Shocking: Lindy Ruff isn’t a good coach, and the owner is the problem in Buffalo

[landstuhltaylor]

Is he a goaltender that's fire & ice, or very average that goes on streaks?

I know from the days the Pens faced him on the Rangers he was mostly crap, but somehow always in the conversation of talented Russian tenders (Sorokin, Shesterkin, Vasilevskiy, and sometimes Bobrovsky/Varlamov).

He was good his first year here but since then he has been pretty average at best. Even when he is hot his rebound control is ass, he just gets lucky with the D cleaning out the garbage. He can't seem to track pucks any more and just can't get out of his own head.

 

[John Mandalorian]

Their entire core can’t play defence. From their defenceman to their fowards. Terrible management that constructed this team.

The body language changed substantially when it’s not Georgiev. Georgiev has lost the room.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

How is it the owners fault?

 

[BB88]

Trust me I don't think Ruff is a great coach either but the roster is also just not that good -- obviously both reflect poorly on Pegula though

How many years have we heard how Buffalo stole someone from the draft and how elite their prospect pool is?

That defense was supposed to be elite and then have multiple elite prospects for offense on top of that..

 

[tucker3434]

To be fair, putting up 4 goals on 8 shots on Georgiev isn’t exactly difficult. It doesn’t necessarily indicate offensive brilliance.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Laviolette for Ruff straight up?

The Rangers were at least fun to watch when he was here

 

[qc14]

How many years have we heard how Buffalo stole someone from the draft and how elite their prospect pool is?

That defense was supposed to be elite and then have multiple elite prospects for offense on top of that..

Yep. They're still missing at least a top 6 forward, a 4c, a 3d, and a better bottom pair

 

[DickSmehlik]

Having said that, he's forgotten more about hockey than I will ever know

That may be the problem.

Roster issues aside, Lindy's teams have missed the post-season 9 of the last 14 seasons. You can make an argument he's forgotten how to coach (or he needs elite goaltending to win games).

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

I don't watch Buffalo every game, but what I've seen from Buffalo there isn't a single dman on that team I'd fully trust out there towards the end of it to defend the lead.

Sabres need players on the back end who are competent defensively, or get someone else so Dahlin can play less, as his defensive awareness being weak could be from being overplayed.

 

[Hisch13r]

I like Ruff as a coach but he's not doing a good job of managing his young talent. Having said that, he's forgotten more about hockey than I will ever know

The funny thing is that was his one real strength with the Devils.

 

[Auston Marlander]

How the f*** do u lose a game up 4-0 in the 1st? LOL

That's not the worst time to have a 4-0 lead. Losing when up 4-0 in the 3rd would be substantially worse.

 

[HockeyVirus]

Not sure how anyone can comment on Ruff as a coach unless they have biases to air. Did we expect any coach to completely remove the stink and loser mentality from an entire franchise after 20 games?

The problem with the Sabres are two fold. Severe lack of leadership in the room and a complete failure on management to give the room leaders and the tools to take real accountability.

 

[Fatass]

How many years have we heard how Buffalo stole someone from the draft and how elite their prospect pool is?

That defense was supposed to be elite and then have multiple elite prospects for offense on top of that..

Two first overall picked D men. And 20 million for them each year. One of the two needs to be a trade chip. Not sure which have more value? But culture of losing needs to be changed.

 

[TheBeerNerd]

Ruff was a nostalgia hire from the start. If Pegula watched the Devils last year, he'd have stayed away. You can chalk that season up to bad goaltending and injuries all you want, but that tells only part of the story. Even before all that, there was an air of arrogance and entitlement to the Devils, like they believed that they could f*** around all they want but they had the talent to bail them out of any game. That barely happened, and with every setback, the team's confidence plummeted in kind. Ruff was completely powerless to do anything about it and got rightly canned in February.

When the vibes around a team are bad, Ruff is one of the last guys you want behind the bench. Pegula is an idiot and a cheapskate (bottom five in the league in terms of $$$ spent on free agents).

 

[Voight]

No seasoned, respected GMs want to work for the Pegulas so they are left with yes men like Kevyn Adams. Which results in poor decisions, such as hiring Ruff.

 

[Panthaz89]

I don't watch Buffalo every game, but what I've seen from Buffalo there isn't a single dman on that team I'd fully trust out there towards the end of it to defend the lead.

Sabres need players on the back end who are competent defensively, or get someone else so Dahlin can play less, as his defensive awareness being weak could be from being overplayed.

Dahlin does pretty fine on D. Almost every goal lately has been Power being a big softie in front of the net.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

We'll give you Daryl Katz. We'll even give you a few draft picks to take him. Not like our scouting is going to put them to good use anyway.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

Dahlin does pretty fine on D. Almost every goal lately has been Power being a big softie in front of the net.

Even then Dahlin isn't a smart player.

 

[57special]

Former Sabres like the great Gilbert Perreault, Danny Gare, Hasek, Mike Foligno, Craig Ramsay must be shaking their heads when they look at this team and organization. Those guys didn't always have the most talented teams, but they always played smart, and hard.

 

[TheOrganist]

Drew Bannister is available.

 

[Ghost of Murph]

Buffalo is in the longest postseason drought in NHL history. 13 years and counting. How do you miss the playoffs 13 straight years in a cap league where half the teams make the playoffs every season?

There's gross incompetence there, but the coach is not the problem. Far from it.

 

[banks]

I became a bit of a Sabres fan back in the Briere/Drury days. I'd really like for them to be good again.

Maybe Kevyn Adams is the wrong GM again. But you can't fire the GM every 2 or 3 years, or no plan ever gets implemented. And they've gone through a number of coaches with similar results. The only coach I think was a real dud was Ralph Kreuger. Ruff is a bit of a dinosaur, but he's also had a great history in Buffalo.

Can Sabres fans enlighten me a bit on the Pegula situation. I always hear that they meddle in the process, or that Adams is just a yes man. But what meddling/forced-decisions have actually happened? Aside from the Eichel drama, that was poorly handled by everyone involved, I don't know of anything Terry Pegula has done to interfere.

 

[TheBeerNerd]

Just FYI, the last time the Sabres made the playoffs, the Nintendo 3DS wasn't released yet.

 

[Taro Tsujimoto]

How is it the owners fault?

Because he's been the one constant this entire playoff drought.

Just FYI, the last time the Sabres made the playoffs, the Nintendo 3DS wasn't released yet.

The last time the Sabres made the playoffs, the Atlanta Thrashers still existed.

 

[TheBeerNerd]

After watching that THG video about teams in long states of rebuilds, I thought about it and came to the realization that they all suffer from a common thread: they don't have a noticeable identity. That's the first step, and then you build a team around it. The Devils original rebuild had a stated identity, but not one that matched the reality of the team. The stated goal of the rebuild of the rebuild under Tom Fitzgerald was "build around the core youth players." Now they play to the strengths of Hischier, the Hughes brothers, and Bratt, and it's paying off.

I can't tell you what the Sabres are supposed to be other than a collection of talent that doesn't mesh, and Pegula refusing to cede power to anyone he hires is a big reason. Ultimately, it's the GM that sets the course, and if you're just gonna have a revolving door of yes-men, you're never going to get one.