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You're Lindy Ruff...What do you do?


TrueBlueGED

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Since we have one about Pegula, why not Ruff? We all (or most of us, anyway), agree that Ruff is out of answers and doesn't know what to do with this team anymore. So put yourself in his shoes, the ONLY thing you can control is your current roster, you can't make trades etc. In that situation, what do you do?

 

The first thing I do is strip Roy and Stafford of their letters. They never should have had them in the first place, and certainly don't deserve to keep them. I then bench them both for a game, and see what happens. I may completely lose them at that point, or it may light a fire under them. High risk, high reward move. What's the worst that can happen, they continue to contribute nothing? At the very least they wouldn't be looked upon as locker room leaders anymore.

 

The second thing I do is take my system, and toss it in the garbage. I start to preach a north-south, physical game. Throw everything possible at the net, I don't care if it's not a great opportunity. Maybe a rebound pops out, maybe a crazy deflection happens. Get simple and get ugly. I don't think his system is the problem, I just don't think he has the horses to run it. We're trying to be Detroit without the talent, and it just isn't flying. Finish checks, I'd never want to see somebody U-turn away from a hit again. It may not be pretty, and it may not even work with the current group of players...but hell, continuing the current practices isn't working either. It's like in We Are Marshall where the coach took his "power-I" system and threw it into the garbage in front of the team and learned the option offense.

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Thread alive? Good!

 

The premise is interesting and unique enough, or focused enough, to merit some conversation.

 

I like the idea of stripping the A's from Roy and Stafford for the reasons stated. It would do no harm, that's for sure.

 

The system doesn't work for this roster, but I believe it's simplified already enough to the point of being ineffective. They are always shooting from the half-walls past the hash marks, or from the point. What good is that when few players get to the net, or if they do, they have to peel away to get a jump on the back-check.

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Thread alive? Good!

 

The premise is interesting and unique enough, or focused enough, to merit some conversation.

 

I like the idea of stripping the A's from Roy and Stafford for the reasons stated. It would do no harm, that's for sure.

 

The system doesn't work for this roster, but I believe it's simplified already enough to the point of being ineffective. They are always shooting from the half-walls past the hash marks, or from the point. What good is that when few players get to the net, or if they do, they have to peel away to get a jump on the back-check.

 

The major issue with the system is that the players don't "buy into it". It's something we've heard from them over and over. Cue Pommers sound clip.

 

The system seems simple, puck possession, rushes start with long lead passes from the D to the side boards. Chip the puck in, chase, recover, set up.

 

Our guys have the speed for this. Or they used to. But they refuse to get after the puck with any tenacity. And then once they recover it, they don't cycle quickly or crisply enough to use possession to their advantage.

 

Lindy's system plays to this teams supposed strengths, which should be speed and offense from the back end. But they don't execute. It's very lackadaisical and sloppy. And I feel like we must be as confused as Ruff is about it.

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The major issue with the system is that the players don't "buy into it". It's something we've heard from them over and over. Cue Pommers sound clip.

 

The system seems simple, puck possession, rushes start with long lead passes from the D to the side boards. Chip the puck in, chase, recover, set up.

 

Our guys have the speed for this. Or they used to. But they refuse to get after the puck with any tenacity. And then once they recover it, they don't cycle quickly or crisply enough to use possession to their advantage.

 

Lindy's system plays to this teams supposed strengths, which should be speed and offense from the back end. But they don't execute. It's very lackadaisical and sloppy. And I feel like we must be as confused as Ruff is about it.

 

I think you pretty much nailed it.

 

The majority of this roster simply refuses to get dirty. They'd rather play cute than dump and chase. That and Weber/MAG give new meaning to "liability".

 

To answer OP's question; I'd run my practices as scrimmages. Every cutesie floater on this team against those who are not, full go, until I had enough pansies on IR to make call ups. I'd simply return the "worst nightmare" favor these powder puffs have given him.

 

They're not reacting to what he's doing now, and it can't get much worse. I know he needs to stay PC in order to maybe land another job if he loses this one, but F it, I'd turn on this roster as quick and fierce as he could. Name drop, strip letters, Hell practices... if it doesn't work, at least he'll have fun doing it before he's out.

 

I actually feel kind of bad for him...

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Strip Roy and Stafford or their 'A's, Throw the system away, find out what makes the guys tick and develop something around that. Try to motivate the players (as stupid as it sounds I'd even go as far as team building exercises). If that didn't work I'd shout lots and sit high profile players, one a game for 4-5 games. Every game with a low effort gets double practice sort of thing as well. Random ideas I'm thinking of. I'll get back to it more when I'm feeling less guilty about not working.

 

Nice thread.

 

If im Lindy Ruff, I stay home and drink as much Apricot Ale and vodka shots a man can handle. Then i go to the bar and drink some more. Then i go home and tell my wife im horny and cry myself asleep.

Oh thats killer, epic post.

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Start playing the trap.

 

I could definitely see this happening. I sort of expected it to happen already. And really, as much as I hate the trap, it makes sense. We are not a good puck possession team. We are thin at center. And our defense corp is not working out as intended. Sounds like the trap would make alot fo sense right now. Sit back and clog up the blue line, jump on middle ice turnovers, get a scoring chance off the rush, recoil and reset the trap. Makes sense for a team with talent that is struggling and not very successful at maintaining puck possession.

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