Ruff pushing right buttons for young Sabres against Bruins in playoffs

It has been nearly 30 years since Ruff made his debut as a head coach for the Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 1, 1997, in a game against the St. Louis Blues. And in all that time, through stints with the Sabres, Dallas Stars, New Jersey Devils, and back to the Sabres, Ruff has picked up a few things.

Which was why, after a troubling Game 2, in which he believed his Sabres didn't play up to their abilities after their emotional, come-from-behind Game 1 victory over the Boston Bruins, Ruff was measured when addressing it with his team. 

He believed that was the touch needed by the still-young, still-green Sabres. 

Whatever he said, whatever he did worked, with the Sabres bouncing back in Game 3 in Boston, taking back control of the best-of-7 series, which they now lead 2-1 with Game 4 set for Sunday at TD Garden (2 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, NESN, MSG-B, SN, TVAS). 

"I think to a man, we didn't like Game 2," Ruff said on Friday. "I may have downplayed it a little bit on the outside, but we -- to a man -- didn't like the way we played in Game 2. We knew we could play a lot better, we knew we could have the puck a lot more. I felt we could generate more and I thought we got to a point where we were starting to wear them out last night."

For so many of the Sabres, it marked their first- or second- or third-ever game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. For many of them, it marked their first-ever road game in the playoffs. 

That did not go unnoticed by Ruff, which was why he handled it the way he did. He told his team that they had been a good team on the road, having gone 24-13-4 away from Buffalo this season. He told them that while the atmosphere might be different than what they had experienced at KeyBank Center, "just believe in the way we need to play."

They did. 

"I didn't want to create any more stress on our group," Ruff said. "I didn't want to give [the media] any more questions to ask them about what went wrong, how come this was bad? We'll deal with that stuff on the inside. And you look at a group that a lot of them played their first playoff game in Game 1, we had some guys play their first playoff game in Game 3 and a lot of them played their first road playoff game in Game 3. My understanding was, let's not get too carried away here and know that we've responded when we haven't played that well."

The wisdom to know how to handle it has come through years of coaching, from understanding what helps – and what just doesn't.

"I'd probably put it that I've gained a lot of experience when it comes to being highly emotional," Ruff said. "You learn. I've had to learn hard lessons about getting too emotional and maybe at times being too hard on players and being too hard on games. 

"I've gone from a coach that used to address the team after every game to hardly going in after games anymore – to digest the game first. Take a look at it. Take a look at it with the other coaches and then we'll deal with it, most of the time, the next day."

Not everything is perfect for the Sabres, though all of Ruff's decisions before Game 3 seemed to pan out. With Josh Norris sidelined and day to day, he returned Noah Ostlund to the lineup, with the rookie 
rewarding him with a goal and an assist. He also opted to go with Alex Lyon in net instead of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who had started the first two games. 

And he opted not to put additional stress, additional outside pressure on a team that is still new to the postseason. 

Ruff is pleased with the way his team responded, with the way he responded, with the hard-fought knowledge he has gained on handling players, on pushing buttons, on being sensitive, a result of a lifetime in the game, a coaching career that started before 16 of the 20 players on the Game 3 roster were born.

Where did he learn that? When?

"That came from just deciding that the only guy that feels really good after a game when he goes in there and is a little upset is me. Doesn't do anything for anybody else," Ruff said. "I myself have to take responsibility for my actions too at times. I think over the years, you've got to learn to be a better person and a better coach and I think I've adapted to that."

So how hard was it for him to change that competitive fire, especially as compared with his playing days?

"Don't know if I've really changed it," he said, starting to laugh. "I just changed the time I address it."