Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) - The Buffalo Sabres made a big change to start the offseason with the firing head coach Don Granato after another disappointing season of hockey in Western New York that didn't result in a playoff berth.
It didn't take long for general manager Kevyn Adams to fill that vacancy behind the bench, though, as the Sabres announced the hiring of longtime head coach Lindy Ruff just a week later.
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Ruff served as head coach in Buffalo for parts of 15 seasons from 1997-2013, and was the last coach to get the Sabres into the playoffs in 2011. The 64-year-old also spent several years in the organization during his playing career from 1979-1989, where he also served as team captain for three seasons.
During his first tenure as Sabres head coach, he has led the team to four Eastern Conference Final appearances, which included one of those trips culminating into a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 1999. In addition, Ruff won a Jack Adams Award as Coach of the Year during the 2005-6 season, and led Buffalo to a Presidents' Trophy season in 2006-07.
Following his departure from Buffalo during the 2012-13 lockout-shortened season, Ruff didn't have to wait long to get his named called again to coach when he was hired by the Dallas Stars.
After four seasons spent behind the bench in Dallas, Ruff then spent some time behind the New York Rangers' bench as an assistant coach before being hired by the New Jersey Devils as head coach again in 2019.
Then after a stellar 2022-23 season from New Jersey, where Ruff finished as a finalist for the Jack Adams Award again, he was fired by the Devils this past March in the final weeks of this season.
Since Ruff's last time leading the Sabres in 2013, he feels he has evolved as a head coach, and is better off now than he ever was before.
"I think that's probably the area I've most grown, how hard you can push and how hard you can go," said Ruff on Tuesday during an appearance on the "Jeremy and Joe Show" on WGR. "I think the players, myself, Kevyn, we really have to stay connected in the direction we're trying to go, in the direction we're trying to get each individual too. Understanding that each player will have a role, will have a responsibility. There'll be team responsibilities. There'll be a lot of situations where it just has to be selfless play, whether you're giving up some part of your game to make sure that we're going to win a hockey game."
With the Sabres still having one of the younger teams in the NHL, the players need to be coached differently in different situations. Leading up to this point, the Sabres have struggled in big games, and have yet to break their 13-year playoff drought.
"There's a discipline to do the right thing at the right time and inside of a game. If you can just focus on a game at a time and if we don't sit back and we don't constantly talk about pressure and where we need to go - let's keep a real narrow focus on the game - we're playing, win that game, move on to the next game, put the game away," Ruff said with Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase. "Whether it's a win, whether it's a loss, try to get better every day. We'll get to where we want to get, and I've used this expression: 'You've got to get comfortable being uncomfortable.'"
Ruff has coached his fair share of great centers in the NHL, wether it'd be those in Buffalo like Daniel Briere and Chris Drury or recently in New Jersey with the likes of Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier. Tage Thompson and Dylan Cozens are two of the main pieces down the middle for this Sabres team, but both players showed major regression this past season.
"When I looked at both players, they both got some great qualities," Ruff noted. "Higher offense in Thompson - he's got size, he's got physicality. I think he's a guy that can dictate the game. Then when you look at a guy like Dylan Cozens, he's like a complete package. Maybe not as good of an offensive player that Thompson is, but if you look at a guy that can be that big, strong two-way center, can be your best faceoff guy, can be your go-to guy and in all the tough situations. I think when you're looking at centers, those two pieces alone are going to be real valuable in getting us to that next step."
More from Ruff's appearance during the "Jeremy and Joe Show" is available in the player below:
