"Patience, patience, you have to have patience," he said with a smile on Monday afternoon. "It's something I talked to (general manager) Tom (Fitzgerald) about. The pain of mistakes, you can't let it bother you as much. If you had a veteran team, you may demand even more, expect even more. With younger players, they have to have the ability to live with a mistake and go back out there after a mistake and be able to grow from it."
The Devils youth has certainly made its fair share of mistakes this season. However, they've also had their fair share of success.
New Jersey leads the NHL in points by rookies this season at 50 (20G-30A) in 29 games. And those 20 goals from rookies ranks second-most in the league.
"I really enjoy the growth that I've seen in a lot of the players," Ruff said. "If you look at (Janne) Kuokkanen, (Yegor) Sharangovich, (Ty) Smith, the list goes on, even (Jesper) Bratt, there are lots of players that I feel have tremendous upside. They've had their ups and downs, but when you see their A Game, and you start to see it on a consistent basis it puts a smile on your face.
"From a management team on down I want to see the growth. I want to see the players get better. I want to see the way we're playing the game fits the players that we have. I want to see us on the offensive side start to grow."
New Jersey has received 54 percent of its points (107 of 198) from players 23 years old or younger. No other NHL team has more than 40 percent.
And those numbers would be even higher if the Devils had been able to convert their hard work into more goals and points. But the team's patience is starting to pay off.
"We've had some frustration with pucks not going in the net," Ruff said. "I think lack of practice time has hurt us from an execution standpoint. From an effort standpoint, a lot of times we haven't been rewarded for the effort we put in. (We're) trying to stay away from that frustration."
