BUFFALO – On Thursday, a day after watching the Sabres perform well in fitness testing, coach Lindy Ruff left his house by about 5 a.m. to lead the first sessions of training camp.
“I was excited where all our off-ice fitness was in a good place yesterday, and really wanted to see the on-ice, what it would look like with some of our guys,” he said in KeyBank Center.
Ruff has promised camp will be competitive as the Sabres try to roar out of the gate and end their NHL-record 14-year playoff drought.
Before the first group, which comprised everyone expected to be on the NHL roster, began its scheduled 9 a.m. practice in LECOM Harborcenter, coaches put players through competitive skating tests.
When practice began, Ruff liked what he saw.
“I’ve liked our stuff that’s going on off ice, the compete skating drill we started the day with,” he said. “Just a really hard practice with just competing, and kind of set the bar high.”
Players appear to be responding well to Brian Galivan, the new strength and conditioning coach the Sabres hired during the offseason.
“I thought we broke down late in games (last season),” Ruff said. “Is that breaking down, some of that conditioning? I thought part of it was that we needed to get to a higher level.”
The high-tempo practices also featured distinctive groups. Each group early in camp usually features a mix of NHL, minor league and junior players.
On Thursday, however, the Sabres put their NHL regulars in the first group, players who will likely comprise the Rochester Americans in the second and other minor leaguers and junior players in the third.
“We’ve got some stuff we want to change, so putting those groups together is important for us,” Ruff explained. “… If we’re going to compete against the top guys, it’ll make us better. If we’re going to try to learn from those couple of drills we did, on a teaching front, it’s better that it’s all NHL guys.
“And we want our AHL team to be in the same category.”
Last year, Ruff’s first back in Buffalo, the Sabres departed camp early to begin the season in Europe.
Ruff believes a normal camp this year will be helpful. Last year, for example, he couldn’t run the skating test he did Thursday.
“We get to plan our practices and practice every day,” he said Wednesday. “We get to meet in our own facility every day. I think that alone has a lot of value to it.”