Rooting for Ruff

By Marc Deschamps 

credit: NY Daily News

It's hard not to associate Lindy Ruff with the Buffalo Sabres. As both a player and their all-time winningest coach, Ruff made a name for himself in Buffalo, bringing the team nearly every accolade in the NHL throughout his tenure. The one notable exception being a Stanley Cup.

Ruff did come awfully close to realizing that goal early in his coaching career with Buffalo. The Sabres were a favorite to win it all in the 1999 finals, but a fateful foot-in-the-crease on a Brett Hull goal would lead to the Dallas Stars’ first and only Stanley Cup. The Ruff-led Sabres would come close again in 2006, but it's that 1999 loss that still haunts many Buffalo fans.

As fate would have it, the team that defeated Ruff now presents him with his greatest opportunity in a decade: his own first Stanley Cup win.

After defeating the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Ruff and the Stars still have a difficult path ahead of them before they can hope to win it all. On Friday night, they'll begin a new series against the formidable St. Louis Blues. Interestingly enough, the Blues-Stars matchup itself has something else in common with the '99 Stanley Cup finals: both head coaches. The Blues’ head coach Ken Hitchcock was the coach of the 1999 Dallas Stars.

Ruff's team has the firepower to overwhelm St. Louis: They led the league in goals scored per game this season, and they scored more goals in the first round of the playoffs than any other NHL club. The Blues are also coming off a battering seven game series against the Chicago Blackhawks, which could give the Stars a bit of an edge.

For many Sabres fans, the idea of Ruff winning the trophy that has so long eluded him has to be an appealing one. Outside of Marv Levy, Ruff left Buffalo on better terms than just about any other coach for either of the city's professional teams. When he was relieved of his duties in 2013, fans hung a banner near First Niagara Center, thanking him for his time in Buffalo. In interviews after, Ruff cited the lack of a Stanley Cup as his biggest disappointment during his time in Buffalo.

Not all fans appreciated Ruff's 16 year run coaching the Sabres, however. In the period between the 1998-99 season and the 2005-06 run, many attributed Ruff's early success to Ted Nolan. Those detractors argued that the coach prior to Ruff deserved the majority of the credit for one of the team's best ever seasons. In their minds, it was Nolan that put the group together, and Ruff had just reaped the benefits. Nolan's inability to find a steady coaching position in the NHL, coupled with his less-than-impressive second run with the Sabres, seemed to quell any such notions. Meanwhile, Ruff's success in Dallas has cemented his place in the upper echelon of NHL coaches.

The 1999 Stanley Cup finals will always remain a sore spot with Sabres fans. Brett Hull's infamous goal is nearly as haunting for Buffalo natives as Scott Norwood's wide right kick. But Dallas' current team is a much different one. Since then, the Sabres have developed stronger rivalries, and the animosity with the Stars has died down, a bit. Led by Ruff, the Stars have a real chance at pulling off a Stanley Cup upset. Throughout his time with the team as both a player and coach, Ruff is a proud part of the history of the Sabres franchise. It would be hard to fault Sabres fans for still rooting for Ruff.