An opportune trip<\/p>\n
Ten games in, the Sabres are sitting at .500 (4-4-2) and will embark on a four-game, eight-day trip on both coasts.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s lots to improve upon, per Ruff. Hitting the net, for one, but also zone entries\u2013 Ruff noted that the group had their \u201clongest\u201d video session of the year breaking down the latter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tried to squeeze plays into where there was nothing, which in turn fueled a little bit of their rush and playing in our zone,\u201d Ruff said of Wednesday\u2019s loss. “(We\u2019re) making sure that we’re making it a lot harder on the opposition, making sure it’s a 200-foot game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cut the ice to 150 (feet) too many times. We’re just inside the blue line, we had pucks taken away, or picked off, or what I would call \u2018hope\u2019 plays into the middle of the ice that go to the other team, and they go the other way.\u201d<\/p>\n
This long stretch away from Western New York will be a test of taking things \u201cone period at a time,\u201d Ruff added. The Sabres were 24-13-4 on the road in their Atlantic Division-winning season a year ago, so that philosophy has certainly worked before.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust start winning periods,\u201d he said. \u201cCan we win the first period? Whether that’s 1-0, 2-1, 5-4, can we win the first period? That can do a lot of damage when you’re playing on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trip is, of course, a chance to grab some points \u2013 but also to get closer as a group.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s usually a great time to bond as a team and hang out, spend time with each other, and we’re going to make sure we play some good hockey, too,\u201d said Rasmus Dahlin. \u201cI think this this trip will be really good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An opportune trip Ten games in, the Sabres are sitting at .500 (4-4-2) and will embark on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-893082","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\/893082","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=893082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}