Latest news with #Aube-Kubel
New York Times
09-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
When NHL fighters become teammates — and even friends: ‘You jumped me!'
The realization hit Nicolas Aube-Kubel like a punch. He was driving to the Westchester County Airport on this late-March day, having just been called up to the Rangers, which meant the 28-year-old winger was becoming teammates with a fellow NHL player he had long hated to face. 'Shoot,' Aube-Kubel thought to himself. 'I have to meet Trocheck now.' Advertisement Back in December, when Aube-Kubel was on the Sabres, he nailed Rangers center Vincent Trocheck with a reverse hit in his defensive zone, knocking Trocheck down. Trocheck took issue with the check, which caught him high, and charged at his opponent. The two dropped their gloves, and Aube-Kubel landed a couple of blows before Trocheck fell to the ice. Three months later, on trade deadline day, the Rangers acquired Aube-Kubel from the Sabres for Erik Brännström. Since Aube-Kubel was in the minors at the time of the deal, he initially joined the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack. The Rangers recalled him before a West Coast road trip, setting up his first encounter with Trocheck since the fight. After arriving at the Westchester airport, Aube-Kubel approached his former foe on the team plane. 'I'm glad I have you on my side now,' he told Trocheck. The pair shared a laugh, reminiscing about the fight; Trocheck brought up how Buffalo Bills offensive lineman Dion Dawkins, a four-time Pro Bowler, had been sitting in the front row that night and evidently loved what he saw, banging on the glass and pumping up the KeyBank Center crowd. Then they settled into being teammates. 'It's not something you're going to hold a grudge over,' Trocheck said later. 'Part of the game.' And it's far from unique to Aube-Kubel and Trocheck. The continued existence of fighting in the NHL forces players to occasionally join forces with someone they've punched. Aube-Kubel, for example, has now skated alongside three of the seven players he's fought in the NHL. Among them is Sabres defenseman Connor Clifton, with whom Aube-Kubel said he has since become 'best buddies.' When Rangers center Sam Carrick was with the Ducks' AHL affiliate in 2021, for instance, he challenged Vincent Desharnais to a bout after Desharnais delivered a knee-on-knee hit to one of Carrick's teammates. Then, after the Oilers acquired Carrick at the 2024 trade deadline, he and Desharnais became teammates themselves. They relitigated the hit, chuckling about Carrick finding it dirty. Advertisement 'Eventually you always laugh about it,' Carrick said. 'It's one of those things where maybe in the heat of the moment you're mad, but I think there's a mutual respect there.' Players take different approaches to reuniting with former combatants on the same roster. Some address it as soon as possible. They discuss the plays that led to it, compare perspectives, and share a laugh. 'It's just more of a ball-busting thing,' Rangers center J.T. Miller said. Carrick illustrated as much. With Trocheck in earshot in the Rangers' dressing room, Carrick loudly exclaimed, 'I forgot about (Aube-Kubel) beating the wheels off Trocheck earlier in the year.' Carrick also mentioned Miller fighting his brother, Trevor Carrick, during their junior hockey days. 'Beat his ass,' Miller recalled. But other players leave their previous encounters unaddressed. While with the Coyotes last season, defenseman J.J. Moser fought Mikey Eyssimont, who was playing for the Tampa Bay Lightning at the time. Then, over the summer, the Lightning traded for Moser. The defenseman said he could have made a joke when he met Eyssimont, but the right opportunity never came up. 'You probably are not talking about any other situation,' Moser said. 'If you are playing against a guy and you take the puck away from him, you're not going to go back and (say), 'Oh, you remember when I took the puck away?'' Eyssimont, meanwhile, fought multiple eventual Lightning teammates: Brayden Point in 2023, and Moser and Cam Atkinson last season. 'You jumped me!' Atkinson recalled joking when they later met in Tampa. 'That's bulls—!' Atkinson had played more than 700 NHL games without a fight before taking on Eyssimont, and found it amusing that 'the one guy I get into some sort of scrap with is my teammate the next year.' To Atkinson, keeping the situation light was a way to show there was no bad blood. As if to further demonstrate this point, the winger referred to Eyssimont, who was traded to the Kraken at the deadline, as a great guy. Advertisement 'Nine times out of 10 there's really no animosity,' Miller said. 'Have a beer with a guy after. It shouldn't be a problem.' There are times when players who drop the gloves genuinely don't like each other, Miller added, but it's not common. For example, he had nothing against Carson Soucy when they fought in 2022-23. Miller was with the Canucks at the time, and Vancouver had gone winless through its first seven games of the season. Coach Bruce Boudreau had called his players out ahead of a game against the Kraken, Miller remembered, so he felt he needed to do something. Soucy, then with Seattle, just happened to be standing close to Miller early in the first period when Miller was looking to fight. There was nothing personal to it. Soucy respected Miller for trying to pump up his team. Soucy signed with the Canucks ahead of the next season, and he and Miller were both traded to the Rangers in separate deals this year. The two teammates joked about their fight early on after Soucy joined Vancouver, but they haven't really discussed it since. 'Guys don't fight each other on the ice because they hate each other,' said Rangers winger Brennan Othmann, who fought eventual teammate Casey Fitzgerald in the AHL last season. 'They fight each other to get momentum or they're sticking up for a teammate after a hit or whatever it is.' Unsurprisingly, league heavyweights are the most likely candidates to wind up playing with someone they once fought. When Ryan Reaves was traded from the Rangers to the Wild in November 2022, he found himself sharing a dressing room with Marcus Foligno — a player he had fought multiple times, including two months prior to the trade. Foligno thought about their previous fights as soon as Minnesota acquired Reaves, particularly how the recent punches 'stuck with me for about two more weeks on the top of my head.' Foligno, still with the Wild, said fans have since asked him to sign a photo that Reaves had posted on his Instagram page in the wake of one of their fights. The two even dropped the gloves again after Reaves left for the Maple Leafs, but they still talk. There are no hard feelings. 'Reavo was awesome and easy to get along with right away, despite having some run-ins with him,' Foligno said. 'Usually those guys understand what it takes to win and what it takes to bring a team close.' As is the case with Foligno and Reaves, there's plenty of familiarity between frequent fighters. The Devils' Kurtis MacDermid and the Flyers' Nicolas Deslauriers, for example, once lived together as roommates during Kings development camp. The two have gone on to fight five times over their careers. Advertisement 'Nothing personal,' MacDermid said during the 2021-22 season, when he twice fought Deslauriers. 'I respect him as a player and a person, and he's a really great guy and good player. It's just a part of the job.' Rangers bruiser Matt Rempe has yet to become teammates with one of his past opponents, but he's encountered plenty away from the rink: While playing junior hockey in the Western Hockey League, he sometimes palled around with them at bars over the summer in his native Calgary. 'You run into guys and (say) 'oh, I fought you! Let me buy you a beer,'' he said. But the longer Rempe's career goes, the more likely it is that he'll end up playing alongside someone he's tried to beat to a pulp. His reaction then will probably be similar: share a laugh, enjoy a drink and proceed on good terms. (Top photos: Jeff Vinnick / NHLI via Getty Images, Jeff Halstead / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
New York Times
29-01-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Why Sabres sent down Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Tage Thompson dominant at wing: Takeaways
BUFFALO, N.Y. — A few days before the Buffalo Sabres' season started in Prague, I was talking to Dylan Cozens about their newly assembled fourth line. General manager Kevyn Adams brought in Beck Malenstyn, Sam Lafferty and Nicolas Aube-Kubel to help establish a fast and physical identity in the bottom six. New coach Lindy Ruff compared the group to a running game in football, capable of wearing down teams with a consistent forecheck. Advertisement Expectations were so high that Cozens had this to say: 'I've loved watching those guys play. They all just fly up and down the ice and blow guys up. They really have an identity. It's awesome to watch, and I can't wait to see them play against real NHL teams here and just roll over them. They all love what they do, and it's going to be so fun to watch them roll over guys, buzz up and down the ice and be hard to play against. I would not want to play against them.' That never came to fruition. Monday, the Sabres waived Aube-Kubel, who played only 19 of Buffalo's first 49 games and had only one goal and one assist. Aube-Kubel played just over five minutes in his first game with the Sabres before suffering a knee injury that kept him out for weeks. He came back earlier than the Sabres expected but wasn't quite himself. 'Admittedly, he said to me that he felt good but didn't feel he skated as well as he did,' Ruff said Tuesday. 'I thought through camp he really skated well. But coming back, it just didn't seem like he was catching any traction.' Aube-Kubel, who signed a one-year, $1.5 million contract in the summer, ended up out of the lineup as a healthy scratch even once the injury had fully healed. Ruff said the recent play of Jiri Kulich made the Sabres want to keep him on the roster. Jordan Greenway is also getting closer to returning from his injury. And Tyson Kozak played well enough during his most recent call-up that the Sabres wanted to get him back in the NHL. This isn't an ideal outcome, but the injury is a bit of bad luck that's tough to ignore. Part of what Aube-Kubel was supposed to bring to the table was speed. He showed it in training camp and the preseason, but he was playing with a knee brace when he returned from injury. The same juice he had in September never fully returned. He had some encouraging moments but wasn't consistent enough. Advertisement Aube-Kubel passed through waivers and will now play in Rochester. Lafferty has also struggled to make an impact. He's signed for another season after this one at $2 million, and he too missed time with an injury earlier this season. But Tuesday, Ruff put Kozak back in the lineup and scratched Lafferty. This isn't the vision the Sabres had for the fourth line at the start of the season, and it's one of many reasons they haven't been able to climb out of the basement in the Eastern Conference. 1. Tage Thompson's hat trick was the highlight of the Sabres' 7-2 win against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday. Thompson is up to 25 goals and 44 points in 45 games this season. While that's still off his 97-point pace from two seasons ago, it's a welcome sight to see him dominate a game like this. He has more than carried his weight despite the team's struggles. Moving to wing while Kulich centers the top line has helped take some of the defensive responsibility off his plate while he has played through an injury. But it could be a permanent change. 'Playing center, it's a bigger responsibility,' Ruff said. 'He's coming up the ice a little later. And when I look at what he was generating, and now what he's generating just playing the wing and letting (Kulich) do the work, it only makes sense just to leave him there. And the fact that he got three tonight should help me talk him into it.' Thompson said his main focus has been being adaptable regardless of the position he's playing or the linemates he's had. He has adapted well to playing on a line with Kulich and JJ Peterka, who had a hat trick of his own against the Bruins. One of Peterka's goals was an empty-netter, but the other two were for the highlight reel. His first goal came on a perfect wrist shot off the rush. On his second goal, he split a pair of defensemen and beat Jeremy Swayman while making an off-balance shot. Thompson and Peterka became the first Sabres teammates to score hat tricks in the same game since Drew Stafford and Derek Roy against the Atlanta Thrashers on Jan. 18, 2008. Advertisement 2. Given the work Kulich has done at five-on-five, it seems like only a matter of time before he gets a promotion to the Sabres' top power-play unit. Kulich has been working on the second unit, but Buffalo's top power play hasn't been impressive. Kulich's shot made him a dominant player with the man advantage in the AHL. Ruff said he has already seen him adjust to needing to score from different spots on the ice. That showed when he scored just after a power play expired against the Edmonton Oilers over the weekend. Ruff thinks the other players on that unit could look for Kulich more because he's getting open. Putting him in Jack Quinn's place on the first unit could help that group. 3. The St. Louis Blues waived Brandon Saad on Tuesday, and he could appeal to the Sabres. The 32-year-old is under contract through next season with a $4.5 million cap hit. That's a lot for a player who has taken a step back this season, but he brings a hard-nosed playing style the Sabres could use more of. He has also won two Stanley Cups, and his experience would be a welcome addition. The Sabres have enough cap space to take a chance on him. (Top photo of Tage Thompson's hat trick: Timothy T. Ludwig / Imagn Images)
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Aube-Kubel Placed On Waivers; Greenway Making Progress
The Buffalo Sabres returned home after going 1-3-0 on their four-game Western road swing and went through an energetic practice at LECOM Harborcenter on Monday, in preparation for Tuesday night's match against the Atlantic Division rival Boston Bruins. Afterward, the club made a roster move, placing winger Nicolas Aube-Kubel on waivers. The 28-year-old won a Stanley Cup with Colorado in 2022 and was signed to a one-year, $1.5 million deal by the Sabres last July after splitting time between AHL Hershey and the NHL Washington Capitals. Aube-Kubel has seen primarily on the fourth line in 19 of Buffalo's 49 games and has two points (1 goal, 1 assist). If the veteran clears waivers on Tuesday, he could be demoted to AHL Rochester, leaving the Sabres with 12 forwards. Aube-Kubel's control, puck protection and pass here is top notch. Malenstyn makes it 4-0 #sabrehood #goavsgo — Buffalo Hockey Moments (@SabresPlays) December 4, 2024 The club has promoted and demoted youngster Tyson Kozak multiple times this month, which could mean that if Aube-Kubel clears and is sent down, Kozak will get a longer look at the NHL level. Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff updated the status of Jordan Greenway. The big winger was placed on injured reserve just before Christmas due to a middle-body injury that required surgery, but Ruff indicated that he is making progress in his recovery. "He's been skating again, he skated this morning,' Ruff said. 'With the reports I'm getting, I anticipate Greener getting back into practice in the near future for us and that would be the first step of getting close to (returning to) the lineup." Follow Michael on X, Instagram, and Bluesky @MikeInBuffalo
