Sabres’ Lindy Ruff a finalist for NHL’s coach of the year
Lindy Ruff this season led the Sabres to their first berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2011, and to its first division championship since 2010, with a 50-23-9 record – only the third 50-win season in franchise history.
Mattias Samuelson wasn't even alive when Lindy Ruff first became a head coach in 1997, so he's not completely aware of Ruff's personal and professional evolution over the course of nearly 30 years.
What the Buffalo Sabres defenseman knows is that Ruff has distinguished himself in his coaching career through his diligence, his precision, and his ability to evolve.
"If you don't evolve, you kind of get left behind," Samuelsson said of Ruff, who has been a head coach or an assistant coach in the NHL since 1993, seven years before Samuelsson was born. "He's done a good job of changing his style. The game has changed a lot, obviously. He's coached some good players. Some skilled players and has probably learned a bunch from them all. He's coached different teams, and in different scenarios, so he's a well-oiled machine."
Now, Ruff is a candidate for the NHL's coach of the year.
The NHL announced Friday that Ruff is one of three finalists for the Jack Adams Award, given annually to the league’s top head coach.
Ruff joins Pittsburgh's Dan Muse and Tampa Bay's Jon Cooper as finalists for the award this year. The NHL Broadcasters’ Association’s membership votes on the Jack Adams Award at the end of each season, and the winner will be announced in June.
Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff meets with the media prior to Game 6 against the Bruins on Friday at TD Garden in Boston.
Harry Scull, Buffalo News
Ruff won the Jack Adams Award in 2006, when the Sabres finished 52-24-6 in the regular season. That season, they reached the Eastern Conference Finals of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
This season, Ruff coached the Sabres to one of the league’s most compelling comebacks in the second season of his second stint with Buffalo.
The Sabres faced the Boston Bruins in Game 6 of a Stanley Cup Playoffs first-round series on Friday at TD Garden in Boston. The Sabres lead the best-of-seven series 3-2, and can eliminate the Bruins from the playoffs with a win.
Ruff led the Sabres to their first berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2011, and to their first division championship since 2010. The last coach to take the Sabres to the playoffs? Ruff, who was in the 13th season of his first 15 years as head coach of the Sabres from 1997-2013.
The Sabres finished the 2025-26 regular season 50-23-9 – only the third 50-win season in franchise history – won the Atlantic Division championship with 109 points and earned home-ice advantage for at least the first two rounds of the playoffs.
"It just means our coaching staff did one hell of a job," Ruff said Friday of being a finalist for the Jack Adams Award. "This isn't a one-man job. The hours these guys have put in, and where we got to, was a complete team effort."
What’s even more remarkable about the turnaround this season under Ruff: Before December, the Sabres were out of playoff contention and at one point were 29th overall in the 32-team NHL. But a 10-game win streak from Dec. 9-31 sparked the Sabres to a second half in which they lost only nine games in regulation and five in overtime or a shootout.
"He's good at pushing the right buttons," said Samuelsson, whose father, Kjell, played against Sabres teams that Ruff coached in the 1990s. "Last year might have been a little bit of a feeling-out process. He's learning the group, and we're learning the way he wants us to play. But I think this year, he's been really good at just teaching us a lot of little details about the game. We obviously have a lot of skill and talent, but things away from the puck, he's been really good at this year."
Asked last month what the common thread is among the playoff teams he's coached, Ruff answered with one of his hallmark wry statements.
“We’ve won more games than the ninth-place team; that’s the common thread,” Ruff quipped, the day the Sabres won the Atlantic Division title with a 5-1 win at Chicago. “Your goal is just to be one of those top eight teams when the year starts. Once you get in that position, you like to climb up, and you’re looking at home-ice advantage.
“But I don’t think there’s any secret. You’ve got to have a good team. You’ve got to have good players. I think I’ve been blessed with some teams that had some really good players that have put me in that position.”
Ruff didn't want to elaborate when asked further about being a finalist for the Jack Adams Award. He was focused on Game 6, and said as much.
"It'd be a good day to win a game in Boston," Ruff said.
Roster update
Ruff said defenseman Logan Stanley would be a game-time decision for Game 6 against the Bruins. Stanley did not practice on Thursday due to an illness.Stanley, acquired from Winnipeg at the trade deadline in March, has been on a defensive pairing with Conor Timmins for the first five games of the playoffs. If Stanley is not available for Game 6, Michael Kesselring would be the top option to replace him in the lineup.
Kesselring has yet to play in the first-round series against the Bruins. He played 15:03 and was plus-2 in the Sabres' 4-3 shootout loss April 15 against the Dallas Stars in the regular-season finale. Kesselring had two assists with 38 hits and blocked 25 shots in 34 games this season.