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How did Lindy Ruff not win the Jack Adams?
D.A. counts down the three biggest reasons this vote makes no sense.
✅ Took a team that looked dead in December and completely turned it around.
✅ Ended a 14-year playoff drought for the Buffalo Sabres.
✅ Developed a young roster into a division champion despite almost no preseason expectations.
Meanwhile, Jon Cooper won the award coaching a Tampa Bay Lightning team that everyone expected to contend.
So what happened?
D.A. breaks down the countdown from #3 to #1 — and the top reason is enough to drive any Sabres fan insane.
#Sabres #LindyRuff #NHL #JackAdams #Buffalo
🔥 Welcome inside the mind of Damon Amendolara (D.A.) — national host on SiriusXM Mad Dog Sports Radio with an Upstate New York soul 🔥
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0:00
Lindy Ruff didn't just lose the Jack
0:02
Adams, he was robbed. And when you look
0:04
at the voting, there are three reasons
0:06
why. And number one is absolutely
0:09
brutal. Lindy took a team that nobody
0:11
believed in in the middle of a total
0:13
disaster in December, completely turned
0:15
it around, ended a 14-year playoff
0:18
drought, and brought an entire new vibe
0:21
and belief into an organization, won the
0:24
division, won a playoff series, and
0:27
still didn't win coach of the year. Why?
0:36
Here's a countdown of the top three
0:38
reasons it happened. Let's start with
0:39
number three because this happens in a
0:41
lot of sports. It's the lifetime
0:44
achievement vote. John Cooper has been
0:46
an incredible coach for a really long
0:48
time. He's won two Stanley Cups. The
0:50
Lightning have been contenders almost
0:52
every year he's been at the helm. He's
0:54
got a Hall of Fame resume and he's never
0:56
won the Jack Adams. So, I think some of
1:00
this vote is from the voters trying to
1:04
correct history. At some point, these
1:07
guys looked at John Cooper and said,
1:09
"How how is Cooper never won a Jack
1:11
Adams?" And it's fine to give him
1:14
respect. It's not fine to make this
1:17
season's award for best season coach the
1:21
lifetime achievement award. It's not
1:23
about more than just this season. If you
1:25
look at the preseason prognostications
1:28
from the Athletic, the Lightning were
1:30
the number two best team in hockey
1:33
behind only the Oilers. Yes, they lost
1:36
Victor Hedman to his personal leave of
1:38
absence. And yes, they still made the
1:40
postseason, but they had huge
1:42
expectations. They made the playoffs.
1:46
This needed to be about more than
1:47
Cooper's been a really good coach for a
1:50
really long time and never won. Let's
1:51
give them one. It cannot be about that.
1:54
And I really feel like part of the vote
1:56
was about that. Quick reminder to
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subscribe to the channel because all of
1:59
our offseason sabers in six videos,
2:01
including the upcoming draft and free
2:03
agency, need to make your feed. So, make
2:05
sure you're subscribed. The number two
2:08
reason was the expectations trap. As I
2:12
just mentioned, the Lightning were
2:14
already expected to be an excellent team
2:17
this year, and this should be about
2:21
exceeding expectations.
2:24
Look at what Lindy Ruff was able to
2:26
accomplish with a Sabers squad that few
2:29
had any expectations for. That same
2:32
vote, a panel of hockey writers from the
2:35
Athletic had the Sabres as the 19th best
2:40
team in the league. 19 out of 32.
2:44
In December, the season was crumbling.
2:47
In December, they fire their general
2:49
manager. In December, it looks like yet
2:52
another lost winter and spring in
2:55
Buffalo.
2:56
And that's when they catch, pardon the
2:58
pun, after talking about John Cooper,
3:00
lightning in a bottle. Now, so much of
3:03
that is Lindy Ruff holding the thing
3:05
together, holding the rope, and so much
3:09
of that is Ruff's long lineage of
3:12
coaching young teams or young players,
3:15
understanding what it takes at this
3:17
juncture of his career to keep everybody
3:19
on the same page. To look at what Ruff
3:23
did when expectations were low really
3:26
needs to be in focus here. They had
3:29
missed the playoffs for 14 straight
3:31
seasons.
3:33
At very best in December, it looked like
3:37
they'd be a fringe playoff team. And
3:40
most people thought they'd miss the
3:41
postseason entirely before the year. And
3:43
by December, you'd say it's over again.
3:47
And here they were winning the division,
3:49
breaking the playoff drought, going on
3:51
that amazing run since December, and
3:54
going into the playoffs as one of the
3:57
hottest teams in hockey. Come on, that's
4:01
so much different than what John Cooper
4:03
was expected to do versus what they
4:05
actually did. Coach of the year should
4:08
not be about meeting preseason
4:10
expectations.
4:12
It should be about blowing the doors off
4:14
them. But the number one reason
4:18
why Lindy Ruff was robbed of this Jack
4:20
Adams
4:22
really is about the missing ballots, the
4:25
hanging Chads.
4:28
According to reports,
4:30
40 broadcasters
4:33
just didn't turn in a vote. 40.
4:38
Now, it looks like a total of 99 people
4:41
did. Think about that.
4:44
You have a total of 140 some odd ballots
4:48
and 40 of them didn't even bother to do
4:51
the exercise.
4:53
Well, how can we believe that this is
4:57
the best representation
4:59
of how the hockey award should be handed
5:03
out when a third of the voters thought
5:06
almost it wasn't worth it? That's
5:09
unacceptable.
5:11
And less participation equals a smaller
5:14
sample size. Smaller sample size equals
5:17
more randomness. A smaller sample size
5:20
means fewer opportunities for consensus
5:23
candidates to accumulate points. And one
5:26
of the things that bothers me most about
5:28
the actual tally of the ballots
5:30
themselves
5:32
is that out of 99 ballots, only 67 of
5:37
them that were cast had Lindy Ruff as
5:39
one, two, or three.
5:42
You're telling me that there was 30 some
5:46
odd voters that thought that Lindy Ruff
5:48
hadn't even been the third best coach in
5:52
the NHL this year. That seems insane.
5:54
Insanity. Onethird of the voters that
5:57
actually turned in the assignment didn't
5:59
think that Lindy Ruff was a top three
6:02
coaching performance this year. Again,
6:05
what do we need to underscore here?
6:08
Before the season, little to no
6:10
expectations. During the season,
6:12
complete bottoming out and calamity. By
6:15
the end of it, they had soared to the
6:18
two seed, winning the division. and one
6:21
of the great stories in the NHL.
6:24
You can argue perhaps he shouldn't have
6:26
been first, but you cannot argue he was
6:29
one of the three best coaching
6:31
performances in the NHL this season.
6:33
That is undeniable and in inarguable.
6:38
And look, nobody's denying that John
6:40
Cooper did a good job this year. But if
6:43
the Jack Adams is truly about the coach
6:45
who did the best job on the year,
6:50
Lindy Ruff has one of the easiest cases
6:53
in recent memory. You look at some of
6:55
the other guys that got votes this year
6:59
and where their teams were preseason
7:01
predicted to finish. The Avalanche as
7:05
one of the three best teams in hockey,
7:06
as I mentioned, the Lightning, one of
7:08
the one or two best teams in hockey. Rod
7:11
Brenda Moore with the Hurricanes, a top
7:12
five team in hockey. All of these guys
7:15
got votes that siphoned tallies away
7:19
from Lindy Ruff. That cannot be that
7:23
cannot happen. That's the problem here.
7:26
And for 32 voters who didn't even have
7:29
Lindy in the top three tells you
7:32
everything you need to know about how
7:34
broken this vote was.
7:38
Thanks for watching everybody and why
7:39
not subscribe. Sabres in six offseason
7:42
news and the draft is coming up. This is
7:44
a big one and then July hits and free
7:46
agency is here and the Alex Tuck
7:47
decision and all of that. So check it
7:49
out. I just had a great conversation
7:51
with Shaina Goldman, NHL writer of The
7:54
Athletic about what the offseason will
7:56
look like for the Sabres. Check that
7:57
out. It's right here. You'll see it
7:59
right on this screen. But also make sure
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8:09
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underway. Make sure you're subscribed.
8:18
Thanks for watching everybody. I'm Da
8:20
Damon Amandalara. Catch me weekday
8:22
mornings on SiriusXM channel 82 Mad Dog
8:24
Sports Radio. We'll see you next time.
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