Ruff’s Line Tinkering Pays Off For Sabres
Posted by TheHockeyGuy on November 30th, 2009
Lindy the Line Tinkerer was at it again Saturday night. And you can look for the coach’s shiny new combinations to take the ice again tonight when the Buffalo Sabres meet the Toronto Maple Leafs in Air Canada Centre.
With his offense doing nothing in the first period against the woeful Carolina Hurricanes, Lindy Ruff dropped Thomas Vanek off the first line to the third line on the wing with Mike Grier and Tim Kennedy. Jochen Hecht took Vanek’s place with Derek Roy and Jason Pominville.
The second period was all Ryan Miller as the Sabres remained scoreless. The third period was all offense.
Roy, Hecht, Grier, Clarke MacArthur and Vanek scored and 10 players had points as the Sabres erupted for all of their goals in a 5-1 win.
“I liked the fact that Kennedy and Grier were real good down low in the first period and felt the Roy line really struggled in the first period,” Ruff said after Saturday’s game. “So I just flipped wingers on a hunch and those guys did a good job. I thought Kennedy was really good down low and Thomas and Michael were doing a good job finding holes.”
Ruff is no stranger to line shifts from game to game and even period to period. But chemistry is a delicate thing and you don’t often see such quick results. He kept his No. 2 line intact, with Tim Connolly centering MacArthur and Drew Stafford after Connolly had four points Friday in Philadelphia.
Click here to read the full article – By Buffalo News
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