Lindy Ruff officially hired as Sabres HC

[PerreaultForever]

7 hours ago, Archie Lee said:

I have no interest in carrying water for Granato. Better coaches than him get fired all the time.  That said, what is strange to me is to have the view that the Sabres are poorly built and missing many elements of a playoff team (very true) while simultaneously concluding that their head coach should have somehow squeezed a playoff spot out of them. It’s not unreasonable to conclude that Granato was part of the deficient make-up of the team. It is not at all or in any way strange to say that the Sabres did not have a playoff style or calibre lineup last year. 

In regards to your comment, I think this nailed it:

4 hours ago, nfreeman said:

Speaking only for myself, I'd say the Sabres are not currently built to be a cup contender, but had a good enough roster to make the playoffs this season -- i.e. they should've beaten out the Isles or the Caps -- and failed to do so because of coaching.

If you are looking at talent on the roster we had more talent than Washington by far, more than the Islanders (I mean Hudson Fasching for f sakes) more than Nashville, as much as L.A., I think you could even make an argument that we had more "talent" on the roster than Boston has. 

Yes, the make up of the team wasn't built right for the playoffs but how that roster plays and who is on it is partly on the coach as well. It's his philosophy and his game plan. If he's not asking for the right kind of bodies to fill roles and is just a KA puppet then he's not a good coach either. 

There are teams that over achieve for what they have on their roster. Nashville, Washington, NYI and Boston would definitely be in that category as well as Philadelphia and some others. Then there are teams that underachieve, and that was Buffalo (again) and coaching has a huge role in that. 

[French Collection]

I read an interesting quote this morning that is attributed to Alexander the Great.

He said he would rather face an army of lions led by a sheep than an army of sheep led by a lion.

That says how much he valued leaders of men, let’s hope Lindy can bring out the best in these guys.

[nfreeman]

8 minutes ago, French Collection said:

I read an interesting quote this morning that is attributed to Alexander the Great.

He said he would rather face an army of lions led by a sheep than an army of sheep led by a lion.

That says how much he valued leaders of men, let’s hope Lindy can bring out the best in these guys.

An army of sheep led by a lion is a pretty good description of this team at present.  Very nice.

[PerreaultForever]

32 minutes ago, French Collection said:

I read an interesting quote this morning that is attributed to Alexander the Great.

He said he would rather face an army of lions led by a sheep than an army of sheep led by a lion.

That says how much he valued leaders of men, let’s hope Lindy can bring out the best in these guys.

So is this Adams and Ruff?

and is Dahlin Harold?

[shrader]

1 hour ago, French Collection said:

I read an interesting quote this morning that is attributed to Alexander the Great.

He said he would rather face an army of lions led by a sheep than an army of sheep led by a lion.

That says how much he valued leaders of men, let’s hope Lindy can bring out the best in these guys.

Mogilny said that?

[Pimlach]

5 hours ago, shrader said:

Mogilny said that?

[French Collection]

I just read a story on Sportsnet about how Tocchet got the Canucks players to get ready in the summer for a challenging training camp.

This is another thing where Lindy will change things up. Camp should be tougher and get the team culture changed to where they will be ready to come out of gate ready to win some games. The country club atmosphere is over.

Edited June 21 by French Collection

[PerreaultForever]

I imagine most of you have already seen this, but I thought I'd post it for the few that haven't because he says all the right things and it gives me hope. 

 

[kas23]

23 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I imagine most of you have already seen this, but I thought I'd post it for the few that haven't because he says all the right things and it gives me hope. 

 

Thank you for posting this. It was new to me. Must’ve missed it with all the traveling I have been doing. I think this is the closest reason we’re going to get on why the assistant coaches were retained. Ruff preaches that you need to know the player nowadays, know what makes the tick, and know what turns them off. They his is what he said on the question of how he evolved over the years. The current assistants get him this info immediately. He couldn’t come in here barking with new people. He knew that would fail. 

[PerreaultForever]

41 minutes ago, kas23 said:

Thank you for posting this. It was new to me. Must’ve missed it with all the traveling I have been doing. I think this is the closest reason we’re going to get on why the assistant coaches were retained. Ruff preaches that you need to know the player nowadays, know what makes the tick, and know what turns them off. They his is what he said on the question of how he evolved over the years. The current assistants get him this info immediately. He couldn’t come in here barking with new people. He knew that would fail. 

I agree with you in part, and that certainly explains Appert with the prospects and younger guys but it could still have been a mix. I still firmly believe Matt Ellis is Adam's eyes and ears in the locker room. Ruff knows him from before so I guess he's okay with him being around but I'd rather they have brought in a defensive specialist to join the staff. I suppose Lindy will take that on himself. 

[kas23]

1 hour ago, PerreaultForever said:

I agree with you in part, and that certainly explains Appert with the prospects and younger guys but it could still have been a mix. I still firmly believe Matt Ellis is Adam's eyes and ears in the locker room. Ruff knows him from before so I guess he's okay with him being around but I'd rather they have brought in a defensive specialist to join the staff. I suppose Lindy will take that on himself. 

Yeah, Appert’s there to give the coddling as the youngsters grow accustomed to a real NHL coach’s expectations and demands. Don’t know why Ellis is still around. Wilford had the boys playing some good defense down the stretch, but I’m sure Ruff will be hovering and work with him. Bales is a given. 

[PerreaultForever]

16 minutes ago, kas23 said:

Yeah, Appert’s there to give the coddling as the youngsters grow accustomed to a real NHL coach’s expectations and demands. Don’t know why Ellis is still around. Wilford had the boys playing some good defense down the stretch, but I’m sure Ruff will be hovering and work with him. Bales is a given. 

I suspect Ruff will try to make this team as a whole more defensively responsible and the hardest change will be for the forwards to learn his team systems and structure. This would also explain why he would want Skinner gone, if that is in fact true. 

At least I hope so. 

[SJSabres Fan]

Watching Paul Maurice interviewed after the win tonight got me thinking about Lindy.  Much like Paul he’s been around the league a long time,  has a lot of respect and has skippered some pretty good teams.  The first thing Maurice said is that these guys all love each other.  Hopefully we’re building the right culture here because I really think Lindy is the right guy for the job. 

[Taro T]

1 minute ago, SJSabres Fan said:

Watching Paul Maurice interviewed after the win tonight got me thinking about Lindy.  Much like Paul he’s been around the league a long time,  has a lot of respect and has skippered some pretty good teams.  The first thing Maurice said is that these guys all love each other.  Hopefully we’re building the right culture here because I really think Lindy is the right guy for the job. 

Really hope you're right.

[PerreaultForever]

3 hours ago, SJSabres Fan said:

Watching Paul Maurice interviewed after the win tonight got me thinking about Lindy.  Much like Paul he’s been around the league a long time,  has a lot of respect and has skippered some pretty good teams.  The first thing Maurice said is that these guys all love each other.  Hopefully we’re building the right culture here because I really think Lindy is the right guy for the job. 

Are we building the right culture? Maybe Ruff will, but we haven't built anything of the sort yet. 

Maurice did say that, but if you noticed Reinhart and Okposo both said words along the same lines about it being the best group they've ever played with and you know where they both spent time before there. 

[kas23]

13 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Are we building the right culture? Maybe Ruff will, but we haven't built anything of the sort yet. 

Maurice did say that, but if you noticed Reinhart and Okposo both said words along the same lines about it being the best group they've ever played with and you know where they both spent time before there. 

And they wouldn’t be wrong. They just won a Cup together. 

[Doohicksie]

13 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Reinhart and Okposo both said words along the same lines about it being the best group they've ever played with and you know where they both spent time before there. 

I knew someone would bring this up.  I just knew it. 

[Scottysabres]

Anyone ask Lindy about all these ex-Sabres shi tting on their former team? The Alumni meetings must be interesting.

[Doohicksie]

Did they?  I mean, any player is going to be very complimentary about their current team unless they absolutely want out.  Just because they say they loved playing a team that WON THE STANLEY CUP doesn't mean they're sh!tting on their former team.

Edited June 26 by Doohickie

[PerreaultForever]

3 hours ago, Doohickie said:

Did they?  I mean, any player is going to be very complimentary about their current team unless they absolutely want out.  Just because they say they loved playing a team that WON THE STANLEY CUP doesn't mean they're sh!tting on their former team.

idk, Kyle, for example, could have thanked Adams for giving him this opportunity. When's the last time you ever heard a former Buffalo player say good things about Buffalo? I don't remember it. 

On another note I did not realize Dudley as a senior advisor also gets a ring. According to 32 Thoughts he's been employed in the NHL for 45 years and this is his first ring. This makes me even happier than for ERod. 

[Pimlach]

6 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

idk, Kyle, for example, could have thanked Adams for giving him this opportunity. When's the last time you ever heard a former Buffalo player say good things about Buffalo? I don't remember it. 

On another note I did not realize Dudley as a senior advisor also gets a ring. According to 32 Thoughts he's been employed in the NHL for 45 years and this is his first ring. This makes me even happier than for ERod. 

A team can put up to 52 names on the Cup for winning it. There are guidelines for this.  I believe that Florida’s GM intends on putting Rick Dudley on from his administrative entries.  He was allowed on the ice to hold the Cup.  

[Brawndo]

Culture starts at the very top of the organization.

Friedman has said multiple times that hockey executives and coaches when researching potential job opportunities will look at whether or not they feel they can win under ownership. 
 

He specifically mentioned the Devils as an example of this. 

[LGR4GM]

14 hours ago, Doohickie said:

I knew someone would bring this up.  I just knew it. 

"Yea these guys are okay, ik we just won the Cup and all but like the Sabres... let me talk about them and how much I love them. I haven't played there in 2 years but let me randomly talk about the Sabres. They were better than this cup winning group, bunch of losers in this locker room let me tell you, but the Sabres under Ralph Krueger, what a team!" - Kylsom Reinhardt-Poso

[Flashsabre]

Some of you are so emotionally damaged by this team. No one expected them to mention the Sabres in their post Cup win. And no by not mentioning them it doesn’t mean they are 💩 on them. Wow

[LGR4GM]

25 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

Some of you are so emotionally damaged by this team. No one expected them to mention the Sabres in their post Cup win. And no by not mentioning them it doesn’t mean they are 💩 on them. Wow

Fans of the Sabres think the most irrelevant team in the league still matters. We're an AHL team masquerading as an NHL team and until the front office grows up, we're just going to develop players and send them off to winners. The Sabres don't matter. It's positively bananas to think Reinhart would have mentioned Buffalo in his cup win or honestly even Okposo. They ain't thinking about Buffalo, they are thinking about who they won with. Buffalo is not relevant.