and one scoring chance on four power plays Saturday. At one point, Dahlin sent a drop pass to nobody as the Sabres were heading up ice and almost handed the Bruins a scoring chance. The Sabres allowed more scoring chances than they created with the man advantage in this game.
4. Mason Geertsen a nonfactor
Geertsen was brought in to be an enforcer. Ruff didn’t beat around the bush with that. The Sabres didn’t sign him to be an everyday player. But he has dressed for the first two games and gotten less than five minutes of ice time in each game. Because of that, the Sabres have had to play 11 forwards for long stretches to avoid giving Geertsen more ice time. He has a tripping penalty and was on the ice for a goal against on opening night.
Considering the Sabres need a spark, it’s fair to wonder why Geertsen didn’t bring that when Matt Rempe and the Rangers were in town on opening night or when Nikita Zadorov was trash-talking him during this loss to the Bruins. Maybe Ruff has instructed him not to fight in certain situations. But if he’s not going to bring that element to this team, the Sabres should call up Isak Rosen, Noah Ostlund or Konsta Helenius to bring more scoring pop to this lineup.
5. Can the Sabres coach their way out of this?
A lot of what I wrote about can be traced back to coaching. The roster construction is on general manager Kevyn Adams. And the injuries can, at least partly, be chalked up to bad luck. But the slow starts, disjointed offensive plan, player usage and power-play struggles all fall partially on coaching. Ruff is in his second season with the team and brought back the assistant coaching staff from last season. A lot of individual players need to be better, but coaching is part of this, too.