GDT: Game #5 - 10.18.14 - vs Philadelphia - 7:00 PM - FS Southwest - 1310 AM - 96.7 FM

[Dundalis]

Can corroborate: see just a guy out there, too.

Sceviour, as well.

Sceviour did not look out of place on a line with Seguin and Benn. That says a lot to me. He clearly has some skill.

 

[Troy McClure]

Scevior's biggest challenge is learning how to bring his A game shift after shift. He's shown flashes of being good.

 

[piqued]

They are in the sense that each league is different. There are slight variations of regulations between each and the quality of competition can also be a bit different: some being more developed, some less so.

Basically Glove is comparing the two in how they are currently playing in the NHL. You are basing off history in juniors, Europe, and the AHL. Quite often how one plays at one level doesn't translate at a higher level. A perfect example is Daley's numbers in juniors.

This is the most illuminating quote we've gotten so far and I haven't seen it posted:

“In my eyes, defending comes first,” Ruff said. “He’s a guy that a lot of times uses his legs as an outlet for the d-zone. First pass for me is a big deal. We’ve got him working a little bit on one power play unit to see if his shot can help us there.”

So that's confirmation of a couple of things. A) They want him to focus on defense over his natural offensive game. B) They want him to focus on his first pass rather than his natural skating with the puck.

Rightly or wrongly they're actively in the process of molding him into a different player than what he came up as.

The next big thing from there is Ruff finally acknowledging that he possesses a skill that the team needs. So let's hope they continue the process of working him into the PP. Because that's where his value is to this roster.

 

[BigG44]

That's interesting ... isn't that a similar problem the Toronto coaches expressed about Gardiner. They said he was too predictable and always skated the puck rather than mixing it up and passing and exciting the zone in different ways.

That was the excuse they gave for benching him IIRC.

 

[Rune Forumwalker]

The next big thing from there is Ruff finally acknowledging that he possesses a skill that the team needs. So let's hope they continue the process of working him into the PP. Because that's where his value is to this roster.

It might be the case like BigG was saying in that Ruff doesn't like what they see of him in practice (and games) in the execution of that skillset that he has, which is the reason they haven't used him on the PP yet.

 

[Troy McClure]

This is the most illuminating quote we've gotten so far and I haven't seen it posted:



So that's confirmation of a couple of things. A) They want him to focus on defense over his natural offensive game. B) They want him to focus on his first pass rather than his natural skating with the puck.

Rightly or wrongly they're actively in the process of molding him into a different player than what he came up as.

The next big thing from there is Ruff finally acknowledging that he possesses a skill that the team needs. So let's hope they continue the process of working him into the PP. Because that's where his value is to this roster.

I think you're seeing what you want to see in that quote. Neither of the A or B points you take out of it explain why they are keeping him off of the PP. They do explain why he's getting minimal ice time. They're having to teach him how to play his position, which is why he barely played last season. But if his PP potential was all that, his defense and exit pass deficiencies wouldn't keep him off the PP.

We will see how much patience Ruff has for this experiment, though the Nemeth injury may impede Ruff from following his natural inclination.

 

[Hull Fan]

Ruff's initial inclinations include playing time and multiple opportunities for vets that most fans would prefer not to get those prime spots over and over again. He has a vast and well documented tendency to prefer veteran players to younger ones, like 95% of coaches everywhere. Just because he sees it that way doesn't mean he's right, it just means that's how it's going to be until circumstances, Nemeth's injury, force him to change.