When you mention culture to Alex Tuch, you're not talking about scoring goals and Xs and Os. You're talking about an entire organization and an entire fanbase working together to a shared goal. Tuch is relentlessly optimistic, but it would be unwise to immediately default to his words being empty hopes.
That's because he's seen how it works. What happened in Las Vegas the last four years doesn't stay there. It's the experience Tuch can lean on to try to replicate with the team he grew up loving as a kid outside of Syracuse.
Right now, of course, the Buffalo Sabres remain a long way from that. Albeit with lots of promising young players on their roster now or coming through the ranks in the next year or two, the Sabres are still languishing through what will be an NHL-record 11th straight non-playoff season. And the stands at KeyBank Center are half-empty – on a good night.
These are some of the darkest days we've ever seen downtown. Tuch isn't fretting.
"I don't think our team really realizes yet that we could have something really special here for years to come," Tuch said during a recent interview with The Buffalo News in KeyBank Center. "We have guys that are pushing in the right direction. We have guys that are buying in, and it takes time. And for guys that have been on the scene for a little while, they have to understand that we can shake it. We can shake this continuous disappointment. We can take it away from our fans, we can take it away from each other."
Tuch is signed through the 2025-26 season at a reasonable cap hit of $4.75 million. He was a 21-year-old at the start of Vegas' expansion year, with just six games of NHL experience, who learned from the veterans on the Golden Knights' roster. Now, the tide is turned.
“To watch and play with guys like (Rasmus Dahlin) and (Peyton Krebs) and (Dylan Cozens) and see them develop and become the superstars that I think they are destined to become is an exciting time,” Tuch said.
At 25, Tuch is one of the Sabres' go-to guys. He's immediately become a first-line, all-situations player, and 21 points in 19 games is more off the start of a Buffalo career for any trade acquisition other than Doug Gilmour and Pat LaFontaine.
Even though he's yet to play 300 regular-season games in the NHL, Tuch is wise beyond his years, in part because of his 66 games of playoff experience the last four years in Vegas. That run included three trips to the Western Conference final and the stunning berth in the 2018 Stanley Cup final against Washington.
"He brings a great optimism and energy, and I love that," coach Don Granato said. "It's a youthful enthusiasm with experience. And I keep referring to the fact that he hasn't even scratched the surface of his own potential. That could go hand in hand with why he has that youthful feel to him."
When Tuch arrived in Buffalo after the blockbuster trade with Vegas for Jack Eichel, he went to visit the club's offices to meet everyone. And not just scouts or hockey people. We're talking ticket workers, accountants, anyone in the organization. He then went to dinner with general manager Kevyn Adams, a Buffalo guy who also knows what this once-proud hockey market used to be.
"For everyone to welcome me with open arms was really unbelievable," Tuch said. "I felt like I was a part of the team right away and I wasn't even playing yet (after shoulder surgery). So that was something that I think that's really helped me step right in and be ingrained with the team. It's not like I'm a top 10 player in the league putting up crazy points in my previous years, and now I play first line, (power play), penalty kill. A big change that I've really enjoyed."
Alex Tuch (89) talks to Jeff Skinner (53) during the first period vs. Ottawa at KeyBank Center on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. (Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News)
Bond in Vegas grew through tragedy
The connection between the Golden Knights and their fans in Vegas quickly grew tight in 2017 before the first puck was dropped on their inaugural season. On Oct. 1, 2017, a couple of hours after the Knights' final preseason game in T-Mobile Arena, 58 people were killed in a mass shooting at the Route 91 Music Festival a few blocks away, adjacent to the Mandalay Bay resort. Tuch said the players had pondered attending the concert and had even secured enough wristbands to go, but instead most opted to just have dinner and drinks after their game and head home.
Tuch was in a group with current Sabre Cody Eakin and former Buffalo defenseman Brayden McNabb that was having dinner at the Cosmopolitan when the shooting began. Word started to spread on social media about what was happening down the Strip. Five deaths was the first report. Then 10. Then 20. Even false rumors of 100.
LAS VEGAS — The sign is in every travel brochure you see for Sin City. “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada” is its simple greeting as tourists walk up to take pictures and cars whiz by heading down Las Vegas Boulevard to The Strip. A beacon in the desert, the sign has a much deeper meaning these days.
"You can feel the tension in the room," Tuch recalled. "It was the loudest restaurant I've ever been to because everyone was trying to figure out what was going on. People started leaving, people were trying to get out of there, trying to get off the Strip or back to their rooms."
The city was plunged into mourning that didn't stop for months. The Golden Knights went to hospitals and visited fire houses and with first responders. Doctors and EMTs became regulars at the arena, honored every night. So were survivors and victims' families.
"We wanted to not only support the community, but seeing the phenomenal job the first responders did, you wanted to support them," Tuch said. "And then you had the survivors and the families of those lost. Just heart-wrenching to see all these people in such agony and anguish.
"It brought us closer, not only with each other, but with the city. They really rallied behind us. And we really tried to go out there and work for everyone that lives in Las Vegas. And they supported us so well."
It was a story akin to the 2013 Boston Red Sox winning the World Series in the wake of the Marathon bombing. But that was a franchise with more than a century of tradition. This was a completely new team, and what it accomplished was unprecedented in American sports.
"Guys (on other teams) are coming into the rink and going, 'What is this? What's going on?' It was incredible," Tuch said. "We were rivaling the best hockey towns in North America with the best fans. It was electric every night and we were winning. I was getting thanks for everything that we did for the city, and we didn't want thanks. We just wanted to help in any way we possibly could."
Tuch admitted even the players wondered early on if the team's success was a bit of a fluke, maybe a product of visiting teams' "Vegas Flu." He said sneaking into the playoffs was an initial goal. When it was clear that would happen, the goals became bigger. A first-round sweep of Los Angeles begat a six-game win over San Jose in the second round.
The Knights were shaken by a Game One loss at Winnipeg in the West final – but then rolled to four straight wins and were suddenly in the Cup final against Washington. They had won 12 playoff games in just a few weeks. By comparison, remember, the Sabres have five playoff wins in the last 15 years.
LAS VEGAS — To get the true feeling of what it’s like to be here for the Stanley Cup final, you have to start at the beginning Monday. And we’re not talking the opening faceoff. There were thousands of people on the plaza outside T-Mobile Arena.
"We were like, 'We are four wins away from the Stanley Cup. Four wins!'" Tuch said, laughing. "And then we won Game 1 (against Washington) and it's, 'We're three wins away.' It was so big, and I think that's what hurt us in the end a little, that three-wins-away thought. They won the next four, but it doesn't tarnish it. It was a phenomenal experience.
"Everything fit. Everything was working well together. There was no egos. It was a lot of selfless guys. Those are guys I'll always stay in touch with. It would have been nice to win, but it's an experience I'll never forget and it's absolutely helped my career, to know how to get to that point, see what it really takes and how much it hurts when you're so close."
Team-first, not me-first
Tuch said Vegas had key veterans and a core that filled in around them, and it's what he's seen in franchises such as Tampa Bay, Washington and Pittsburgh that are winning Cups and perennially in the hunt for them. There are numerous lessons for the Sabres there.
"Guys are going to have to play better than they're expected to play, guys are going to have to compensate for one another at times," he said. "We can't get down on each other. We can start playing the blame game, we can start blaming our equipment, blaming the staff, blaming the coaches, but you have to look upon yourself when times are hard, and we're learning that. You have to keep each other accountable at those times, and that's something I think we're growing towards."
Buffalo Sabres forward Alex Tuch (89) charges to celebrate right winger Jack Quinn's first NHL goal.
Goalie Craig Anderson, the Sabres' elder statesman at 40, has similar feelings.
"The core guys are going to be here, potentially, long term, and you want to instill good habits and not get into the individual kind of thought process of, 'Hey, I'm going to get my points and it doesn't matter if we lose as long, as I score,' " Anderson said. "That kind of mindset can really demoralize a group as a whole. And then it also can carry over in the following years, when there are going to be games on the line to make playoffs."
Buffalo fans wonder if those days will ever come again. Tuch understands. It's tough playing in KeyBank Center these days. The Sabres started the season 5-1-1 at home, but have won just three games downtown since the middle of November.
"Sometimes you need to create your own momentum," Tuch said. "Hey, half your games are away and you've got to know how to create your own energy, because most crowds aren't going to be cheering for us on the road, right? We played with zero fans (last season). Our wives and girlfriends couldn't even come watch us play.
"Whether they're here in the building or not, I hope our fans stay patient with us, as tough as that may be. Because I really do believe – and I know that everyone in the locker room and the front office and everyone in that coaches room really believes – that we have the ability to turn it around. We really genuinely want to and we want the entire city of Buffalo to help us."
