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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SABRES v HURRICANES

May 21, 2006

Lindy Ruff

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA: Practice Day

Q. Update on Teppo?
LINDY RUFF: Only update I can give you he feels pretty good today. So, we're hopeful that he will be able to play tomorrow.
Q. You brought Paetsch and Jillson over, is that for practice numbers or just to give you a little option if you need it?
LINDY RUFF: Well, we want to be prepared. If we lose somebody we want -- we have always had one, we'd like to -- if somebody goes down in the game again, we want guys that have been practicing with us. We have had Doug practice with us. If Doug plays with us, we want another couple of options. So we called in fresh troops.
Q. Go to another defensemen would you use Doug or would you use Jeff?
LINDY RUFF: I think right now we would use Doug. The reason he's been with us, he finished the year in the eyes of Randy and Doug, he was their probably most reliable best defensemen. We have had him practice with us with us we're prepared to put him in the lineup.
Q. The drill you use where you have the guys with their sticks turned upside-down, why do you do that?
LINDY RUFF: Just to give the offensive guys -- it's frustrating enough in this league playing with the guys playing sticks right-side up. To give offensive guys a little bit of advantage we came -- sort of have more puck pressure, we have the defensive guys turn their sticks over and we just play like that for a while.
Q. I understand the ice is the same for both teams, when it gets where the puck was bouncing a lot last night, do you change anything at all knowing that the puck is bouncing?
LINDY RUFF: I think the one thing you try to stress is don't try to get too fancy because that extra pass can turn into a missed opportunity and you saw a couple of cases there last night, even on a couple of their opportunities where they passed and it bounced over the stick or didn't land flat, those are opportunities on good ice probably that turn into great scoring chances.
Q. Did you ever see a player as good as Jay McKee at blocking shots and was he always as effective or can he become years with the experience?
LINDY RUFF: I think he has gotten better and better, always been a good shot blocker, been a very good penalty killer. I think with the number of penalties we have had to kill throughout this year, the numbers for the shot-blockers have gone way up, just for the fact that you are killing a lot more penalties.
But I think as his game has matured, he has got even better at it. He's good at being in the lane. He's one of those guys that gets himself lined up with a shot and very seldom does it miss him and hit the net.
Q. Did Mike Ramsey help him when he was coaching here? Did he kind of set the groundwork for him to move forward?
LINDY RUFF: I think in a certain sense, yes. He's doesn't emulate Mike's style. Mike had the style where he would lay down in front of the net, use one side of his body always to block the low stuff. Jay is more of a one knee down, but the idea of being in the lane and then protecting that lane I think was instilled at that time probably.
Q. How late will you wait to make a decision on Teppo Numminen (inaudible) --
LINDY RUFF: Right up until game time. It may take the rest of the day, we may know in the morning. I may know, you guys may not.
(LAUGHTER).
He's having breakfast in the room, laughing and giggling.
Q. Adam Mair?
LINDY RUFF: Adam is clear for contact. He hasn't been cleared to play games yet. He will need to see a specialist in Pittsburgh before he's allowed to get back and play.
Q. If Teppo can't go, who do you put in?
LINDY RUFF: Doug Janik will play.
Q. What kind of play have you seen in him that you like?
LINDY RUFF: Strong, pretty well defensive defenseman that's got good mobility, and is strong in his own net.
Q. Are you confident, Lindy, that with basically the week off, if you have to use your regular four tomorrow night, if Teppo doesn't play, the extra ice time won't be too much --
LINDY RUFF: I think our top four relish that extra ice time. I think we're probably one of the few crews in the league that kind of divvy ice time out between the 18 and the 20 minutes, and maybe the odd defenseman gets down to 15 or 16, but it's pretty balanced.
Defensemen, if you are playing, you know, a decent game and there's a lot of offensive zone time, you can easily play four defensemen and roll them and they enjoy playing that ice.
So, I think you saw the minutes go up. I think you saw some defensemen play even better, Tallinder, Lydman, I thought Brian Campbell played a heck of a game. So those guys, probably hoping we only get to five.
Q. During the lockout you were down in Rochester individually coaching some guys, did you work with Doug a little bit?
LINDY RUFF: Spent time with Doug through practice, through video work, you know, I think there has been development there in Doug's case, I think he's worked extremely hard, I think, at making himself a better skater. I think that came in his off-season program. It's understanding NHL game that sometimes that takes time and other times it's just maturity. It takes a few years to be able to step in and make plays under pressure and make the easy plays.
Q. Will your forwards be able to be as aggressive if you are down a defensemen or will you have to sort of hang back and make sure they are a little bit more responsible defensively?
LINDY RUFF: No, I thought the one thing we did do that we didn't like is we hung back too much in the third period. We were down that defensemen in the second period, played a tremendous period and we got a little disjointed in the third period. Got to give them some credit for that. But there was a few times where we got caught changing, they were coming at us, we got caught in our own zone. Our strongest defensive plays come by playing in the offensive zone.
Q. You didn't even have to juggle lines, your set lines didn't score any of the goals. Jay came out of the box, you were changing, what does that say when you can get three goals like that and you didn't even get set lines involved?
LINDY RUFF: It says what we usually talk about, that the goals are going to come from anywhere. We have said any one of our lines can be the dangerous line and last night it was a couple of defensemen that stepped up into the play and were able to add some offense for us.
I think when you see that opportunity, especially in Tallinder's case, you like to see your defensemen take it. We want to make sure that our forwards are responsible and when they see defensemen in on the play, but at the same time we don't want to pass up any opportunities.
Q. Your thoughts on Taylor Pyatt's play.
LINDY RUFF: He's played well for us. He made a great play on the wall on the Briere goal. Probably down a little ice time because of all the power play and penalty killing situations there early, but he's played strong for us.
Q. Encouraged by that just in terms of his development?
LINDY RUFF: I am encouraged any time anybody plays well.
Q. Some people are playing more -- a lot more improved than at other points during the season?
LINDY RUFF: Yeah, but I think that -- this is time of year for that. If you can't elevate your game or try to elevate your game or bring something outside of the way you have been playing at this time of the year, I think that it's tough on players, but I think that you want to stay in the lineup. You want to relish the ice time you are getting and you want to take advantage of any situation.
Q. Would you consider him again? I know in Ottawa when you were struggling to find a power play combination that would work and you used him (inaudible). Would you consider using him on the power play?
LINDY RUFF: Sure. I wasn't frustrated about our power play at all last night. I thought the last one was disappointing. We got in that kind of protect mode and got caught. But the previous ones we got the shots, we got our opportunities, we got set up well, our entries were good, we just didn't score.
Q. I just meant if you got to a point where you wanted to switch it up, did you like him enough where you would consider --
LINDY RUFF: The answer is yes. I didn't dislike the other guys not to put him in there last night.
Q. Is this a situation where you have done this all year where you guys feel like you can go for it here, take some chances tomorrow and try to get up 2-0?
LINDY RUFF: I feel we can play better. I just think that we had a couple of rough patches in the game that we'd like to clean up and if we do, we're going to give ourselves a good chance to win a hockey game.
Q. Has Tallinder always been this good or are we noticing him because of the bigger stage?
LINDY RUFF: He's been very good for us all year long. He really has. I think that if you don't get to follow him day in, day out, you're looking at a guy that has played against the top lines all year long. He's been the one constant, never missed any time and he's just been real solid.
Q. Before this year?
LINDY RUFF: He had to get stronger. I think his off-season, he got stronger. His puck skills got better. I think that just came with upper body strength and I think his skating has improved to a level that really he's one of the elite skating defensemen in the league.

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