Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR) – After practice on Friday, the Buffalo Sabres headed to Washington to play the Capitals on Saturday. It\u2019ll be the first time they play against Alex Tuch since he couldn\u2019t come to terms on a contract with the Sabres and was traded to the Caps. <\/p>\n
Tuch has left a huge hole in the Sabres lineup that they haven\u2019t even come close to filling. There are things he did on the ice and in the room that nobody else in the organization can do. Tuch had many friends in the locker-room and will be headed to dinner with them Friday night. <\/p>\n
Tage Thompson was neighbors with the winger and he told me recently that Tuch was a better neighbor than teammate,<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s such a good human being and their family is awesome, we all loved him and he definitely did a lot for me around the neighborhood taking my trash out, bringing the bins in, so he\u2019s a good dude and we all miss him.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t just that. Thompson said there was so much more,<\/p>\n
\u201cOn and off the ice he was such a good leader, just a veteran presence in the room and he enjoy having fun with the guys and just hanging out and on the ice his play dictated a lot just the way he played, so he definitely was a huge piece for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peyton Krebs has been teammates with him longer than any other Sabre because they were in Vegas together and were both part of the Jack Eichel trade. He fondly remembered the neighbor part of it too,<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s one of those guys that you ask to do anything anytime and he\u2019s right over there doing it, so, if you needed some cheese, you just knock over there he\u2019ll get you some cheese or whatever you needed that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Krebs said there was a real bond there,<\/p>\n
\u201cTuchy is one of my best friends I\u2019ve had in hockey, a guy that I\u2019ve grown with and eight years ago when we first met, I\u2019m a whole different person now and he\u2019s really helped me navigate to play in the NHL, and becoming a man.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely going to be weird seeing him in different colors and first time playing against each other, and with being a good friend you never want to lose against him, so we\u2019re going to take it to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Krebs remembered high sticking Tuch in practice getting him really mad at him. He said,<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to high stick him, but I\u2019m definitely going to throw the body on him and let him have it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Krebs said he\u2019ll be \u2018chirping\u2019 him for sure.<\/p>\n
Lindy Ruff of course would love for Tuch to still be part of the team, but he doesn\u2019t control any of that and it\u2019s not his job. As far as facing him the head coach said,<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was real good for us and it\u2019s going to be strange now to coach against him and see him out there. He\u2019s off to a good start and I\u2019m sure playing against your former team, you always want to play really well. He was a big part of our year last year so for some guys it\u2019ll seem a little awkward at times.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Winnipeg Jets finally traded Connor Hellebuyck to the New Jersey Devils ending all the wild speculation involving the Sabres. Ruff said,<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t spend a lot of time with the noise, and it\u2019s just part of the business. There\u2019s time I\u2019ve talked about noise, you can\u2019t really control any of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jiri Kulich was cut pretty badly in practice when he got hit in the face with a puck. Ruff said he was still being checked out.<\/p>\n
FRIDAY\u2019S LINES:<\/p>\n
Zucker – Thompson – Helenius<\/p>\n
Benson – Ostlund – Quinn<\/p>\n
Norris – McLeod – Doan<\/p>\n
Krebs – Kozak – Malenstyn<\/p>\n
Dahlin – Samuelsson<\/p>\n
Zellweger – Power<\/p>\n
Metsa (Gilbert) – Crevier<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR) – After practice on Friday, the Buffalo Sabres headed to Washington to play the Capitals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[44930,64,63,6581,310725,575,329805,85,167950,4791,293302],"class_list":["post-938672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-alex-tuch","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-lindy-ruff","tag-nhl","tag-peyton-krebs","tag-sports","tag-tage-thompson","tag-washington-capitals","tag-wgr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}