NHL
Ruff faces Olympian task
MONTREAL — Lindy Ruff gathered with the rest of Canada’s 2010 Olympic coaching staff for what was supposed to be a short meeting. The get-together was designed to allow head coach Mike Babcock to get to know his assistants—Ruff, Ken Hitchcock and Jacques Lemaire — and allow everyone to explain their hockey philosophies.
Once they got going, they couldn’t stop. They sat around for four hours, going over entry passes and defensive assignments, power plays and penalty kills.
“Each guy was pretty fired up about the way their teams play,” Ruff said Thursday.
The rest of Canada is hoping the four men can fire up the country. Hockey Canada officially unveiled its coaching staff for February’s Winter Games in Vancouver, and the Buffalo Sabres coach was honored.
“I’m humbled, first of all, because there’s a good number of my peers that could easily be in this position,” Ruff said. “It’s a tremendous opportunity to be involved in something real special.”
Ruff earned his first taste of international competition this spring when he coached Canada’s world championship team to a silver medal. Most assumed it was a springboard to an Olympic position — which ultimately it was — but Ruff never took his shot for granted.
“I know there’s a long line of Hockey Canada people and coaches that would have an opportunity,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any bad choices. I was hoping for an opportunity and got it. But I really didn’t go into it thinking, ‘Boy, I’ve got a great chance.’ I just thought, ‘I’m on a list of guys that should have an opportunity.’ ”
Babcock, who coaches the Detroit Red Wings, said Ruff likely will head Canada’s power play. The Canadians had an astounding 41.3 percent success rate under Ruff in the world championships.
While Ruff is eager to repeat that, he would be crushed to repeat another playoff-free NHL season. He said the Olympic honor fails to lessen the sting of missing the Stanley Cup playoffs by two points.
“That disappointment is still there,” Ruff said. “The sting is that you’re that close. Being that close doesn’t make it better; being that close makes it hurt even more.
“I’ve said my goal is to win a Stanley Cup in Buffalo. When you miss an opportunity to play in the postseason, you miss an opportunity to fulfill that goal.”
That said, Ruff thinks it’s time to look toward the 2009-10 season.
“I’m not looking behind anymore,” he said. “I’m looking forward and trying to figure out how we can be even better than last year. You do a lot of soul searching. We’ve had meetings, phone conversations with the players. We’ve digested meetings, realizing that what we did wasn’t good enough, wasn’t good enough to get there. Players that had off years, it’s really trying to figure out how to correct that, get them back on pace.”
Ruff was in Montreal this week for the Olympic announcement and team meetings for this weekend’s NHL draft, but he’s back in Buffalo today to prepare for the high school graduation of his oldest daughter, Eryn.
“You don’t want to see that picture and say, ‘Well, I was in the draft in Montreal,’ ” Ruff said. “I think it’s a sacrifice I can make. I got there for a period of time in Montreal to meet with the scouts and [General Manager] Darcy [Regier], and now I’m going to make a commitment at home.”
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