After 15 years as head coach, Lindy Ruff has been fired as head coach of the Buffalo Sabres.  The Sabres announced the move with a brief statement on their Twitter page.

Sabres tweet
(twitter)
loading...

A visibly upset General Manager Darcy Regier announced that Ruff will be replaced on an interim basis by Rochester Americans coach Ron Rolston.

Ruff had been the longest-tenured coach in the NHL. There had been 170 coaching changes in the NHL since he was hired in July of 1997.

He leaves the Sabres as the team's winningest coach with a record of 571-432-162.  Under Ruff's leadership, he led the Sabres to four conference finals and the 1999 Stanley Cup finals where they lost to Dallas in six games, the deciding game was the famous "skate in the crease" goal.

The Sabres have been in a tailspin this season, losing 11 of 17 games so far.  The final straw for Ruff was Tuesday night's 2 to 1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, a team that came into the game with a worse record than the Sabres.

More From 106.5 WYRK