Open Letter To The Buffalo Sabres

I suppose the rumors are true: Lindy Ruff has been named the next head coach of the Buffalo Sabres, a position he once held many years ago.

Back in 1997, Lindy Ruff began his coaching journey in Buffalo, and he had quite a bit of success. In fact, some of the Sabres’ best season runs were under Coach Ruff’s guidance. In the 1997-1998 season, Ruff led the Sabres to the Eastern Conference Finals. The following year, Lindy Ruff took the Buffalo Sabres to the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals before losing to the Dallas Stars in the third overtime.

There’s no denying that Ruff is a talented coach and has done some amazing things over the years, including during his time with the Buffalo Sabres. However, it seems that we have forgotten how the Lindy Ruff situation ended.

After 16 years with the Sabres, Coach Ruff was relieved of his coaching duties after two seasons of struggling to make it back to the playoffs. You would think after years of coaching the team that the code to getting into the postseason would be pretty much down to a science, but unfortunately for Lindy and the Sabres, it was not.

Hence why many Sabres fans became critics of Lindy Ruff and his coaching. That’s why he got relieved of his duties.

And look, I’m not denying that Lindy Ruff is an excellent coach. All I’m saying is it didn’t work here before, so now we’re going to try it again? Just for kicks?

It reminds me of the friend who continually goes back to that one guy because “Nobody has ever been this nice to me.” Okay, but that doesn’t mean you should settle for the guy who’s nice half the time, while the other half of the time he’s basically unbearable for whatever miscellaneous reasons.

And in case you’re wondering, only 15% of relationships between couples that have reconciled after they separate end up working out, according to Psychology Today. That means that there is a chance, but the odds aren’t really in Lindy’s favor.

It just seems like a mistake, and it puts both the Buffalo Sabres and Lindy Ruff into the hot seat. Say Lindy Ruff stays for another 6 years and never figures out a way to coach the Sabres back into the playoffs and end the drought – now you just wasted another 6 years of Sabres talent and disappointed fans for another 2,184 days.

Now the fans are going to be mad at the Sabres and get fed up with the losing, and nobody has rose tinted glasses for Lindy Ruff anymore, so he’s set up to be under high scrutiny.

But hey – I hope he does get it done, because we need to get a Stanley Cup. Buffalo deserves a championship win, and the Bandits seem to be the only ones who can get it done.

Maybe the Sabres - Lindy Ruff story will be the greatest comeback story in sports? Only time will tell.