1 week Ago
Sports Columnist {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Lindy Ruff is just like you or I in that you can get all kinds of moods out of him. At age 65, he's a wee bit softer than he was in his 40s and 50s, but one thing that hasn't changed is you better check the calendar.
That's because Gameday Lindy is a different animal: He's Grumpy Lindy. You never take it personally. He's just super focused.
Dealing with the media a few hours before a game has always been a necessary evil, not remotely featuring any of the light give-and-take of practice days. Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff in the second period of his team's game vs. Carolina in KeyBank Center on Tuesday, April 8, 2025.
With Monday being a day off, I knew what I was in for when I asked Ruff about one of his least favorite topics after Tuesday's morning skate: Himself. The win was the 899th in the career of Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff, leaving him one shy of becoming the fifth coach in NHL history to get to 900. Ruff gets his first chance at the milestone Thursday night in Columbus.
Tuesday's terrific 3-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes was the 899th of Ruff's career. Come Thursday night in Columbus, he can join Scott Bowman, Joel Quenneville, Barry Trotz and current Florida coach Paul Maurice in the 900 club. That's huge to you and me.
Not so much to Ruff. In the morning, I tried to get Ruff's pulse on his impending slice of history. Bad idea, like I figured.
Ruff shot me that what-are-you-doing look that always makes me chuckle. The terse response: "I could care less about 900. Seriously.
" That was it. We've known each other nearly 20 years so I knew I was pushing my luck. But I was nonetheless motivated to try again by pointing out how significant a milestone this was.
You can’t teach the relentlessness and tenacity that Benson has each shift. Coaches always admire how the 5-foot-10 player from British Columbia doesn’t back down to anyone. The Grumpmeister wasn't buying it.
"There's only one thing we want -- to win hockey games. Really," he said. "That's all we want to do consistently.
Win hockey games. It's not about me and how many games I've won. It's about what our team needs to consistently win hockey games, and that is really the whole focus.
" Memo to Ruff: Now that he's at 899, his players are going to jump in all in. The next one is for him. "That's a small milestone," deadpanned Alex Tuch, who watched plenty of Ruff's wins on TV as a kid outside Syracuse.
"That's pretty cool. He's been at it for a while and has a lot of success in this league, so to be able to help him achieve that goal I think means the world to our group. It's awesome.
So hopefully we get it next game." The Sabres have been playing great for nearly a month. Doesn't make up for their December disaster, but gives you an idea what Ruff signed up for and what he thought he could produce when he came back.
Lindy Ruff on Alex Ovechkin: "The number of goals, the run he's been on his year is an incredible run. So congrats to him. What an incredible accomplishment to pass.
" "I'm driven by the fact that I didn't get this team where I needed to get this team soon enough," Ruff said. "That's what I'm driven by." The Sabres were officially eliminated from the playoffs despite Tuesday's win.
No shocker. They've been toast since January really. You can't lose 13 in a row and expect to recover unless you win 8-10 in a row in return, and the Sabres never did that when the season was still alive.
"We want to continue to grow our game and I thought tonight was another step against a really good team, really tough team," Ruff said after his team's fifth straight win. "We know where we're at. I'm disappointed where we're at, and we can't do anything about that, but we can work on our game.
And we're going to continue to work on our game until it's over." Goalie James Reimer continued his stunning and stellar work in the net, Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch moved ever closer to career years and lots of players made contributions big and small. Another great effort.
"We're getting rewarded for a lot better puck management, a lot tighter play," Ruff said. "Sacrificing what could be a great individual play for what might be a lesser play at a certain time in the game. We're doing a better job of that.
" It took the Sabres 21 1/2 minutes in this game to break the ice and take a lead. They didn't get jumpy in a first period where they were outshot, 12-5, but actually had better scoring chances. They're much more patient, far less likely to make the bad play to hand an opponent a lead.
"I think it's something that we're getting real good at," Ruff said. "We're comfortable in a tight game now. We're comfortable when there's not a lot going on, managing the puck better inside that period of time.
" What Ruff really likes is the messages aren't all coming from him anymore. The players are in sync with what he wants. Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin, among others, are coming back to the bench and in teammates' ears about plays, both good and bad.
Ruff said even some younger players are taking those kind of cues. "The puck management part especially," Ruff said. "The shot blocking, the being in lanes, being in the right place.
The discipline not to take penalties at key times of the game. All that's gotten better and it's coming from the group now and not from me." With 43 goals, Tage Thompson stands third in the NHL this season behind injured Edmonton stud Leon Draisaitl (52) and Toronto's William Nylander (44).
Then comes Alex Ovechkin at 42, with the Great Eight's latest goal Sunday afternoon instantly becoming one of the iconic tallies in NHL annals. Ruff is still driven by the quest for a Stanley Cup. When you look at the all-time victory list , I guarantee you Ruff knows he's the only one in the Top 10 that doesn't have a Cup.
The names go like this: Bowman, Quenneville, Trotz, Maurice, Ken Hitchcock, Peter Laviolette, Al Arbour, John Tortorella and Darryl Sutter. Ruff's closest calls, of course, came with the Sabres in the No Goal Stanley Cup final of 1999 against Dallas and the heartbreaking loss to Carolina in the 2006 East final. How much would he love next season to be an out-of-nowhere step up like that one was? It can start right now.
Lots of these guys will be back and to Ruff, it's about them, not him. Until the next win. Get in the game with our Prep Sports Newsletter Sent weekly directly to your inbox! Sports Columnist {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
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