Buffalo bench boss Lindy Ruff is the longest-tenured coach in the NHL.

East's Final Four
coaches are driven
By Chuck Gormley | NHL.com correspondent
May 9, 2006

There are 11 Eastern Conference coaches twiddling their thumbs in dark, vacant offices, trying to figure out ways they can get their teams to be still playing in May of 2007.

And then there are the Sabres' Lindy Ruff, the Senators' Bryan Murray, the Devils' Lou Lamoriello and the Hurricanes' Peter Laviolette.

Each has taken different paths to the Eastern Conference's Final Four and each is looking to have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup for the first time as NHL coaches.

Lindy Ruff -- Now in his ninth season in Buffalo, Ruff, 46, is the longest-tenured coach in the NHL. A former defenseman and captain for the Sabres, he cut his teeth as a coach while still playing for the Rochester Americans in the 1991-92 season at the age of 32.

Chuck Gormley covers the Philadelphia Flyers for the South Jersey Courier-Post. His Eastern Conference notebook appears each Tuesday during the season on NHL.com. Related Links: Western Conference notebook East Notes, May 2, 2006 East Notes, Apr. 25, 2006 East Notes, Apr. 18, 2006 East Notes, Apr. 11, 2006 East Notes, Apr. 4, 2006 Complete East Notes Archive

His first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals as a coach came in 1996 as an assistant under Florida Panthers coach Doug MacLean and general manager Bryan Murray. He returned to the Finals three years later as head coach of the Sabres, who were defeated by Ken Hitchcock's Dallas Stars in six games.

Ruff, a native of Warburg, Alberta, is coming off his finest season as a head coach -- the Sabres set a franchise record with 52 wins and 110 points -- despite some personal adversity.

Two months ago, Ruff's 11-year-old daughter, Madeleine, had a small tumor removed from her brain. When Ruff left the team, the Sabres lost a season-high six games in a row.

"I think his players cared so much about what he was going through they couldn't keep their minds on hockey," OLN analyst Keith Jones said. "His players just love to play for him."

After his daughter's successful surgery, Ruff returned to the Sabres and they finished the season with a five-game winning streak. Their strong play continued into the playoffs, where they defeated the Flyers in six games and grabbed an early lead on the Ottawa Senators in Round 2.

Leeson Ruff, Lindy's father, is hardly surprised by his son's ability to balance hockey and family. In 1986, when Ruff was a 26-year-old defenseman with the Sabres, he lost his younger brother, Brent, 16, in a tragic bus accident. Brent Ruff was a hockey player with Swift Current of the Western Hockey League when his team bus crashed, killing four players seated in the back of the bus.

"The coach of Swift Current asked me to talk to the boys," Leeson Ruff said. "I was grieving myself and I didn't know what to tell them. But I told the coach I'd do it if it was just me and the boys. We talked a lot that night, not about hockey, but about life. It helped me just as much as it helped them."

Swift Current went on a six-game win streak following that talk and Leeson Ruff compared his own experience with Lindy dealing with his 11-year-old daughter's surgery.

"Lindy is tough on the outside, but he's also tough on the inside," his father said. "The good thing is my granddaughter's doing great and the Sabres are winning."

Bryan Murray -- At 63, Murray is the NHL's second-oldest head coach -- he's two months younger than Lamoriello -- and is in his first season behind the bench of the Senators, who have been to the playoffs nine-straight seasons but have been to the Eastern Conference Finals just once. Murray led the Senators to a conference-best 113 points this season, despite losing starting goaltender Dominik Hasek to a groin injury during the Olympics.

Now with his fifth NHL team, Murray is looking to get to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time as a head coach. He entered this spring with a 34-44 playoff record.

Unlike Ruff, Murray does not have extensive playing experience. One of 10 children, Murray grew up in Shawville, Quebec where he played as a teenager for the Shawville Pontiacs. He attended MacDonald College in Montreal, returned to Shawville as a teacher, then opened his own sporting goods store. Murray's love of hockey led him back a few years later and he quickly made a name for himself as a coach, first with the Regina Pats of the Western League, then with the Hershey Bears of the AHL.

Murray's first NHL job came as head coach of the Washington Capitals in 1981. He led the Caps to the playoffs seven-straight seasons, but never got past the second round.

Murray twice was succeeded by his younger brother Terry Murray, who replaced him as head coach of the Capitals in 1990 and as head coach of the Panthers in 1998. Many in the hockey world were surprised when Murray left his role of general manager of the Mighty Ducks to take the job of head coach of the Senators, but Murray made it clear that if he wins a Stanley Cup, he wants to do it from behind the bench.

"I wanted very badly to come back to coach," Murray said on the day the Senators hired him. "I wanted to come back to a hockey country where hockey meant something."

Lou Lamoriello has done a superb job serving as both GM and head coach of the Devils this season.

Lou Lamoriello -- Talk about clout! As the Chief Executive Officer, President, General Manager and Head Coach of the Devils, Lamoriello has the authority to pull a player out of a game, send him to the minors and tear up his contract. Now that's power!

Some in North Jersey joke that the Devils went on a tear after Lamoriello replaced Larry Robinson behind the bench in mid-December and put the "Fear of Lou" into them.

"He's probably one of the most intimidating men in the League," Devils center Scott Gomez said. "At first it was, 'Oh, man, is he going to wring my neck when I come back to the bench?' But it's not what everyone expected. Lou has been nothing but positive behind the bench."

That positive attitude was certainly put to the test over the weekend when the Devils were blitzed by the Hurricanes 6-0 in Game 1 of Round 2.

Most NHL fans recognize Lamoriello as the architect of three Stanley Cup teams in New Jersey (1995, 2000, 2003) and the GM of the 1998 U.S. Olympic team. But he also was a pretty good head coach in his day, leading the Providence College ice hockey team in the 1960s and 1970s. A former high school math teacher, he also served as Athletic Director at Providence and hired Rick Pitino as Providence's head men's basketball coach.

This is Lamoriello's first experience as a head coach in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and, after sweeping coach Tom Renney's New York Rangers in the conference quarterfinals, Lamoriello looks like he might have his hands full with the Hurricanes.

Peter Laviolette -- At 41, Laviolette was a toddler in Norwood, Mass., when Lamoriello was coaching at Providence. Ironically, Laviolette would make his mark as a head coach of the AHL Providence Bruins.

Laviolette has made a quick ascent up the coaching ranks. A little-used defenseman for the New York Rangers, for whom he played just 12 games in 1988-89, Laviolette is a natural leader. He played for the U.S. Olympic team in 1988, captained the team in 1994 and served as Team USA's head coach in the 2006 Torino Games. After retiring as a player, Laviolette coached the Providence Bruins to a 56-16-8 record and won the Calder Cup in 1998-99, then jumped to the NHL's Bruins as an assistant.

When Laviolette was brought in as head coach of the Islanders, he guided them to the playoffs for the first time in eight years. But after getting eliminated in the first round for two straight springs, Laviolette was fired by Mike Milbury. Midway through the 2003-04 season Laviolette replaced Paul Maurice behind the Hurricanes bench and in his first full season as coach this season he led the Canes to a 52 wins and a franchise record 112 points.