Ruff looks ahead to 1,900th regular-season game as coach in Q&A with NHL.com

In NHL.com's Q&A feature called "Sitting Down with …" we talk to key figures in the game, gaining insight into their lives on and off the ice. In this edition, we feature Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff.

BUFFALO -- Lindy Ruff doesn't think too much about milestones, but he will join just two other coaches in NHL history by coaching his 1,900th regular-season game in the NHL when the Buffalo Sabres host the Florida Panthers at KeyBank Center on Monday (7 p.m. ET; SCRIPPS, MSG-B).

Only Scotty Bowman (2,141) and Panthers coach Paul Maurice (1,974) has coached more. It will be Ruff's 1,291st game coaching the Sabres, second most for a single team behind Al Arbour's 1,500 for the New York Islanders.

"Holy [smokes]," Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin said. "It shows that he's a very good coach. It's not easy to stay in this league this long, and the amount of games, too, speaks for itself."

Ruff, who will turn 66 on Feb. 17, is in his second stint with the Sabres after he was hired April 22, 2024, and hoping to guide them to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2011, two seasons before his first tenure ended.

"It's an incredible achievement, and hopefully I'm in the game that long," Buffalo forward Tage Thompson said. "I think it just speaks to the passion he has for the game and the love of Buffalo. We all know how much the game means to him, how much the city means to him."

The Sabres (24-15-4) won 10 consecutive games from Dec. 9-31, tied for longest such streak in their history, after they were last in the Eastern Conference and 30th in the NHL. They hold the first wild card into the playoffs from the East with designs on breaking the longest playoff drought in League history (14 years).

Buffalo defeated the Anaheim Ducks 5-3 on Saturday for its 13th win in 14 games, a first since the franchise joined the NHL for the 1970-71 season.

"He's a massive part of it," Dahlin said. "I'm just happy that he can bring success to Buffalo where he belongs. We're battling every day really hard, and hopefully he can take us to some good places."

Ruff spoke with NHL.com about reaching the milestone amidst the Sabres' current run of success.

Paul Maurice is one of the only two other coaches to have hit 1,500 games. Your team will be facing the Panthers on your milestone night. What goes through your mind upon hearing that?

"That you've got two old coaches coaching (laughs)? You've got two guys who just don't want to leave the game. Nothing more. You've got two guys that love the game."

What's it like to hit the milestone, especially with where the team is?

"The mark, to be honest, really doesn't faze me, doesn't really mean anything to me. Where we're at right now means a lot. Just trying to stay present, and we know how competitive the East is, but to be on a good run right now is the most important thing."

What's it like seeing the buy-in from the players to achieve the success the team is enjoying right now?

"I think any coach that believes in what they're doing, they put a staff together, and this isn't a one-man job. This is a job where a coach trusts his staff, the staff puts in a lot of work. It's 1,900 games with a lot of good people around you. I think if you asked any coach, coach hires assistant coach to help make him better, and the people around you got to help make you better, and I've been fortunate through all these years to have a lot of good people around me. It doesn't matter whether I've been in Dallas or New Jersey, we've had at least one really big year where you're either Presidents' Trophy [winners] or you're right there, a couple points from it, and it's from management down to the coaching staff. You need a lot of help in this business."

How have you changed or evolved over the past year with this group?

"I think there was a lot of understanding of how we need to play and what type of opportunities we need to create and, even more, what type of opportunities we have to eliminate from our game that we're giving the other team. It doesn't matter what team you're looking at. Every team has a structure, whether they're playing man on man, whether they're playing in some type of zone. It's how you practice and how good you can get with what you think is the best possible system for your group. And almost every player has an elite skill. It might be shooting, might be passing, might be physicality. It's allowing these players to use their skills, use their specialty. Not every guy is the same. Not every guy can shoot it like the next guy, not every guy can pass it like the next guy, but I think you have a role for most of the players. You believe in that role, and you let them operate to their abilities."

How do you approach each day?

"Try to get better every day. Today, we met as a group, and it was about just getting better. The mindset is not being happy or complacent about where you're at. It's about improving areas of the game that will make you a better team, whether that's offensively, whether it's defensively. There's days we spend on special teams, there's days we spend just strictly on defensive play. You're like a firefighter. There will be a fire that pops out. It might be an O-zone fire, it might be a D-zone fire, and then you're trying to put the fire out."

How have you managed to keep the passion as a coach through ups and downs after all these years?

"I love coming to the rink. I love the interaction with the players. We find a lot to learn about every day, but we find stuff to laugh about, too, and I think that's an important part. You've still got to have fun with the job, whether it's with your coaches, there's times you can have a good laugh with your players, but I still really enjoy the interaction with the players and coaches on a on a daily basis."

What are some of the memories that have stood out over the years?

"Oh boy. I mean, there's the first year, the first head coaching job here in Buffalo (in 1997-98), just a little bit of a tough start. But I think still what stands out is by December, this is a long time ago, but I want to say we probably had six or seven shutouts (six) in December. I really felt we got the team in a great place and believing in how we need to play. And when everybody believes it, it fuels the team. I think right now we've got that belief going that we can win every night and we've given ourselves and put ourselves in position in this last month to win almost every game."

What does it mean to you to know that you've had an impact on your players both on and off the ice?

"I've always said, and I do believe this, that we're a family here as a team. Family comes first. Whether it's off-ice or somebody dealing with family or players dealing with his own things, family comes first. And that's just my belief, that you'll go out of your way to try to try to help any player. We've got to have the buy-in that we're all in this together and we're all one great big family that is going to have some ups and downs, and family picks each other up,

The crowds have been electric at KeyBank Center, and the players have talked about how they've fed off of that. How special is it to see fans and the players connecting that way?

It just puts a great big smile on my face because I've had such great memories here of some playoff runs, how loud this building was in a playoff series against Philadelphia. I think we beat Philadelphia 7- or 8-0, and you could literally feel this building shake. And then you look outside in those times and the plaza being filled with 3,000 or 4,000 people watching the game outside. I know that the fans have felt a lot of pain, and it's great to see them being rewarded and seeing some great hockey and getting the players a feeling of the fans getting in behind you and trying to pick them up."

What's your favorite thing about Buffalo?

"It just, it's a blue collar, just huge sports town. They love their sports. I mean, almost any city can say that, but you look at what Bills Mafia has done for the (NFL's) Bills, and, really, in those years when we were on our run, what the fans were doing here for the Sabres, and we just want to get back to that point and stay there."