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

Buff15Sabres

Registered User
Mar 23, 2017
379
436
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.

You're probably never going to get a GM to go on the record saying "The owner forced me to make that bad move", but there's been a few bad decisions that owner interference seems highly likely.

1) Trading Ryan O'Reilly for scraps a few hours before he was due to be paid a $7 million bonus

2) Jeff Skinner 8x10 full NMC contract

In addition to meddling, he's also been quite cheap since covid hit in 2020. Fired almost the entire scouting department and we're routinely at the bottom of the league in terms of salary cap. Two different seasons we had to acquire a guy on LTIRetirement just to hit the cap floor.
 
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Yatzhee

Registered User
Aug 5, 2010
8,883
2,365
Lindy had taken teams to the playoffs, teams without star players, but made star players, the 05 to.07 Sabres for example.
Lindy's not the issue.

The owner however, ya, he's a HUGE problem. The one constant through it all.
 

Miri

Lavinengefahr!
Aug 13, 2013
2,008
807
Slovakia
I've seen teams come back from 5-0 as well.

It happens, although rare.
Yes, and that team was…. avalanche😛
In 1999 against Florida.

You're probably never going to get a GM to go on the record saying "The owner forced me to make that bad move", but there's been a few bad decisions that owner interference seems highly likely.

1) Trading Ryan O'Reilly for scraps a few hours before he was due to be paid a $7 million bonus

2) Jeff Skinner 8x10 full NMC contract

In addition to meddling, he's also been quite cheap since covid hit in 2020. Fired almost the entire scouting department and we're routinely at the bottom of the league in terms of salary cap. Two different seasons we had to acquire a guy on LTIRetirement just to hit the cap floor.
Wasnt one of those scraps Tage Thompson?
 

LEAFANFORLIFE23

Registered User
Jun 17, 2010
47,674
16,242
The problem with the Sabres, is the same issue the Red Wings have.

Beyond their top picks they can't draft, the reason they can't draft is because they don't have credibility in the GM chair and they haven't had credibility in the GM chair since the playoff drought started.

That's why the drought is as long as it is because they have had Tim Murray, Jason Botterlli and now Addams and there is no experienced guy working with those guys.

Look at Vancouver sure they have Patrick Alvin, but next to him is Jim Rutherford.

Buffalo doesn't have that.

I've never been sold on UPL as a goalie either.

But the real issue is the people running the team have no credibility
 
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randywoodsghost

Registered User
Jul 13, 2022
150
291
Ruff may not be the only problem but he is certainly is a problem.

When this team misses the post season this year, he’ll have had more seasons where he missed the playoffs than he made it, and that is awful when you have coached as long as he has.
 

Fatass

Registered User
Apr 17, 2017
24,112
15,832
Hes the reason the team can't hire any competent, experienced executive to run the whole thing. Hence why they are left hiring yes men like Adams. Who then make poor decisions.
Didn’t the guy own the Bills too? They’re very good. Maybe the Sabres continue to struggle because their core guys aren’t as good as needed to be a winner?

Does a core of Eichel, Reinhart, Dahlin, Power, Cozens, ROR and Peterka make the playoffs?
Why did ROR, Reinhardt, and Eichel want out of Buffalo?
 
Apr 12, 2010
75,735
34,871
Calgary
As an Oilers fan I can't help but imagine where our team would be if we hadn't won the 2015 draft lottery. By the same measure, had Buffalo won the McDavid lottery I think they're in much better shape. Not to say Eichel is a bad player, he's absolutely not. But McDavid is still leaps and bounds better, good enough to mask the many, many organizational issues of the Oilers. By now he would've at least singlehandedly brought Buffalo back to the playoffs along with some respect and credibility.
 

TheDawnOfANewTage

Dahlin, it’ll all be fine
Dec 17, 2018
13,105
19,348
I feel like any convo about the Sabres spirals off into a million different directions, and I was looking to focus on that game’s coaching in particular.

We had the talent to go up 4-0. We sat on our heels, Lindy didn’t solve that, it’s an embarrassing loss and one we really couldn’t afford. We’ve given away so many key games already this year, like another big loss to the Habs, and honestly- anyone blaming the roster or GM, no, our lineup should beat the Habs 9 outta 10 times, especially if it’s a track meet like last game was. But nope, we lose to them, the Islanders, and now a complete meltdown when we really couldn’t afford it.

Blue Jackets today, can’t wait for a 3-2 squeaker of a win so we can pretend for just a bit longer.

Again, just ask yourself- would you want Lindy as your head coach for any other team? No, so there’s your most immediate problem. You aren’t gonna win shit in this league without a decent coach.
 
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Mattilaus

Registered User
Sep 12, 2014
7,850
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Beyond the Wall
I feel like any convo about the Sabres spirals off into a million different directions, and I was looking to focus on that game’s coaching in particular.

We had the talent to go up 4-0. We sat on our heels, Lindy didn’t solve that, it’s an embarrassing loss and one we really couldn’t afford. We’ve given away so many key games already this year, like another big loss to the Habs, and honestly- anyone blaming the roster or GM, no, our lineup should beat the Habs 9 outta 10 times, especially if it’s a track meet like last game was. But nope, we lose to them, the Islanders, and now a complete meltdown when we really couldn’t afford it.

Blue Jackets today, can’t wait for a 3-2 squeaker of a win so we can pretend for just a bit longer.

Again, just ask yourself- would you want Lindy as your head coach for any other team? No, so there’s your most immediate problem. You aren’t gonna win shit in this league without a decent coach.
It's impossible to discuss coaching without discussing other aspects of the team along with it. You either discuss why Lindy is at fault completely, or you need to give your reasons for why he isn't (or at least isn't solely to blame).
 

TheDawnOfANewTage

Dahlin, it’ll all be fine
Dec 17, 2018
13,105
19,348
It's impossible to discuss coaching without discussing other aspects of the team along with it. You either discuss why Lindy is at fault completely, or you need to give your reasons for why he isn't (or at least isn't solely to blame).

Sure, but when we’re goin back to ROR and such we’re not really making much headway in diagnosing the issues.

Cheap ownership and bad coaching, that’s my thing. Others wanna blame the GM, I guess I feel like we don’t even know if they could be an above average roster because we’ve never seen ‘em with an NHL coach anyone else would hire.
 

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