Ruff content with current players

Despite missing the playoffs for two years in a row, Darcy Regier has made little or no effort to make sweeping changes to a roster that has regularly under performed.

Instead of calling out his GM, and demanding better players, Lindy Ruff is content with the players  he has:

We were knocking on the middle of the Eastern Conference when Ryan [Miller] got hurt.  We can’t stand around and make excuses, but you can explain sometimes why you didn’t get there, and I think that’s one explanation.

So the answer to the Sabres playoff woes – is to hope that Tim Connolly doesn’t get hurt, and that Ryan Miller can carry the weight of the world on his shoulders for the third year in a row.

To compound to the problem, the Sabres lose probably their best offensive defensemen in Jaroslav Spacek – and replace him him with Steve Montador, a guy who has never played a full season in the NHL.

Lindy Ruff’s content behavior could be the result of two things – faith in the sytem of his general manager, that maintaining the course with the current group will return him to the promised land, or the workings of a coach who enjoys being the longest tenured coach in the National Hockey League with one team, and has decided that having a steady job is better than rocking the boat and getting a winning team on the ice.

Tim Redinger is the cynical but fanatical lead blogger here at the Sabrenoise.com. Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily