Archives for October 2, 2009

‘“I think we’ve got this understanding of accountability now,” Ruff said earlier this week following a practice at HSBC Arena. “We washed out at the end of (last) year. To a man, let’s agree, let’s not make any excuses. Let’s just agree that we weren’t good enough.”’

‘"Blah, blah, blah, on and on and on" Miller said. "Yeah, maybe it’s time to stop quoting ourselves in articles and just shut up about it and do it."’

‘"He’s accepted his role as a fourth-line centre," Ruff said at HSBC Arena as the Sabres prepared for the 2009-10 NHL season. "If it’s 30 seconds or eight minutes of ice time, he’s not asking for anything more. Usually players want more. If they have a little bit of success, they want to be a third-liner. Matt is special in a sense that he takes whatever role is given to him and he’ll be a soldier in that role for you."’

‘"Somebody had told me this past summer about this team a year or two ago that there was some work issues, that some guys didn’t like to work," Montador said Thursday. "Since I’ve been here, I’ve found everybody has really pushed it. We’ve got a number of leaders, traditional nonskill players that work their butts off. And we’ve got skill guys who do, too. That’s a misconception I had heard. Not true."’

‘"It stops right there," Kennedy said. "Once you walk out [of the dressing room], it doesn’t matter if you’re the hometown kid or from Sweden, Russia or whatever. If you’re not playing well, you’re not going to play. This isn’t just a fluke. This isn’t just a feel-good hometown story. This is for real."’

‘"It’s frustrating but I’ve learned from the last time," Stafford said. "You just have to get the work in, follow the testing and let it play out. But if I don’t play, that will be two weeks without a game and that’s tough."’

‘“I’ve heard other teams comment on how quick we’ve looked and how the puck movement has been,” Ruff said. “But I think that’s from that’s from being all on the same page. We’re coming up as a five-man group, there’s nobody missing in the system. And we’re going after teams.”’

The small guy who just may come up big (Portland Press Herald)

Pirates Finalize Season Opening Roster (PortlandPirates.com)

‘Head coach Lindy Ruff has spoken as well this pre-season about more players in the locker room stepping up into a leadership role. Ruff thinks the team needs to take the same attitude and work on the same page to be successful. That is one aspect of accountability he is looking forward to this coming season. He thinks the new attitude ” has shown up in practice…[Wednesday] we were off the charts.” Ruff has been careful not to work his team too hard before the opener in two days as well.’

‘In the end it was the Calgary Flames beating your Buffalo Sabres, 4-1, in the Stanley Cup finals, scoring with 4.3 seconds left to win Game 5 and the Cup with a 3-2 win.’