What Lindy Ruff is doing to take pressure off Sabres and more notes ahead of Game 6

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Sabres coach Lindy Ruff knows that is a feeling most of his players haven’t felt yet in their careers. That’s why he didn’t bring the players to the rink Friday, the morning after the Canadiens again picked apart Buffalo’s defensive coverage. Ruff told the players to come in if they needed treatment. Otherwise, they could head right to the airport for the team’s afternoon flight to Montreal. “I know the pressure they’re feeling,” Ruff said. “I know how they feel. I know how much they care. I just feel a day away from the rink, not coming here, is a good thing. We don’t need to watch video today. We don’t need to talk about the game. We need to move on. There’s only one game that counts now. And that is the game tomorrow. All likelihood, we may not even skate tomorrow. We’ll save everything we got for tomorrow night. That’s my initial thoughts right now.” That’s an honest admission on Ruff’s part, something Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis hasn’t come close to saying in either of his team’s playoff series. It’s also a reality that Ruff is willing to confront. Ruff has been sensitive to the psyche of his team throughout the postseason. In the Boston series, he softened his postgame comments in the media after Game 2 so that his team wouldn’t have to deal with additional questions about the loss. Before Game 6 of that series, Ruff canceled the morning skate, in part, to keep the pressure off and give players a break from the media. Now he’s trying a similar tactic between games five and six of this series. The schedule is different this time around. Games have been every other day in this series, which makes it difficult to practice anyway. But if Ruff does elect not to do a pregame skate, he’ll be breaking from the typical routine of having some sort of skate between games. It’s also his job to find answers, and this might be one of them. The Sabres’ three losses in this series have come by a combined score of 17-6. Game 5 was particularly frustrating for the Sabres because they scored first and got three goals in the first period. But the Canadiens answered every goal and then opened up the game with a three-goal second period. Lukas Dobeš was shaky early in the game, but the Sabres didn’t keep the pressure on him and he settled back into his game. “We thought we let them off the hook,” Ruff said. “We came out of the corner a couple times, and we had clear lanes to shoot pucks and we deferred to a better play. I think we’ve talked about this at length throughout the year that sometimes you know our ability to make plays is we sometimes defer it to that better play. And we had the puck go into the net early. We got rewarded for it. We just didn’t quite stay with it. Probably there was four or five opportunities to get a puck there quicker last night that could have kept them in chaos.” Instead, the Sabres ended up in chaos, as has been the case too often throughout the series. At times, it has felt like a lopsided series because of the score discrepancies, but these teams have been tighter than it appears at times. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Sabres have a 107-104 advantage in scoring chances at five-on-five. The Sabres also have a 52-51 advantage in high-danger chances at five-on-five. But the Canadiens have 10 high-danger goals to the Sabres’ four. Dobeš has a 92 percent save percentage on high-danger chances at all strengths. Alex Lyon and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen have combined for a 78 percent save percentage on high-danger chances. Goaltending and special teams have been Montreal’s two biggest edges in this series. Otherwise, it’s closer than it meets the eye. “I look at it right now, what is there five teams left?” Ruff said. “To be sitting here talking to you guys, I think that it’s a wonderful place to be. And I’ll tell the team the same thing. We get to go to Montreal in Game 6 in the middle of May to move on to a Game 7. And I think we’ll all be evaluated on what this game looks like. Just bring your best.” Ruff has liked how his team has responded to adversity this season. But this is different. “This is a completely different challenge, being involved in an elimination game where, now, every mistake could mean the end for you,” Ruff said. “But every opportunity you get to take advantage of could mean we go on to play Game 7.” 1. Ruff has another goalie decision to make. Turning back to Lyon would make sense based on his playoff performance and his experience as a veteran. Luukkonen wasn’t the only problem the Sabres had on Thursday, of course. Four of the goals against came on high-danger shots. It was a frustrating night for him because he didn’t have a ton of help in front of him. After the game, he mentioned that he needs to be better but also said the Sabres’ need to tighten up defensively. He also marveled at the way Montreal is playing defensively when asked about Dobeš. “I think they’re just playing good defense,” Luukkonen said. “He’s playing good. There’s no denying that. But I think how well they defend, how many pucks are loose over there. They kind of get them away in front of him. They do (a) good job with that. I would say it’s not necessarily that. It’s how well they’re defending as a team right now.” There is something to that. And it speaks to what really matters in Game 6. Whether it’s Lyon or Luukkonen in net, the Sabres need to create a better environment for their goalies to succeed. The 27 shot blocks they had in Game 4 need to be part of the formula in Game 6. 2. Ruff said defenseman Owen Power came in on Friday to get treatment after he twisted his leg crashing into the boards late in Game 5. He finished the game and Ruff got an encouraging update. “All I can offer is he said he’s feeling pretty good, better than he thought he’d feel, so that’s encouraging,” Ruff said. Needless to say, losing Power would be a significant blow to Buffalo’s blue line. 3. We may be guessing on Ruff’s lineup choices if he chooses to skip the morning skate. Conor Timmins had a rough turnover that led to Cole Caufield’s momentum-changing goal in the game, so it’s possible there could be another change to the third pair. Ruff would be more than justified in shuffling his lines, too, and he broke up his first line late in the game last night. But tinkering around the edges will only fix so much. When talking about leaning on his top four defensemen, Ruff offered an answer that could apply to his whole team. “When you get in games like this, your best players have to be the guys that are out there playing the most,” Ruff said. “They’ve got to be the difference makers.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms