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.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Bye Bye Derek Roy
Derek Roy being traded no doubt made a lot of Sabres fans happy yesterday, including myself. It was long overdue. I used to like Roy a lot. But I've gotten tired of his act the last few years. For me it was in the playoffs in 2010 when the 3rd seeded Sabres lost to the Bruins in the first round and he had zero goals that I wanted him gone. Fans disliked him long before. Many feel he's not a good teammate, is a problem in the locker room, is not a leader, not a good character guy, constantly clashes with Lindy Ruff, takes dumb penalties, whines to the refs, fails to show up in big games, fails to make his teammates better, and has a lack of focus because of all the partying that he does off the ice. Roy no doubt was a fairly productive player offensively in his Sabre career as he averaged nearly 0.80 points per game and had scored 18 or more goals in a full season every season from 2005-06 to 2009-10.
But Roy represents and might be the poster child for the "core" that has massively underachieved the last five years after both Chris Drury and Daniel Briere left in 2007. They were the young group of players that would carry this franchise to the promised land and failed to deliver. They had missed the playoffs three out of the last five seasons, including last season where they had the highest payroll in the league after Terry Pegula took over as owner in Feb. 2011. They also did not win a single playoff series. Whether or not these players were mentally tough enough or focused enough or just plain and simple not good enough, they couldn't get the job done. If the goal is to win the Stanley Cup, then this is not good enough and you have to shake up the roster and get better. They already let Tim Connolly leave and traded Paul Gaustad in the last year and now they traded Roy with one year left on his contract.
Roy's best statistical season came in the 2007-08 season, the season after Briere and Drury left, when he recorded 32 goals and 81 points in 78 games. From the 2007-08 season to the 2010-11 season, Roy averaged 27 goals and averaged 0.92 points per game a season. In the 2010-11 season, Roy was having by far his best season with 10 goals and 35 points in 35 games before he missed the rest of the regular season with a hip injury. This past season, Roy had his career-worst season stats wise (not counting his rookie season where he only played 49 games and the 2010-11 season where he only played 35) as he set career-lows in almost every major offensive statistical category. He scored only 17 goals, 27 assists, 44 points, was a -7, and had a 9.7 shooting % (his career average is 12.7). His 0.55 points per game was by far the lowest of his career not counting his rookie season after he had a point a game the year before. By the way, Roy played in 80 of the 82 games this season. His 27 assists this season were only two more than the 25 he had in 35 games the year before. He only had nine more points in 80 games than he had the year before in 35 games. Roy had as many 12 power play assists alone in 2010-11 as he had power play points in 80 games this past season.
To be fair, Roy did come a serious injury that they claim you need two years to recover and he got the injury in December 2010. He in the last year of his 6-year, $24 million deal so he would be in a contract year and he might breakthrough for a chance at a great contract. But the Sabres have been trying to move Roy apparently for two years now and now they got a gritty forward in Steve Ott and a depth defenseman in Adam Pardy. Roy still has some value as he is a top-6 forward and could be a very productive second line center if his head is on straight. He is not a number one center and unfortunately for most of the season he was our number one center as the Sabres had perhaps the worst center depth in the league as any team at the beginning of the season. The Sabres are still looking for a center in free agency or via a trade and they drafted two in the first round in Mikhail Grigorenko and Zemgus Girgensons. Girgensons is supposedly going to play college for Vermont while hopefully Grigorenko makes the team and can be the guy who was potentially the number one pick and compared to Evgeni Malkin before falling to the Sabres at 12. Don't forget the Sabres have Tyler Ennis and Cody Hodgson as their top-two centers right now and they're both pretty good.
Roy's problem for whatever reason is that he just doesn't make anyone around him better. As a center, that's what you are supposed to do. Even Tim Connolly was better at that than Roy was. Connolly didn't score a ton of goals (never got to 20) and rarely scored when it mattered the most (hasn't scored a playoff goal since Game 1 of the Ottawa Series in 2006 prior to his concussion), but he made the wingers on his line very productive scorers as he was a really good setup man. Roy doesn't do that quite so much. This past season, Drew Stafford and Tomas Vanek were both on lines with Roy, both struggled. Stafford was having an awful year after having 30 the year before while he was with Roy. I think he still had a single digit goal total as late as February before rebounding to score 20 when he was on a line with Ennis at center and Marcus Foligno and they were the best line on the team. Stafford scored 31 in 62 games the year before with I believe Connolly at center. Vanek was on pace for a 40 goal season, but was moved to the line centered by Roy and struggled before finishing strong down the stretch with Hodgson at center. The biggest point of Roy bringing the team down came in 2010-11 when he had 35 points in 35 games. But the Sabres record was 14-17-4 and were 10 points out of the playoffs with him in the lineup. The team outside of Roy struggled. Then after Roy was out, the Sabres went on a tear going 29-12-6 and had the best record in the Eastern Conference as they made the playoffs. I don't care what anyone says, there is some serious validity to Roy being out and the team being well. He played 80 games this past season and the Sabres underachieved and missed the playoffs.
So long Roy. It was nice knowing you.
But Roy represents and might be the poster child for the "core" that has massively underachieved the last five years after both Chris Drury and Daniel Briere left in 2007. They were the young group of players that would carry this franchise to the promised land and failed to deliver. They had missed the playoffs three out of the last five seasons, including last season where they had the highest payroll in the league after Terry Pegula took over as owner in Feb. 2011. They also did not win a single playoff series. Whether or not these players were mentally tough enough or focused enough or just plain and simple not good enough, they couldn't get the job done. If the goal is to win the Stanley Cup, then this is not good enough and you have to shake up the roster and get better. They already let Tim Connolly leave and traded Paul Gaustad in the last year and now they traded Roy with one year left on his contract.
Roy's best statistical season came in the 2007-08 season, the season after Briere and Drury left, when he recorded 32 goals and 81 points in 78 games. From the 2007-08 season to the 2010-11 season, Roy averaged 27 goals and averaged 0.92 points per game a season. In the 2010-11 season, Roy was having by far his best season with 10 goals and 35 points in 35 games before he missed the rest of the regular season with a hip injury. This past season, Roy had his career-worst season stats wise (not counting his rookie season where he only played 49 games and the 2010-11 season where he only played 35) as he set career-lows in almost every major offensive statistical category. He scored only 17 goals, 27 assists, 44 points, was a -7, and had a 9.7 shooting % (his career average is 12.7). His 0.55 points per game was by far the lowest of his career not counting his rookie season after he had a point a game the year before. By the way, Roy played in 80 of the 82 games this season. His 27 assists this season were only two more than the 25 he had in 35 games the year before. He only had nine more points in 80 games than he had the year before in 35 games. Roy had as many 12 power play assists alone in 2010-11 as he had power play points in 80 games this past season.
To be fair, Roy did come a serious injury that they claim you need two years to recover and he got the injury in December 2010. He in the last year of his 6-year, $24 million deal so he would be in a contract year and he might breakthrough for a chance at a great contract. But the Sabres have been trying to move Roy apparently for two years now and now they got a gritty forward in Steve Ott and a depth defenseman in Adam Pardy. Roy still has some value as he is a top-6 forward and could be a very productive second line center if his head is on straight. He is not a number one center and unfortunately for most of the season he was our number one center as the Sabres had perhaps the worst center depth in the league as any team at the beginning of the season. The Sabres are still looking for a center in free agency or via a trade and they drafted two in the first round in Mikhail Grigorenko and Zemgus Girgensons. Girgensons is supposedly going to play college for Vermont while hopefully Grigorenko makes the team and can be the guy who was potentially the number one pick and compared to Evgeni Malkin before falling to the Sabres at 12. Don't forget the Sabres have Tyler Ennis and Cody Hodgson as their top-two centers right now and they're both pretty good.
Roy's problem for whatever reason is that he just doesn't make anyone around him better. As a center, that's what you are supposed to do. Even Tim Connolly was better at that than Roy was. Connolly didn't score a ton of goals (never got to 20) and rarely scored when it mattered the most (hasn't scored a playoff goal since Game 1 of the Ottawa Series in 2006 prior to his concussion), but he made the wingers on his line very productive scorers as he was a really good setup man. Roy doesn't do that quite so much. This past season, Drew Stafford and Tomas Vanek were both on lines with Roy, both struggled. Stafford was having an awful year after having 30 the year before while he was with Roy. I think he still had a single digit goal total as late as February before rebounding to score 20 when he was on a line with Ennis at center and Marcus Foligno and they were the best line on the team. Stafford scored 31 in 62 games the year before with I believe Connolly at center. Vanek was on pace for a 40 goal season, but was moved to the line centered by Roy and struggled before finishing strong down the stretch with Hodgson at center. The biggest point of Roy bringing the team down came in 2010-11 when he had 35 points in 35 games. But the Sabres record was 14-17-4 and were 10 points out of the playoffs with him in the lineup. The team outside of Roy struggled. Then after Roy was out, the Sabres went on a tear going 29-12-6 and had the best record in the Eastern Conference as they made the playoffs. I don't care what anyone says, there is some serious validity to Roy being out and the team being well. He played 80 games this past season and the Sabres underachieved and missed the playoffs.
So long Roy. It was nice knowing you.
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