Archives for February 21, 2013

‘”It wasn’t so much buying the coach more time but it’s … you’re responsible as a player to play a certain way,” Miller said. “We’ve struggled to find an identity with this team for a few years now, if not four years. It’s come and gone. We’ve gotten close. At the end of last year we were playing good hockey and beating everybody. And then this year we’re in the same mental space: We don’t have that consistent confidence, for whatever reason. So it wasn’t really about trying to buy Lindy time as much as trying to step up and make the guys realize it’s on them. Lindy gave us a system to play and we weren’t playing it.”‘

‘Rolston really hasn’t had a chance to change much, but the one thing that pops out to him about this team is the shortcuts they take, “I have a lot of film and watched as much as I could intermixed with our schedule. From what I saw it was more of just a lot of shortcuts, a lot of rest in shifts, things you just have to eliminate if you’re going to be a good hockey team. It’s just getting back to that, getting back to work because there’s not a whole lot of time.”’

‘“Shocked, I didn’t see it coming. I think yesterday was just a tough day for everybody. Obviously we weren’t happy with the way we played the night before. We show up at the rink to get back to work, had some meetings just like we usually do and go on the ice for practice and we get one of our guys pulled off the ice and told that he’s put on waivers then head to the bus after practice and it was just our normal bus time, nothing had changed and Lindy showed up and he started talking to us, but I think at that point, we weren’t too sure what he was gonna say or what he was about to say and once he hopped off the bus, then that’s when we realized that changes were on the way and were made. We all said ‘Wait a second, we all have got to go out there and see him’ and it was pretty emotional for everyone.”’

‘Ruff never won a Stanley Cup but could have (Brett Hull) in 1999 and, had he not lost four starting defencemen for the seventh and deciding game of the 2006 Eastern final, and another during the game, could easily have been the Stanley Cup winner in that post-lockout season.’

‘I don’t know if anyone will ever find out the truth but my guess is Regier had to be convinced to make this move. Either Terry Pegula realized the fan base was fed up and his franchise was suffering or perhaps someone persuaded Pegula that it was time to release the man who, when Pegula bought the team two years ago, said “ain’t going nowhere.”‘

‘Regier said the decision was “ultimately my decision,” but it made after talking with team owner Terry Pegula and top Sabres officials Ken Sawyer and Ted Black.’

‘“The hockey world knows how I and the entire Buffalo Sabres organization feel about Lindy Ruff not only as a coach but also as a person,” Pegula said. “His long tenure with the Sabres has ended. His qualities have made this decision very difficult. I personally want Lindy to know that he can consider me a friend always.”’

‘“I watched Lindy’s press conference after the game, and it’s as down as I’ve seen him in a long, long time,” Playfair said Wednesday night in First Niagara Center during a Junior Sabres game. “I don’t typically do it, but this morning I watched it again on Sabres.com. You can just see he’s tried everything he can try and the guys aren’t responding. If he’s out of answers, I look at it as maybe my friend Lindy Ruff gets a break now.”‘

‘It would have been merciful to fire Ruff then, allowing him to find another town in which to prove himself. Instead, Regier waited, as he has done so many times at the trade deadline. Ruff set about “reinventing” himself. He stuck around until the situation had become unbearable, with the home crowd booing throughout Tuesday’s loss to the Jets and Ruff fielding questions afterward about how the fans hated his team.’

‘Ruff spent 26 years, nearly half of his life, working for the Sabres as a player and a coach. He wanted to win a Cup for himself. Mostly, he wanted to win a championship, in Buffalo, for you. To me, that meant something.’