Kristen Shilton is a national NHL reporter for ESPN.
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.”
Rodriguez led all the way to win the $750,000 Wood Memorial on Saturday, earning enough points to move into the 20-horse field for next month’s Kentucky Derby.
Breaking from the rail, the Bob Baffert-trained colt ran 1 1/8 miles on a fast track in 1:48.15 under Hall of Famer Mike Smith in light rain and 45-degree temperatures at Aqueduct in New York. Rodriguez won by 3 1/2 lengths.
The victory was worth 100 qualifying points for the May 3 Derby, potentially giving Baffert three entrants as he seeks a record-setting seventh victory in his return to the race from which he was banned for three years.
Later Saturday, Baffert was to saddle Citizen Bull, last year’s 2-year-old champion, and Barnes in the $500,000 Santa Anita Derby in California, where it was sunny and 82 degrees.
He sent Rodriguez to New York to split up his Derby contenders. The colt was sent off at 7-2 odds in the 10-horse field and paid $9.30 to win the 100th edition of the Wood. He is a son of 2020 Kentucky Derby winner Authentic.
“Bob told me this horse is probably quicker than you think,” Smith said. “He can get uptight pretty easy, and the whole key was just letting him alone out there. I don’t think he necessarily has to have the lead. He just wants to be left alone.”
Smith has twice won the Kentucky Derby. Rodriguez would be his first mount since 2022. At 59, he would be the oldest jockey to win.
“That’s up to all the owners and Bob,” Smith said. “I was glad they pulled me off the bench and I hit a 3-shot for them.”
Grande, trained by Todd Pletcher, was second. He went from having zero qualifying points to 50, which should get him into the Derby starting gate for owner Mike Repole, who is 0 for 7 in the Derby.
Passion Rules was third. Captain Cook, the 9-5 favorite, finished fourth for trainer Rick Dutrow, who hasn’t had a Derby runner since 2010 after winning the 2008 race with Big Brown.
The $1.25 million Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland was postponed from Saturday to Tuesday due to heavy rain and potential flooding in the region. That race and the Lexington Stakes on April 12 are the final Derby preps of the season.
LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska receiver Hardley Gilmore IV, who transferred from Kentucky in January, has been dismissed from the team, coach Matt Rhule announced Saturday.
The second-year player from Belle Glade, Florida, had come to Nebraska along with former Kentucky teammate Dane Key and receivers coach Daikiel Shorts Jr. and had received praise from teammates and coaches for his performance in spring practice.
Rhule did not disclose a reason for removing Gilmore.
“Nothing outside the program, nothing criminal or anything like that,” Rhule said. “Just won’t be with us anymore.”
Gilmore was charged with misdemeanor assault in December for allegedly punching someone in the face at a storage facility in Lexington, Kentucky, the Lexington Herald Leader reported on Jan. 2.
Gilmore played in seven games as a freshman for the Wildcats and caught six passes for 153 yards. He started against Murray State and caught a 52-yard touchdown pass on Kentucky’s opening possession. He was a consensus four-star recruit who originally chose Kentucky over Penn State and UCF.
The opening weekend of the 2025 MLB season was taken over by a surprise star — torpedo bats.
The bowling pin-shaped bats became the talk of the sport after the Yankees’ home run onslaught on the first Saturday of the season put it in the spotlight and the buzz hasn’t slowed since.
What exactly is a torpedo bat? How does it help hitters? And how is it legal? Let’s dig in.
What is a torpedo bat and why is it different from a traditional MLB bat?
The idea of the torpedo bat is to take a size format — say, 34 inches and 32 ounces — and distribute the wood in a different geometric shape than the traditional form to ensure the fattest part of the bat is located where the player makes the most contact. Standard bats taper toward an end cap that is as thick diametrically as the sweet spot of the barrel. The torpedo bat moves some of the mass on the end of the bat about 6 to 7 inches lower, giving it a bowling-pin shape, with a much thinner end.
How does it help hitters?
The benefits for those who like swinging with it — and not everyone who has swung it likes it — are two-fold. Both are rooted in logic and physics. The first is that distributing more mass to the area of most frequent contact aligns with players’ swing patterns and provides greater impact when bat strikes ball. Players are perpetually seeking ways to barrel more balls, and while swings that connect on the end of the bat and toward the handle probably will have worse performance than with a traditional bat, that’s a tradeoff they’re willing to make for the additional slug. And as hitters know, slug is what pays.
The second benefit, in theory, is increased bat speed. Imagine a sledgehammer and a broomstick that both weigh 32 ounces. The sledgehammer’s weight is almost all at the end, whereas the broomstick’s is distributed evenly. Which is easier to swing fast? The broomstick, of course, because shape of the sledgehammer takes more strength and effort to move. By shedding some of the weight off the end of the torpedo bat and moving it toward the middle, hitters have found it swings very similarly to a traditional model but with slightly faster bat velocity.
Why did it become such a big story so early in the 2025 MLB season?
Because the New York Yankees hit nine home runs in a game Saturday and Michael Kay, their play-by-play announcer, pointed out that some of them came from hitters using a new bat shape. The fascination was immediate. While baseball, as an industry, has implemented forward-thinking rules in recent seasons, the modification to something so fundamental and known as the shape of a bat registered as bizarre. The initial response from many who saw it: How is this legal?
OK. How is this legal?
Major League Baseball’s bat regulations are relatively permissive. Currently, the rules allow for a maximum barrel diameter of 2.61 inches, a maximum length of 42 inches and a smooth and round shape. The lack of restrictions allows MLB’s authorized bat manufacturers to toy with bat geometry and for the results to still fall within the regulations.
Who came up with the idea of using them?
The notion of a bowling-pin-style bat has kicked around baseball for years. Some bat manufacturers made smaller versions as training tools. But the version that’s now infiltrating baseball goes back two years when a then-Yankees coach named Aaron Leanhardt started asking hitters how they should counteract the giant leaps in recent years made by pitchers.
When Yankees players responded that bigger barrels would help, Leanhardt — an MIT-educated former Michigan physics professor who left academia to work in the sports industry — recognized that as long as bats stayed within MLB parameters, he could change their geometry to make them a reality. Leanhardt, who left the Yankees to serve as major league field coordinator for the Miami Marlins over the winter, worked with bat manufacturers throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons to make that a reality.
When did it first appear in MLB games?
It’s unclear specifically when. But Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton used a torpedo bat last year and went on a home run-hitting rampage in October that helped send the Yankees to the World Series. New York Mets star Francisco Lindor also used a torpedo-style bat last year and went on to finish second in National League MVP voting.
Who are some of the other notable early users of torpedo bats?
Corking bats involves drilling a hole at the end of the bat, filling it in and capping it. The use of altered bats allows players to swing faster because the material with which they replace the wood — whether it’s cork, superballs or another material — is lighter. Any sort of bat adulteration is illegal and, if found, results in suspension.
Could a rule be changed to ban them?
Could it happen? Sure. Leagues and governing bodies have put restrictions on equipment they believe fundamentally altered fairness. Stick curvature is limited in hockey. Full-body swimsuits made of polyurethane and neoprene are banned by World Aquatics. But officials at MLB have acknowledged that the game’s pendulum has swung significantly toward pitching in recent years, and if an offensive revolution comes about because of torpedo bats — and that is far from a guarantee — it could bring about more balance to the game. If that pendulum swings too far, MLB could alter its bat regulations, something it has done multiple times already this century.
So the torpedo bat is here to stay?
Absolutely. Bat manufacturers are cranking them out and shipping them to interested players with great urgency. Just how widely the torpedo bat is adopted is the question that will play out over the rest of the season. But it has piqued the curiosity of nearly every hitter in the big leagues, and just as pitchers toy with new pitches to see if they can marginally improve themselves, hitters will do the same with bats.
Comfort is paramount with a bat, so hitters will test them during batting practice and in cage sessions before unleashing them during the game. As time goes on, players will find specific shapes that are most comfortable to them and best suit their swing during bat-fitting sessions — similar to how golfers seek custom clubs. But make no mistake: This is an almost-overnight alteration of the game, and “traditional or torpedo” is a question every big leaguer going forward will ask himself.