Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – Lindy Ruff's Buffalo Sabres open training camp at Harborcenter on Thursday and Ruff mentioned again before his team takes the ice that winning the Stanley Cup for the fans of Buffalo is what fuels his fire.
Ruff is entering his 18th season as the team's head coach. Ruff is well aware that you just don't pick up where you left off which for the Sabres is being Atlantic Division champions.He understadns the work that's ahead,
“No. 1 is just to be highly competitive which starts with how hard you work inside a game, the way we played away from the puck, our defensive play which imrpoved, but there's still room for improvement.
“To remain where we're at we know is a difficult task, a lot of teams got better, a lot of teams are back healthy now as nobody will take us for granted, but knowing we've got an incredible amount of work to do ahead of us.”
The Sabres lost two very good players and excellent leaders in Alex Tuch and Bo Byram and they really didn't do anything to make themselves better or even get to where they were last season. Ruff said he has a plan,
“Every team looses good players, it's just a product of our league right now, but I look at it that we've got some guys that are just starting the key areas of their career, a Benson, a Doan, an Ostlund, Quinn, I feel you give an extra two minutes to all those players those minutes are really welcomed by the players and you hope with those extra minutes, you find the production you lost.”
Before being traded to Buffalo Josh Doan scored seven goals and 13 assists for 20 points in 51 games for the Utah Hockey Club. He came to the Sabres and in 82 games had 25 goals and 27 assists for 52 points. He played so well he earned a long-term contract and now looks to be in line to take Tuch's place from a leadership standpoint,
“You look at what he did, where he started the year, you look at the effort on a lot of the goals that he was in on, some of the goals he scored, the inside goals, he comes to the rink every day and tries to get better and that's a great sign of a leader, he pushes the people around him, so he's got a lot of great habits and I do think it comes from a father (Shane) that was one heck of a player and a heck of a character guy.”
On Wednesday the Winnipeg Jets suspended Connor Hellebuyck for not reporting to training camp. The were rumors that the Sabres almost traded for him before June's NHL Draft, but Ruff is just worried about what's here which is Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Alex Lyon and Colten Ellis. This group was third in the NHL in save percentage last season and Ruff said,
“I've been really honest with our goalie on how I feel, the type of year they had, they had a great year for us and they've got an understanding that they know what they've done for the team and they know what they have to do for us going forward.”
Ruff had his goalie alternate last season and it worked extrmely well. He plans on starting the season that way again.
The Sabres struggled at times last season on the power play. They did go pretty well in the series against Montreal going at a 36% clip. Ruff expects overall improvement,
“The best ones in the league are a group of guys that have been together for a period of time. With injuries the shuffling of players wasn't the best for our group and our plan is to try to lock in the five guys.
“We've gone through the traits of real good power plays and we've gone through the traits of what those bottom power plays do that we want to stay away from.
“Another thing we've added is Eric Staal whose going to help us a little bit on the power play side and faceoffs. He won't be here daily, but he's going to be here for a good part of every month.”
Staal's official title with the team is special assistant to the general manager.
The Sabres first preseason game is Monday night in Pittsburgh.
The head coach said it's the only reason he's still coaching
The head coach said it's the only reason he's still coaching
