BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Before the Buffalo Sabres embarked on the 2025-26 season, they took a few days during training camp for an organized team event away from the rink. At the time, head coach Lindy Ruff spoke vaguely about the retreat, telling reporters it was about "culture."
That's a loaded word, especially when it comes to the Sabres. Buffalo came into the season with an NHL record 14-season playoff drought and had mustered only 79 points in the standings in 2024-25. For many reasons, this season represented another fork-in-the-road moment for a franchise that has had plenty of those during its decade-plus run without the playoffs. Rebuilding a culture was going to take more than a weekend, but Ruff had to start somewhere. He did a similar retreat in New Jersey before the season the Devils had 113 points, but didn't have room in the schedule his first season back in Buffalo because the Sabres played in the Global Series in Prague.
Ruff's intent was to be the facilitator. He knew any change would have to be driven by the players. According to a few players, Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin, the two longest tenured Sabres, took charge in meetings that weekend. Both had been in Buffalo for seven of the 14 seasons without the playoffs. Dahlin, the captain, and Thompson, one of three alternate captains, are widely regarded as the team's two best players. They are star-level talents who were watching their prime years slip away without even a taste of team success.
Their message was simple: Enough is enough.
The team-bonding included a golf day, but it also featured a guest speaker who put the team through a series of exercises. During one, the players and staff all sat together and brainstormed slogans. They didn't have to be original, necessarily, but if a player suggested one, he had to back it up with a reason and an example that the team had faced at some point in the seasons prior.
"Those reasons we'll keep in the room," Sabres veteran Jason Zucker said. "But it wasn't just words for the sake of words. It was words for the sake of a situation that we knew we were going to get into before the year ever started."
By the end of the session, the team had agreed on four slogans.
- Share the Morning Coffee: This emphasizes talking to your teammates and getting to know them.
- Everybody Ropes, Everybody Rides: There's no job too big or too small for anyone on the team to do at any time.
- F -- ing Giv'er: In everything you do, you give everything you have.
- Grab a guy!: This refers to being a five-man unit on the ice when there's an altercation. But it also can mean that when a player is struggling away from the ice, grab him and help him out.
The Sabres' training and support staff were also involved in the brainstorming process, something Ruff thought was important. The whole organization was in this thing together. Assistant equipment George Babcock, who has been with the team for more than 2,500 games, was particularly spirited during the session. "F -- ing Giv’er" was Babcock’s contribution.
"He was into it," Sabres alternate captain Mattias Samuelsson said. "He’s been here for 30 years or whatever. He wants a change. It’s good for the group to see that."
Seven or eight small groups brainstormed ideas before the entire team whittled down the list and settled on the four phrases. Zucker, 34, thought it was particularly important for the young players to put their phones away and sit and think about what they wanted the team to be about.
"It goes a long way, especially with some of the younger guys and the new generation of nothing really means that much," Zucker said.
Ruff intentionally faded into the background during this exercise.
"The most important part of that whole thing is this is them," Ruff said. "It's not me ramming something down their throat. What we talked about as a group in there is something at the end we all have to believe in. Those are their words."
The Sabres put these phrases on a TV screen in their home locker room as a reminder of what they decided to be about. That TV screen would get turned off whenever reporters entered for media availability. They have a small banner with the phrases that travels with them on the road. It wasn't until Thompson recently discussed the idea of "Everybody Ropes, Everybody Rides" that the slogans started to filter out to the public.
This team ended Buffalo's playoff drought for a lot of reasons on the ice. The young players collectively matured, the team overcame early injuries, got great goaltending and a few players had career-best seasons. But as hokey as it seems, these phrases played a role. For years, outsiders have looked at the Sabres and praised their collective skill and talent while wondering why they were unable to put it together and get results. The culture was the elusive piece for a franchise that had losing hardwired into its DNA for more than a decade.
Luke Schenn, who joined the Sabres at the trade deadline, won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He's also played for 10 other NHL teams and seen these types of words on the walls in every locker room. However, he remembers the phrases that were repeated in the Lightning locker room during those Cup years.
"Words are just words until there's buy in," he said. "Talk is cheap unless there's action."
Goaltender Alex Lyon echoed that. Lyon joined the Sabres last summer and said the retreat helped him accelerate the process of learning about his teammates and the staff.
"I don't think it's necessarily about the slogans or the activities, I think it's about spending time together," Lyon said. "I've just been on a lot of teams, and every team has this is why we do things. There's our slogan, and we're going to put it on the back of a T-shirt. Sometimes those are the most hollow, meaningless things ever. There's probably been a thousand of them around here."
Lyon is right. The Sabres have had slogans before. But the reason we're hearing about the ones the Sabres have is that they backed them up with actions repeatedly throughout the year. Lyon said that suddenly, everyone in the locker room was a lot happier and tighter-knit when the Sabres started winning. For the last four months of the season, Buffalo had the best record in the NHL. That makes the words feel more meaningful.
"When you lose your way during the season, it's nice to be like, 'This is what we agreed upon. This is what we were going to do.' In totality, we sat down together as a team; we decided this is what we were going to commit to. We all agreed upon it; so we're beholden to that to some degree," Lyon said.
The Sabres knew these slogans would be tested because they attached them to scenarios they expected to see. Last season, Thompson got blindsided by Stefan Noesen in a game against the Devils. As he lay on the ice motionless, none of his teammates jumped in to stand up to Noesen. That moment was a low point in another dismal season. It led to a team meeting, and the expectation after that was that it would never happen again.
That was the inspiration behind "Grab a guy," being included among the slogans. It has played out repeatedly throughout this season. The obvious example is Buffalo's 8-7 game against Tampa Bay that featured five fighting majors on each side and over 100 penalty minutes. Everyone from Dahlin to rookie Noah Östlund was involved in the scrums and altercations.
"When we come to the rink, we're all committed to doing that," defenseman Michael Kesselring said. "It gets everybody fired up and brings the group together. You feel a little safer out there knowing everybody has your back."
Ruff also used the phrases to guide the team throughout the season. In team meetings, he'll note whether the team has been passing the test on the four slogans. He has often started meetings by saying, "Let me share the morning coffee with you." And that morning coffee is not always good.
Ruff even had "Everybody Ropes, Everybody Rides" on the weight room wall in Dallas when he was coach of the Dallas Stars. A few players said it came from table led by Bowen Byram and Peyton Krebs, two Western Canadian natives. It's a popular term in that region where farms and ranches are prevalent.
It's easy to find examples of the Sabres embodying that phrase. You can point to Dahlin fighting Darren Raddysh in the Tampa Bay game; Zucker and Jack Quinn blocking shots in big moments; or Thompson's consistent backchecking as clear examples of everyone on the team being willing to do every job.
But the flip side of "Everybody Ropes, Everybody Rides" that makes everyone in the room perk up is Beck Malenstyn scoring a few highlight reel goals. Kesselring said the most excited he was all season was seeing Malenstyn beat Sebastian Aho with a ridiculous deke on a goal against Carolina. Malenstyn set a franchise record for hits this season and has hobbled off the ice repeatedly when blocking shots. General manager Jarmo Kekäläinen referred to him as a player who sets culture. But that goal against the Hurricanes and his short-handed, backhand goal in Montreal showed he doesn't have to rope all time.
"Everyone, once in a while, you get a chance to ride, and you take it," Malenstyn said with a smile.