Lindy Ruff

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Position	Forward/Defence
Shoots	Left
Height Weight	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 190 lb (86 kg)
Pro Clubs	Buffalo Sabres New York Rangers
Nationality	Canada
Born	February 17, 1960, Warburg, Alberta, Canada
NHL Draft	32nd overall, 1979 Buffalo Sabres
Pro Career	1979 – 1991

Lindy Cameron Ruff (Born: February 17, 1960 in Warburg, Alberta, Canada) is head coach of the Buffalo Sabres and former left winger in the National Hockey League.

Contents 1 Playing career 2 Coaching career 2.1 Coaching Record 3 Personal 4 See also 5 Reference

[edit] Playing career

As a player, he was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in the second round, 32nd overall of the 1979 NHL Entry Draft. He played for the Buffalo Sabres and New York Rangers. Ruff gained a reputation as a player for his toughness, character and hard work on the ice. An illustration of this came in a May 10, 1980 playoff game against the New York Islanders where opposing goaltender Billy Smith struck Ruff with his stick as he passed in front of his net. Ruff got up, skated back to the goaltender and tackled him.

Ruff played most of his NHL career for the Sabres, serving as captain of the team for nearly three years, but he was traded to the Rangers at the 1989 NHL trade deadline in echange for a draft pick. The Sabres would use that pick to select Richard Smehlik, who would later play for several years under Ruff.

Ruff played in 691 NHL games, scoring 105 goals and adding 195 assists for an even total of 300 points. He also recorded 1,264 penalty minutes. In 52 playoff games, Ruff recorded 11 goals and 13 assists while accumulating 193 penalty minutes. [1]

[edit] Coaching career

He became assistant coach of the Florida Panthers for the 1993-94 NHL season until the 1996-97 NHL season. His best success then was with the 1996 Florida Panthers, who made the Stanley Cup Finals. He then became head coach of the Buffalo Sabres before the 1997-98 NHL season where he has been since. In Ruff's second season as coach, the Sabres reached the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals before finally losing to the Dallas Stars in six games. Ruff is currently the longest-tenured coach in the NHL.

Ruff is known for being blunt with the media. One well-known example of his bluntness is his comments on Toronto Maple Leafs player Darcy Tucker. In his postgame comments following a questionable hit on Jochen Hecht that knocked the Sabres centre out of the lineup for two weeks with a sprained ACL in the 2005-06 season, Ruff said, "I want him [Tucker] suspended." He also said, "I have not called the NHL office all year and I will call them ten times tomorrow." He called Tucker's hit "a definition of a joke."^[2]

On April 5, 2006, Ruff became the 31st coach in NHL history to win 300 games, and just the 16th to do it with only one team. Ruff led the Sabres to their most successful regular season ever in 2005-2006, with a 52-24-6 record for a total of 110 points.

Ruff was the winner of the 2005-06 Jack Adams Award for coach of the year in the National Hockey League. Tom Renney of the New York Rangers and Peter Laviolette of the Carolina Hurricanes were also nominated.

In February 2007 Ruff was fined US$10,000 by the NHL after a brawl with the Ottawa Senators. The league said that Ruff precipitated the brawl following an injury to Chris Drury. [3] After the questionable hit to Drury by Chris Neil, Ruff sent out Andrew Peters, Patrick Kaleta, and Adam Mair; the team's "Enforcers". What followed was one of the '06-'07 season's most memomerable hockey brawls. Adam Mair began the brawl, punching Ottawa's Jason Spezza as soon as the puck was dropped. Andrew Peters tried to start a fight with Dany Heatley, who didn't want to fight. Even the goaltenders got into the fight, with Martin Biron challenging Ray Emery.

In the 2006-07 season he became the first Sabres coach to lead the team to back-to-back 50 win seasons, boasting the 5th best win percentage in terms of points captured vs. points available from 1979-present for the entire league.

[edit] Coaching Record

Team	Year	Regular Season							Post Season
		G	W	L	T	OTL	Pts	Finish	W	L	Win %	Result
BUF	1997-98	82	36	27	17	-	89	3rd in Northeast	10	5	.667	Conference Finalist
BUF	1998-99	82	38	27	17	-	93	1st in Northeast	14	7	.667	Runner-up
BUF	1999-00	82	35	32	11	4	85	3rd in Northeast	1	4	.200	Conference Quarter-Finalist
BUF	2000-01	82	46	30	5	1	98	2nd in Northeast	7	6	.538	Conference Semi-Finalist
BUF	2001-02	82	35	35	11	1	82	5th in Northeast	-	-	-
BUF	2002-03	82	27	37	10	8	72	5th in Northeast	-	-	-
BUF	2003-04	82	37	34	7	4	85	5th in Northeast	-	-	-
BUF	2005-06	77	52	24	-	1	105	2nd in Northeast	11	7	.611	Conference Finalist
BUF	2006-07	81	53	21	-	7	113	1st in Northeast
Total		732	359	267	78	26	822		43	29	.561

[edit] Personal

Ruff's younger brother, then 16-year-old Brent Ruff, was one of four teammates killed in a bus crash while playing for the Swift Current Broncos in 1986.

Another younger brother, Marty Ruff, was a first round draft pick of the St. Louis Blues, but never appeared in an NHL game.

An older brother, Randy Ruff, played and coached in junior hockey.

Lindy and his wife Gaye have four children, Brett, Eryn and twins Madeleine and Bryan. Madeleine was in the news in 2006, as she had a tumor removed.

Buffalo Sabres Head Coaches
Imlach • Smith • Crozier • Pronovost • Inglis • Bowman • Neilson • Roberts • Schoenfeld • Ramsay • Sator • Dudley • Muckler • Nolan • Ruff

Buffalo Sabres - Current Roster
view • talk • edit  Goaltenders: 30 Miller • 35 Conklin  Defensemen 5 Lydman • 6 Spacek • 10 Tallinder • 27 Numminen • 38 Paetsch • 45 Kalinin • 51 Campbell  Forwards 9 Roy • 12 Kotalik • 15 Zubrus • 19 Connolly • 20 Paille • 22 Mair • 23 Drury • 26 Vanek • 28 Gaustad • 29 Pominville • 48 Briere • 55 Hecht • 61 Afinogenov • 76 Peters  General Manager: Darcy Regier •  Coach: Lindy Ruff

Preceded by Ted Nolan	Head Coaches of the Buffalo Sabres 1997-	Succeeded by incumbent
Preceded by Gilbert Perreault	Buffalo Sabres captains 1986-89	Succeeded by Mike Foligno
Preceded by John Tortorella	Jack Adams Award Winners 2006	Succeeded by most recent

[edit] See also

• Captain (hockey)
• List of NHL seasons
• List of NHL players
• List of NHL head coaches

[edit] Reference

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00004701