Sabres hire Lindy Ruff

[dejeanneret]

The conclusion is simple.

In Dallas, over 328 games, Lindy Ruff had a 56.6 points percentage and won 2 more games than he lost. Good for 92.8 points in an 82 game season and distinctly not a playoff team.
In New Jersey, over 281 games, Lindy Ruff had a 50.5 points percentage and lost 25 more games than he won. Good for 82.9 points in an game season and distinctly not a playoff team.

Over his last 609 (!!) games, Lindy Ruff has a 53.8 points percentage and has lost 23 (!!) more games than he was won. Good for 88.2 points in an 82 game season and....distinctly not a playoff team.

Over 600+ games, any excuse you make is simply that, an excuse, and at best, wishcasting. Lindy Ruff is bad at player development (outside of the few favorites he picks out), has terrible defensive systems and strategy, and routinely gets outcoached by his counterparts even when he does make the playoffs. The most likely conclusion as to why Ruff seems to be regularly saddled with bad goaltending is not the goaltending, but Ruff's coaching, and furthermore lets not pretend like Buffalo has some Vezina winner in net.

Lindy Ruff demonstrably, inarguably, does not have it. Anything he might have had over a decade ago in Buffalo has long since passed him by.

In Dallas, the Stars made the playoffs 2 out of 4 seasons with Ruff behind the bench. And this with the likes of Kari Lehtonen, Dan Ellis, Tim Thomas (at 39 years old), Johnas Enroth and Antti Niemi patrolling the crease. In only one of those seasons did that group collectively manage a quality start percentage north of .500. While I'm not sure how to look it up, I'd have to think that dubious goaltending also influenced at least some of the 41 overtime losses on Ruff's record in his 328 games with Dallas, when more open ice and shootouts makes poor goaltending even more damning.

In New Jersey, Ruff took over in the midst of a rebuild in 2020-2021. All while relying on the likes of Mackenzie Blackwood, Scott Wedgewood, Aaron Dell, Nico Daws, Jonathan Bernier, Jon Gillies, Akira Schmid and Vitek Vinacek in net. Those guys too combined to put up a collective quality start percentage above 50% in just one of Ruff's 4 seasons there.

It's easy to say that the poor goaltending somehow reflects on the coach or his system. But the list above is not exactly a murderer's row of quality NHL starting goaltending. At some point, players have to make plays. Goalies have to make saves. The goalies in Dallas and New Jersey during Ruff's tenures were subpar. Sometimes his teams outscored their poor goaltending to have some success. Sometimes they couldn't. That some of those teams made the playoffs at all with the quality of the goaltending they received is pretty astounding.

Again, none of this is to say that Ruff (or any coach for that matter) is a miracle worker or will be in Buffalo. They can only work with what they have. But I don't find Ruff's record away from Buffalo discouraging given what he was working with. And 3 of 8 seasons ending in a playoff birth (lousy goaltending and all) is far better than the 13+ years of no playoffs that Buffalo is currently mired in.

[Pengwin7]

I'm going to make a bit of an "ageist" remark.
But I feel like the NHL has turned into an era where the players and coaches need some sort of bridge... rather than a "clear generational separation".
Going off memory/feel... it doesn't feel like the elder coaches have done really well of late.
Age 50-60 feels like the "sweet spot" for coaching age these days.
{surprised Bowness did as well with the Jets as he did...}
Even the guys in their 40s (Carberry, Knoblauch) seem to be doing pretty well.
Keefe was a 40s guy when he started with TOR.


Because of Ruff's history with BUF... this sort of feels like an "Yzerman" type hiring.
The fans will feel comfortable with it... and so it feels a bit "safe".
And... I don't see it working.

[rataylor22]

In Dallas, the Stars made the playoffs 2 out of 4 seasons with Ruff behind the bench. And this with the likes of Kari Lehtonen, Dan Ellis, Tim Thomas (at 39 years old), Johnas Enroth and Antti Niemi patrolling the crease. In only one of those seasons did that group collectively manage a quality start percentage north of .500. While I'm not sure how to look it up, I'd have to think that dubious goaltending also influenced at least some of the 41 overtime losses on Ruff's record in his 328 games with Dallas, when more open ice and shootouts makes poor goaltending even more damning.

In New Jersey, Ruff took over in the midst of a rebuild in 2020-2021. All while relying on the likes of Mackenzie Blackwood, Scott Wedgewood, Aaron Dell, Nico Daws, Jonathan Bernier, Jon Gillies, Akira Schmid and Vitek Vinacek in net. Those guys too combined to put up a collective quality start percentage above 50% in just one of Ruff's 4 seasons there.

It's easy to say that the poor goaltending somehow reflects on the coach or his system. But the list above is not exactly a murderer's row of quality NHL starting goaltending. At some point, players have to make plays. Goalies have to make saves. The goalies in Dallas and New Jersey during Ruff's tenures were subpar. Sometimes his teams outscored their poor goaltending to have some success. Sometimes they couldn't. That some of those teams made the playoffs at all with the quality of the goaltending they received is pretty astounding.

Again, none of this is to say that Ruff (or any coach for that matter) is a miracle worker or will be in Buffalo. They can only work with what they have. But I don't find Ruff's record away from Buffalo discouraging given what he was working with. And 3 of 8 seasons ending in a playoff birth (lousy goaltending and all) is far better than the 13+ years of no playoffs that Buffalo is currently mired in.

Over 600+ games, all of this is just flimsy excuses to make yourself feel better about the hire. Good coaches produce consistently good results, Ruff hasn't done so in a long time.