Are the Dallas Stars going back to the future?
Will Ken Hitchcock be the next head coach of the Dallas Stars? It's beginning to look that way.
Earlier this afternoon, Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill announced that Lindy Ruff is out the door and will not be returning to the Stars' bench in 2017-18 season.
In his four seasons behind the Dallas bench, Ruff coached in 328 regular season games with a record of 165 wins, 122 losses for a .566 win %.
This season, Ruff's Stars missed the playoffs for the second time in his four year tenure. The Stars went 34-37-11 for 79 points.
"I want to personally thank Lindy for his commitment and professionalism over the four years that he served as our head coach in Dallas," said Nill. "Lindy is not only a highly respected coach, he more importantly is a great person and an outstanding family man whom I have the utmost respect for on and off the ice."
Why did Ruff ultimately fail in Dallas?
The high scoring Stars could not score goals when they needed them. They also could not keep their own goal light in the "off" mode.
The Stars managed to only score 222 combined goals this season (16th overall) after leading the NHL is goals for with 265 goals for in 2015-16. Jamie Benn scored 41 goals last season and only 26 goals this season. Tyler Seguin scored 33 goals last season and 26 goals this season.
In 2015-16, captain Jamie Benn scored 89 points in 82 games played. He was healthy and was a force of nature. Tyler Seguin scored 73 point in 72 games played last season.
This season, secondary scoring killed the Stars. Patrick Sharp scored just 8 goals in 48 (scored 20Gs last season) games played. Patrick Eaves scored 21 goals in 2016-17, but Jason Spezza scored only 15 goals after scoring 33 goals last season. Cody Eakin scored 16 goals last season and only 9 goals this season.
The Dallas D created 33 goals for this season against 32 goals for last season.
In a nut shell, two overrated, over paid and old goalies in Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi. Lehtonen ($5.9M AAV) and Niemo ($4.5M AAV) are each 33 years of age and earned a combined $10.4 million in salary this season.
Nill's mismanagement of his salary cap screwed Ruff who badly needed upgardes on his blue line to over compensate for the combined bloated GAA's and sub-par save percentanges of Lehtonen and Niemi. Lehtonen was .892 save % with a 2.85 GAA this past season, while Niemi was .892 and 3.30.
The goaltending in Dallas was none better last season when Lehtonen was .905 save % and 2.76 GAA with Niemi .905 save % and 2.67 GAA.
So, what now becomes of Ruff? He is a UFA. His Dallas contract has run out and he is now free to lead any team of his choosing. He will get phone calls. He will get offers.
Will his former club the Buffalo Sabres be phoning Ruff to inquire about his services?
Ruff spent 15 seasons as bench boss in Buffalo. He won 571 regular games against 432 losses, 78 ties and 84 OTL. Ruff was a .560 win percentage coach in Buffalo. He also coached 101 playoff games. The Sabres were 57-44 in playoff games.
The Sabres haven't made the playoffs for six consecutive season.
The embattled Dan Bylsma is at the end of year two of his five year contract. The Pegulas fired Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan after year two of a five year contract. The Pegulas are not afraid to scratch checks to get rid of players and coaches who are not cutting teh mustard. Just ask Ville Leino, Christian Ehrhoff, Cody Hodgson, and Rex Ryan.
To be fair, Bylsma had to mix and match his lineup to overcome the 400 man games lost to injury this season. Jack Eichel, Evander Kane, Ryan O'Reilly, Kyle Okposo, Jake McCabe, Zachary Bogosian, Nic Deslauriers, Tyler Ennis, and Johan Larsson spent large chunks of time this season in the cold tub in the trainers room and not on the ice helping their teammates earn points for a playoff berth.
The clock appears to be ticking on Dan who hasn't exactly dazzled in his stint in Buffalo. Sabres and Amerks season ticket holders have lost their senses of humor. They forgot what it was loke to buy tickets for and to attend playoff games. The losing has taken it's toll on Sabres fans who look enviously and angrily at the quick rebuilds in Toronto and Edmonton.
The Pegulas and Tim Murray have learned the hard way that hell hath no fury like a Sabres fan scored.
_______________________________________________________________________
Locker clean out day is Monday and Bylsma's players will have heart to heart meetings with Tim Murray before they head home prematurely for the summer. Bylsma's players are frustrated by their coach and his strict structured defensive system that is being employed to over compensate for Tim Murray's brutal bottom 3-6 D group. There have been habitual communication breakdowns between Bylsma and his players, young and old.
The captaincy will be switching this summer from Brian Gionta to Jack Eichel or Ryan O'Reilly.
Might there be a changing of the guard behind the bench too?
The Sabres were skunked 3-0 Saturday night in Sunrise, Florida. The Sabres lost to the Bolts and end their disappointing season with a 33-37-12 record.
Buffalo finished with 81 points and 24th overall in 2015-16.
The loss to Tampa in the season finale give s the Sabres 78 points, three points in the standings less than the 2015-16 team that grew their point totals by 27 point from one tanking season to the next.
Welcome to 26th place.
Last summer, Bylsma offered a points prediction of 95 points for his club in 2016-17.
Bylsma hopefully has learned a valuable lesson about predicting point totals.
The Sabres were only 35-36-11 last season. Their 81 points was a massive bump of 27 point from their second of two tanking seasons in 2014-15.
Bylsma will get a reprieve and a mulligan for the 406 man games his lost to injury this season. Major injuries sidelined Jack Eichel, Dmitry Kulikov, Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian, Kyle Okposo, Ryan O'Reilly, Jake McCabe, Tyler Ennis, Nic Deslauriers, Johan Larsson and others.
Bylsma's D pairs and forward trios took a beating for long stretches of games. Continuity and consistency were never achieved.
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers were tanking peers of the Sabres in recent years. The Leafs and Oilers are both riding wildly successful youth movements to the Stanley Cup playoffs later this week.
The success of the Leafs and Oilers is not lost on Tim Murray who has assembled a super core of young stars in Jack Eichel, Samson Reinhart, Rasmus Ristolainen, Ryan O'Reilly, Kyle Okposo, Evander Kane, Jake McCabe, Marcus Foligno, Will Carrier, and Zemgus Girgensons. Murray has young stars in Rochester in Justin Bailey, Nick Baptiste, Hudson Fasching, Alex Nylander, Evan Rodrigues, Brendan Guhle, C.J. Smith. Young studs on the come like Cal Petersen, Rasmus Asplund, Will Borgen, Anthony Florentino, and Giorgio Estephan to name a few.
Will Bylsma be the man to lead the Sabres out of the darkness and into the light? Or, will Tim Murray be influenced by the honest testimony of all his players on locker clean out day?
Imagine Ruff with a young, fast, skilled team that is stacked with talent at center ice, something he always longed for in his 15 years in Buffalo.
The "Lindy cannot inspire more offense out of his player" narrative died when he helped take Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin to achieve all star statuses.
You can never say never when the Pegulas are involved in a professional sports team.
They brought Ted Nolan back to Buffalo, right?
I'm not advocating for Murray to fire Bylsma. I think this team is two stud D, one being Guhle, from being a playoff team.
Since last summer, I have been preaching trading Evander Kane in exchange for a top pair defenseman. Kane scored his 28th goal of the disappointing season in the 3-2 loss to Tampa. Kane ended the season with 25 even strength goals.
Were I Tim Murray, I would be praying that playoff contenders Anaheim, Nashville, Minnesota, Columbus and Pittsburgh get booted prematurely out of the first or second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs due to a lack of goal scoring. Can Murray trade Kane for one of Brandon Montour, Shea Theodore, Ryan Ellis, Matt Dumba, Ryan Murray, or Olli Matta? Yes, I think so. I also believe that Murray can trade Kane today to Philly for young D monsters Shayne Gostisbehere, Sam Morin or Travis Sanheim. Affirmitive. How about trading Kane to Carolina in exchange for young D difference makers Noah Hanifin, Jake Bean or Haydn Fleury.
I am an advocate for Bylsma building a more trusting and open relationship with Eichel and Samson Reinhart and the youthful majority. I feel like Bylsma's "do it my way because I said so" approach doesn't work well on his Millenial players.
Look around, Dan.
You are the head coach of a twenty-something roster/ Mike Babcock was Tim Murray's first choice to coach the Sabres out of the dreadful taking years. The Leafs accelerated their rebuild by stealing Babcock away from Buffalo.
Dan needs to embrace his youthful stars and learn to inspire their creativity and passion.
Like Lindy once did for Ryan Miller, Derek Roy, Thomas Vanek, Jason Pominville, Soupy Campbell, Paul Gaustad, Max Afinogenov, Tyler Myers, Danny Briere, JP Dumont, Tim Connolly, and Marty Biron.
Join the Discussion:
»