PRE-GAME STORY
NEWARK,NJ - The Devils complete back-to-back games tonight against the Anaheim Ducks. It's a Ducks team that is well rested having not played since Friday and only twice in the past week, all in the New York metropolitan area.
Devils head coach Lindy Ruff was asked about how to manage his squad in the second half of back-to-backs. It's something the Devils have struggled with a bit this year with a 1-4-1 record in the second game.
“It comes down a lot of times to puck management," Ruff began. "How you take care of it and how you break out. Not handing the other team opportunities. We know it’ll be a hard game. Our goal is to not beat ourselves.”
Last season, the Devils were 9-3-0 in second-half games played back-to-back and 6-5-1 in the first half. This year, it's been the opposite so far at 6-1-0 in the first game (and 5-0-0 when the first game is on the road).
Ruff did say that he feels that second game really can be more difficult, though.
“It’s just tougher. Energy-wise, it’s tougher. You get in late, you don’t get a normal sleep cycle. There’s a lot of things that are tougher,” he said. “If you get caught overextending your shifts, that you put yourself in a bad spot.”
He said that a player being caught on the ice too long is on the coach.
“It’s my job to manage the ice-time and make sure we’re not caught with tired players on the ice.”
Ruff, as usual, did not tip his hand when it came to the lineup. He did seem to hint at the same lineup -- except perhaps in goal. He said he's not too worried about tired legs in the second game because the players who you would take out are fresher due to the ice time accrued the night before.
“When you look at your roster, it’s not your guys that play a lot of ice time that you want to take out. Even though you have fresh legs, usually the guys who you want to take out are the ones who aren’t playing 18 to 20 minutes per game. Those guys are usually fine. It’s our top guys managing their ice time that’s really important.”
On Saturday, Ruff did mention that Dawson Mercer had a stinger in Columbus but it appears his fine and his 192-games played streak since the start of his career will continue.
"He was in and feeling well so we expect him to play," Ruff noted.
-- Marc Ciampa
