Sabres at training camp

A positive outlook will be on the docket when Lindy Ruff addresses veterans when training camp opens this weekend, but the Sabres bench boss said the message will carry some heavier weight to it.

“The past couple years haven’t been good enough,” Ruff said during a Wednesday morning appearance on The Howard Simon Show. “We have to take a good hard look at ourselves… and get ourselves back in the playoff picture, where we should be.”

Ruff pointed to veteran signings Mike Grier and Steve Montador as guys he expects to help counteract any sort of negative mentality that could exist, guys who will help “win those 3-2 games.” For example, Ruff said the team could’ve reacted differently to Scott Gomez’s run of Ryan Miller that sent the goaltender to the sidelines for crucial weeks, and said the two veterans are guys who can help direct the team’s on-ice attitude. That said, Ruff argued that while you can’t blame last year’s failure on injuries, losing Miller and Thomas Vanek for good periods of time undoubtedly hurt the squad.

You have to love training camps in all sports. All the teams will spue lines about how the team is on the up and up when training camp starts. You always hear how this guy is in the best shape of his life and how this guy is young, and the word attitude comes up like 30 times. 

It’s kind of funny that Ruff is now saying Montador and Grier would of acted differently if they were on the ice when Miller got ran over by Scott Gomez for the 20th time last season. In essence, he’s calling his players pu$$ies, but last year took the high road for that specific incident. 

As usual the Sabres and Ruff played both sides of the fence when describing the injuries to Miller and Vanek. In one breathe they say injuries won’t be used as an excuse, and in the next it’s the injuries hurt us. Make up your fricken mind! That rhetoric is almost identical to what the Sabres say every year, saying they are in it to win the Stanley Cup, yet complain about the market and claim the last 2 years were mulligan years. The want the best of both worlds. 

I’ve said it before there were games the Sabres blew it with lesser competition with and without their key guys. Injuries weren’t the reason they missed the playoffs, it was lack of intensity and not doing jack shit at the trade deadline.