Lindy Ruff has an objective in the way he structured training camp for the Buffalo Sabres this year. Bring his NHL team together by assembling them all on one squad during these sessions, as opposed to scattering them across three. Create better, uninterrupted cohesion with the players of a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2011.
It’ll be easier for Ruff to do that in his second training camp of his second stint as Sabres head coach. His team will have its entire training camp in Buffalo. In 2024, the Sabres went to Europe days into camp and opened the regular season in Prague as part of the NHL’s Global Series.
Sabres captain and defenseman Rasmus Dahlin didn’t spare words when he looked back at last year’s camp.
“Going to Europe wasn’t great for us,” Dahlin said. “I’m happy we’re back here and having an unbelievable training camp.”
Sabres right wing Alex Tuch enjoyed the experience of navigating a foreign country with his teammates, which became a certain bonding experience. But he saw how it didn’t translate on the ice.
Last season, camp opened Sept. 18 in Buffalo. Less than a week later, the Sabres boarded a plane, packed up their entire organization, from sticks to skate sharpeners and passports, and spent 12 days in Germany and Czechia. They completed training camp and played in an exhibition game, then in two regular-season games in Prague.
They lost their first two regular-season games against the New Jersey Devils in Prague, then returned to the United States on Oct. 8, before their home opener. A 3-1 loss Oct. 10 against Los Angeles became part of a 7-7-1 start that opened the 2024-25 season and included a pair of three-game losing streaks.
Crossing multiple time zones affected continuity. It impacted how Ruff implemented his philosophies. It didn’t allow the Sabres to properly jell.
“We started off the season a little slow, even coming back, and trying to get the time change and everything, and our jet lag out of there,” Tuch said. “Then, we were playing against teams already into that full season, and we had only played two (games) and it was a little bit of a different situation, and we didn’t do well with it.”
The Sabres open their preseason schedule at 7 p.m. Monday at Columbus. A quick charter flight to central Ohio is easier on the body than a transatlantic flight, and the Sabres don’t have to contend with jet lag.
This year, the farthest the Sabres will travel in the preseason is either to Columbus or Detroit, depending on the driving route. It’s 329 miles from KeyBank Center to Nationwide Arena in Columbus. It’s only 261 miles between KeyBank Center and Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, if you drive through Canada and have a passport, a Real ID or a NEXUS card.
Lesser travel means the Sabres will get a few extra nights to sleep in their own beds. They will have a few extra days in which they won’t deal with multiple-hour time changes or unfamiliar hotel rooms.
This is the 15th year the NHL will play regular-season games in Europe. This year’s Global Series teams will find out what the Sabres went through. The 2022-23 San Jose Sharks, went through it, too. They opened that season in Prague with two losses to Nashville, and went 3-9-3 in their first 15 games.
“We don’t have travel to worry about,” Ruff said. “We don’t have activities that are abroad or traveling somewhere else. We get the plan of practice. We get to practice every day. We get to meet in our own facility, every day. I think that, alone, has a lot of value to it.”
None of the Sabres would turn down a trip to Europe. But earlier this month, Sabres wing Zach Benson looked back at the trip to Germany and Czechia and described the 2024 training camp itinerary as “pretty chaotic.”
“It felt like we were there for a month, I think it was 10 days,” Benson said. “It was, obviously, a blast, and I think it’s great for the game, to have games in Europe. This is me speaking, but it’s a little different, you’re playing actual hockey games in Europe, there’s no home crowd, it’s just a different feeling.
“It’s obviously a cool experience and I’m grateful I got to go, but I think it’ll be better for us to just start the normal way, start in Buffalo and start with a good training camp.”
The trip last year impacted Ruff’s initial sequence of plans for the Sabres, right down to the first exercises of training camp, in which Ruff ditched the use of pucks and opted for skating drills.
“It’s kind of a competitive skate there at the start,” Ruff said. “It’s a competitive drill that I’ve done for a long time, with different teams. I’ve done it here before, and would have loved to done it last year, but the fact we were leaving early for Europe kind of forced our hand a little bit.”
Tuch began skating with the Sabres on Saturday, after missing the first two days of camp with an unspecified injury. He sees a full training camp in Buffalo will be a boon to his team.
Having three preseason games at KeyBank Center, part of what Tuch calls “comfortability” in training camp, will help the Sabres hop right into the season, which begins Oct. 9 against the New York Rangers at KeyBank Center.
Dahlin notes a difference between training camp this year and last year.
“We had one game in Germany (a 5-0 win against EHC Red Bull Munchen on Sept. 27, 2024),” Dahlin said. “Big guys. But no excuses. We should have done it better. But this year, we have all the chances in the world to work on our game, to work on the little things. Special teams. The stuff that had to get better from last year. And we already started. I’m excited.”
Global challenges
Teams that opened the season in Europe as part of the NHL’s Global Series since 2018, and how they fared in the first 15 games of the season.
2024: New Jersey Devils 8-5-2, Buffalo Sabres 7-7-1. The Devils defeated the Sabres 4-1 and 3-1 on Oct. 4-5, 2024, in Prague.
2022: Nashville Predators 6-8-1, San Jose Sharks 3-9-3. The Predators defeated the Sharks 4-1 and 3-2 on Oct. 7-8, 2022, in Prague.
2019: Philadelphia Flyers 8-5-2, Chicago Blackhawks 5-7-3. The Flyers defeated the Blackhawks, 4-3, on Oct. 4, 2019, in Prague.
2018: New Jersey Devils 6-8-1, Edmonton Oilers, 8-6-1. The Devils defeated the Oilers 5-2 on Oct. 6, 2018, in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Get in the game with our Prep Sports Newsletter
Sent weekly directly to your inbox!
* I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Rachel Lenzi
News sports reporter
Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!
Your notification has been saved.
There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Followed notifications
Please log in to use this feature
Log In
Don’t have an account? Sign Up Today