BUFFALO - Lindy Ruff isn’t backing off Josh Doan after a quiet start.
The Sabres coach said Thursday he still has “all the faith” in the 24-year-old winger, even after Doan went pointless in Buffalo’s first three games and spent the final 15 minutes of Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime win over the Minnesota Wild on the bench. Doan started that night on the top line, but once Ruff tightened things up late, he was one of the forwards left out.
Ruff said Doan has been dealing with “a little bit of a lower-body issue” from Saturday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks, and he thinks it may be showing up in his play.
“I think it’s affecting his play. Although if you ask him, he’d say no,” Ruff said in KeyBank Center.
“But he’ll find his game. I got all the faith in the world that he’ll get to his game.”
That belief comes from the way Ruff views Doan’s makeup. He described him as a player who can handle a rough patch without leaning on excuses.
“If you want to compare some of the other younger players, you’re going to have to battle through some tougher times,” he said. “And he’s a kid that’s up for any battle.”
Doan isn’t pretending the start has been what he wanted. Through the early stretch, he had only four shots on goal entering Thursday’s game against the Dallas Stars, and he admitted he hasn’t hit the level he expects from himself.
“I haven’t been where I want to be personally,” said Doan, who enjoyed a breakout 25,-goal, 52-point campaign in 2025-26. “I think a lot of that is I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform and to help this team out of the gate, and I think I could take a little bit less pressure off myself.
In fact, we’re 2-1 and all’s still well. …
“Yeah, it’s just been a slow start, but nothing too serious.”
There’s extra attention on him because of the seven-year, $48.65 million contract extension he’s playing under, and because he’s been working in the role that once belonged to Alex Tuch alongside top center Tage Thompson. But Doan said the fix may be simpler than all that noise.
For him, it starts with getting back to enjoying the game.
“Just getting back to the reason why I play,” he said. “I play for fun.
I play because I love playing hockey, and that’s where I had to get back to is enjoying every process of that. And I do my best to have fun whenever I’m at the rink and on the ice, and I think at times in games I’ve allowed the frustrations to take over that fun that I usually have.”
Ruff said he spoke with Doan on Wednesday about returning to the hard-driving game that made him effective. The coach wants the winger hounding pucks, getting to loose pucks first and making life miserable around the crease.
“Hounding pucks and (being) first to the puck and getting around the net (for the) tip, rebounds and all that,” he said. “He was a guy that was relentless on the puck, and I think maybe a little of that has been missing.
Usually for a player, you got to get inside. You got to get around the net.”
Even with the slow start and the benching late Tuesday, the Sabres still believe Doan will settle in. His ice time had been up through the first week of the season, and he logged 12 minutes, 5 seconds in the win over Minnesota.
“As a competitor, you always want more,” he said. “And that’s something that I’ll take whatever I can get.”
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