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Pre-Scout: Sabres arrive in Edmonton seared after getting burnt by Flames

2 11
10.12.2025
The Buffalo Sabres had two days off on their road trip after Friday’s loss to the Winnipeg Jets 4-1, allowing them to catch some of the cold western Canadian air before playing four road games this week.

They were snakebit 5-on-5, creating a myriad of 22 high danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick, but scored only once.

That prompted head coach Lindy Ruff to shuffle the lines ahead of Monday night’s game against the Calgary Flames.

“We can’t be happy with our 5-on-5 play. The opportunities are there, but we’ve got to talk about finish versus opportunity,” Ruff said after practice Sunday in Calgary.

There’s a redundancy to calling these “big games” but the Sabres were showing encouraging underlying numbers before back-to-back losses, and found themselves in the basement of the Eastern Conference.

Fast forward to a 7-4 loss on Monday night against the Flames, and you see a Sabres group that surrendered those seven goals on 28 shots.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was pulled after the 2nd period, allowing five goals on 22 shots. Buffalo kept getting within one goal, but shot themselves in the foot, with brutal defensive zone breakdowns and no timely saves.

For the Flames, they’ve scored 13 goals this season against the Sabres, and just 66 goals against the rest of the league in 29 other games.

Part of the line shuffling was placing Jordan Greenway on the top line. But then he was sternly........

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