In his first year back with the Sabres, Lindy Ruff picked up win No. 900 in a 5-4 victory against the Flyers from KeyBank Center on Thursday night. It wasn’t the year that Ruff had hoped, as the Sabres failed to make the playoffs for the 14th straight season.
Only Scotty Bowman, Joel Quenneville, Paul Maurice, and Barry Trotz have won more games than Ruff. Ruff also hit a milestone when he won his 600th game with the Sabres at the end of March. Ruff has coached the third-most games of all time. Ruff is now the second coach in NHL history to record at least 600 wins with one franchise.
Ruff spent his first 16 years of his coaching career with the Sabres after a long career in Buffalo as a player. He led the Sabres to the Eastern Conference final three times and to the Stanley Cup Final once. He was hired for a second time in April of 2024 for another run with the Sabres.
Ruff has one more season remaining on his contract with the Sabres. Up untill now, there haven’t been any serious signs that his job would be in jeopardy. There were some rumors, even an article that I put up about three weeks ago, as we know, the Sabres have a thin line with firing coaches.
Sabres GM Kevyn Adams said this week that Ruff will be back next season. Recently, Ruff talked about getting this team back to where they once were back 15-20 years ago, as contenders.
“I’m driven by the fact that I didn’t get this team where I needed to get them soon enough,” Ruff said. “That’s what I’m driven by.”
“It’s not about me and how many games I’ve won,” Ruff said last week. “It’s about our team needing to consistently win hockey games, and that is the whole focus.”
This kind of mindset is why Ruff is the right man for the job, still moving forward. Expectations were high going into this season, and the Sabres failed to hit those expectations.
With a full year back under his belt with the Sabres, I see Ruff making the changes necessary to put this team back in playoff contention.