Buffalo, NY (WGR 550/WBEN) – It took five games, but the Buffalo Sabres got Lindy Ruff his 900th NHL coaching win beating the Philadelphia Flyers on the season’s final night 5-4.
Ruff hasn’t wanted to talk about that or anything other than winning hockey games and learning how to play better, but with no more games left, he decided to comment after Thursday’s game,
“It’s a number for sure, it just means I’ve coached a lot of hockey games. I had a lot of good players, a lot of good coaches, from management down, they’ve put a lot of trust in me, so it isn’t about me, it’s about the team I’ve had and the people around me.”
There’s no question that this year’s team regressed and fell short of all expectations. Many felt that this was the year that the Sabres would break their playoff drought, but it didn’t work out that way. Ruff said,
“We didn’t get where we wanted to go, we’re not where we wanted to be. That stretch of games that we went through, (0-10-3) pretty well killed us for the year and I take full responsibility for where we’re at and how long it took us to get out of there and I don’t offer up any excuses and I think we use that as the low part to start building for the rest of the year.”
For whatever reason the Sabres have stopped giving out team awards on Fan Appreciation Night.
Some milestones were reached on Thursday. Alex Tuch tied a career high in goals with 36, but he set an NHL record for most blocked shots by a forward. Tuch had 113 blocks beating the old record of 111 held by Mathieu Dandenault.
JJ Peterka thought he had tied his career high of 28 goals, but the goal was disallowed thanks to Jack Quinn’s goaltender interference. Peterka had never had more than 22 assists in a season, but this year he had 41. He had never had more than 50 points, but this year he had 68.
Ryan McLeod set a career high with his 20th goal and 53rd point.
Peyton Krebs had four breakaways in the game and scored his career high 10th goal shorthanded in the first period. His 28 points was also a career high.
Rasmus Dahlin was fourth in NHL defensemen scoring this season with 68 points.
The players will spend Friday and Saturday cleaning out their lockers and meeting with Ruff and Kevyn Adams. Some will continue to play hockey.
Noah Ostlund, Isak Rosen, Tyson Kozak and maybe Jiri Kulich will go to Rochester to join the Amerks for the playoffs. Tage Thompson will play for Team USA at the World Championship. Others that may play for their countries are Tuch, Dahlin, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Jason Zucker.
Bo Byram, McLeod and Peterka are restricted free agents, and they aren’t going to go play without contracts.