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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SENATORS v SABRESMay 18, 2007Lindy RuffBUFFALO, NEW YORK: Practice Day Q. Lindy, the message today, you got the chance to play another home game and stay alive in this series. What's the message to your players today? COACH LINDY RUFF: Well, along the lines that we talked about before Game 4, again, that got to take care of all the little areas and make sure that we're good with the puck and in a lot of situations just try to make sure we outwork them. Q. They had a few more turnovers last game than the previous ones. Was that forecheck, guys clogging the middle better, pressure on them more? COACH LINDY RUFF: I think it was a little bit of everything. I think that, you know, we were better with it. I think when you get the lead, a team has a tendency to try more things, you know, try to get back in the game. I think obviously when you get down by a couple, you're going to err on the side of being more aggressive and trying to make more plays. Q. Lindy, have you noticed any tangible difference in the way Ryan has played in the last couple days? Is there a visible stepping up his game? COACH LINDY RUFF: I think there has been, yeah. I think that - I think he really sensed that we were struggling in Game 3 and really tried to make a difference. I think that was evident and, you know, those two - probably the only area that, you know, was concerned about was the back-to-back penalty kills in the 3rd period where, you know, we made a couple mistakes on the PK system and gave them a couple great opportunities, and he basically said, "Don't worry about it, I got you guys covered." Q. Lindy, you guys as a team always talked all season long about the depth and that you roll four lines, and then Game 4 kind of - the team kind of got cut in half. Can you guys still be effective as a team with a shortened bench? COACH LINDY RUFF: Oh, sure. Oh, sure. You don't - I mean, if you want to look at ice time, if you're a true four-line team, you're 15 minutes of ice time each. Sometimes the four lines is a little bit of an illusion. I think the four lines a lot of times is the fact that those four lines can contribute offensively. They don't always play equal. Your top guys are average being close to 20 minutes for the season. Your ice time isn't equal when it comes to - you ask any forward, they would love to play 18 to 20 minutes every game, and, you know, I think there's times even during the year where we played the bulk of the ice time went to the top three lines, but the threat was always there with the fourth line or the line that played the least to contribute offensively for us. Q. Coach, have you decided that Drew Stafford is going to get a chance to play tomorrow? COACH LINDY RUFF: Well, we haven't decided. I think it's the way we're leaning right now. There's still a possibility that Dany us could play. Q. If do you decide to go with him - COACH LINDY RUFF: I'll call you. (Laughter). Q. Just going to ask him not to do too much? I mean, you talked about his playoff many times. Are you just going to ask him to go out and just play your game and don't try to do too much? COACH LINDY RUFF: I think, Paul, what's important, we talked about, is just trust the system. Play the system. And I thought we did that - you know, we've done it for two of the four games. Two games we've gotten away from it. I think just trust it, trust that people are going to be where they're supposed to be. He's got some great natural instincts. You can't teach or tell him what to do in those situations. Those are gifts that he has that he needs to use when he has a chance inside the system. Q. You have to believe that your guys are going to start taking advantage of the home surroundings here. It's hard to think of you guys losing three games in a row on your home ice? COACH LINDY RUFF: Going go back to Game 2, there was only a little bit of that game you didn't like. You don't like the fact you end up losing it, but there was - the energy in the building and the way we came out in that building was absolutely tremendous, and I think we have to feed off of that. I really sense some of that excitement about, again, playing in front of our home crowd, getting a chance to come back home and play in front of our home crowd tomorrow. Q. You guys had significantly more turnovers through the first three games than Ottawa but then were able to reverse that for Game 4. Why were you guys able to change that around? COACH LINDY RUFF: You know what? If you watch games and listen to games and you watched last night, the coaches are talking about turnovers and puck management, and you've got to make good decisions, and, you know, some of it I said - some cases maybe some of our younger players, our least experienced playoff players, you know, I've erred on the side of maybe trying some individual creativity, which a lot of times leads to turnovers. But if you get the puck in the right place, a lot of times you can cause the other team to turn it over where you'll get the opportunity, and it's a lot about what playoffs are about. Q. Lindy, how about your team's play away from the puck. How big is that in Game 4? COACH LINDY RUFF: It was real big. We need to be - I really think it needs to even be better. It was good, maybe as good as I've seen in the playoffs against a very good team that has good team speed and has been very good at taking care of the puck themselves. So, you know, I anticipate them being better. So the only thing we can answer is that we're going to have to be better at the same time. Q. Lindy, talking about Dmitri, he says he hasn't lost any confidence. And he said "Hey, we won." He said, "Of course, you're upset. You want to play more." But he said, "As long as we win, that's all I'm interested in." Have you liked his attitude that you've seen in the last couple of days? COACH LINDY RUFF: I said it yesterday, Paul. It is about winning, and it was a little bit of desperate measures. We really wanted to go with the guys that are going the best. Lot of players had a tough game in Game 3, and then I thought a lot of players had a real good sound game in Game 4. I think you judge on how - the way the individuals are going or how the team is playing. His attitude and work ethic is normal. Q. Lindy, how much has your hope for coming back in this series been bolstered by the fact that Ryan Miller might have been the best player in the series the past two games? COACH LINDY RUFF: I thought, you know, Ryan was absolutely fabulous in Game 3, and Ryan was very good, made - I look at made a couple of real big saves for us, but I thought the team answered the bell in Game 4, too. I think we needed those couple of big saves in that last couple of penalty kills, and we got them. But there was long stretches where I thought the team did - you know, answered the bell from the game before and said, okay, Ryan did your part, we're going take care of the puck better, and we're not going to throw odd-numbered rush after odd-numbered rush at you. And so when it comes to a team response, I thought it was good. I think Ryan's response has been excellent. You need to look back and, you know, any team looks back, looks over their shoulder and sees their goaltender knows that most nights, he can't have an off-night to win. He's got to be - if it's not your best effort, it's got to be close to your best player to win in the league. Q. Were your remarks about him to us after Game 2 taken out of context, or do you think they had some kind of an impact on him? COACH LINDY RUFF: No. It's just being honest. You know, one goal is a goal you'd like to have - just like Ryan, Ryan wouldn't like it, I wouldn't like it, and you guys are intelligent. You wouldn't like it if you were coaching. It wasn't a harmful remark. It's saying it's one you'd like back. It went in. Can't have it back, though. Q. Lindy, you began the - or when you were down 3-0, you said a lot about "We've had 4-game winning streak. We won ten in a row. On the other flip side, the Senators hasn't lost two in a row since December." Something is going to have to give? COACH LINDY RUFF: Something is going to have to give. Like - I said every 32 and a half years or 33 years, something great happens. So something is going to have to give starting - it will have to start tomorrow. Somebody is going to lose two in a row or something will have to give. I'm optimistic that - we're not an 8th seed and not a team that snuck in the playoffs. We're a team that went out and had a very good season. We won ten games in a row. We've put together real good streaks and we have to put one together again, and last game was a very good start for us. Q. Is there a sense if you - the pressure is still on you, but you win tomorrow maybe all bets are off? COACH LINDY RUFF: You just have to believe. You have to believe in yourself. This team believes in themselves. We've had a couple tough ones, but everyone in that room believes. Q. You've had good starts, Lindy, when it's carried you to wins. You've had good starts when you wind up losing games. What, if anything, can be read in the first ten minutes of tomorrow's game? COACH LINDY RUFF: It's a tough time judging what the start has and the effect. We had a great start in Game 2 and didn't win it. We had a great start in Game 4 and did win it. I would rather err on the side of having a great start and go from there. I mean, you can't dictate when all of a sudden you get in penalty trouble or those type of situations. You can dictate, you know, the energy you put into those first 20 minutes to try to - knowing that you've got your home crowd behind you and this place will be jacked up, and I guess the only point you don't want, you don't want to go overboard and don't be taking foolish penalties with too much emotion. Q. Did you feel the pressure less on your players when everybody wrote you off at 3-0? No. 1 seed, Presidents' Trophy. There's a burden there. You referred to it in the first round, anyway. When everyone wrote you off, did you feel they got loose and started playing hockey? COACH LINDY RUFF: I don't think there was any burden taken away. We've carried that tag, and we know the expectations have been high. You know, we just - our goal was to win a game. Our first was to go out and win the first period, go out and take the crowd out of it. It was answered quickly, but it was kind of a gift and it's what we needed. Q. There's a lot of talk they're loose after a hundred games of the year. It's almost like they're trying to convince themselves they're not feeling the pressure. Is the pressure really not on you suddenly, 3-1 down? COACH LINDY RUFF: Jerry, it's strange, but I don't feel the players being tight. I think they're a confident group. I think you have to be confident, and confident is just knowing you can do it. That's all confidence is. They know they can do it. I kind of chuckled to myself when I saw Drury playing goal before Game 4 and Derek Roy playing goal after practice. You can read that any way you want it, but they were doing their best just to stay loose and enjoy it. If we play good, we're going to win. Q. When it comes to shortening the bench for your defense, is that something you would rather leave to the last half of the game when you figure you have to do it, or are you looking at starting that even earlier tomorrow? COACH LINDY RUFF: No. I think if you look at it, it really depends on how the team is playing. We have guys that can play 30 minutes. We had them play 30 minutes for almost a month, and they played exceptional hockey, and this is a schedule where you're playing every other day. We just had two days rest. If you went to Brian Campbell and said, "Do you mind playing 29 minutes?' first answer would be, "No, I would love to do it every game." If you play, spend a lot of time in the other team's end or if you don't spend a lot time in your own end, with TV timeouts and everything, it's not a tough task for a defenseman. There's a lot of defensemen around the league do it, and they don't seem to expel a lot of energy because it's either the way your team is playing or the fact that you're good at managing the game. Q. He didn't react to that by dumping the puck inasmuch as they probably will do tomorrow if you have a shorter bench, right? They had 15 turnovers at the blue line? COACH LINDY RUFF: You know, we're just going to try to play our game, and we'll - we hope to get more ice time out of some people but, again, it's a case of - my only sense is if some guys are going better, if we need more offense, the offensive guys may get a little more time. If we need to be stronger defensively, I've got some players that are a little bit sounder defensively, and that all goes into the thinking on ice time. End of FastScripts |
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