Ruff dumps ‘ lonely feeling’ to coach Team Canada
CALGARY — The last man to coach Canada to a medal at the men’s world hockey championship is back behind the bench.
Hockey Canada named Lindy Ruff the country’s head coach for the 2013 world championship May 3- 19 in Stockholm and Helsinki.
Ruff coached Canada to a silver medal at the 2009 world championship. Canada lost 2- 1 to Russia in the final in Bern, Switzerland, and hasn’t finished in the top three since then.
Ruff, who found life lonely after being fired by the Buffalo Sabres on Feb. 20, was also an associate coach for Mike Babcock on Canada’s 2010 goldmedal Olympic team.
“I had two great experiences working with Team Canada and really want to make this a third,” Ruff said Wednesday in Calgary.
The 53- year- old from Warburg, Alta., was in his 16th season behind Buffalo’s bench and the NHL’s longest- serving coach when he was sacked. Ruff is Buffalo’s winningest coach with a record of 571- 432- 162.
Unaccustomed to idleness, Ruff seemed relieved to have a hockey job again.
“There’s days you feel lost. It’s a lonely feeling. There’s been some good in it, not a lot, but I’m excited to get back going again.”
Doug Shedden will be one of Ruff’s assistant coaches. The rest of the coaching staff will be named within a week.
The coaches and the Canadian men’s team management group, headed by Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman, will soon start inviting players to wear the Maple Leaf. Canada opens the tournament in Stockholm on May 4 against Denmark.
“Over the course of the next five or six days, we’ll reach out to players who might be available,” Yzerman said. “We wouldn’t contact anybody prior to their team being officially eliminated.”
The NHL’s post- season starts April 30. With a 25- man roster to work with, Yzerman says two goalies, seven defencemen and 13 forwards will be invited from NHL teams that didn’t make the playoffs.
Canada’s world championship team is traditionally comprised of players whose NHL teams didn’t make the playoffs or were eliminated in the first round.
Assembling this year’s roster is complicated by the NHL lockout, which pushed the end of the regular season to April 27 for all teams except the Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins, which finish on the 28th.
If players depart April 30 and arrive in Stockholm May 1, that gives them just two days before their opening game.
Canada finished fifth at the 2012 world championship under Brent Sutter.