Inside the NHL: Rather than replacing Ruff, kick players to the curb
P eter Laviolette was fired last week and replaced by Paul Maurice, a retread even by retread standards. The Carolina Hurricanes were so impressed with the list of prospective coaches that they brought back Maurice despite firing him five years ago this month and replacing him with Laviolette.
It was the third NHL coaching change in less than three months this season, behind Chicago kicking Denis Savard to a Rush Street curb and Tampa Bay sending Barry Melrose back to ESPN. Maurice coached last season in Toronto before getting the boot. He was replaced by Ron Wilson, who was booted out of San Jose.
We can keep going if you wish, a story behind every man behind every bench, but it would mean descending 127 stories before reaching the foundation Lindy Ruff has built with the Buffalo Sabres. That’s how many coaching changes have been made across the league since Ruff was hired in 1997.
It didn’t take long — it never does during a rough patch — for people to start howling for Ruff’s job. The Sabres had lost eight of 10 games going into the weekend, including a listless shutout defeat at home to Nashville. Buffalo lost to Tampa Bay at home when the Lightning still had Melrose calling the shots.
You’ve heard the rumblings, how the players have tuned out Ruff, how his rhetoric about sticking to the system and playing the north-south game has grown stale. Before long, fans start rationalizing how good coaches get fired and, well, maybe it’s Lindy’s turn. It makes for terrific fodder except that Ruff isn’t the problem.
He’s part of the solution.
Certainly, there are times at which players stop listening, and that appears to be the case now. Things become stagnant. The easier chore would be changing one guy, the coach, but the smarter move in this case is changing the personnel.
Ruff, more than most, has an acute awareness of how teams are playing around the league and what’s required to beat them. What works these days is the close-checking, two-way style that was common before the lockout. The neutral zone is congested again, negating cross-ice passes that were once readily available to teams willing to skate.
The Sabres can continue pounding from the perimeter and creating impressive SOG totals, but it’s not getting them anywhere but .500. Ruff knows that as much as anyone, which is why he’s been driving home his north-south message since training camp. It means getting to the net, forechecking, winning ugly.
Thomas Vanek had 18 goals going into the weekend, but how many has he scored from 20 feet? Off the top of my head, none. The vast majority have been scored around the net, success that comes from buying into the system.
Ruff has made some mind-boggling decisions, however. The message he sent to his team last week about starting a new season after 20-plus games was baffling at best. It wasn’t clear whether he was granting amnesty, trying to clear the heads of his players, begging for a fresh start or trying to maintain his own sanity.
He has an inexplicable soft spot for Teppo Numminen, who was minus-8 going into the weekend. He made poor use of rookie Mark Mancari, who would have been more effective playing with established veterans such as Vanek and Derek Roy rather than slumping Clarke MacArthur and Daniel Paille.
Ultimately, though, coaching has been the least of their problems. The sooner his players realize as much, the better off they’ll be because Ruff isn’t going anywhere. After all, there aren’t better coaches out there who are available. The organization’s job now is finding better players.
Put Wild on speed dial
Minnesota is scouring rosters for available forwards — you know any teams that have them? — and is willing to cough up a defenseman in return. The Wild is so thin up front that defenseman Brent Burns has been playing forward for the past month.
“The caution always is, as soon as you eliminate depth in one area, all of a sudden you’re looking to fix another problem,” GM Doug Risebrough told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “But we will have to see.”
Risebrough can start by dialing area code 7-1-6.
Most likely to be sent packing: Kim Johnsson, Marek Zidlicky and Marc-Andre Bergeron. Johnsson is making $5.25 million and is signed through next year. Same goes for Zidlicky, who is pocketing $3.5 million.
Bergeron, 27, is making $1.6 million, and he had two goals and 15 points in his first 24 games. He gives the Wild a good bang for their buck, but his size (5-foot-9, 198) scares off many teams. Another issue is his status as an impending unrestricted free agent.
Piling on Sean
Here’s what they’re saying about Stars knucklehead Sean Avery, who once spat on Ice Girls at Nassau Coliseum, after his sloppy interview in Calgary:
Andre Roy, Flames: “That’s Sean Avery. He’s a dum-dum.”
Eric Belanger, Wild: “He’s a nice person when he’s by himself. But I don’t know, he needs the attention and says stupid stuff all the time.”
Ian Laperriere, Avalanche: “Moron.”
Wilson is game
Now that his buddy and boss, Brian Burke, has been hired as president and general manager in Toronto, Leafs coach Ron Wilson is the obvious front-runner to coach the United States in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Burke is running the big team for USA Hockey, and Wilson is expected to join him. Wilson coached the Yanks in the 1998 Nagano Games, twice coached them in the world championships and guided them to gold in the first World Cup of hockey in 1996.
“If it was anybody else but Burke, I would say, ‘Been there, done that,’ ” Wilson said. “But with Burkie there, I’m interested.”
Signing off
Hats off to Alex Burrows, Ryan Kesler and ex-Sabres
winger Taylor Pyatt for pulling the plug on a sleazy autograph session scheduled in Vancouver with Christmas right around the corner.
Organizers planned to charge fans $30 apiece for one signature on a small piece of memorabilia and $40 for larger items. It’s almost as ridiculous as the blue-light special of having all three sign the same item for $75.
“I don’t think I’m worth $30,” Burrows said. “Not my autograph. You can’t even recognize my autograph, so I don’t think it would make sense. I don’t want to be the kind of guy to do something like that.”
Then again, who would?
Anderson uncooped
Craig Anderson’s 45-save effort against the Sabres was nothing new. He skated into the weekend having stopped 172 of 180 shots since coming off the bench for Tomas Vokoun against New Jersey on Nov. 26.
Coach Peter DeBoer plans to ride Anderson, who had a 6-1-3 record with a 1.89 goals-against average and NHL-leading .947 save percentage. He had a 14-3-3 record since Jan. 3. Anderson also has improved his standing going into unrestricted free agency. He’s making only $575,000 while Vokoun is making $5.5 million.
“Money and salary don’t play any part in my decisions on who is going to play any position,” DeBoer said. “It’s about winning games. I don’t think anybody could argue with the performance we’re getting from Craig.”
Quotable
Brian Burke after he was hired by the Leafs: “The man who brings a championship to this city will have schools named after him.”
Around the boards
• Rob Blake of San Jose skated into the weekend on pace for one of the most productive years of his career. Blake, 38, had five goals and 21 points in his first 26 games. He had a career-high 68 points in 1993-94. “It’s nice to be on a team that’s looking to win every night,” said Blake, coming off two miserable seasons in Los Angeles.
• Speaking of ageless wonders, Chris Chelios was shipped to Grand Rapids on a conditioning assignment after coming back from a fractured shin. The 46-year-old is now the oldest player in AHL history.
• Free agent center Mats Sundin is getting the word out to several teams to get their offers together before Dec. 15. It still appears that Vancouver has an inside track. The Canucks had already offered him a two-year deal worth $20 million, but Sundin figured his time was better spent resting up for the stretch run.
• Edmonton called up former first-round pick Rob Schremp, who recorded his first NHL point when he set up Marc Pouliot in a rout of Dallas. The Syracuse native put up big numbers in junior but had problems getting to the NHL because he refused to play defense. If you enjoy stupid human tricks, search his name on YouTube.
• Stefan Legein, a second-round pick in 2007 who told the Blue Jackets he no longer wanted to play hockey, is trying to get back in the door. Word was he was back in St. Catharines, Ont., and working at Boston Pizza. The closest he’ll get to the NHL this season is the Boston Pizza located a slap shot away from Nationwide Arena.
• Blackhawks defenseman James Wisniewski could be coming back next weekend, which means they’ll need to make room under the cap for his $900,000 salary. Veteran Brent Sopel could be the odd man out. He’s making $2.5 million and was minus-7.
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