Jason Zucker \u2013 Ryan McLeod \u2013 Alex Tuch<\/p>\n
The line got its first action together in the Sabres\u2019 5-2 preseason win over Detroit on Saturday when Tuch made his exhibition debut following an early-camp injury.<\/p>\n
Each of the forwards has recorded at least one point in preseason action and are in line to be key contributors on special teams. It\u2019s a line blended with shutdown ability and potent playmaking as the trio combined for 77 goals in 2024-25.<\/p>\n
Tuch particularly embodies that two-way profile coming off a season in which he set the NHL record for blocked shots by a forward and receive Selke votes.<\/p>\n
“I think he has a lot of characteristics from the number of pucks he can take away from people, the way he defends,\u201d Ruff said on Sept. 19. \u201cHe’s one of the top penalty killers on our team, and then at the back end of that, he’s a guy that scored 37 goals. I thought his game really grew as the year went on, that he made a really conscious effort to be a real good two-way player and that’s a growth we wanted to see.”<\/p>\n
Josh Doan \u2013 Jiri Kulich \u2013 Jack Quinn<\/p>\n
Doan, Kulich and Quinn were pieced together for the preseason opener in Columbus and the young trio \u2013 all under 24-years-old \u2013 can be a significant offensive difference maker.<\/p>\n
Kulich\u2019s tweaked muscle has resulted in him missing the last two practices and two preseason games but Ruff said he will return to practice on Tuesday. He could rejoin Doan and Quinn, who each had a two-point performance on Sept. 25 against Detroit.<\/p>\n
Doan, who was acquired from Utah this past summer, discussed his transition so far after scoring a goal and an assist in Detroit last Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still getting used, a little bit, to the structure,\u201d Doan said. \u201cObviously it\u2019s different when you come from a different team and everything\u2019s completely different, so trying to find reads and the gray areas and kind of just working through that a little bit. But I think as the games have gone on I\u2019ve felt a little bit more comfortable and playing with Quinny, he\u2019s been a huge help with that. I think just day by day keep asking questions and watching video and finding a way in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jason Zucker \u2013 Ryan McLeod \u2013 Alex Tuch The line got its first action together in the Sabres\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-191979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}