Lindy Ruff enters his fifth season behind the Sabres bench ranked second on the team’s all-time coaching win list with 154 (Scotty Bowman - 210). Ruff’s career .546 winning percentage ranks eighth among active coaches with over 300 games coached in the NHL. The team finished second in the Northeast division and fifth in the Eastern Conference on the strength of an amazing 11-win improvement over the previous season. For the fourth straight season he led the Sabres to the playoffs and came within moments of reaching the Eastern Conference Final for the third time in four years. Over his four seasons, his teams’ have won 32 playoff games; the winningest postseasons in franchise history. With four NHL seasons under Ruff’s belt, only four active coaches have a longer tenure in the NHL with one team (Det-Bowman, Car-Maurice, Dal-Hitchcock, Ott-Martin). Ruff steadied his team throughout last season and focused his players on team defense. This emphasis led the Sabres netminders to capture the 2001 Jennings Trophy by allowing the least amount of goals in the NHL. The team improved their play on the road and achieved a six-win increase over the previous season as well. Also, the Sabres finished first overall in penalty killing in the NHL with 87.9%. After making the playoffs in the last game of the 1999-00 season, Ruff propelled his team to finish strong in the 2001 by recording 21 wins after the All-Star break; only Stanley Cup finalist New Jersey duplicated this feat.
It is no coincidence that over the last four seasons the Buffalo Sabres have appeared in the second most playoff games in the Eastern Conference. Ruff has a .593 playoff winning percentage, which ranks him seventh all-time among coaches with at least 50 playoff games coached in the NHL. He is the Sabres all-time leader in playoff games coached (54), and wins (32), surpassing the legendary Scotty Bowman’s mark of 18 wins (set over five seasons). In 1999, only his second season as a head coach in the NHL, Ruff led the Sabres to their first Stanley Cup Finals in 24 years, and established himself as one of the top young coaches in the league. He was rewarded for his efforts when he signed a multi-year contract extension on September 15, 1999. Lindy also achieved a new club record in 1999 for the most wins in one playoff year with 14. In the process, Ruff became only the third head coach under the present Stanley Cup Playoff format to lead his team to the Conference Finals in each of his first two seasons. He also earned the honor of coaching the World Team in the All-Star Game in Tampa Bay in January, 1999, by having the best record at mid-season in the Eastern Conference. Ruff joined Bowman and Floyd Smith as the only Buffalo coaches to be named head coach of an All-Star Team while with the Sabres.
Hired as the 15th head coach in team history on July 21, 1997, Ruff achieved playoff successes his first year that none of his Sabres predecessors had ever experienced. The 1997-98 squad set a team record with an eight-game postseason winning streak, and tied the old club mark with ten wins in a playoff year. The conference finals appearance was the team’s first since 1980, which ironically was Ruff’s rookie year with Buffalo.
Ruff joined the Sabres as a second-round (32nd overall) draft pick in 1979 following a distinguished career as a defenseman with Lethbridge (WHL). He made the team at his first training camp and went on to play 63 games for the Sabres during the 1979-80 season, a season which culminated in Ruff being named the team’s rookie-of-the-year. Eighteen years later, Ruff still ranks sixth on the Sabres’ all-time regular season list in penalty minutes (1,126) and is tied for eleventh in games played (608). In 691 career NHL games, Lindy totaled 105 goals, 195 assists, 300 points, and 1,264 penalty minutes.
In his third season with Buffalo, Ruff was converted to left wing after having played defense throughout his junior career and his first two seasons as a pro. In November 1986, he received perhaps his greatest individual honor as a Sabre when he was named to replace Gil Perreault as team captain after the legend’s retirement. Lindy continued to display leadership qualities as a player when he returned to defense in January 1987.
Ruff ended his professional playing career after a stint as a player/assistant coach with the San Diego Gulls of the IHL in the 1992-93 season. When expansion hit the NHL again for the 1993-94 season, Head Coach Roger Neilson (who coached Lindy in Buffalo and with the Rangers) tabbed Ruff as one of his assistants for the new Florida Panthers club. As the primary coach of the penalty-killing unit and defensemen, Ruff received accolades for his work with those groups. The over-achieving, hard-working Panthers went all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996, just their third season in existence.
Lindy, 41, and his wife Gaye reside in Clarence with their four children: Brett (12), Eryn (10), and twins Brian and Madeleine (7).
