Sabres Head Coach Lindy Ruff joined the 'Jeremy and Joe Show' to discuss what he's learned about his hockey team heading into the 2024-25 season-opening weekend in Prague, CZ.
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00:00As you came in and took the job and had a team that's got a lot of returning pieces,
00:09but some players you know you would have coached against, but what were you looking to learn
00:14about this group, and what have you learned about the group that you have to start?
00:19Really just trying to figure out the drive this team would have, and I've really liked
00:25it so far.
00:26We've gone through some very challenging practices, not overly long, but drills that have challenged
00:34them physically, up and down the ice that push them to their max in maybe a 50-55 minute
00:43type of practice, and I think the response was real good.
00:48I think that we were able to finish all those drills, finish the drills with energy, and
00:55then look at the areas that we needed to improve, and we set forth on day one to improve
01:00those areas, and I think the guys have wrapped their arms around the opportunity to be better
01:07defensively, take away more rush chances, we identified five, six areas that we really
01:13think we can continue to get better through practice and through every game we play.
01:18Top of your head, what are some of those?
01:20Rush chances against, power play, I mean, what's the list?
01:24Yeah, face off, you know, rush chances, Ozone, Ozone play, and what we call dirty goals,
01:32you know, getting around the front of the net, tip goals, rebound goals, and we've already
01:37seen some of those.
01:38I think you look at JJ, I think his first two with tip goals.
01:43We had two or three crossbars last game with just somebody around the front of the net
01:47screening the goaltender that could have easily gone in.
01:51And for me, these are all just one percenters, you know, let's get a little bit better here,
01:56a little bit better there.
01:57I think when you identify face off, one of the worst teams in face off percentage last
02:01year with what I look at, like, that we have some real big men in the face off dot, and
02:06it doesn't solely fall on the shoulders of the centremen.
02:09You look at, after the puck is dropped, there's a 50-50 puck there, and if a winger can help
02:15out, that's a win.
02:17And if he doesn't get there or loses that battle, it's a loss.
02:20So identifying, you know, the areas that we can continue to get better, and through the
02:26preseason face off percentage has gone way up.
02:29You look at dirty goals, has gone up, and, you know, the rush chances against one of
02:35our goaltenders, we've kept them to a minimum.
02:38I think the tracking back and getting above people and making sure we have numbers back
02:45has been real good, and that goes hand in hand with trying to take shorter shifts, cut
02:50the shift length down to 35-40 seconds, and just try to create a track meet going up and
02:56down the ice, because I think we're a great skating hockey club.
02:59How important to you is also just physicality in general, because, Lindy, it seemed like,
03:03you know, especially the first couple games, if I can go back a couple weeks here, it felt
03:07like everybody was throwing their weight around, and for a preseason game, maybe in your experience
03:13preseason games, guys would, you know, play close to what a regular season game would
03:18be, but it was stark to me that, like, right out of the gates, it felt like everybody was
03:22kind of throwing their weight around, whether they were on the forecheck or just along the
03:25wall.
03:26Well, really important for our club to have that mentality to slow the opposition down,
03:31and that is everybody that throws the jersey on.
03:36We want you to get into people, we want you to slow people down.
03:38If you're forechecking, and you put somebody in the wall, then, you know, those first two
03:45or three strides, he's way behind trying to join the rush.
03:48If you're going through the neutral zone, and we can get above people and bump them
03:52before they're dumping it in, then they've got to restart before they get on top of our
03:56defense.
03:57If our defense have an extra second, I'll guarantee you that our breakout plays will
04:02be a lot more efficient with the speed we can go backwards, so being physical is going
04:07to be a big part of our hockey game.