Sabres fans are extremely worried after latest Game 6 development
Tage Thompson and Lindy Ruff head into Game 6 with Buffalo carrying 2 ugly problems at the worst time.
The first one is up front. Thompson is stuck in a brutal series, and the read around Buffalo is getting louder by the hour.
That matters because this is not some depth winger going quiet for a couple of nights. Thompson is supposed to drive the Sabres' offense in a series like this.
Instead, the signs look bad. The report says he seems limited physically, with less jump, less pop on his shot, and less bite in his execution.
That is the kind of slide that changes an entire bench. When your top threat cannot look like himself, every power play and every late push starts to tighten up.
This quote quietly says a lot. Ruff is basically admitting his star player is struggling to handle the pressure and intensity of this playoff moment.
That line feels especially harsh considering Thompson and Tuch have been heavily criticized for disappearing offensively in this series. It almost sounds like a direct challenge to Buffalo's top players ahead of Game 6.
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And Buffalo does not only have one problem.
Owen Power also skipped practice Friday in Buffalo, and his status for Game 6 was still uncertain just hours before puck drop. That is a direct hit to Ruff's blue line on the same day his team is trying to survive.
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Things may have just gotten much worse for Lindy Ruff
Power is one of the Sabres' most-used defensemen in this series. Lose him, or get a version of him that is clearly compromised, and the whole back end gets harder to manage.
The report tied that concern to one specific sequence, saying Power went awkwardly into the boards and headed straight down the tunnel. That is never the kind of image a coach wants sitting in his head before an elimination game.
Now put both issues together. Thompson looking limited. Power not practicing. That is how a playoff night starts to tilt before the puck even drops.
The tension is worse because Buffalo is already coming off the Game 5 loss, and the room is not exactly calm. Rasmus Dahlin publicly took a shot at Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen after that defeat, which only added more noise around the group.
That is why this feels bigger than a normal injury update. It is not just one player being sore in May. It is Buffalo watching major pressure pile up on both ends of the ice at once.
For Montreal, the opening is obvious. Martin St-Louis does not need extra motivation in a Game 6 at the Bell Centre, but seeing Buffalo walk in with that kind of baggage changes the tone.
The puck drops at 20:00 tonight. If Thompson still looks stuck and Power cannot go full throttle, the Sabres may not have enough left to drag this series back.
That is the nightmare for Ruff. In a game where everything is on the line, two of his most important players suddenly look like the story for all the wrong reasons.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 14, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Nick Suzuki | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Juraj Slafkovsky | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Ivan Demidov | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Mitch Marner | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Phillip Danault | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Josh Anderson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Cole Caufield | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Josh Doan | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jake Evans | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mikael Granlund | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Konsta Helenius | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alexandre Texier | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Leo Carlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||