When Lindy Ruff was let go by the New Jersey Devils in March 2024, he didn\u2019t immediately think about his future as an NHL coach. Instead, the 66-year-old jokes, his mind jumped to all the springtime chores and yardwork ahead of him. Fired at 2 p.m., he packed his bags and hit the road by 5.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no real thought besides heading home, which is Buffalo,\u201d Ruff told Sabres.com.<\/p>\n
The Warburg, Alberta, native first arrived in Western New York as a second-round draft pick in 1979 and played most of his career with the Sabres. He then returned as head coach in 1997, leading them to eight playoff appearances in 14-plus seasons.<\/p>\n
A firing in February 2013, followed by coaching stints with the Stars, Rangers and Devils, never inspired a change of heart, and the Sabres brought Ruff back for the 2024-25 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say this \u2013 people might find it strange \u2013 but I\u2019ve never really left. I\u2019ve been here since 1979,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand the passion, from football to the sports to the people. It was my first team to play for. It was my first city I came to as a 19-year-old. The people here helped me grow into what I am today. The teammates around me, the people I\u2019ve been around, the friends I\u2019ve made in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Upon returning, Ruff discussed how much it would mean, personally, to turn the Sabres\u2019 core players into winners, for them to develop that same love for the city, and for KeyBank Center to be rocking again like back in the \u201890s and 2000s. And in Year 2 of his second stint behind the Buffalo bench, he\u2019s seen that vision through, ending the 14-year drought and leading the Sabres back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see how much he cares about the crest and the City of Buffalo and how much it means to him,\u201d Alex Tuch said, \u201cso for him to be the coach to get us out of the drought, I think means a lot for him and means a lot for our group.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Lindy Ruff was let go by the New Jersey Devils in March 2024, he didn\u2019t immediately think…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5111],"tags":[5,3328,35,5190,5193,4,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-550623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-rangers","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-rangers","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkrangers","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-rangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116388366888465808","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}