Sabres fire Don Granato, hire Lindy Ruff as head coach

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

And he's only made the post-season in 7 out of 19 seasons without Dominek Hasek as his starting goalie.

I am not worried about him hanging around for another 17 year stint, I am just worried they will be hitting the reset button yet again, in 2 seasons.

Yep, the difference in reactions on the main board vs the Sabres board speaks to some blind optimism from some, imo.

I’d love to be wrong, but Ruff can get shouty and that’s about it, at this point. That’s something the team needs, no doubt, and if Ruff has excellent assistant coaches it can work- see NJ last year- but assistant coaching isn’t something we’re good at. So this is the cheapest somewhat seemingly respectable hire, it will go nowhere- best case is we stall out as a first round nothing for a few years, waste the primes of a few dudes, and then gotta reset in 4-5 years instead of 2. Like- we are always settling for bare minimum. Who the f*** thinks Ruff is gonna win a cup? Nobody. This is the perfect hire for the forever rebuild.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

Sabres hire Lindy Ruff. People- Sabres are trash. HFB at it's best.

 

[MOGlLNY]

Think teams would start looking outside the old guard.
The 3 longest tenured coaches in the league were "inexperienced" at the NHL level compared to most of these retreads.
(Sullivan did have a previous HC gig).

Sabres have hired 4 (5 if you want to count Krueger who only had 30ish games under his belt) first time coaches since they got rid of Ruff the first time.

 

[KeyserSoze81]

Think teams would start looking outside the old guard.
The 3 longest tenured coaches in the league were "inexperienced" at the NHL level compared to most of these retreads.
(Sullivan did have a previous HC gig).

It depends on each team's situation. Buffalo cannot afford to take another chance on a new coach and watch it fail. This is a loyal market, but 13 years of absolutely dogshit hockey has tempered that to a point of apathy. This team needs some middling success to help breed sustained success. There is a ton of talent and prospects everywhere, but if they all consistently come into a losing environment with a failing management team, they are wasted.

So Lindy. He is a known quantity and is willing to come here. He represents stability and accountability, which this team desperately needs. He also might be able to move into a Director of Hockey Ops role at the end of this, which again, this franchise desperately needs.

I don't love the hire, but I understand it.

 

[DapperCam]

The Sabres needed a veteran NHL coach who wouldn't take any BS from the young players on the team. There were probably about 4-5 coaches available that fit that profile and Ruff was in that group.

I can see people nit-picking why they preferred Berube or Gallant over Ruff, but at the end of the day it isn't as LOL-worthy as people in this thread are making it sound. Also consider that the other coaches that fit the profile might have said no. Hiring is a two-way street, and those coaches need to be careful about the next opportunity they take (could be their last one).

I think this move makes the Sabres a playoff team next season, they certainly have the talent for it.

 

[Skeletorrr]

Has any coach who coached 20 plus seasons had a worse record in taking his teams to the postseason than Lindy?

He has missed the postseason in 12 seasons and made it in only 11 seasons (only 7 seasons without Hasek).

Paul Maurice. This year is 11th playoff appearance for him. Not complaining though as a panthers fan.

 

[KeydGV21]

Think teams would start looking outside the old guard.
The 3 longest tenured coaches in the league were "inexperienced" at the NHL level compared to most of these retreads.
(Sullivan did have a previous HC gig).

Krueger was Chariman at Southampton FC in England before he was Sabres coach…how much more outside the old guard do you want them to look?

 

[LickTheEnvelope]

Is this the 2nd or 3rd time Ruff is in charge of the Sabres?

 

[Satanphonehome]

The issue is that Lindy Ruff has made the playoffs in just 3 of his last 10 seasons as an NHL head coach.

Those Buffalo, Dallas and NJ teams had plenty of talent.

His last Buffalo team put up 89 points with Derek Roy, Ville Leino and Luke Adam as its top 3 centres
He inherited a Dallas team that had missed the playoffs 5 seasons in a row.
At the time of his hiring New Jersey had missed 7 of the previous 8.
What's your definition of plenty?

 

[rams]

Is this the 2nd or 3rd time Ruff is in charge of the Sabres?

2nd

 

[tmg]

2nd

Depending on definition of ‘in charge of’. As a player he was Captain of the Sabres for a while. Does that count as an instance of being ‘in charge’?

 

[Face Of Bear]

Sabers need a full rebuild

sell everything

 

[Maple Leaf]

Life is Ruff

 

[Satoru Gojo]

The stigma against "retread" coaches is strange

 

[Channelcat]

The stigma against "retread" coaches is strange

It is. Maybe everybody thinks THEY should be coach?

 

[buffalowing88]

Ruff isn't going to win a Cup with us. I think he's going to make Buffalo what they were in the late 90s/early 00s, though. A team with strong goaltending (obviously UPL isn't Hasek but he can definitely be top 10 in the league), a defense that gives heavy minutes to their top four, and forwards with buy-in and who play both ends of the ice.

The 05-07 Sabres were not the typical Ruff teams but more of a confluence of many different things happening at once which aren't happening again.

I think we're about to see Dahlin playing half an hour a night, Krebs becoming a Roy/Barnaby hybrid, and any prospect over 6'1 such as Wahlberg finding a role sooner than we expected.

 

[LickTheEnvelope]

Depending on definition of ‘in charge of’. As a player he was Captain of the Sabres for a while. Does that count as an instance of being ‘in charge’?

Ahhh maybe that's what I was thinking of. My brain was recalling his coming back from before and this seemed like another one.

 

[BB79]

Krueger was Chariman at Southampton FC in England before he was Sabres coach…how much more outside the old guard do you want them to look?

And he sucked. So outside of the box is just as bad as the inside

 

[ijuka]

The Sabres needed a veteran NHL coach who wouldn't take any BS from the young players on the team. There were probably about 4-5 coaches available that fit that profile and Ruff was in that group.

I can see people nit-picking why they preferred Berube or Gallant over Ruff, but at the end of the day it isn't as LOL-worthy as people in this thread are making it sound. Also consider that the other coaches that fit the profile might have said no. Hiring is a two-way street, and those coaches need to be careful about the next opportunity they take (could be their last one).

I think this move makes the Sabres a playoff team next season, they certainly have the talent for it.

Right? To me, this hiring makes perfect sense and I think that people are hating just to hate.

I bet that if they had picked Berube instead, those same people who now think they should have hired Berube would have argued how it was a terrible move.

Ruff isn't going to win a Cup with us. I think he's going to make Buffalo what they were in the late 90s/early 00s, though. A team with strong goaltending (obviously UPL isn't Hasek but he can definitely be top 10 in the league), a defense that gives heavy minutes to their top four, and forwards with buy-in and who play both ends of the ice.

The 05-07 Sabres were not the typical Ruff teams but more of a confluence of many different things happening at once which aren't happening again.

I think we're about to see Dahlin playing half an hour a night, Krebs becoming a Roy/Barnaby hybrid, and any prospect over 6'1 such as Wahlberg finding a role sooner than we expected.

Ruff had both Dallas and New Jersey play speed-based offensive hockey so I'm not sure why this is what you expect.

 

[buffalowing88]

Right? To me, this hiring makes perfect sense and I think that people are hating just to hate.

I bet that if they had picked Berube instead, those same people who now think they should have hired Berube would have argued how it was a terrible move.


Ruff had both Dallas and New Jersey play speed-based offensive hockey so I'm not sure why this is what you expect.

Shit, IDK, I have like a decade of him coaching prior to the lockout as evidence?

He can manage teams with speed. Obviously, the 05-07 Sabres represent that.

I think he's going to use what works for him traditionally, however, because he just needs to get Buffalo in the playoffs.

 

[Tachycineta]

2:10 - Now is your chance.

 

[Chainshot]

It is. Maybe everybody thinks THEY should be coach?

I could stand a Vigneault style contract to be among the highest paid guys in his field and yet not have to work for 3.5 out of the 5 years of that contract.

 

[Jage]

What's your definition of plenty?

The one where one doesn't have to own the nonsense they spill out.

Plenty.. geez

 

[ijuka]

Shit, IDK, I have like a decade of him coaching prior to the lockout as evidence?

He can manage teams with speed. Obviously, the 05-07 Sabres represent that.

I think he's going to use what works for him traditionally, however, because he just needs to get Buffalo in the playoffs.

But that was 20 years ago. Lindy Ruff was known as a run and gun coach with both Stars and Devils, actually that was the main criticism for them both. Even if he coached boring hockey... 25 years ago? The demands of today's league are different.

I guess I'm more positive about this for Sabres than most. I don't think that Ruff is necessarily the best coach in the league, but I think that he should be able to get more out of these players than the previous coaches have been able to. I think he did well with both Stars and NJD.

Even this season, if we're perfectly honest, he got fired because his goalies couldn't make a save, and because Hughes got injured. What can you do? The team had strong underlying metrics.


Also, look at Paul Maurice. He's similarly "ancient" like Lindy Ruff. But Panthers was a fit for him, and so he's making them play some fantastic hockey, and has them as one of the top threats. Sometimes there just is a match with these older coaches.

Oh, and look at Laviolette, too. Okay, NYR has its issues with playing down to the opposition, but you could still say that he's helping them meet their potential. Another ancient coach, right?


I'm all for new talent, but Sabres have already tried new talent, and it hasn't worked. Of the names available, you could do far worse than Lindy Ruff. I think he did well with both Stars and Devils. And both played exciting, speed-based, offense-first, modern hockey.

 

[DickSmehlik]

Does anyone remember the last playoff game this franchise played, since it gets brought up frequently?

Game 7, with win or go home on the line, Lindy and the Sabres get outshot 19-1 in the first period by the Flyers. Man he really had that team prepared to come out that gate.