Giving the NHL a Ruff Ride for the 400th Time

Last night the Buffalo Sabres defeated the New York Rangers to advance to 3-0-0 on the new season, ending the Rangers bid for their best start in that franchise's history. But, the big story of the night was not the emergence of a Devils-like commitment to defense by both teams and the singularly boring hockey it produced, but rather that this game marked the 400th career win of Head Coach Lindy Ruff. We can all read the news wire about where that places him in the grand scheme of things (23rd all time in wins). What makes the story, of course, is that he's done it all with one team, the one where he played most of his professional career. While 125 other guys (after today's action) have been hired, fired, scapegoated or only retired, Ruff has made it work in Buffalo as part of a management group that stands as a model for stability even if the ownership hasn't been.

This is a guy so well loved by the fans in Buffalo that when he was fined by the league for the brawl vs. Ottawa after the side-swipe Chris Neil put on Chris Drury in 2007 that the local businesses raised the funds to cover it. Ruff, of course, didn't accept it, but rather had the money donated to charity.

For me, Ruff is the face of this franchise, not Ryan Miller, Thomas Vanek or Jason Pominville. When Ruff speaks, I listen, and listen carefully. I may talk about the things that Regier does in terms of personnel more, mostly because it's easier, but what Ruff does with those players to convince them to play at the level they do is what's most impressive to me. I'm consistently awed by how badly ex-Sabres play when they leave Buffalo, and I keep wondering when the other GM's are going to realize just how much they're being duped and stop buying up our UFA's or trading us their unpolished diamonds.

*cough* Briere *cough*I firmly believe that no coach in the league does more with less than Lindy Ruff. Be it because he's better prepared, smarter, more focused or just commands that much respect, I don't know. Most probably, it's a little of all of those things. Whatever the reason, he'll be the coach in Buffalo for as long as Darth Regier is and I seriously don't think either of them are going anywhere until they bring the Cup to Buffalo.

He's been the coach since I started watching this team and if he wasn't there it just wouldn't be the same. Call me a hopeless fanboi or worse, I don't care. When the day comes for him to give his last post-game presser in the blue and gold it will be a sad day for me.

A lot has been made about the longevity of both Ruff and Regier in their respective roles with the Sabres. They're into their 11th season together. I could spend time trying to convince you of why it works, but in my mind it's better to just let them tell you. With the advent of Sabres TV this fall, the team is doing a weekly love-in/marketing gig called the Sabres Show. The first show comes replete with the first part of a Ruff/Regier interview (fast forward to 18:30 as they did away with the individual segment videos) that speaks volumes: