09-16 Lindy Ruff

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1:02Hey, I'm doing it right now, but home projects, I second guess everything. Is that noise normal? Is that water damage? Who do I even call? That's where thumbtack comes in. Just upload a photo or voice note and it uses AI-powered search to match you with a right top rated local pro. So instead of guessing, you get clarity and can hire with confidence. For your next home project, try thumbtack. Hire the right pro today. Compete and try to get better knowing that we want a certain distance and our goal is to go further than we did. So from day one to camp, get off to a better start and become a better team. This team's had the off season to pair it or work on the roster to make the tweets. What does it need to do this year to sustain the success of ad and continue to be a playoff defender or continue to be consistent?

2:03Number one is just to be highly competitive, which starts with how hard you work inside a game. The way we played away from the puck, our defensive play which improved, but there's still room for improvement. It made us a lot better team. Those are the areas we're focused in on. To remain where we're at, we know it was a difficult task. A lot of teams got better. A lot of teams got through the summer seasons and they're back healthy now and teams, there's teams that missed the playoffs that think they're playoff teams. And for us knowing that last four months was an incredible run. Nobody will take us for granted, but knowing that we got an incredible amount of work to do ahead of us. What are the challenges of this team? Obviously it's the most unique one I've ever had. Other than a lot of people who are just really challenges, but they're too bad even.

3:05Yeah, how short? One. You know, your first week you're giving a day off and you've got a couple days of practice and you're down to four preseason games, which doesn't give you a lot of time for players that maybe didn't play a lot or those some of the players that are on the bubble. It doesn't give you that extra opportunity to take a look at them inside games. But with a limited number of practice days, it's being ready for that first game when it hits us starting next month. You know that you're going to lose guys every time you have a good team. Somebody's not going to be back. What's it like? You lose Alex off the blasters, but you're clearly banking on the progression from your forwards. You're going forward especially when a lot of potential. What's it like just trying to bring them along and make sure their progression continues to where you want it to be without it's not here? Yeah, and I think you've said that every team loses good players.

4:08There's some good players that I think is just a product of our league right now where they get an opportunity and they find themselves another team. I look at it that we've got some guys who just start in the key areas of their career. You look at a Benson, a Dome, an Oslin, a Quinn. I feel you give an extra two minutes to all those players. All of a sudden a Dome is maybe playing 17 in a Quinn's, playing 16, 17 and we didn't have Benson early in the year, but you know you've got to we saw the way he played down the stretch and in the playoffs. Those minutes are really welcome by the players that you know I just mentioned and you hope with those extra minutes that you find that production you lost. You think because you don't want me to talk to you, even by your meter, you think you're guy like Josh Dome and even as pedigree I may need to rub a captain in this house. I mean look at

5:11the junks he made in his development last year. Is he ready to take on responsibilities with any meter anything? Can you see at that point his bird? Yeah, you look at you know what he did where he started the year. You look at the effort on a lot of the goals that he was in and in on the goal, some of the goals he scored, the inside goals. Probably one of my favorite goals was to play off goal with you know the the boss and goal with him and Benson. He comes to the rank every day and tries to get better. Number one that's a great sign of a leader. He pushes the people around him. That's another good sign of a guy that you want to be around. The guy you'd like to be like. So he's got a lot of great habits and I do think it comes from a father that was one heck of a player and a heck of a character guy. You're going to take a lot. You know because you

6:19look at the number fours we got. We're going to look at our forwards first. And we got some guys like Yuri Collique that's coming back that didn't play at all. You know I think he's a guy that you know you got to take a real hard look at. You got to give him. He didn't play a lot of hockey last year. You know and we've taken you know Osslin and Lanias and these types of guys you got a guy Lanias. They're good showing their late in the year. They're good showing when he stepped into the regular season. He's had a all under all circumstances. I think he's had a great summer. Need to get stronger. It looks like he's stronger. And does that put him in a position to be a guy that can make a difference for us every night. But we've got you know four or five guys that are in the category. You look at you know the step that Quinn made from the previous year to last year. The step that Benson took throughout the year to where he's at. No Paul mentions Don. Those are all players that we're looking to have you know make a greater

7:24impact on our team. One of the advantages that you have is the versatility of guys like Tate, the complete center of the wing. And as you mentioned, Lanias and Osslin and Collique can also do the same thing. Have you plotted out where you see them in your lineup or is that something you'll evaluate through the camp? Yeah you've always plotted out. Does it change during camp? It possibly will. Would like to start him at center. But knowing that even in the playoffs, they're late. He ended up in the wing and you know had a couple of great nights. So I think there's opportunities inside of games. But I can't start him off at center. You know you go back to that four month run. He was in the middle of the ice forest that whole time. And I mean inside some games, there was games where you know Osslin and and my cloud stepped in and played center. He played a little bit of wing. Which will again happen for sure. So much hell about China all summer all way back to the draft. How do you deal with your goalies? They read they hear they know what's

8:29going on. How do you deal with that distract? You know I think I've been really honest with our goalies and how I feel the type of year they had. And they had a great year for us. Now you look at the numbers. You look at what they did for us. Part of rumors it's just part of today's game. I think all there's a lot of teams have to deal with with different rumors on on different players going. And are we signing? And you know I think they've got an understanding that they know what they've done for the team and know what they have to do for us going forward. I think it's awesome they're a big part of our club. Like the way we play. Like where we got to but knowing that the job isn't done yet. And they want to be part of trying to finish the job. And everybody's role inside of our team. From Malinstein you look at Osslin you look at Benson. They look at Dones signing. You know what those deals they want to be here. They feel this is a good hockey club

9:34that is moving in the right direction. What do you see from your ass? Oh you said a great offseason and I mean obviously excited to be you know in the position he's in now with a summer that was you know I don't think any of us could ever compare but he went through last summer to to worry that now. I mean just the demeanor and just his excitement for for being here and and everything being good on his front which is part of being a you know real good family here as a team. How much do you think that what you went through from your last year overcame helps them become a better leader. I mean hang that's a great question for him. From my eyes it kind of puts hockey as number two because there's a lot of things in

10:35life that are really important and what he went through was really important. So that still drags you 10 or 10 pounds around you know it's muscle. But exactly it kind of gets a bump or him to kind of get a boost in that. You know I think there's there's players that don't do it the right way we believe he did do it the right way. You know that muscle can be from this area here you know it makes you more powerful makes you stronger. You know if you want to look at 10 pounds and you spread you know three into your legs or four and then you get four into the upper body it really isn't a lot. I think it's part of a development. You've got a certain age from 19 to 24 that you can make some really big gains. But you can train wrong and I think that's where training has gotten so good that are you know our staff has done an incredible job of identifying this is how you're going to do it this how you

11:39going to get better. I know I've been around players in the past that you push to get stronger and all of a sudden they become robotic or they become stiff they're too top heavy or their skating becomes a little rigid. We're trying to stay away from that part and I think our training is excellent when it comes to trying to stay in the right lane for the players. He's really excited to you know try to make a difference to be the guy that you know we saw two years ago and that you know probably that last third of the season where he was playing as our top centerman and was making a difference you know every night. Again a guy that you know you would like to an a normal preseason would like probably see see him play four five six games. But you know he'll get an opportunity probably to play three we've got a blue and gold game that

12:42we're factoring in for another scrimmage and it'll be interesting to see where he's at. Step do you think Jack could you take this game? I think you can take the same step you took last year I thought when I looked at a lot of his opportunities to make a difference in the game. Plays that I thought he could have made a difference that you know maybe missed his shot. There was probably an opportunity there to score 35 goals last year that they didn't quite go in for him. You know I think that first part of the playoffs same thing but then you know second part of the playoffs you look at that one time you scored on the power play against much your you know you look at he's an elite shooter that he has spent a lot of time you know I'll use him as an example from the previous year to last year getting his body in a better place his skating was better his shot was better his strength one-on-one strength was a lot better and I think he's taking

13:43another step so I think he can he's a guy that can help in leadership and he can a guy that can help make up for goals that you know we lost the players leading. I know a pretty good idea what the answer is going to be but you're coming up on some historical numbers for NHL coaches in the district of the league. If your team wins 50 games you end up the thousand so you're most interested in your team winning those 50 games but just what what are your thoughts when you look at a thousand wins. I've been around too long. Yeah no I think you know I don't even like I'm gonna told you if I was within 50 I'd now be honest but you know you've been in the game a long time and I've been privileged to be around some really good teams. 50 would be really important for our team because if you if you get 50 wins you're

14:50going to be a playoff team. I think that that's a great goal for us as a group for sure. Yeah yeah for sure I mean that's the reason I'm still standing here really that I'd like to bring one here. Do you want to do it anywhere I'd love to do it here. In that thing whenever it was or if ever it was just being a losing game somewhere was there did you have a chance to have these spend a moment to appreciate what this team and your accomplice last year. For sure you know I think the you know you go through that 10 game winning streak I've kind of gone through it where you you think boy we're you know we're starting to click we're starting to gain some traction and as soon as you you lose that that game you think okay can we get back on track right away because sometimes you can win a few and then all of a sudden you lose a few and you think oh boy now we're back to where we were at but we were able to maintain

15:52a great level you know set I was awfully proud of our group for you know for being able to put put behind us disappointing losses and even that Columbus game where we lost right afterwards and then I think we we went on to win four more in a row but to put those games behind was a real sign of maturity and I think that's where our group really grew and you know you look back and you you think boy we we really had them going in in a good direction even from the little ups and downs in the playoffs with the team that players never you know they've been under the gun like that for the group to put behind some disappointing losses the some of the losses at home and then go on the road and boss and win games and go to a much raw and play the way we did in game six and there was a lot of things to look at and say you know it could have been easy for our team to go the other way in those games and our response was always really good. You know one of things

16:56about your mom he's very enthusiastic slash adamant about the cheers that patients could be from the family club you know how does the logroom how does your team have to continue to embrace that and how have you seen that those expectations trickle down through the organization. We we've earned those expectations with the the way we we played but expectations aren't you know they're not going to win this games how hard we work and how hard we compete will that'll be the difference but we put ourselves in the position where we've got a standard now that we really like can we improve on that standard don't be happy with that can we improve on that standard and be a better team. We first thought son Luke Krippier I don't think we've got a chance to ask you about it and he's a guy that I think a lot of people have been a marvel how he's gone from the seventh round to a pretty hard guy to play against but what do you what are your thoughts on that yeah I you know exactly he said that one of those guys that has earned his way and played pretty well for Chicago

18:02and is it's such a big man covers he he gets in the way a lot I mean I've watched a lot of film on him or watch the way he moves the puck he can cover a lot of space in a in a very short period of time so you know I think he can be a very valuable piece for us. I think it's a very serious how you feel about it like thinking about it over the summer and tweaks you might make or just how you felt it started to come together. Yeah you know I think you know I think we've got a better understanding as a group and we had some highs we had some lows obviously we the Boston series I thought a little bit snake bit the Montreal series we had a you know our power play was clicking along really good. I also think that the power plays the best ones in league are a group of guys it's been together for a period of time and I think with injuries and what we went through the year a

19:02shuffling of players wasn't the best for our group but I think our plan is to try to lock in the five guys and even before camp gets started here deal with we've gone through the the traits of real good power plays and we've gone through the traits of what those bottom power plays do that we want to stay away from with an understanding of getting this to the to the players and another thing we've added we've added Eric Stahl who's going to help us a little bit on the power play side and face offs and he's going to step in with the helping out in that area too it won't be here you know daily but he's going to be here for good part of every month and it's going to be an area that he's excited about help now. Yeah Vincent and Don up a little bit more in the playoffs like those some of the traits yeah yeah yeah yeah um you know some of the traits are getting

20:07you getting your power play lower in the ice not being above the circle type power play getting below the getting below the hash marks getting more people closer to the net is the traits of you know I think sometimes we get a little bit isolated with the you know with our flank or our our top power play guy and and then again part of it is uh those guys working together and realizing what the other team is trying to take away because you can't always draw up exactly what's going to work but I think you saw some really good motion out of our power play in that in that Montreal series we had some good motion that just didn't capitalize in the Boston series and we had a goalie that made some big saves at times um so you know we look at it that we've got some pieces that we think we can keep together and and we're hopeful that that can make us a consistent power play I mean we looked at I'll just we looked at Colorado why is the why was there power play where it was at and they got some of the most talented players um so I mean everybody's

21:09trying to get better when we're in that category from you know how hard we worked at our penalty killing the year before to get it uh where it was at now you know we're deep dive into our power play to uh to get it to where we think we it can be a consistent power play and make a difference um and sometimes that that's a hard job and we're gonna put you know like you said it'll probably be a benton of don't a Quinn now or the the next guy is it'll really be the difference makers on a on a power play so it's gonna drop any now and then I guess what's his role exactly yeah he's gonna help us uh with sentiment and he's gonna help out in the power play and um he's basically an assistant coach like consultant type deal when he last year your goalie situation naturally kind of sorted itself out with injuries and whatnot everyone's healthy what sort of a plan you have to kind of time share those answers yeah you know I think that'll sort itself out through camp but uh I really felt last year was a strength uh you know we had injuries to top couple guys and uh

22:15we had Alex that uh stepped in and gave us a lot of good hockey we had Alex to stop to step in and and want us hockey games and I think if you look how compacted the schedule is again um that you start the year and uh we will find what what works immediately and in what work last year was they shared the net and in all probably an all probability that's how we'll start again Wendy Jason Zucker or Sarah Merced he won't be in training camp might miss a start of the season how does that sort of change the complexion at forward with Zucker being out with his first few first two well it's again another it's another players opportunity um you know I look at it that you've got a uh a colleague that's going to step in going to get a bigger opportunity right off the bat uh you know you got don't Quinn the likes of those guys same thing you got Oslin now you got Helanius that gets a bigger opportunity right off the bat um he's given us some real good hockey

23:19but in that period of time he's going to miss now it's an opportunity for somebody to step in and improve they can really help us out I feel about where Justin Danforth is didn't see him pretty much at all last year it was a pretty serious injury yeah and as you know he had his ups and downs with trying to get back it looks like he's going to start camp with us so uh we know how competitive you know we we looked at when we signed him here's a really competitive guy that'll well almost do anything to win a hockey game from blocking shots and that's how he got hurt that we felt we had a right handed sediment that could take key face-off even for us uh so there was a little bit of a decision of whether he would be at camp you know maybe a month ago but he's starting to feel pretty good so we'll see how camp goes Carolina want to stay like that do you think as you look at how your team has built people go to move stay like a champion as how do you see the same respect up?

24:23what Carolina did I was well I look at you know and I like watching the teams that win um I look back at game 48 where we played Carolina the two-one game uh might have played one of our best games in Carolina and uh I think what stood out was that one unbelievable saves they made on I think it was on our power play uh we started that game well we probably played them had the head as good as any game we played um and we we lost two one so just there's just that room to room to be better uh but they play they play a real hard brand to compete and that's been our game now that that's what made us successful so those are the game that's the game you look at and go they're compete our compete who won that and I thought the compete was pretty even in the game new shoes new clothes brand new grade switched a Verizon to make sure their tech keeps up

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