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The Buffalo Sabres headed into this year’s NHL season hoping to turn things around after bringing back Lindy Ruff for his second stint as head coach, but things haven’t gotten off to a promising start for a team that saw one of its practices go off the rails after two guys decided to drop the gloves with each other.
The Buffalo Sabres have posted a winning record in their past two campaigns after finishing at or below the .500 mark for a full decade, and the team headed into the 2024-25 season hoping to snap a 13-year playoff drought that’s currently the longest one in the NHL.
The Sabres opted to bring the Don Granato Era to an end after the conclusion of last season due to his inability to produce the desired results, and they turned to Lindy Ruff in the hopes the head coach could recapture some of the magic that saw him post a 571-432-78 record and make the playoffs eight times during an initial run in Buffalo that kicked off in 1997 and came to an end in 2013.
Buffalo also entered the season with a new captain in the form of Rasmus Dahlin, but as things currently stand, those adjustments have not translated into immediate success.
It’s obviously a little too early to press the panic button when you consider the Sabres have only played four games, but they kicked off the year with back-to-back losses to the Devils in Prague and are currently sitting at 1-3.
It would appear the vibes in Buffalo aren’t exactly immaculate based on what transpired when the Sabres were practicing on Monday ahead of Wednesday’s showdown with the Penguins, as we were treated to a video of Dahlin getting into it with Peyton Krebs after the former hit his teammate with a hip check before throwing some punches in what was reportedly retaliation for a hit the latter had thrown during the session.
Here’s the scrum that just went on in practice between Rasmus Dahlin and Peyton Krebs.
Looks like they collided at full speed during a drill.
Teammates broke it up right away. pic.twitter.com/bPAPnRnNvd
— Sara Holland (@SaraaHolland) October 14, 2024
I don’t want to read too much into the incident given the relative lack of context (we got a bit more from Krebs after this article was originally published), and there’s a good chance Dahlin knew exactly what he was doing when you consider a captain is tasked with setting the tone for his team.
With that said, teammates punching each other at practice usually isn’t a great sign for any sports team.