Sabres with an open ice style of play while NJ closes on their check immediately and wins the 1 on 1 close in battles.
Jersey clogs the front of the net in their own zone eliminating open lanes or looks to their net. Buff's team D is way more reactive and slower. Surprising. I expected more from Ruff in this part of the game. NJ has much more time and space to work with.
Sabres PP was under constant pressure from the NJ PK and couldn't find the open man. NJ's PP moved the puck with much more authority and precision.
I agree. But I think we need to give Ruff a chance. Expecting him to fix these deeply rooted issues in one shortened training camp is unrealistic (as much as I wanted it to happen). Especially when there was no meaningful change to the top 6 outside of 1 subtraction.
I feel like Keefe has a better base to start off from than Ruff. The devils have more veteran players and they’re coming from a coach/system (Ruff) with structure. Keefe isn’t starting from basically scratch in that regard, like Ruff in Buffalo.
Not only is Ruff trying to break the bad habits of the players, he also still has 2/3rds of Granato’s same coaching staff he’s trying to get to deliver this new message and break those bad habits too. I don’t think Adams did him any favors not allowing him to bring in any assistants.