(WGR 550) – Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff is going for his 900th NHL win on Thursday in Columbus against the Blue Jackets. Ruff would become the fifth coach ever to reach that milestone and when he was asked about it before Tuesday’s game, he bristled,
“I could care less about 900, seriously. There’s only one thing, we want to win hockey games, that’s all we want to do consistently win hockey games. It’s not about me and how many games I’ve won, it’s about our team needs to consistently win hockey games and that’s really the whole focus.
“I’m driven by the fact that I didn’t get this team where I needed to get this team soon enough, that’s what I'm driven by.”
Ruff has won 606 games with the Sabres, 165 games coaching the Dallas Stars and 128 games behind the bench for the New Jersey Devils.
Ruff will probably catch one more coach and end up fourth on the all-time list. Nashville Predators general manager Barry Trotz left coaching with 914 wins, Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice also has 914. Joel Quenneville is second at 969 while former Sabres coach Scotty Bowman is No. 1 at 1244. Bowman won 210 games as the coach of the Sabres.
Since March 23, the Sabres have the NHL’s best points percentage at .889. That’s 8-1-0. They’ve also scored the most goals at 4.78 goals per game and are 15th in goals against at 3.00.
Since March 15 they’re second in the league with a points percentage of .769. That’s a record of 10-3-0. They still lead the league scoring four goals per game and the goals against is 17th at 3.15 per game.
We all know the 13-game winless streak where the team went 0-10-3 ended their season. Since then, they’re 13th in the NHL in points percentage at .581. So in the 21 games before the losing started, Buffalo was in third place in the Atlantic Division and two points out of second. In the 43 games after the streak, that .581 points percentage would have them in the Eastern Conference’s second Wild card position ahead of Florida and the Devils. It just goes to show how such a small portion of the season can blow things up. For 64 games this year the Sabres have functioned like a playoff team. For 13 games they hardly functioned at all and here they are on the outside looking in again.
Tage Thompson has 44 goals which is second in the NHL. His 37 even strength goals lead the league. He has 10 goals in his last eight games.
Alex Tuch is 17th in goal scoring with 34. In his seven-game points streak he has seven goals and five assists for 12 points. Tuch is five blocked shots away from tying the NHL record for blocked shots by a forward.
James Reimer has won a career high seven straight games. He’s 9-8-2 this season with a 2.79 goals against and .906 save percentage. In those seven games Reimer has a 2.40 goals against and .925 save percentage.
Buffalo is now seventh in the NHL with a goals for average of 3.27.
With just one win in four games and two victories in six, the Blue Jackets have pretty much taken themselves out of playoff contention. You can even roll it back a little further as the Blue Jackets have just four wins in 14 games.
Elvis Merzlikins has played five straight games for Columbus and nine out of 10. Overall he’s 26-21-5 with a 3.18 goals against and .892 save percentage.
Defenseman Zach Werenski leads the Jackets with 75 points in 76 games. Kirill Marchenko has 31 goals.
Join the Bulldog for the pregame start at 6:00 when you’ll hear from Ruff and Jason Zucker. Zucker has five points in his last five games.