Cameras caught Buffalo Sabres stars Rasmus Dahlin and Peyton Krebs dropping the gloves after a full-speed collision in practice.
The Buffalo Sabres dropped their first three contests of 2024-25 before defeating the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Saturday for their first victory of the season. Lindy Ruff’s group kicks off a three-game road trip against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday.
During today’s practice, things got heated when Dahlin delivered an unnecessary hip check to Krebs after the former failed to corral a long stretch pass, leading to an old-school hockey fight between the two:
Sara Holland of News 4 Buffalo shared a video of the incident:
Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News shared a video of Buffalo Sabres players skating over quickly to break the fight up:
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Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff addressed the fight after practice.
“Boys will be boys,” Ruff said, per Lysowski. “Ras got bumped (the drill) before and then evened up the score. I wouldn’t read too much into that. We want competitive practices.”
It’s not rare for players to fight during practice, but you also don’t see instances like this where a guy delivers a potentially dangerous open-ice to one of his teammates. But hey, maybe it was the emotional park the struggling Sabres need as they try to regroup for Wednesday.
Buffalo Sabres Own NHL’s Longest Active Playoff Drought
The Sabres are the unfortunate owners of the longest active NHL playoff drought, having last qualified in the 2010-11 season. Additionally, they own the longest active drought without a playoff series win, having last done so in 2007.
Buffalo reached the Eastern Conference Finals in back-to-back years coming out of the lockout (2006 and 2007), but it’s been all downhill ever since. Not only do they own a lengthy postseason drought, but Buffalo has only eclipsed the 90-point mark once since 2011-12 , when they hit 91 in 2022-23.
It’s been a long and painful run for Sabres fans, to say nothing of the Buffalo Bills’ annual heartbreaks in the NFL postseason. We’ll see in the coming months if the Sabres can finally turn a corner and end the drought once and for all.
Also Read: Ranking All 32 NHL Teams’ Defenses From WORST To FIRST For The 2024 Season