Few people understand the plight of Buffalo sports fans better than Lindy Ruff. He's in his second stint as head coach of the Sabres, he spent the first 10 years of his playing career with the organization and he's also a Bills fan.
Ruff, who's repeatedly stated he stepped back behind the Blue and Gold bench to bring a long-awaited end to the franchise's recent misery, spoke about support from the City of Good Neighbors during the team's recent hot streak with Heather Engel of NHL.com.
"It just puts a great big smile on my face because I've had such great memories here of some playoff runs, how loud this building was in a playoff series against Philadelphia," Ruff said. "I think we beat Philadelphia 7- or 8-0, and you could literally feel this building shake. And then you look outside in those times and the plaza being filled with 3,000 or 4,000 people watching the game outside. I know that the fans have felt a lot of pain, and it's great to see them being rewarded and seeing some great hockey and getting the players a feeling of the fans getting in behind you and trying to pick them up."
The Sabres, who struggled out of the gate this season, are now one of the NHL's hottest teams. They own the top wild-card spot in the highly competitive Eastern Conference and are within striking distance of a top-three position in the Atlantic Division.
Ruff is set to coach his 1,900th regular-season game and his 1,291st with Buffalo on Monday night against the Florida Panthers. He also made stops with the Dallas Stars (328 games) and New Jersey Devils (281), but Western New York holds a special place in his heart.
"It just, it's a blue collar, just huge sports town. They love their sports," he told Engel. "I mean, almost any city can say that, but you look at what Bills Mafia has done for the Bills, and, really, in those years when we were on our run, what the fans were doing here for the Sabres, and we just want to get back to that point and stay there."
Bringing the Sabres back to respectability would be a major feather in Ruff's cap as part of a decorated career that includes pretty much everything except a championship.
Leading the Buffalo Sabres back to the NHL's Stanley Cup Playoffs would be one of Lindy Ruff's best coaching performances
The Sabres enter Monday night's battle against the Panthers, the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, with a 56% chance to make the postseason, per MoneyPuck.
Although it's essentially a coin flip, that's still far better than where the Blue and Gold usually stand at this point in the campaign. Last season, Buffalo endured a 13-game losing streak from late November through early December, bringing an extremely early end to any playoff dreams.
Not only are the Sabres more competitive this season, especially as of late as they've won 13 of their past 14 games, but the vibes are entirely different.
Last month's general manager change, which saw Kevyn Adams dismissed and Jarmo Kekalainen promoted, has ushered in a renewed wave of accountability, which was sorely lacking during Adams' six-year tenure leading the front office.
Buffalo has also started to play a far more sustainable brand of hockey. It ranks second in the NHL in goals allowed per 60 minutes (2.2) since the recent run of success started with a Dec. 9 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in large part because of improved defensive structure (and strong goaltending).
Ruff has long preached the importance of compete level in the defensive zone dating back to early in his first stint with the Sabres, when he inherited the "hardest-working team in hockey" from Ted Nolan.
Yes, Buffalo has put together some other impressive hot streaks during its 14-year playoff drought, but this one has a different feel. The entire roster is helping create an environment where winning hockey is expected, and there have been a lot less careless, lazy mistakes as a result.
Ruff deserves a lot of credit for finally getting that message through to a group of players who knew nothing but losing since arriving to the NHL. It's a much-needed culture change.
Now the question is whether the vastly improved results will continue, and a difficult schedule on the horizon will surely put the Sabres to the test in the coming weeks.
Ultimately, Ruff's coaching legacy is already secured — the 65-year-old Canadian ranks fourth in NHL history with 924 wins — but getting Buffalo back to the playoffs may be his crowing achievement.