Lindy Ruff has been named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award, presented annually to the NHL coach \u201cadjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success.\u201d<\/p>\n
The winner is determined by a poll among members of the NHL Broadcasters\u2019 Association. Ruff is one of three finalists along with Pittsburgh’s Dan Muse and Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper.<\/p>\n
Ruff previously won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the Sabres in 2005-06. This is his fifth time being named as a finalist (2005-06, 2006-07, 2015-16, 2022-23).<\/p>\n
Only seven coaches have won the Jack Adams Award multiple times since it was introduced in 1973-74: Scotty Bowman, Pat Quinn, Jacques Demers, Pat Burns, Jacques Lemaire, John Tortorella, and Barry Trotz.<\/p>\n
Ruff guided the Sabres to their first playoff berth since 2011, ending the longest drought in the four major men\u2019s professional sports leagues. But the Sabres didn\u2019t simply sneak in \u2013 they captured the Atlantic Division title with 109 points, the fifth-highest total in franchise history. The Sabres won 50 games, third in franchise history behind two Ruff-coached teams (2006-07 and 2005-06).<\/p>\n
Buffalo managed success despite playing in the NHL\u2019s toughest division, which sent five teams to the playoffs and featured six teams with 90-plus points.<\/p>\n
The Sabres\u2019 run was fueled by a remarkable turnaround, which started Dec. 9. They began that day sitting in last place in the Eastern Conference. A victory in Edmonton that night ignited a 10-game winning streak, and from that point on the Sabres had the most wins (39) and highest points percentage (.783) in the NHL.<\/p>\n
Members of the Sabres\u2019 leadership group credited Ruff with helping to set the tone during the run with a firm but steady voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll come in and tell you he\u2019s gonna share the morning coffee and then let a couple guys hear it,\u201d alternate captain Mattias Samuelsson said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like he\u2019s personally going after guys, but he definitely puts the group on notice about the standard around here.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s been great this year just with feeling what the group needs that day, whether it\u2019s a kick in the ass or just some support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added captain Rasmus Dahlin: \u201cWhen it\u2019s time, he turns it on, and there\u2019s no f-ing around. You really have to bring it, otherwise you have to hear it, and that\u2019s what I love. There\u2019s no days off with him as coach, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruff also proved to have his players\u2019 best interest in mind. When Dahlin took a leave of absence in December to be with his fianc\u00e9e while she recovered from a heart transplant, Ruff \u2013 publicly and privately \u2013 made sure the captain knew his family came first.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s hard to explain, but he\u2019s such a good man,\u201d Dahlin said. \u201cHe\u2019s good with the personal stuff, too. He really cares about his players.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sabres\u2019 brand of hockey is a testament to Ruff\u2019s versatility, one of the defining traits of his first stint with the organization. Ruff previously had success overseeing two distinct eras of Sabres hockey: a hard-nosed, defensive contender built around\u00a0Dominik Hasek in the late \u201990s and a high-flying, offensive team in the mid-2000s.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s edition leaned into the Sabres\u2019 greatest strength: their defensemen. They tied for second in the NHL with 55 goals from the back end, with four players in particular (Dahlin, Samuelsson, Bowen Byram and Owen Power) routinely involved in the offensive attack. It was not uncommon to see two defensemen low in the offensive zone on a given play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think as a coach you adapt to the group you have,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cI remember earlier in my career I was criticized (for being) too defensive. Then I got criticized (for being) too offensive. Then for a little while I was too defensive again.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think it’s the group you have. You play to your strengths. And the strength is how mobile our defense are, how active they can be on helping our forwards create offense.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sabres have two Jack Adams Award winners in their history: Ruff in 2005-06 and Ted Nolan in 1996-97.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lindy Ruff has been named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award, presented annually to the NHL coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-617902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}