Where will Ruff have the biggest impact on this team?

[Claude Balls]

Toughness, grit, accountability and defense. His PP coach better know wtf he is doing as well. 

I just really hope the game hasn't passed Lindy by. That's my biggest worry.

Edited April 25 by Claude Balls

[pi2000]

Things have to be done in a certain way in order to give your team a chance to consistently win hockey games at the NHL level.   Ruff knows those things.

[Weave]

4 hours ago, pi2000 said:

Things have to be done in a certain way in order to give your team a chance to consistently win hockey games at the NHL level.   Ruff knows those things.

I have concerns about Lindy coaching this team at this time, but having to learn what it takes to be an NHL coach is definitely not one of them.

[French Collection]

8 hours ago, JohnC said:

If Lindy can get more players to follow Benson's example of having a net presence in their offensive zone, I would be very pleased. 

Lindy will love Benson.

[Brawndo]

 

[LGR4GM]

2 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

 

He said while watching the playoffs, he felt about 50% of the goals being scored involved a tip, screen, or scrum in front. It was really good to hear and he indicated he's already talking to the remaining coaches on what the Sabres need to and shouldn't do. Mentioned going over video. 

[inkman]

11 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

He said while watching the playoffs, he felt about 50% of the goals being scored involved a tip, screen, or scrum in front. It was really good to hear and he indicated he's already talking to the remaining coaches on what the Sabres need to and shouldn't do. Mentioned going over video. 

I still don’t think telling these guys to go to areas they clearly are averse in going to will make them turn into Brendan Shanahan.  

[JohnC]

1 hour ago, French Collection said:

Lindy will love Benson.

In a disappointing season, the two biggest surprises for me were the play of UPL and Benson. Usually, young players start to falter at the end of a long and grinding season. His play never declined. There was a consistent energy and grit to his game that were impressive. I can envision him on the second line next year with Cousins and Quinn. Although he has a youthful countenance, he plays like a man. 

[French Collection]

39 minutes ago, inkman said:

I still don’t think telling these guys to go to areas they clearly are averse in going to will make them turn into Brendan Shanahan.  

Benson will have to play 24 minutes a night.

I hope they go out and get a couple of guys who can get some greasy goals and don’t take s**t from anyone. I mentioned Dakota Joshua in another thread as an example.

[JohnC]

8 hours ago, 7+6=13 said:

When I think of Ruff as the Sabres coach I remember him being able to adapt.  When we had less skill, he built a plan for that.  When we had more skill, he built a plan for that also.  He seemed to find a way to be competitive, even when the personnel was fastly different.

You make an excellent point about him not being an inflexible coach with a rigid system that can't be deviated from. As you point out, he adjusts the system to the players' talents and not vice versa. In an interview he noted that the players of today are not the players of yesterday. And as a coach he had to have the flexibility to the adjust to individual players. 

[Brawndo]

26 minutes ago, inkman said:

I still don’t think telling these guys to go to areas they clearly are averse in going to will make them turn into Brendan Shanahan.  

Absolutely, but the players who avoid the front of the net like it’s a quarantine zone will find their ice time significantly reduced 

[RochesterExpat]

11 hours ago, SABRES 0311 said:

I think the biggest impact will be readiness.

It’s not just first period. It’s readiness in general. I said this in the Oct 17th GDT against Tampa:

From the outside looking in, I will say I think Granato made a mistake with his handling/allocating the preseason games. The Sabres gave too many games to rookies and too few games getting the top lines together. The organization is too far along in the rebuild to give this much ice time to evaluating rookies.

I don’t see this being an issue under Ruff. I will be shocked if the preseason roster isn’t a much shorter list this season.

[inkman]

3 hours ago, Brawndo said:

Absolutely, but the players who avoid the front of the net like it’s a quarantine zone will find their ice time significantly reduced 

Ideally they would get just as much ice time, on a different team. 

[Thorner]

On 4/24/2024 at 9:34 AM, LGR4GM said:

No they haven't. How have they earned an opportunity? Savoie has earned an opportunity in the AHL. Kulich was a mess for 2 months this year and Rosen is still Rosen. I see no reason that we should promote any of them. 

“Deserve’s got nothin’ to do with it.”

On 4/24/2024 at 10:39 AM, nucci said:

coaching

 

- - - 

Another area Ruff will help that I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned is respect among the officials 

Edited April 25 by Thorny

[kas23]

7 hours ago, Brawndo said:

Absolutely, but the players who avoid the front of the net like it’s a quarantine zone will find their ice time significantly reduced 

When I see an entire team avoiding the front of the net, or I see players initially doing so after being traded to the Sabres but then soon stopping this behavior, I see this as a coaching issue and not a player one.