Detroit’s
Mike Babcock returns as head coach. St. Louis’ Ken Hitchcock and
Boston’s Claude Julien join Ruff as associate coaches. Ruff said
with that level of coaching talent and experience, there can be
interesting and sometimes intense discussions about strategy. That
was the case in 2010 when the staff consisted of Babcock, Ruff,
Hitchcock and Jacques Lemaire.“We had great debates, some good
arguments and we had some real good laughs when we went through this
is how we want to play. There are some great ideas that come out of
sitting with three or four guys, going through a camp and then living
with the guys for two weeks,” Ruff said. “I learned a lot
from all three of the guys I was involved with in different respects.
If you can take a piece here from one part of the game and piece here
from another part and add that to your game, it makes you a better
coach. You can always get better.”
Canada
will take 25 players to Sochi. It’s expected to be 14 forwards, 8
defensemen and 3 goaltenders. Some of the decisions won’t be easy
for Canada’s management staff, but it is guaranteed to be an
impressive roster. Ruff said being around that level of talent is one
of the best parts of the job. “It gives you a really good handle
on what’s out there around the league, the marquee players on every
team and what makes them so effective,” Ruff said. “You
get to practice with them, watch them in game situations and you get
to watch players under the most amount of pressure they can be put
in.”
The
2010 gold medal game between Canada and the USA was high pressure.
The U.S. rallied from a 2-0 deficit, tying the game on a Zach Parise
goal with 24.4 seconds left in regulation. Sidney Crosby then won the
game for Canada, scoring 7:40 into overtime. “Just how tight it
was, the pressure involved. One shot wins the game and that’s how
it turns out,” said Ruff. “It’s fun to watch players
under those types of circumstances.”
Ruff
said the bulk of the coaching staff’s work will be done prior to
the NHL season. That will allow the coaches to concentrate on their
NHL teams. Some of the work left will have to do with watching
players as Canada tries to nail down the final roster. “We’ll
have an occasional conference call and we’ll have other calls to
see how players are doing,” Ruff said. “If you are
coaching in the West, we’re asking about players that may be
sitting on the cusp of that roster. If somebody just played this guy,
we’ll want to know how he played and do you think he can be a piece
we can use. Most of our work is done before we get into the season,
so the four coaches that are involved can just concentrate on the job
at hand. The only job left is evaluating what players you think can
be part of it.”
Hockey Canada announced its roster for an Olympic
orientation camp on Monday. Among the notable players not invited was
Stars forward Jamie
Benn. Ruff said Benn can use not getting an invitation as
motivation at the beginning of next season to put himself in
contention for a spot on Canada’s roster. “His name was
definitely in all the talks,” Ruff said. “You can take
that and let it motivate yourself. You can say I am going to use
these three months and put myself on the map, and make them make a
hard decision. The ball is in Jamie’s court. He’s going to have
to outplay some players that are maybe ahead of him and use that as a
tool to motivate himself. I’d like to put him in the best position
possible to do that.”
Several
countries have released Olympic camp invitations and preliminary
rosters. Two Dallas Stars are under consideration as of right now.
Defenseman Sergei
Gonchar was named to Russia’s preliminary Olympic roster on
Monday. Russia named 35 Olympic hopefuls that will gather in Sochi
next month. Finland named a list of candidates for its Olympic hockey
team last month, and goaltender Kari
Lehtonen was among the eight netminders under consideration.
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