Lindy Ruff is the longest tenured head coach in all of hockey, but this season brought on critics. ESPN published articles on his possible firing and discussed who would be a good replacement in Buffalo.
My question is, why?
Ruff is one of the top coaches in hockey and was invited to coach the IIHF World Hockey Championship for Team Canada. Does anybody remember that Ryan Miller and our star goal scorer Thomas Vanek were both out for significant periods of time this season? To be able to still have a chance of making the playoffs at the end of the season is a great accomplishment in itself.
Some teams in the NHL had no chance to succeed once a star player went down, but Ruff rallied his troops and got them to believe. Remember when Chris Drury was injured during his years here? The Sabres managed to make conference championships.
I believe that Ruff was not the main reason for the team's poor performance last season. You see coaches getting fired left and right in all sports leagues, and yet few people come out and blame the players. Why is that?
You mean to tell me that someone who is coaching a team of men is the sole reason the team is playing bad? I know coaches are partially to blame for a team's failure, but to be going through coaches like jeans that are going out of style is unnecessary.
At the start of the year, 12 coaches had more than 100 games' experience with their current team. The hockey season is 82 games if you don't make the playoffs, which goes to show the high coaching turnover rate.
Ruff now has over 800 games with the Sabres and is one of the longest tenured head coaches in any sport. Do two playoff-less seasons give the Sabres a reason to fire him? I don't agree.
Sports writers are too quick to judge others, especially coaches. They have no idea what it takes to be a coach for the most part unless you are Barry Melrose, who was fired before coaching 20 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Melrose was given a great team with loads of young talent, but didn't have what it took to get his players to believe in his coaching technique. Now he's back on ESPN, doing what he does best.
People need to relax and let coaches coach. We are not paying the coaches and don't have the teams' best interests in our minds. We are merely spectators of the sport and should remain that way, especially as writers. There are plenty of other things to write about than whom will be the next coach fired.
Why not write about how the NHL is still going down the tubes or about how Gary Bettman is running a circus? Fire him if you want to fire someone, but leave Ruff alone.
He is the greatest Sabres coach, in my mind, and I think he should stay for years to come. I'm glad to know he will be back next year and I really don't see owner Tom Golisano getting rid of Ruff anytime soon. But who knows? Maybe he has an entirely different opinion than mine.
Ruff gives the Sabres a chance to go the distance. I don't want the only championship-winning teams from Buffalo to be the Buffalo Bisons, Bandits, and even Stampede with Rob Ray as their bench coach.
I want the Sabres to lift the trophy of Lord Stanley.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
