11 Thoughts on the Sabres: Jiri Kulich, Josh Norris, fun hockey, and more.

The Buffalo Sabres are playing fun hockey when they are virtually eliminated from the playoffs; I really can’t think of a better combo than that.

But hey, at least there’s some positives to talk about.

On top of that: Lindy Ruff and Kevyn Adams spoke to season ticket holders during a team event on Wednesday. And the NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament just kicked off as well.

That and more in this edition of 11 Thoughts on the Sabres:

1. The Sabres’ fun 5v5 offense
Let’s start this newsletter off positively for once (we’ll dig into some of the negative stuff later) and talk about the Sabres performance last night. Sure, the Penguins may be bad this season, but the Sabres managed to drop 7 even-strength goals on them last night (6 of them during 5v5 play).

How can these guys not figure out the power play with all of this 5v5 offense? Only the Washington Capitals have scored 5v5 goals at a higher rate than the Buffalo Sabres this season. The Dallas Stars and Tampa Bay Lightning come in at 3rd and 4th respectively.

2. Cozens returns to Buffalo
Dylan Cozens returned to Buffalo for the first time since being dealt to the Ottawa Senators. Here’s a fantastic piece by Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News who had a chance to talk with Cozens about his return to Buffalo.

The hockey side of things were obviously not there for Cozens in a Sabres uniform these past two seasons. But he has always been a humble and high character guy, so it’s disappointing that the on-ice things could not work out for him in Buffalo.

Best of luck to Dylan in his NHL career, here’s a clip from after the Sabres 3-2 win over the Senators on Wednesday:

3. Jiri Kulich and scoring goals
With his two 5v5 goals on Thursday, Jiri Kulich has now tied Sam Reinhart for the most 5v5 goals scored in a U21 season in a Buffalo Sabres uniform since 2007/08. Kulich’s 13 5v5 goals has surpassed Jack Eichel’s 12 5v5 goals in 2016/17 and 11 in 2015/16:

4. The 13-game winless streak
The Buffalo Sabres hosted a Blue & Gold Insights event on Wednesday night where season ticket holders were given a chance to ask questions to GM Kevyn Adams and head coach Lindy Ruff.

I also like to think of this event as an opportunity for the organization to finalize their excuses for why the season went poorly. One of their excuses was unsurprisingly the 13-game winless streak. They even posted the below snippet on the team website in their article about the event:

I guess calling 29-25-3 hockey “winning hockey” is technically true since it’s more wins than losses but that is an extremely loose definition of “winning.” The 13-game winless streak was not a complete fluke, they were genuinely playing awful hockey during that stretch.

And to consider 87-point hockey to be “winning hockey” should be extremely concerning for Sabres fans as the team heads into a crucial offseason.

5. Offseason déjà vu
Sticking with the Blue & Gold Insights event, The Sabre Report posted a nice little summary of the conclusions of the event:

When I first saw this post, I had to double check the date on it. I was not sure if somebody retweeted something from the 2024 version of this event.

The strong emphasis on offseason training and coming into camp prepared? I guess that may be a new one, but it is concerning. This seems to be implying that the team was unprepared for camp this year. That is a lot of money and term tied up in players who apparently showed up to camp unprepared this past September.

Kevyn Adams is willing to do anything to make the team better and wants to bring in vets? Now this is something they said they were going to do in 2023 and 2024. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me; fool me three times and …shame on me again I guess.

They know the power play is an issue? Well they knew the power play was an issue last season and it still stinks under a new head coach and assistant coach. So I doubt this organization’s ability to finally fix it this offseason.

So yeah, definitely not a lot from this event to instill confidence in Sabres fans heading into the offseason.

6. Josh Norris’ injury
There has not been a lot that has come out about the Josh Norris injury, but Bill Hoppe’s Buffalo Hockey Beat article touched on it earlier this week.

Here is a snippet from the article where Norris talks about his injury prior to this past Tuesday’s game against the Ottawa Senators:

So it’s an undisclosed injury and he will not be ruled out for the remainder of the season since it’s a day-to-day thing. It’s also not his shoulder which can be good news depending on how you look at it. But now he has another lingering injury that isn’t the shoulder that he has had three surgeries on.

Josh Norris has missed the Sabres’ last 7 games due to injury.

7. Jeff Marek and UPL
Jeff Marek keeps trying to make this Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stuff a thing and it’s just not a thing:

UPL had one of the best goaltending season we’ve seen from a Sabres goalie last season. He has been firmly below average this season. Reductive logic would split the difference here and rate him as an average-ish NHL starter.

UPL has four more seasons left on his current contract and James Reimer is simply the hot hand in net for the Sabres right now. I would not read too much into him not starting games right now. However, I do think next season will be an important one for UPL.

8. Strbak on contract watch
The number two Michigan State Spartans got sent home early from the NCAA Tournament after a heart-breaking loss to the Cornell Big Red in the first round. That marks the end of the collegiate hockey season for Sabres’ prospects Maxim Strbak and Patrick Geary.

It also means that Maxim Strbak is now on contract watch with the Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres 2nd round pick in 2023 had 19 points in 33 games for MSU. The Slovakian right-handed defenseman is capable of playing a simple game, but he’s also a dynamic skater with sneaky skill.

We will have to wait and see if he gets a contract to get a look in the pro ranks this spring or if he will return to East Lansing for his junior season. I could see either option making sense for him.

9. Season over for Brodie Ziemer
Sticking with the college hockey theme, the Minnesota Golden Gophers were also sent home after a first round loss to the UMass Minutemen. So that marks the end of the collegiate season for Sabres’ 2024 3rd round pick, Brodie Ziemer.

The young winger finished his freshman season with 23 points in 38 games for Minnesota. He also netted 7 points in 7 games for Team USA at the 2025 World Juniors. Expect him to return to college for his sophomore season where he should have a larger role with both University of Minnesota and Team USA.

Ziemer is a natural leader, an intangibles guy. Certainly a great personality to have in the Sabres’ system.

10. Other Sabres prospects at the NCAA Tournament
So let’s talk about the Sabres prospects who are still in the NCAA Tournament as of today.

Gavin McCarthy and Boston University crushed Ohio State 8-3 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The 2023 3rd round pick and Clarence native did not have his name appear on the scoresheet but skated a team high 27:57 TOI.

Matteo Costantini and Western Michigan pulled off a gritty double overtime victory over Minnesota State to advance in the NCAA Tournament.

Then we have Jake Richard and UConn who will play their first round game today at 5 PM ET on ESPNU. Richard has been hot with 13 points in his last 6 games and is probably the biggest sleeper in the Sabres prospect pool:

11. Sabres legend: Jhonas Enroth
I always enjoy finding former Sabres who are still playing hockey outside of the SHL.

Jhonas Enroth (who made his Sabres debut 15 years ago and played his last game in a Sabres uniform 10 years ago) is still playing in the SHL in Sweden.

Enroth plays for the Swedish club Örebro, who were just eliminated from the SHL playoffs last week after a 2-1 playoff series loss to Växjö. The 36-year-old goalie appeared in 27 games this past season.