Ruff Shaking Up Sabres Lineup Against Mammoth

The Buffalo Sabres are 2-2 after a lopsided 4-0 loss to the Dallas Stars, and head coach Lindy Ruff is shaking up his lineup against the Utah Mammoth on Saturday in hopes of energizing a club that has not put together a solid 60-minute effort in the opening two weeks. 

Goalie Colten Ellis, who played well in the 3-2 overtime victory against Minnesota earlier in the week, was in the starter’s net during the Sabres skate on Saturday morning, and is expected to be in goal instead of the struggling Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Luukkonen in three starts has a 1-2-0 record, a 4.02 GAA, and a .782 save %.

Veteran Alex Lyon, who was on the ice on Saturday, is not close to returning according to Ruff, so Ellis has an opportunity to earn more playing time with a good performance against the talented Mammoth, who were pummelled by the Boston Bruins 6-1 on Thursday. 

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Ruff is also looking for some energy from players who have played little or not at all, as Tyson Kozak will make his season debut, and veteran Sam Carrick will be inserted in the lineup. Both took rushes with Beck Malenstyn on the fourth line, while Josh Norris and Jack Quinn moved up to the top line, with Tage Thompson shifting to the middle. Zach Banson and Noah Ostlund were joined by Josh Doan, and Peyton Krebs skated on the wing with Ryan McLeod, and Justin Danforth.

Forward Jiri Kulich, who scored the game-winner against Chicago one week ago in the home opener, and rookie Konsta Helenius, will sit against Utah.

“I  think (with)  any  young  player, (it)  comes  right  down  to  some  competing  process.  There's  a  lot  of  details  that  go  into  every  shift,  whether  it's  50/50  help  on  face-offs.  So  the  compete  part,  the  heavy  compete  on  pucks,  where  I  thought  we  got  smoked (against Dallas)." Ruff said, "I  don't  think  we've  done  a  good  job  as  a  group... as  a  whole  group,  we  haven't  done  a  good  job  as  first  on  puck  and  winning  puck  battles  and  staying  in  the  battle. The  message  this  morning  was  about  staying in  the  battle,  or  we're  going  to  be  a  team  that's  going  to  score  two  goals  a  night.  We  got  to  get  more  of  those  on  time.  We've  got  to  win  more  battles." 

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