Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Is There A Problem With Lindy Ruff?

Ever since the season ended with the Buffalo Sabres missing the playoffs, Lindy Ruff has been the topic of interest or concern. Fans and even media wonder whether Lindy should be fired or kept for another year. Sure, Terry Pegula has given both Ruff and Darcy Regier a vote of confidence and assures that both aren't going anywhere for the foreseeable future much to the chagrin to many Sabres fans. But, players have come out either publicly or secretly and have told what they felt about Ruff that he's too negative and that his coaching style has been too tough or his demeanor has been a problem or whatever. Derek Roy has criticized him in the press after the season. Brad Boyes just signed with the Islanders also criticized Ruff as well. Ruff had spent the second half of the season making Thomas Vanek his personal Whipping Boy. Question is: Is There A Problem With Lindy Ruff? Should he be on the hot seat? Should he be gone?

Ruff has been the Sabres head coach since 1997 and is the longest tenured head coach of any team in the NHL and of any of the four major sports in general. Ruff and Regier (who became the GM also in 1997) are also the longest tenured coach-GM combination currently in professional sports. But has it been too long? Many fans feel yes. As do I. Look, I like longevity, but you have to earn it. I think of Ruff and Regier as good at what they do, but they never won the Stanley Cup or really been close. They have missed the playoffs six times in the last 10 seasons and it would have been seven out of 10 had they not gone on a huge run at the end of the 2010-11 season to barely make the playoffs. They haven't won a playoff series since 2007. I'm just focusing on Ruff mostly as Darcy is for another time. But it's hard to separate the two as they are inseparable. Again, different time for a different topic.

It's one thing not to win the Cup (they've been to the Finals only once and been to the Conference Finals three other times) but its another to be consistently in the playoffs and be a championship contender on a consistent basis. For example, Jerry Sloan with the Utah Jazz was their head coach for nearly a quarter of a century and even though they never won an NBA title, his teams were almost always in the playoffs (I think they missed about three or four times total) and were always in the hunt for the title. That's fine. Or in the NFL, Bill Cowher was the Steelers head coach for 15 years and won just ONE Super Bowl and went to another. But for those 15 years, his teams almost always made the playoffs and its really tough to make the playoffs in the NFL as only six teams out of 16 in each conference make the playoffs and four of those are division winners. It's not like the NHL where you have to better than half the conference in order to make the playoffs. Bobby Cox with the Atlanta Braves, won 15 consecutive division titles, but one the World Series only once. MLB is even tougher with just four teams each league with three division winners and one wild card. This year, a second wild card has been added, but its still tough to make the postseason. And the Sabres have been in the bottom half of the Eastern Conference in six out of the last 10 seasons and three of the last five. So if they miss the playoffs, he should be gone. Heck, he should be gone now. Good teams fire their coaches and good coaches get fired. That's the way it works. He'll get a job somewhere no doubt. Good for him. But here I think it's time for a change.

I believe there is some validity to what people say when Lindy "ruins" offensive players. I don't know about ruins, but he can hold them back. Some guys come here and are successful before and successful when they leave, but struggle here. Why is that? Not everybody obviously as Danny Briere and Chris Drury flourished here under Lindy's "system." But there seems to be a trend with offensive players struggling more times than not. Of course we never had a real offensive superstar come in here and Briere and Drury were not superstars when they came here. Brad Boyes, Raffi Torres, Steve Bernier, Dominic Moore, and Rob Niedermayer don't count. Lindy has done well developing the home grown talent over the years. He has not been able to get Roy to play on a consistent basis, but that's Roy's problem not Ruff's. Ruff always wants his players to be responsible in their own end and be a two-way offensive-defensive player. They all can't be Michael Peca. It's not easy for some players to be a defensive player. Mostly the players are just offensively gifted.

Of course Regier should get Ruff more players that fit his style. But you can't always have players that fit your need on your team and you should be able to adjust to your player's strengths and not their weaknesses. Ruff takes time away from offensively gifted players if they don't play well defensively even if they need offense and that player could help them. Ruff is very stubborn. I really don't care if a player can't play defense if he can score many goals. Do what's best for the team by allowing that player to do what he does best. He's on your team whether you like it or not, you might as well make the best of it. Great coaches find ways to win and get the most out of their players whether they fit their system or not. Ruff is a really good coach, but his stubbornness and pride get in the way of much needed "W's." Many fans believe that Ruff has some sort of reputation for not maximizing a player's offensive potential. They feel that big time offensive free agents won't sign here because they won't wanna play for Ruff. I don't know how true it is but if its true, then maybe its time for Ruff to go. If he is going to keep big free agent scorers from coming here, then he needs to go. It's time. I don't want to be like "(Insert player here) won't come here and even if he does, Ruff will just suck the life out of him and he won't be productive."

I'm sorry, you can never win a championship with that mentality or his negative attitude. He did briefly change his style of coaching when they came out of the lockout and for two years were one of the best teams in the NHL. He was awarded the coach of the year award for turning around the club after its fall prior to the lockout. Then after he lost his best players, he went back to old habits pre-lockout. I think Lindy is getting burned out from this and who can blame him? 15 years is a long time to be a coach for any one team. Unless he finds ways to win and do the best to get along with what he has, this team won't win a championship. It's more likely looking back at recent history that this team either won't make the playoffs or barely make and lose in the first round. Mr. Pegula, if your plan is to win a Cup soon, this simply will not do and changes need to be made. Hopefully Darcy can get the right players.

2 comments:

  1. There may be some merit to this view, but I'd argue that the real problem was three fold; Ownership, Regier, NHL. I'll try to keep it brief here and leave the longer discussion for over beer as true Buffalonians do it.
    1) When Golisano took over, he handcuffed Darcy Regier, forcing the true core (17, 23, 48, 51, 74) to leave. Thus leaving the cheaper, potential core (9, 21, 26, 28, 29) for Ruff to deal with. The NHL is and always will be a superstar (not just a star) driven league. If you dont have 3-4 superstars you won't win it.
    Exhibit a) Quick, Kopitar, Brown, Doughty, Carter, Richards
    Exhibit B) Thomas, Lucic, Recchi, Chara, Bergeron, Horton
    Exhibit C) Kane, Toews, Byfuglien, Hossa, Keith, Sharp
    Exhibit D) Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Fleury, Letang
    Exhibit E) Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, Lidstrom, Kronwall, Holmstrom
    2) if I just said that, how can I blame Darcy? Darcy is a great scouter, but he didn't adjust when needed and is now overcompensating. Darcy loaded the team with small players. Now that itthe didn't work, he's overloading it with oversized players. But when he gets bigger players, they have a tendency to be inable to score but just to try and impose their size. Plus he trys to sell the team by pushing in local players whether they're NHL ready or caliber (Kennedy, Kaleta). Tim wasn't ready, Kaleta has already been labeled dirty and can't hit without a penalty now.
    3) the NHL pulled the rug out on the Sabres. Following the lockout, the Sabres were built small, fast, and skilled. They soared. Then Bettman had to be a bad commish and rolled back the rules. More hooking, grabbing, less penalties called resulting in less offense and more emphasis on size.

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    1. Definitely those are great points especially about the superstar point which i totally agree with. And I don't care what coach you are, sorry Mike Babcock or Joel Quennville, without all those superstar players they would be similar to Ruff. and Ruff might win. Maybe Ruff should wanna go somewhere else if Darcy can't get him the players I know i would. The NHL is a mess referring to point number 3 and ill get into that for sure with the rules or lack thereof. But if Ruff really makes things totally difficult on the players, whether they should just shut up and play or not, players are a bit pampered and spoiled and would want to go to a place where its not as difficult, except for a few choice players. I just don't want players to be like "I don't want to play for Ruff" and don't sign here.

      Im all for talking sports over a Beer!! LOL

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