Lindy Ruff - "Doing more with Less..."

Posted by LALALALALALAFONTAINE:


Sabres Playoff History Under Ruff

1998
Sabres (89) beat Flyers (95) BEAT BETTER TEAM
Sabres (89) sweep Habs (87) BEAT WORSE TEAM
Sabres (89) lose* to Caps (92) LOST TO BETTER TEAM

1999
Sabres (91) sweep Sens (103) BEAT BETTER TEAM
Sabres (91) beat Bruins (91) BEAT BETTER TEAM
Sabres (91) beat Queefs (97) BEAT BETTER TEAM
Sabres (91) lose* to St*rs (114) LOST TO BETTER TEAM

2000
Sabres (85) lose to Flyers (105) LOST TO BETTER TEAM

2001
Sabres (98) beat Flyers (100) BEAT BETTER TEAM
Sabres (98) lose to Pens (96) LOST TO WORSE TEAM

2006
Sabres (110) beat Flyers (101) BEAT WORSE TEAM
Sabres (110) beat Sens (113) BEAT BETTER TEAM
Sabres (110) lose to Canes (112) LOST TO BETTER TEAM

2007
Sabres (113) beat Isles (92) BEAT WORSE TEAM
Sabres (113) beat Rangers (94) BEAT WORSE TEAM
Sabres (113) lose to Sens (105) LOST TO WORSE TEAM.

So in Ruff's coaching history, we've
Beaten a better team: 4
Beaten a worse team: 6
Lost to a better team: 4
Lost to a worse team: 2

So, overall, we've won much, much more than we were supposed to in the playoffs, beating teams with better records.

But look at the losses.
4 times we lost to a better team. 1 of those was due to the Brett Hull skate in the crease. 1 was due to other NHL reffing fuckups that they actually did apologize for (Caps).

And if you look at the teams we were supposed to beat, the 2001 Pens and 2007 Caps.

2001 Pens. The Pens trailed us by 2 points in the standings, so we were the better team, officially. However, Lemieux only played 43 games during the season, scoring 76 points in those games. If he plays a full season, like he played a full series against us in the playoffs, the Pens would have wound up higher in the standings.

2007 Sens. We had the Sens by 8 points, 113-105. However, there are no ties or SOL in the playoffs, which explains this difference. We were 10-4 in SO, Ottawa was 2-6, which is more than that difference. We really didn't lose to a worse team.

So Ruff has consistently beaten teams that he's supposed to beat in the playoffs and teams that he's not supposed to beat, but hasn't really lost to anyone except those we're supposed to lose to - and we still beat them more than they beat us.

That's a telltale sign of a good coach.

The other is special teams (especially PK), where the Sabres always have ranked high under Ruff.


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