Its Valentines Day and Lindy Ruff is all about getting his team in the "right mood".
Ruff is owning the blame for his team's 5-8-1 start to the abbreviated season.
Today at Sabres practice inside First Niagara Center, Ruff stepped to the mic and took responsibility for his team's helter skelter play in the first fourteen games of the season.
According to John Vogl of the Buffalo News, Ruff said:
"Its all on me to clean this mess up. I'm not done trying. The team will feed off my energy. I came in here, we had a couple good meetings...talked about getting the team in the right mood"
Thanks, sabres.com
Is this Ruff's way of grabbing the heat and the spotlight away from his players so that they can go about their business of focusing on playing winning hockey? Struggling players tend to focus on the negative aspects of their game, case in point Tyler Myers, Drew Stafford, and Jordan Leopold. The head coach is the captain of the ship. Perhaps Ruff has heard enough of the 'Fire Lindy" crap thats been blazing up the newspaper, internet and local talk radio in recent days.
Drew Stafford is remaining positive through hsi 14+ game scoring drought.
Staff doesn't want to mope or bring negative energy into the room because that will bring the rest of the boys down.
Thanks, sabres.com
The Sabres power forward has a drained battery, and he needs jumper cables to get the ignition on his game to turn over. To say that Stafford is in a slump is a major understatement. His lack of confidence with the puck is culpable.
Stafford's offensive output has been virtually non-existent this season. His problems are more mental than physical. The former first round pick is currently ranked 28th in the NHL with 40 shots on goal. He hasn't scored a goal in 14 games this season, which ranks him 396th overall in NHL goal scoring. His 0.0 shots percentage ranks him dead last in the NHL. His 5 points rank him 209th overall. He's -6 and his struggles are well documented.
The silver lining in his game thus far is that his 5 assists rank him 89th in the NHL.
After Sunday night's 3-1 loss to Boston, Ruff was asked to assess Stafford's game. Ruff cited the two "Grade A" scoring chances that Stafford failed to cash in on during the one goal game. Bruins backup goalie Khudonin was good, however, he wasn't the second coming of Marty Brodeur. Stafford has been failing to cash in his chances. Foligno and Ennis are getting him the rock in scoring areas, but he's not scoring. On Sunday, Were it not for his nice assist on Buffalo's only goal of the game by Ennis, Stafford would have been invisible in the game. He's at his best when he's confidently driving hard to the enemy net with the puck on his stick. We haven't seen that part of Stafford's game for sustained stretches this season. He'll show you glimpses of his power and creativity here and there, however, he's not bringing the goods every shift. He's not getting greasy dirty, He's been living on the perimeter. This has to change.
Stafford's not a young kid in the NHL. He's a six year pro. He's been through the ringer. He knows what pressure and frustration taste like. He's had to deal with inconsistency, confidence crises, and injuries. He's an assistant captain on a largely veteran team. He has to practice what he preaches in the the room. He's twice scored 20 goals and in 2010-11, he scored a career high 31 goals. Though he's playing well on Buffalo's PK, Stafford isn't delivering in the one area that he's getting paid bug money to do: score goals 5 on 5 and on the PP.
How much longer will Ruff wait for Stafford to get his offensive act together? If the Myers benching is any indication, I dare say that Stafford better find a solution for his goal scoring woes, and in a hurry. Boston and Pittsburgh are coming to Buffalo this weekend. There are no scared cows right now in Pegulaville. If Myers can get benched for two games, its open-season on every player on the roster. Ruff's only objective right now is to win games and to qualify for the playoffs. He's not worried about hurting feelings and making people upset.
No other team in the 43 year history of the Buffalo Sabres has run the emotional and physical gauntlet of gutting out 14 games in 24 days. Thanks to the NHL lockout, the Sabres had to play the cards that they were dealt. The team didn’t skate on Wednesday. They practice today to prepare to avenge Sunday’s loss to the Bruins. The first 14 games of the season and dead and buried. Be thankful for that. I’m looking at the first six games of the season as Buffalo’s “exhibition games”. Though they had a one week training camp to prepare for the season, there wasn’t any real hockey being played. The guys who played in Europe and the AHL during the lockout, like Ehrhoff, Vanek, Pominville, Ennis, and Foligno fared much better in the first segment of games than the rest of the guys who stayed home and skated with college guys. That group includes Leopold, Regehr, Stafford, McCormick, Ellis and a few more.
Now that they’ve had a day or two to decompress from the serious grind of the first stage of the NHL season, Lindy Ruff and his coaches now have a body of work of the good, the bad, and the fugly plays.
For this Valentine’s Day, the Sabres should be asking for the fundamental of hockey to “be mine”.
D-zone coverage: The Ottawa game was a better defensive effort for the Sabres, who graded-out much better in Tuesday night’s loss than they had against the Bruins and Islanders. Rather than skating around with their hair on fire like they were guilty of for long stretches of time, they stayed calm, composed and in their positions. There have been far too many moments this season when the D and forwards look like golden retrievers chasing Frisbees all over the yard. Ryan Miller can’t keep bailing out the unit of five in front of him. The Sabres are currently ranked dead-least, #30 in the NHL by allowing 33.9 shots against per day. What’s more, they are currently #27 in the NHL with a bloated 3.43 GAA. Just like at the gin mill on Friday night with the boys, too many shots can be dangerous to one’s own health and well being. In your case, you spend the night sleeping on the bathroom floor, dry-heaving. Not a good look. As for the Sabres, there have been far too many break downs. Most notably, The entry shot turns into a rebound that gets mishandled and not cleared by the Buffalo D, only to be intercepted and thrown from high to low to elongated the enemy’s attack time in the Buffalo zone. More shots lead to more opportunities to make mistakes.
The simple solution is for Buffalo and forwards to get all loose pucks off the glass and out. Then, retrieve them with speed in the neutral zone. The Sabres aren’t winning the majority of their puck battles on the walls and in space. This has to change in a hurry. Less time with the puck means more time chasing the puck.
Forget the sexy breakout plays. Until you get out of this funk, play ugly hockey. Whip pucks off walls and the glass until the zone is cleared and the D can make a logical line change.
Discipline: The great news is that Buffalo’s penalty kills is ranked 16th in the NHL with a bullet right now. They were perfect in Ottawa, killing all eight PP chances against. The terrible news is they committed eight horrendous minors, to Ottawa’s five. The Macarena line to the penalty box has to end NOW. Were I Ruff, I’d tell my leadership group to impose a kangaroo court amongst the players. Commit a stupid penalty? Pay a have cash fine to the “team fund”. The frequent offenders will lose money, to say nothing of ice time. What how fast the stupidity ends when guys are hitting the ATM on the way to the rink and the hotel to play their fines for their undisciplined play. The Sabres are the 15th most penalized team in the NHl heading into tonight’s action. They average 15.4 PIMs per game. That translates to 7.5 minor penalties. That’s preposterous! The PKers like Kaleta, Ott, Foligno, Stafford, Hecht, Pominville, Ehrhoff, Regehr, Myers, and Leopold have been getting gassed early in games by killing off the conga line to the penalty box, thus, their legs are like day old spaghetti for the third period when they need to produce offensively. It happened in the Boston game when they took four minors in a row in the second period. The idiocy continued in Ottawa. Frankly, the lack of discipline has been happening all season long. It’s time to stop saying “we hold ourselves accountable”. Show, don’t tell.
Faceoffs: Where there was darkness, there is now light. Though they are still 30th out of 30 NHL teams in terms of faceoffs, they centres and wings seem to be buying more of what Lindy ruff is selling regarding faceoff efficiencies. The forwards have played with improved determination on the dot in the past five games. The moral victory is that the Sabres were losing 59% of their draws at this time last week. Today, they are losing 57%. There has been improvement because Hodgson, Ennis, Hecht, McCormick, ott, Pominville, and Foligno are cognizant of the rules that the faceoff isn’t lost just because the centre didn’t win possession of the puck on the drop. It’s the responsibility of the wingers to battle for the loose change, just as much as it’s the centre’s responsibility to win the puck. It takes three forwards together to win a draw, not just the pivot.
5 on 5 scoring: Did you know that the Sabres are presently ranked sixth in the NHL in 5 on 5 gaols. They’ve scored 26 of them already this season. The #1 team in this category is Chicago with 30. The reason why the Hawks are on the top of the heap is a no-brainer: Kane, Toews, Hossa, Sharp and the Hawks are burying the chances, while the Sabres are not. How about the yawning net in Ottawa that Stafford whiffed on? BURY YOUR CHANCES!
Power play: At home, the Sabres rank 21st on the PP. On the road, they are ranked 7th. Why the great disparity? Trying to be too cute and trying to put on a show for the home for the fans. Repeat after me: Clean entries. Hard recoveries. Get set-up. Work the puck around for the open man to SHOOT!!! The shot doesn’t have to be a 100mph clapper from the point every time. All NHL teams are collapsing their PK box to the hashmark to create a five goalie formation. Shot blocking is the order of the day. Mix in a wrister, a slap-pass, and shot off the glass that results in confusion and pulls the coverage away from the blue ice. Who cares how the puck gets to the net? Spitball it to the crease, then hack slash, and crash until it crosses the line. In other words, do to other teams what they do to the Sabres.
Shorter shifts: Forwards and d have been fatigued in recent games due to the PK sapping all of their energies. The non-PKers have to sit and collect dust while they await the 5 on 5 play to begin again. Penalties suck the life and momentum out of a team, and they screw up the four line rotation. Grigorenko gets stiffed out of valuable ice time when this happens. If I’m Lindy, I’m preaching 35 second shift lengths. Short and sweet. Kaleta is the model to use in this case. He goes hard up the ice, east-west, and down the ice for 30-35 seconds. He takes himself off at the ideal time. The rest of the forwards and D should use kaleta as their role model. Less is more when it comes to shift lengths. The sooner you come off the ice, the faster you get back through the rotation and back onto the ice.
***
Here's my take on the Erik Karlsson injury.
I don't think that Matt Cooke intended to sever the Achilles Tendon of the reigning Norris Trophy winner. Its just an unfortunate accident that happened within the context fo a hockey play. Karlsson's loss will have a profound impact on the Senators team. He's their MVP and will not be replaced any time soon. I hope for a swift and speedy recovery for him. The NHL is a better place when Erik karlsson is doing what he does best.
Join the Discussion:
»