Tage Thompson breaks silence on Buffalo Sabres' weak response to Stefan Noesen's 'dirty' hit that knocked him out 

By Jackson Weber

Modified Jun 17, 2025 17:12 GMT

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Tage Thompson and the Buffalo Sabres are coming off yet another disappointing regular season.

For the 14th consecutive year, the Sabres failed to qualify for the postseason, adding to their lead as the longest active playoff drought in the NHL.

Other than a very productive season from Tage Thompson, 2024-25 saw plenty of downs in Buffalo. One of the most notable low points came when Thompson was caught on a blindside hit from Devils forward Stefan Noesen. The Sabres star's head took the brunt of the collision while his teammates shockingly didn't do much in response.

Many around the league tore the team apart for their lack of pushback, seeing their best forward the victim of a dirty open-ice hit. On Tuesday, Thompson himself spoke about the incident on the Cam and Strick podcast.

Andy Strickland shared the clip with his comments on X (formerly Twitter).

"It was a weird situation, to be honest with you, because when the hit happened, I didn't even know what happened. Like, I didn't see him; I didn't know what was going on. I just kind of blacked out, came to, and then was kind of helped off the ice. But watching it on replay, yeah, I thought it was a little dirty. I would have liked someone to step in, for sure. I was a little shocked by that," Thompson said.

"Our team is great guys, and they all said sorry and, like, should have done something. Even if we didn't see it or knew what happened, we should have stepped in and at least done something, which, yeah, I get it, the game happens fast. Maybe you didn't know what to do in the situation or how to react. I don't know, because I wasn't in that situation, right? I was the one lying on the ice, but Lindy came in and just said, 'That can't happen again.' And if you see someone lying on the ice or someone gets hit like that, like, you better step in and do something. I think after that, there was a great response. And I don't think we had another problem like that the rest of the season, which is good," Thompson added.

Tage Thompson has another five years remaining on the seven-year, $49,999,999 contract extension he signed with the Sabres in 2022.

Tage Thompson has put himself on the radar for the US 2026 Winter Olympic team

After a down 2023-24 season, Tage Thompson was left off Team USA's 4 Nations roster.

That snub surely didn't sit well with the 27-year-old, who proceeded to rack up 72 points (44 goals, 28 assists) in 76 games in 2024-25. He also took his talents to represent the country at this year's World Championships, which he capped off with a golden goal.

TSN shared the clip of his tournament-winning tally on X.

Thompson was dominant all tournament long, posting nine points (six goals, three assists) in 10 games en route to securing the Americans' first men's World Hockey Championship in 92 years. You have to imagine that helped his chances of making the 2026 US Olympic team.