A Young Back-End
Coach Ruff was asked about having three young blueliners in the lineup in Simon Nemec, Luke Hughes and Kevin Bahl. While Nemec and Siegenthaler skate on the top pair in the rotation, that's not necessarily how he and the coaching staff see it.
“I don’t know if we look at a top pair," said Ruff. "We need all those pairs to be good for us. I don’t know if we have a ranking but liked (Nemec's) first game, liked how he moved the pucks, got his shots through. A lot of his puck decisions were good.”
He added that while the promise is large for the young and talented D core, there are growing pains.
“You get young mistakes. If you look at Luke’s pass, it was a young defenseman’s mistake. We end up playing in our zone and getting scored against. It’s understanding time and place of the game, understanding what’s available for you. And usually you have growing pains. It takes a good number of games to get through that.”
The growing pains are not just limited to the blueline. Ruff was asked about Akira Schmid and how he's also been learning the ropes.
“Goaltenders are in the same category. It takes time. They need to play. There’s a number of games they need to play before they understand the NHL completely. He’s given us some really good hockey. Do young goaltenders have ups and downs? I don’t think you can point to many who didn’t.
“It’s often you look at a starting goaltender who wasn’t drafted by that team. It takes time and patience but they need to play.”
Ruff addded that time in the American Hockey League in Utica isn't always necessarily the answer when it comes to a goaltender's confidence.
“The American League is a tough league to play goal, too, because there’s a lot of mistakes in the AHL and sometimes a goalie can look better in the NHL because the teams are defending better.”
