BUFFALO – The pain of losing has always seemed to outweigh the thrill of victory for Sabres coach Lindy Ruff.
Right now, having won 899 games behind an NHL bench, he’s on the precipice of making history. Only four coaches in history – Scotty Bowman, Joel Quenneville, Barry Trotz and Paul Maurice – have registered 900 wins.
It’s a significant number Ruff, whose Sabres begin a three-game road trip tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets, wants to ignore.
“I could care less about 900,” Ruff said prior to Tuesday’s 3-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes at KeyBank Center. “Seriously. Seriously.”
The Sabres brought back Ruff this year to lead them to the playoffs. Instead, their NHL-record drought hit 14 seasons.
They’ve found a late-season groove, generating some rare optimism while winning five straight games and eight of their last nine contests.
Still, the 65-year-old Ruff, the NHL’s oldest coach, doesn’t take solace in the hot streak.
“I’m driven by the fact that I didn’t get this team where I needed to get them soon enough,” said Ruff, a franchise icon who also coached the Sabres from 1997 to 2013. “That’s what I’m driven by.”
In Ruff’s mind, he has failed to deliver, so he’s not about to soak up the spotlight. There’s more work to do. He just wants to plow forward.
“That’s all we want to do, consistently win hockey games,” he said. “It’s not about me and how many games I’ve won; it’s about our team needs to consistently win hockey games, and that is really the whole focus.”
That focus has recently paid off. The Sabres seem to be developing a stronger culture and finding more of an identity while grasping Ruff’s expectations.
They’ve scored 52 times while compiling a 10-3-0 mark in their last 13 outings, a gaudy goal total that entering Wednesday’s schedule was tied with the St. Louis Blues for most in the league during that stretch.
Sunday’s 6-3 win over the Boston Bruins illustrates how much the Sabres have matured over the last month. After falling behind 2-0 early, Ruff said they put together “probably two of the better periods I’ve seen us play.”
“Which tells me we’ve been able to right the wrong right away and realize the way we need to play to win is right there in front of us,” he said.
Ruff said the Sabres are moving toward the culture he envisioned.
“A team-first attitude, give yourself up for the team, whether that means you have to put away some of the stickhandling and dump pucks and get it in behind (the defense),” he said. “We’re getting there, we’re working. It’s not a place we want to be.”
Winger Jason Zucker said the recent success has set the Sabres up “for a good summer and (to) have success next season.”
“(We want) to let guys feel what that success feels like and … sustain it,” said the 33-year-old, the Sabres’ oldest and most experienced skater. “I think that’s been a huge issue for us this year, is you win a couple games and you lose three or four in a row. You win a few and then you lose 3, 4, 5, 6, you lose 13, whatever it is.
“And so for us, it’s about learning how to have success and be comfortable with that and continue it.”
Zucker on Wednesday was announced as the Sabres’ 2025 Masterton Trophy nominee by the Buffalo Chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association for his dedication to hockey.
After signing a one-year, $5 million contract as a free agent, Zucker has scored 21 goals and 51 points in 68 games this season. On March 7, he inked a two-year, $9.5 million extension.
Notes: The Sabres haven’t won six straight games since Dec. 13 to 31, 2022. … Sabres goalie James Reimer has a 2.40 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage during his seven-game winning streak. … The Sabres had Wednesday off.