Is It Time for a Change?

by Zachary Zielonka on Mar 15, 2009 5:40 PM EDT

As I noted in the Daily Roundup, Bucky Gleason from the Buffalo News has a small piece the status of Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff and whether the organization is looking for a change. I know that this debate has come up a handful of times but the answer should be pretty clear. No

Lindy Ruff has been a good coach in his tenure with the Sabres. He is an institution in the city of Buffalo. Ruff started with the Sabres in the 1997-98 season and has led his teams to the playoffs six out of ten seasons and to the conference finals or better four of those six times. Ruff is a good coach that gets his teams to perform to their expectations and for most teams, outperform those expectations.

Darcy Regier started with the Sabres during the same summer as Lindy. He has created those six playoff teams and four conference final teams. He has gotten a sense of luck in his career by having a team that catered to the new system of play after the lockout. He has also created a handful of terrible teams including the three year stretch before the lockout.

Between the two, the Sabres have been competitive for the majority of their duration here. There is a reason that they have been together for so long and the reason for that is they are good at what they do. While being held by certain constraints from management, they have been able to create and coach teams that probably weren't supposed to do much and make them contenders.

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I’m on the fence about this topic. I have grown increasingly frustrated with Lindy Ruff this season.

D.O.
www.diebytheblade.com - An SB nation destination for Sabres fans everywhere

by David Oleksy on Mar 15, 2009 11:32 PM EDT reply actions

Its interesting, Vanek and Hecht was tearing it up on the penalty kill early this year but did Lindy stick with it? No. Despite his decision to play Patrick about 20-25 games he was clearly going to ride Miller until he got hurt. He refuses to bring up the young guns (except for that weird 10ish game call up of Gerbe but not Kennedy???) and sit the under performing veterans (except Max which we all agree is a good idea).

That being said, he call only coach what he has and for yet another deadline day, the Sabres did not beef up their blueline. I like some of these players on this team but they are not going to win the Cup anytime soon with this collection of players.

So what to do? Fire a coach that clearly isn’t making the right moves but is handcuffed by the talent the GM has provided him? Fire the GM who makes great draft picks but terrible UFA/RFA decisions? Get rid of the UFA dead weight but who to keep in the RFA’s and who do you trade and can you possibly get value back that will help this team? Lots of questions and no easy answers….

The population of Pominville keeps rising!

by Blackcapricorn on Mar 16, 2009 10:09 AM EDT up reply actions

NO!

that is crazy talk…

regeir has built a very deep farm system, and has done well after the briere/drury debacle

ruff is making due with subpar blueliners and ryan miller is injured.

it’s so easy to blame the coach and the gm…but the talent level just isn’t there….good news is i think with our young guys in portland…should be there soon

by tiimbitz4786 on Mar 16, 2009 12:34 PM EDT reply actions