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The Buffalo Sabres were practically pronounced dead before the NHL season had officially begun.

Buffalo went out of the gate early for the league’s latest Global Series showcase in Prague, Czechia. That put the Sabres some 4,000 miles from home, getting beat up by the New Jersey Devils in a pair of consecutive losses by a combined 7-2 score.

It would be days before another NHL team opened its schedule — leaving ample airtime devoted to debating how the suddenly 0-2 Sabres had already blown their chances of being a playoff team.

Because wasn’t that the only acceptable outcome for Buffalo anyway? Isn’t this the Sabres’ time to end the 13-year postseason drought — longest among clubs in the four major sports leagues — and reward a fan base that’s patiently waited for Buffalo to pull it together?

That remains the goal. Overseas debacle be damned.

“We learned what not to do,” Sabres forward Alex Tuch said. “There were some good takeaways I think; it was a big learning experience. It’s something where you just have to realize that in this league, it’s tough. No matter what’s going on, who you’re playing, when you’re playing them, where you are in the world, you have to show up, and if you don’t, it’s not going to go your way. So I think it was a good eye-opener for this group, and we know how much better we need to be.”

Those wise words promptly appeared to fall on deaf ears. Buffalo — still without injured forward JJ Peterka after he was injured against the Devils — had nearly a week to prepare for their home opener against the Los Angeles Kings, and were brought down again, blowing an early 1-0 lead that was undone by an abysmal third period (and Anze Kopitar natural hat trick) in the eventual 3-1 loss.

Now Buffalo was staring down the barrel of an 0-3 start having scored just three goals in three games. The power play was 0-for-11. The Sabres’ best forwards — Tage Thompson and Tuch among them — looked snakebit. Zach Benson was struggling with an injury. And newly minted captain Rasmus Dahlin was clearly still feeling effects of the ailment he suffered during the preseason.

This wasn’t the Buffalo team anyone expected. Not when the organization brought back Lindy Ruff as head coach. Not when they had several maturing young talents on the roster ready to break out. Not when GM Kevyn Adams had essentially stood pat in free agency to give those homegrown skaters a chance to flourish.

Buffalo was already a confusing paradigm. And then the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers came to town — and the Sabres slapped them 5-2 for that elusive first win of the campaign.

Huh?

Suffice to say, the Sabres have been on a wild ride. Could the initial turmoil help Buffalo’s ultimate goal of punching a long-awaited ticket back to the postseason?

It’s not like anyone’s confidence inside the room is shaken … right?

“No,” said Tuch, when asked if the Sabres were rattled.

There’s not even a little concern about mounting pressure?

“Nope. We’re all about the next game.”

There are 78 more chances to prove there’s still reason to believe in Buffalo. Here’s why the playoff dream isn’t dead yet.


MARTIN BIRON HAS DONE the European thing, too.

He was one of three goalies the New York Rangers took to Sweden in 2011 for their own regular season opener. While the experience itself was top-notch, Biron was “dragging” after the first five or six days.

It was no surprise then to Biron — now an analyst for MSG Network — that Buffalo wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders when it came time to face the Devils some 12 days into their European sojourn that included an exhibition outing against EHC Red Bull Munich in Germany, too.

“It’s not the best [way] to start,” Biron said. “But I almost feel like you’ve got to put those games aside. It was a long time [in Europe] and they just didn’t have their legs. And you move on. So it’s an 80-game season [then], and you’re trying to get to 95 points in 80 games, right? Is it challenging? Yes. But that’s how you have to look at it.”

On paper, it appeared Buffalo didn’t rise to the occasion in their next opportunity against the Kings. Biron begs to differ, though. It’s not that the Sabres — who whacked the Kings twice last season by a combined 12-3 — played poorly in the home opener; they just didn’t execute when it mattered.

“They looked really good,” Biron said. “If you look at the expected goals and the chances created, they were plus-14 in high-danger chances. The Sabres have never had a game where [the margin] was that high. They just couldn’t score. They couldn’t finish. And there were two [other] things that didn’t go well: the power play did not score again, and L.A. had a 5-on-3 for a minute [in the third period]. That didn’t work out good. They took a couple bad penalties [on Jason Zucker and Mattias Samuelsson]. That’s it.”

Those power-play woes might be the most consistent element of Buffalo’s season to date. Through four games, the Sabres are 0-for-14 with the extra man. Ruff has devoted long stretches of practice time to try remedying the problem; he’s tweaked the team’s looks, he’s yelled over botched attempts, but nothing so far is penetrating.

“We’re trying to generate a little bit more speed,” Ruff said. “We’ve got to get connected on the entries, and obviously both units changed when [Peterka and Zach Benson] went out.”

Biron’s perception on the special teams problems are similar, and he’s direct about what Buffalo must do to fix them.

“The first two games [in Prague], they were terrible on zone entries, and they were never in the zone because they couldn’t get possession,” he said. “That was better against L.A.; now it’s about getting second chances. I feel like they got some decent looks. But they really didn’t get any rebound looks, any screen looks, and that’s what the power play’s foundation should be about. You can’t just rely on a Tage Thompson one-timer. There’s still a lot of work to be done there.”


BUFFALO NEEDS MORE from its top players in every respect. The win over Florida was the Sabres’ most cohesive display offensively. And it’s easy to say Buffalo had an edge in that outing because the Panthers started backup goaltender Spencer Knight — his first since Feb. 18, 2023 — and they were missing both Aleksander Barkov (with an ankle injury) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

The Sabres overcame a 1-0 deficit in the first period because of key contributions from Jordan Greenway, Thompson and Tuch. That’s a good sign. Their best players — like any other team’s — have to be the ones driving offense. And there are others the Sabres are still waiting on to step up.

One of the blights on Buffalo’s 2023-24 season was the loss of forward Jack Quinn in January to a lower-body injury. That was after Quinn had been out long-term with an Achilles tendon issue. The prospect of having Quinn — who the team drafted eighth overall in 2020 — fully healthy to start this season was exciting. But he hasn’t quite clicked yet in a second-line spot with Dylan Cozens and Jiri Kulich, recording just one assist through the team’s first four games.

Quinn is counting on more production out of himself to align with some lofty goals for the season ahead.

“I want to be a really good offensive player in this league,” Quinn said. “I want to establish myself as that this year.”

Does Quinn feel like he’s begun doing that?

“No, not at all.”

Biron agrees that Quinn “hasn’t had a good start to the year” and it’s on him, Thompson, Peterka and Cozens — among others — to pull their weight as Buffalo drags itself out of less-than-ideal circumstances. And Ruff must push the right buttons to make that a reality.

“Lindy has to start to guide this team into being able to grind out some long shifts in the offensive zone,” Biron said. “It’s not just about rush chances, and then you’re out [of the zone]. Rush chances are great, but how about you spend 40 seconds or a minute in the offensive zone with good puck possession, with a point shot, with a recovery from a loose puck, and get the cycle going. That’s what I haven’t seen enough.”

Buffalo’s victory over Florida could be foundational, then. It was Ruff’s first win behind the Sabres’ bench since being fired during his initial go-around as coach from 1997-2013. Adams brought Ruff back after firing Don Granato in April, a reaction to the Sabres’ third failed attempt at making playoff under Granato’s leadership.

Ruff has had prior success in Buffalo. He guided the team to eight playoff appearances and a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 1999. Kicking off this tenure with a 1-3 mark wasn’t exactly the plan, but Ruff could see the Sabres perhaps starting to turn the proverbial corner.

“I sensed the same type of urgency [against] Florida as our last game [against L.A.],” Ruff said. “You could get frustrated, you could deviate; but I thought our guys were pretty locked in trying to play the right way, and for the most part I thought for 60 minutes we did. We got rewarded.”

And then some. It was a weight off Thompson’s shoulders to see some of those pucks — which had an annoying habit of finding every crossbar lately — hitting the net.

“You get one, and you start to feel good, especially after you feel like you could’ve had a few, and a goalie robs you or you just get a little unlucky,” Thompson said. “You’ve just got to stick with it. Keep shooting pucks and keep going to the net and stuff will open up.”

It all sounds right, anyway. The Sabres just have to back it up now on the ice. And their back end will be a significant factor in just how good Buffalo can eventually be. Dahlin claims to be at full strength again. Owen Power has been making progress. Henri Jokiharju is generating offense from the blue line, and Bowen Byram has untapped potential. If that group can continue to jell, it will be instrumental in getting Buffalo over the hump.

Another bright spot for the Sabres? Goaltending. And that hasn’t always been the case in Buffalo.

Right now they’re leaning on tandem of Devon Levi and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen after losing James Reimer — their projected third-stringer — on waivers. This is a big season for Levi in particular, who is poised to take on his heaviest NHL workload to date (he went 10-8-2 last season with an .899 save percentage and 3.10 goals-against average). Luukkonen was a go-to option for the Sabres in 2023-24, recording a 27-22-4 record with a .910 SV% and 2.57 GAA.

If both goalies can improve on that, it’ll give the Sabres a fighting chance every night.

“The least of their worries right now is goaltending,” Biron noted. “They’re good, and where they want it to be. If Luukkonen and Levi stay healthy, they’re going to be fine. And I actually love the upside in Levi and what he showed in training camp and what he showed in the one game [in Prague] when he almost stole them a point.”


THERE ARE NO moral victories, of course. The Sabres can’t be satisfied with another so-so year that leaves them outside looking in at the postseason field. And it’s way too soon to saddle them with such a fate.

There are too many recent examples — like the Edmonton Oilers starting last season 2-9-1 and still reaching the Cup Final — to count the Sabres out of a real playoff push.

It won’t be easy. The margin for error is already small, and will only feel suffocating if Buffalo hits any more speed bumps in the near future. There’s no use focusing on that, though. As the Sabres begin a three-game road trip, it’s about redemption, and momentum, and showing proof that one bad week is no reason to stop believing.

“I’m going to give them a pass,” Biron concluded. “The 0-3 start, it was really more like being 0-1 in my opinion from one bad game [in Prague]. They put themselves in a tough, tough spot early on for sure. But you’ve got to press on.”

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Source: USC flips Ducks’ Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

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Source: USC flips Ducks' Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

USC secured the commitment of former Oregon defensive tackle pledge Tomuhini Topui on Tuesday, a source told ESPN, handing the Trojans their latest recruiting victory in the 2026 cycle over the Big Ten rival Ducks.

Topui, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive tackle and No. 72 overall recruit in the 2026 class, spent five and half months committed to Oregon before pulling his pledge from the program on March 27. Topui attended USC’s initial spring camp practice that afternoon, and seven days later the 6-foot-4, 295-pound defender gave the Trojans his pledge to become the sixth ESPN 300 defender in the program’s 2026 class.

Topui’s commitment gives USC its 10th ESPN 300 pledge this cycle — more than any other program nationally — and pulls a fourth top-100 recruit into the impressive defensive class the Trojans are building this spring. Alongside Topui, USC’s defensive class includes in-state cornerbacks R.J. Sermons (No. 26 in ESPN Junior 300) and Brandon Lockhart (No. 77); four-star outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 27) out of Gainesville, Georgia; and two more defensive line pledges between Jaimeon Winfield (No. 143) and Simote Katoanga (No. 174).

The Trojans are working to reestablish their local recruiting presence in the 2026 class under newly hired general manager Chad Bowden. Topui not only gives the Trojans their 11th in-state commit in the cycle, but his pledge represents a potentially important step toward revamping the program’s pipeline to perennial local powerhouse Mater Dei High School, too.

Topui will enter his senior season this fall at Mater Dei, the program that has produced a long line of USC stars including Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Amon-Ra St. Brown. However, if Topui ultimately signs with the program later this year, he’ll mark the Trojans’ first Mater Dei signee since the 2022 cycle, when USC pulled three top-300 prospects — Domani Jackson, Raleek Brown and C.J. Williams — from the high school program based in Santa Ana, California.

Topui’s flip to the Trojans also adds another layer to a recruiting rivalry rekindling between USC and Oregon in the 2026 cycle.

Tuesday’s commitment comes less than two months after coach Lincoln Riley and the Trojans flipped four-star Oregon quarterback pledge Jonas Williams, ESPN’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in 2026. USC is expected to continue targeting several Ducks commits this spring, including four-star offensive tackle Kodi Greene, another top prospect out of Mater Dei.

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Sources: QB Pyne leaves Mizzou, seeks 4th team

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Sources: QB Pyne leaves Mizzou, seeks 4th team

Missouri quarterback Drew Pyne has entered the portal as a graduate transfer, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.

Pyne is looking to move to his fourth school after stints at Notre Dame, Arizona State and Missouri. He’ll be a sixth-year senior this fall.

Pyne joined Missouri last year as a backup for senior starter Brady Cook. He earned one start, leading the Tigers to a 30-23 comeback win over Oklahoma while Cook was sidelined by ankle and wrist injuries.

Missouri brought in former Penn State quarterback Beau Pribula via the transfer portal this offseason. He’ll compete with redshirt junior Sam Horn and true freshman Matt Zollers, the No. 86 overall recruit in the 2025 ESPN 300, for the opportunity to start this season.

Pyne, a former ESPN 300 recruit, began his career at Notre Dame and started 10 games for the Fighting Irish in 2022. He threw for 2,021 yards on 65% passing and scored 24 total touchdowns with six interceptions while winning eight of his starts.

After the Irish brought in grad transfer quarterback Sam Hartman, Pyne transferred to Arizona State but appeared in just two games with the Sun Devils before an injury forced him to sit out the rest of the season.

Pyne played 211 snaps over six appearances for the Tigers last season and threw for 391 yards on 60% passing with three touchdowns and three interceptions.

The NCAA’s spring transfer window opens April 16, but graduate transfers are permitted to put their name in the portal at any time. More than 160 FBS scholarship quarterbacks have already transferred this offseason.

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What’s going on with Rafael Devers? Putting his historic strikeout streak into context

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What's going on with Rafael Devers? Putting his historic strikeout streak into context

There are slow starts, there are slumps, and then there is whatever Rafael Devers is going through.

The 28-year-old three-time All-Star for the Boston Red Sox has been one of baseball’s best hitters since 2019, posting three 30-homer seasons, three 100-RBI seasons and a whole bunch of doubles.

His first five games of 2025 have been a nightmare. It’s the early-season equivalent of dealing Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. Johnny Pesky holding the ball. Bucky Dent. The ball rolling through Bill Buckner’s legs. Aaron Boone. Just to name a few Red Sox references. Here’s how those games unfolded for Devers:

Game 1: 0-for-4, three strikeouts
Game 2: 0-for-4, four strikeouts
Game 3: 0-for-4, three strikeouts, walk, RBI
Game 4: 0-for-4, two strikeouts, walk
Game 5: 0-for-3, three strikeouts, two walks

Along the way, Devers became the first player to strike out 10 times in a team’s first three games of a season — and that’s not all.

He became the first player to strike out 12 times in a team’s first four games. And, yes, with 15 strikeouts through five games he shattered the old record of 13, shared by Pat Burrell in 2001 and Byron Buxton in 2017. Going back to the end of 2024, when Devers fanned 11 times over his final four games, he became the fourth player with multiple strikeouts in nine straight games — and one of those was a pitcher (the other two were a rookie named Aaron Judge in 2016 and Michael A. Taylor in 2021).

With Devers struggling, the Red Sox have likewise stumbled out of the gate, going 1-4 after some lofty preseason expectations, including an 8-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles in the home opener Monday. To be fair, it’s not all on Devers: Jarren Duran, Devers and Alex Bregman, the top three hitters in the lineup, are a combined 11-for-62 (.177) with no home runs.

But there is one question weighing heaviest on the minds of Red Sox Nation right now: What is really going on with Devers?

It’s easy to say his head simply isn’t in the right space. Devers made headlines early in spring training after the Red Sox signed Bregman, saying he didn’t want to move to DH and that “third base is my position.” He pointed out that when he signed his $331 million extension in January of 2023, the front office promised he would be the team’s third baseman.

That, however, was when a different regime was in charge. Bregman, a Gold Glove winner in 2024, is the better defensive third baseman, so it makes sense to play him there and move Devers — except many players don’t like to DH. Some analysts even build in a “DH penalty,” assuming a player will hit worse there than when he plays the field. While Devers eventually relented and said he’d do whatever will help the team, it was a rocky situation for a few weeks.

But maybe it’s something else. While Devers avoided surgery this offseason, he spent it trying to rebuild strength in both shoulders after dealing with soreness and inflammation throughout 2024. He didn’t play the field in spring training and had just 15 plate appearances. So maybe he is still rusty — or the shoulder(s) are bothering him.

Indeed, Statcast metrics show his average bat speed has dropped from 72.5 mph in 2024 to 70.3 mph so far in 2025 (and those are down from 73.4 mph in 2023). His “fast-swing rate” has dropped from 34.2% in 2023 to 27.9% to 12.2%. Obviously, we’re talking an extremely small sample size for this season, but it’s clear Devers isn’t generating the bat speed we’re used to seeing from him.

That, however, doesn’t explain the complete inability to make contact. Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters after the series in Texas that Devers had made alterations with his foot placement — but was having trouble catching up to fastballs. Following Monday’s game, Devers told reporters (via his interpreter) that, “Obviously this is not a position that I’ve done in the past. So I need to get used to it. But I feel good, I feel good.”

Which leads to this question: Does this historic bad start mean anything? Since the DH began in 1973, three DHs began the season with a longer hitless streak than Devers’ 0-for-19 mark, so let’s dig into how the rest of their seasons played out:

  • Don Baylor with the 1982 Angels (0-for-20). Baylor ended up with a pretty typical season for him: .263/.329/.424, 24 home runs.

  • Evan Gattis of the 2015 Astros (0-for-23). Gattis hit .246 with 27 home runs — not as good as he hit in 2014 or 2016, but in line with his career numbers.

  • Curtis Terry with the Rangers in 2021 (0-for-20). Terry was a rookie who ended up playing just 13 games in the majors.

Expanding beyond just the DH position, I searched Baseball-Reference for players in the wild-card era (since 1995) who started a season hitless in at least 20 plate appearances through five games. That gave us a list of … just seven players, including Evan Carter (0-for-22) and Anthony Rendon (0-for-20) last season. Both ended up with injury-plagued seasons. The list also includes Hall of Famer Craig Biggio, who was 0-for-24 for the Houston Astros in 1995. He was fine: He hit .302/.406/.483 that season, made the All-Star team and finished 10th in the MVP voting. J.D. Drew started 0-for-25 through five games with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2005; he hit .286/.412/.520, although an injury limited him to 72 games.

But none of those hitters struck out nearly as often as Devers has.

So let’s focus on the strikeouts and expand our search to most strikeouts through the 15 first games of a season. Given his already astronomical total, Devers is likely to rank high on such a list even if he starts making more contact. Seventeen players struck out at least 25 times through 15 games, topped by Yoan Moncada and Miguel Sano with 29, both in 2018. Not surprisingly, all these seasons have come since 2006 and 12 since 2018.

How did that group fare?

They were actually OK, averaging a .767 OPS and 20 home runs. The best of the group was Matt Olson in 2023, who struck out 25 times in 15 games, but was also hitting well with a .317/.423/.650 line. He went on to hit 53 home runs. The next best season belongs to Giancarlo Stanton in 2018, his first with the Yankees. He finished with 38 home runs and an .852 OPS — but that was a big drop from his MVP season in 2017, when he mashed 59 home runs. His strikeout rate increased from 23.6% in 2017 to 29.9% — and he’s never been as good.

Indeed, that’s the worrisome thing for Devers: Of the 16 players who played the season before (Trevor Story was a rookie in 2016 when he struck out 25 times in 15 games, albeit with eight home runs), 13 had a higher OPS the previous season, many significantly so.

As Cora argued Monday, it’s a small sample size. “You know, this happens in July or August, we’d not even be talking about it,” he said.

That doesn’t really sound quite forthright. A slump, even a five-game slump, with this many strikeouts would absolutely be a topic of discussion. Still, that’s all the Red Sox and Devers have to go on right now: It’s just a few games, nothing one big game won’t fix. They just hope it comes soon.

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