After more than 15 years, the Buffalo Sabres will have a head coach not named Lindy Ruff behind the bench for their game tomorrow against Toronto.
The Sabres have announced today that Ron Rolston, the head coach of their AHL affiliate Rochester Americans, will take over as interim head coach of the Buffalo Sabres. He will get the rest of the season “for us to get to know each other,” according to Darcy Regier, and then a decision will be made at that point about the future.
Rolston is in his second season as Amerks head coach, and has previously been a coach for USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program, and has been an assistant coach at a number of college hockey programs, including Boston College and Harvard. The Amerks are currently third in their division and seventh in the conference, both higher than the Sabres.
The new Sabres coach has worked with some of the team’s players in Rochester this season and last, including Cody Hodgson, Marcus Foligno, and TJ Brennan, among others. He’s known for being an excellent teacher and making young players better. He’ll have his work cut out for him with the youth that the Sabres have in key positions, especially down the middle.