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After a recent hot streak, including winning seven games in a row at home, the Buffalo Sabres lost their fourth straight contest, a 4-0 shutout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at KeyBank Center. The game marked a number of milestones for the Leafs, who clinched their first Atlantic Division title, with Auston Matthews scoring his 400th career goal, and Mitch Marner notching his 100th point of the season.
One milestone that was not achieved was Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff’s 900th career win. Buffalo closes out the regular season on Thursday at home against the Philadelphia Flyers, but if they do not win, Ruff will have plenty of opportunity to achieve that career achievement, as GM Kevyn Adams indicated on a radio interview that the veteran bench boss will return next season.
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“Lindy will be back. I just think that he has so much experience,” Adams said on WGR 550 Radio on Tuesday. “I think it takes time for coaches just to learn personalities and what makes players tick and which buttons to push, and he’s in a good spot there with our group. I know Lindy is frustrated; he’ll have his own self-evaluation on what he thinks could have been done better, and we’ll be having a lot of those conversations.”
Ruff is 899-716-76 in his 25-year coaching career with the Sabres, Dallas, and New Jersey and has gone 35-37-7 in his return to Buffalo. The club noticeably struggled to adjust to his coaching style this season, with the 13-game winless skid in November and December being the most obvious sign of that. The Sabres have played better (especially at home) since the trade deadline, but it has to be said that the late-season turnaround occurred mostly with backup James Reimer in goal and once any expectation of making the playoffs was absent.
Adams indicated that any off-season changes will be done in consultation with Ruff and owner Terry Pegula after the season.
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