BUFFALO – Coach Lindy Ruff said he’s all for trying different things, so what the heck, he figured, why not put the Sabres in a hotel prior to Game 7 against the Montreal Canadiens?
The Sabres have lost four of their six home games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, including Thursday’s ugly 6-3 setback in Game 5. With the a trip to the Eastern Conference final on the line tonight at KeyBank Center, Ruff wanted to change up their home routine, so players stayed together Sunday night.
“I’ve always been on the inside of let’s give it a try, then just trying to pound a round peg in a square hole,” he said this morning in the Buffalo Marriott at LECOM Harborcenter.
Ruff has often mentioned the “distractions” players encounter when they’re home in the postseason.
“You got a lot of friends, a lot of family,” he said. “Just tried to get away from that and be with the group, be with each other, wrap our arms around this opportunity.”
That opportunity, of course, is special. The Sabres, who ended their 14-year playoff drought this year, will be playing just their eighth Game 7 in their 56-year history and only their third at home.
They earned their only win when Derek Plante’s overtime goal clinched a first-round victory over the Ottawa Senators on April 29, 1997.
Ruff said he has said his “piece about where we’re at and how we got here.” Now he wants his players to enjoy the moment.
“Let them play, it’s their room, it’s their team,” he said. “Let them enjoy this moment.”
Ruff spoke this morning in a seventh-floor conference room overlooking Canalside and on a sun-soaked 80-degree spring day. It looked and felt like playoff weather outside.
“If we were in training camp this year around the first day and you wanted to talk about playing a game in the middle of May on an 85-degree day in Buffalo to move on, we’d all sign on the dotted line,” Ruff said.
Neither team skated this morning. The Sabres repeated the routine they used prior to Saturday’s wild 8-3 win in Game 6 in Montreal, staying off the ice the day before and skipping the pregame skate.
The Canadiens, who have won twice in Buffalo this series, have responded emphatically following losses throughout the playoffs, going 5-0 while scoring 19 goals and allowing just nine.
They’re 5-2 on road this postseason.
In keeping with his standard procedure, Ruff did not name his starting goalie. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who stopped all 18 shots he faced in Game 6 after replacing Alex Lyon, is expected to earn the nod.