Ruff not happy with his core
 

http://wgr550.com/Ruff-not-happy-with-his-core/12768358

As usual, 'Tip did a good job peeling this out .....it is in the ruff/Regier thread, but this deserves more attention IMO. First, quickly...Who is he referring to, in your mind?

Regehr...Vanek...

And what implications will it have going forward?

Now....secondly, and more importantly, what boggles the **** out of my mind is that it is such a rare occurrence for Ruff to publicly call out players like this....in this magnitude...coaches are a lot tougher on their guys in the public eye than Ruff is IMO ... Yet he chooses now to blast them? When it will serve absolutely ZEEEEEEERO purpose, and have nothing but a potential negative impact going forward? You single out a veteran defenseman who plays the game about as honestly and purely as one can...makes one bad mistake (after a poor pinch by his partner) and now we take the avenue of publicly putting the game on that play? "**** you, veteran who was hesitant to come here in the first place... I don't really care about you as a person anymore because you made a mistake in game 81"....

This one truly has my head spinning. Is there anyone that can rationalize this tantrum from Ruff's perspective for me?

Is it possible Ruff actually feels his job is in jeopardy? It does seem like an ill-planned thing to do that could stem from fear.

I will say the same thing I said in the thread this was plucked from: Ruff is quite clearly referencing Vanek (among others) here. That suggests to me that Vanek may not have the chronic injury many fans assume he has. Someone suggested Vanek has been nursing a dislocated shoulder since January. If that is true, Vanek has been a warrior for trying to play through it and no one can expect that much from him. Ruff knows what is or is not wrong with Vanek, so to single him out like this suggests Vanek is not nursing an injury.

Hopefully we will get to the bottom of this after the Boston game.

The only person in the world who has more job security than good ol Jack Adams is Bill Gates.

Slightly off topic, but while we are discussing Ruff attacking his core of veterans, including Vanek...

Does anyone remember the game in which Lindy Ruff and Vanek were quite clearly shouting at each other? Lindy was behind the bench of course, Vanek was on the ice but right next to the boards in front of the bench. They were clearly going at it and as I recall, the word after the game was Vanek said "F U!" to Lindy.

What game was that? I know teams are not always a big happy family. Rob Ray was telling stories about things he has seen teammates do to each other just the other day. But I was surprised to see Vanek treat Ruff the way he did on the ice that night. He obviously had zero respect for him as head coach.

We all know something weird was going on with this team for most of the season, injuries aside. Who knows...maybe there is some bad blood in that room still and this recent Ruff flogging in practice is just the latest chapter.

You wonder how much Pegula or his minions know about this stuff.

Lindy's tirade does seem out of character for him, and it seems like a somewhat desperate action from a desperate man. Maybe he is actually afraid that he is not going to get out of this one.

Would it not be wild if Ruff was fired in the next week? Let's be honest....no one is predicting that right now.

If by "Wild" you mean...PRETTY MUCH THE BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED, than yes.

As a general rule, I agree with you.

But then we have this incident in practice, which needs some sort of explanation as it seems out of character for Ruff.

I am probably just guilty of wishful thinking, but I would love to find out that "room" is currently being held together with some old dental floss, a paper clip, and some chewing gum...if it would lead to a crisis situation in which ownership realizes Lindy must go.

It will be interesting to follow up on this tongue lashing in practice tomorrow (Saturday) and get Paul Hamilton's take on it, as I assume he was actually there listening to what was going on, which is more than what I was doing.

Ha ha. YEP! That's what I mean....:handclap:

Sounds like the words of man who's starting to become desperate and feels the noose tightening.

Not sure why he'd be worried though. The level of job security he has is staggering.

He threw his team under the bus...it's pretty out of character for him, but he's not dumb. Every member of the Buffalo media, 90% of the casual fanbase, and the ownership and GM are in love with the guy. No matter what he does or says, people are gonna eat that **** up, so he's deflecting. He's putting the failure on the players, and specifically Vanek it appears.

I think there's guys that won't play for him, I think Vanek might be near the top of that list. And it's not because Vanek is some sort of uncoachable diva - it's because Vanek has done everything Ruff has ever asked of him, and it's not good enough. He's not rewarded with ice time, he's usually near the top of the list as far as "guys thrown under the bus"...that drags on you in ANY job, let alone one as visible as NHL player. Sometimes, and I'm not saying it's right, sometimes you just say "welp, guess this guy's never gonna be happy" and your attitude suffers.

As far as Hamilton, he's more in love with Ruff than just about anyone. So his take on anything Ruff related should be ignored. He's got an agenda for certain players that rivals what you read here sometimes.

I agree with your comments here, except the Hamilton one. I listen to the guy every day on GR-55 and he often cuts people off when they start talking about firing Darcy or Lindy. He almost sarcastically says "that will never happen" and the subtext is that sure, Ruff should be fired by now, but he will not be because Darcy and ownership are in love with him. I don't think he particularly favors Ruff at all.

Regardless, if he was at this practice, he can at least try to describe what he saw and heard and put some context into the report.

I see it almost more like defense of him, but granted I don't listen as much as I used to.

I am still blown away by the timing and the severity of his tantrum. Out of character first and foremost, and poorly poorly timed, no? Am I missing something? What the ****? I really just don't get it. I don't.

You're right on both accounts.

Hardest practice of the year, where was that after the 0-fer roadtrip?

Ruff senses a lot of the blame for this season is headed his way, so he's trying to pre-emptively redirect it.

That's the only explanation I can think of, because otherwise, yeah, it doesn't make much sense. Why put them through a hard practice now, when it doesn't matter anymore? Why call out your players now, before a meaningless game?

Just like when anybody majorly screws up at work. They pass the buck onto their coworkers and subordinates to try to avoid drawing heat themselves.

I think it says exactly the opposite.
1. He feels so secure with his job he can throw anyone under the bus.
2. He could be letting other teams know his players are available
3. If he was worried about his job the worst thing to do is speak out. How does that look going into a job interview?

Ruff and Regier are so buddy buddy they know exactly where they stand, he does not need to be nervous or fear.

PS. If Vanek is hurt then sit the f$ck down, you are the reason we missed the playoffs.

"Yeah I was sitting on one of the most explosive centers to ever don a Sabres uniform, and it was incumbent on Ennis to let us know just how good he was down the middle. It's inexcusable for a player to keep such valuable knowledge to himself."

Call me stupid but Ennis played center before for the sabres and it didn't go very successful.

Very bold statement after a guy has played only 20 games at center. ZZamboni is going to be very mad with you.

Throwing your own team under the bus AFTER the season's over is pretty weak, IMO, and I'm a Ruff supporter.

He was the guy who carried a useless Brad Boyes on the 4th line for 80 games, maybe a look in the mirror or in Regier's office might help.

You can spin the Boyes situation any way you want (it was a weakass acquisition IMO), but you put a scorer on the 4th line for 80 games, you're not exactly providing him with an environment to succeed.

Meh.

The season's gone.
IMO AT THIS POINT, calling out people is weak. They can't do anything about it, so why bother, you're just dumping on them.

Sweep it under the carpet, review which guys need to go and who you can rely on, address needs in the offseason.
Without crapping on them, IMO.

Ruff needs to be fired and we need to trade Vanek, Regher is old enough just let him finish his contract and retire, he may not be as good as he once was but he usually one of our better defensive defensemen

I think he's got his finger on the pulse of his team, and he's saying the right things to the media here. Vanek has really let me down over the past couple games, starting with his passionless back checking and ending with him failing to take advantage of an odd man break vs. Philly. It looks like he just doesn't care anymore.

The team might be very cliquey as far the cores. I think there's a younger more determined core forming and then there's a disenchanted business like core. The later is more prone to do as little as they can get away with.

Accountability starts with the coaches, and I think they are too soft sometimes, but it also has to come from the players. They have to hold each other accountable and I don't know if that's happening within the veteran core anymore.

there's a lot of truth in this statement.

I think it's it obvious Ruff is talking about Vanek. I also think he doesn't like Vanek(and hasn't for a while), but that's ok with me because I want him off this team in the worst way.

I can't believe he would say this and run the hardest practice of the year the day before a meaningless game. If anything is going to lose the team, it's stuff like that.

While I disagree with the hardest practice nonsense, I don't quite get how any Sabres fan can be upset about this.

Changes are coming. It likely won't be in the form of Ruff, but changes are coming.

The only issue I have with his statements is targeting Regehr. That's not cool.