BOSTON – For the fifth time in his career, Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff is a finalist for the Jack Adams Award.
“That just means our coaching staff did one hell of a job,” Ruff said of his nomination today in the Four Seasons One Dalton. “This isn’t a one-man job. The hours these guys have put in and where we got to, a complete team effort.”
This season, Ruff and his staff led the Sabres to their first appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2011, ending an NHL-record drought.
The Sabres roared into the postseason, winning 50 games, earning 109 points and capturing the Atlantic Division title.
Right now, the Sabres have a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven first-round series. They can win a playoff round tonight for the first time since 2007 if they defeat the Bruins in Game 6 at TD Garden.
Ruff won the award, given annually to the NHL’s top coach, in 2005-06. He was also a finalist in 2006-07, 2015-16 and 2022-23.
The Tampa Bay Lightning’s Jon Cooper, the league’s longest-tenured coach, and the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Dan Muse are the other finalists, the NHL announced today.
The winner is decided through a vote by the NHL Broadcasters’ Association.
Ruff, whose contract expires following the season, said he has developed an “awesome” relationship with general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, who replaced Kevyn Adams on Dec. 15.
“We’ve had hard conversations, we’ve had a lot of good laughs,” Ruff said. “Similar in a lot of ways to how we think and how we want to approach players, whether they played good, whether they played bad, whether they need to play better, whether it’s we’re talking about lineup.
“But I think we’ve really gotten to know each other quite a lot.”