Confirmed with Link: Lindy Ruff named Head Coach, Press Conference at 1:00 PM EDT

[sabremike]

I'm a huge fan of Lindy and what he means to Buffalo.

But, in the end, this hiring was a mistake. The lack of any real search process just defaulting to the fan service nostalgia pick without any real thought, just hollow talking points about accountability.

There is a clear lack of any idea how to run a team and front office here. Its just one unforced error after another after another.

Lindy is a great coach, but the wrong coach for this group and team.

I really don't think people understand that nobody with any options is going to take this job as it's viewed as career suicide. They could do an extensive search and after every decent candidate hangs the phone up seconds after answering Seth Appert gets handed the job.

 

[Fezzy126]

I’m kind of amazed that we’re two posts in and you still have no idea why they’re struggling. But you’re damn sure it’s Lindy Ruff’s fault.

The issue is fairly obvious. This is the first season they’ve been put in a structured system where there’s accountability. Thats a bit of an oversimplification, but that’s the general basics of it. It’s pretty normal to have players, especially young ones, struggle to adapt when they get this type of change. So I don’t really blame the players for struggling. I do blame the GM for a poorly built a roster. One with too many players needing to make this adjustment at the same time. Unfortunately many of them are our top players.

You claim to remember but I assert you’ve forgotten what went on under Granato. Their development/rebuild approach was to hand spots to a lot of young players and make sure no one blocked their path. They were going to develop confidence by playing an offensive game and telling them not to worry about making mistakes. It’s an environment of minimal accountability and unearned opportunities. I don’t say that as a criticism because I supported that approach. But I knew at some point they’d have to change and it would be a difficult transition.

The struggles we’re seeing this season should’ve happened last year. It started out that way but Granato gave up about six weeks into the season. He switched back to the old approach of the previous seasons. Once that happened, he should’ve been fired and another coach brought in. A new coach should have been brought in to double down and reinforce that the season was about learning the proper way to play and being held accountable when you didn’t. They could’ve ended the season with 50% maybe even 75% of the roster where they needed to be to take the next step. Instead we wasted the rest of that season and reinforced bad habits. So when Ruff took over, he started at 0 just like Granato did the year before.

The Granato numbers are meaningless. There isn’t one full season where he tried to do what Ruff is trying. He started to last year but gave up 6 weeks in. If there was a full season, then you’d actually have something to compare with Ruff this year. I seriously hope you’re not suggesting we go back to how Granato coached during the development years. An approach that will never lead to sustainable success at this level.

Pressure to be something or deal with something for the first time is a real thing. We can certainly debate how much of an impact it’s having. But it’s pretty silly to pretend it’s not a thing.

The core group at the top of the lineup is struggling with their roles/responsibilities. There can be many factors contributing to that, one being the pressure to be what they’re being asked to be. Maybe they’re not capable of it, who knows.

The Ovie parallel doesn’t really work. That was one player being blamed for an entire team’s lack of success.

I don’t know where this is coming from because I’m not blaming the players or the coach. I’m blaming the GM for assembling a poorly constructed roster. But you seem hell bent on making it all about Ruff and grinding that ax really hard.


No disagreement here.

When did I advocate giving up on anyone?

I don’t know if Ruff’s the answer but Boy do you have a hard on for him.

1. Knock off the subtle/passive aggressive pot shots and stick to the debate. Phrase like "I'm kind of amazed" and "you claim to". No... I have an opinion, the second you start lecturing instead of discussing is the moment I stop responding.
2. I see a lot of generalities and coach speak, so I'll just ask; what is the specific "structure" you're referring to?

Here's my understanding from literature I read and very amateur levels that I've been exposed to: "Structure" is mostly defined when you don't have the puck - i.e. Neutral zone = 1-3-1 or 2-1-2 or 1-2-2, defensive zone = man, zone or hybrid. With the puck, the strategies are more dynamic, but still defined at a high level; controlled breakout vs uncontrolled breakout strategies, in zone cycle strategies, etc.

From my perspective the team wasn't unstructured, it was just that Granato implemented a very simple structure. He rarely adjusted things based on prescouting (I often wonder if we even prescouted), and our structure was easily countered by good teams that could execute. There wasn't much nuance within the structure, and the team would often fall out of structure in the d zone because they were puck watching. Granato never went from "don't worry about defense" to "yes please play defense" to "ok, we're going back to what worked". Another bullshit coach speak narrative. Their offense the first year came from transition offense, the next year their neutral zone strategy never changed, their best players just got hurt.

Structure and accountability are corporate buzzwords and it was obvious that Adams and the organization coached the players on how to handle the end of the season press conferences after Donny got fired. Don't you think it was ironic that they got pissed at the fans for the fire Donny chants, and then a few weeks later were like "Oh yeah we definitely need a tougher coach that makes us more accountable"? It was staged... Guys leave here and instantaneously learn how to adapt to the structure, systems, accountability, and pressure elsewhere, not only that, but as I pointed out most of them flourish.

Regarding the numbers, there is no such thing as "meaningless" numbers. If you disagree that we can't draw any conclusions from them, fine, I'll agree to disagree. But the narrative of what they were trying to accomplish was a bunch of nonsense they were spewing to the media. That locker room was ALWAYS trying to win. I've never played a hockey game in my life where the competitive juices didn't take over and I didn't do everything in my power to win. These kids are no different.

As for your assertion that you're not blaming the players or the coach, by blaming the GM you are indirectly placing blame on the players. While we can both agree that the roster construction isn't ideal, I'm saying these players, here right now, should be better than the results by a lot. That lies on the coaching staff 100%, not the GM.

Lastly, I don't have a "hard on" for Ruff, I love Ruff. He's a beloved figure in the community and now I'm pissed that he's going through this shit show. Knowing the team we had to work with, the odds of a happy ending for him here were slim at best. But he hasn't been considered a "good" coach in the league for a while outside of that outlier season with the Devils. And it seems his warts have gotten worse with age, particularly the end-of-game chaotic scrambles with a lead - that shit has been happening since the Hasek days.

 

[allsilverdreams]

No idea what to think of this.

You appear to be very knowledgeable and have shown the ability to provide reasoning and facts to back your claims.
My questions to you would be the following.
1) Who on this team is untouchable?
2) Who would you consider the Core?
3) Is the D bad?
4) The goaltending bad?
5) Will we be a better team next year?

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

You appear to be very knowledgeable and have shown the ability to provide reasoning and facts to back your claims.
My questions to you would be the following.
1) Who on this team is untouchable?
2) Who would you consider the Core?
3) Is the D bad?
4) The goaltending bad?
5) Will we be a better team next year?

Dahlin and UPL and Tage are the only untouchables, and I think the D is currently bad because they’re too inexperienced and not balanced with regards to strengths and skills.

Goaltending is totally fine, and we will be better next year but still not a playoff team.

The problem is the overall organization philosophy and lack of identity and accountability from top to bottom. Until that’s fixed (no reason to think it will be), this team is a joke.

 

[joshjull]

Scouting reports gushed about his offensive and physical game, mixed on the defensive side.

Bergeron Centered Crosby in the WJC lol... not uncommon for under-agers to play on the wing and then Center in there last year of eligibility. But you are correct, Canada is littered with talent (interestingly Krebs was frequently Cozens' center in their last year of eligibility) and not everyone can play center - fair point.

I was thinking of Team Canada at any tournament, not just the World Juniors. But I probably should have just focused on WJC since we were discussing pre NHL potential.

McDavid's average over this time span is 59.54%... one game below average over the lot, where Tage was the match up C. Don't have the time to look up Matthews, but, my thoughts... He has all the tools, but not the reads. He frequently gets moving up ice before the play is in possession and we get outnumbered down low. The coach has said, he doesn't get it.

I completely agree with the bolded. The underlined will help make my point.

The point I was trying to make with those 8-10 games was not that he shut those guys down but thats he just played and stopped worrying about offense. That was Granato’s stated rationale for using him like that in those games. Which is somewhat in line with what Ruff is saying now. Obviously it’s easier for a player to have a singular focus like a matchup or in Ruff case playing wing.

We may disagree on Cozens defensive acumen. But I think you would agree with me that every young center is taught their defensive responsibilities, especially in their own end, when they first get to the NHL. That’s regardless of what type of center they are or how high they were drafted. Its not uncommon for coaches to put them on the wing or lower in the lineup as the start to learn these things.

Cozens didn’t really get this coaching. He played on a team with a permissive environment. Players were told to go out and create offense and not worry about their mistakes. When Cozens was put between Quinn/Peterka in his 2nd year in think the seeds of his issues today started. Combine 3 kids, tell them to attack and don’t really hold them accountable for mistakes. That’s the type of environment that can ingrain bad habits like the underlined.

I view the underlined as cheating for offense. I think he’s doing it because it became a bad habit the previous couple season and he’s feeling the pressure to produce offense with Mitts departure+his contract. Whereas I think you feel he’s doing that because he’s consistently misreading plays as the center and should be moved to wing. Thats certainly a reasonable take even if I disagree.

I’m just pissed at how we got here with Cozens and unfairly venting that at you.

And in fairness, the most likely thing is that the team just sucks, and keeping McDavid to anywhere near his average might very well be very good. And maybe both coaches are misusing the guy, because, they are coaches trying to win games. And a year or two in the AHL might have helped him round out his game a bit. But here we are.

I had a long post about how we got where we are with Cozens in the roster speculation thread. It’s post #6,052 if you’re interested.

I can’t really disagree with much of what Ruff has done with him or said about him. We don’t really have other options for top 6 centers at the moment. Tage is banged up forcing him to the wing and Kulcih is out. So even if giving Cozens a run on the wing is a good idea. I’m not sure how we even do it right now.