BUFFALO – Jarmo Kekalainen established a strong relationship with coach Lindy Ruff long before the Sabres promoted him to general manager.
Following his arrival one year ago as a senior advisor to former GM Kevyn Adams, Kekalainen spent every day with the Sabres, even participating in coaches meetings.
In their early days together, two hockey lifers developed mutual respect for each other.
“He was part of our group, he asked questions,” Ruff said Wednesday in KeyBank Center after the Sabres announced his two-year contract extension. “We shared ideas. I asked him questions, he asked me a lot of questions. It was just interaction every day, and I think that spurred growth. It got us to know each other, so that got us to this point.”
Ruff said he has nothing to hide in meetings. If Kekalainen, who noted he enjoys Ruff’s sense of humor, wanted to know why the Sabres played a certain way or how the coaching staff dealt with players, he answered.
“I think he wanted to get to know the staff, and we got to know him a lot better,” he said.
It can be easy to forget now, but Ruff’s future with the Sabres seemed iffy when Kekalainen replaced Adams on Dec. 15. They were tied with the Columbus Blue Jackets for the fewest points in the Eastern Conference.
Things felt bleak as the Sabres seem to be barreling toward their 15th consecutive season without a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
There was a belief Kekalainen might be interested in hiring John Tortorella, a coach with whom he enjoyed success with in Columbus.
But after he took over, Kekalainen gave Ruff a simple message: keep doing what you’re doing. The Sabres, remember, had a modest three-game win streak going.
Something was starting to click. No one knew it then, but that win streak would balloon to 10 games.
By early January, the Sabres had roared into a playoff spot.
“From the outside when I was looking at the Buffalo Sabres, I thought, ‘Man, that team has a lot of potential, a lot of talent on the team,’” Kekalainen said. “I think once the coaching staff’s message started getting through that we need to compete, we need to be more disciplined, we can’t do the ‘stupid stuff,’ as we call it, where we shoot ourselves in the foot … we started winning hockey games. Once you start winning hockey games, you start believing in it.”
By late in the winter, it became clear Ruff would be awarded a new contract.
The Sabres finished the season on a torrid, league-best 39-9-5 run. Overall, they won 50 games, earned 109 points and captured the ultra-competitive Atlantic Division.
They defeated the Boston Bruins in six games in the opening round of the playoffs, their first series win since 2007, before falling to the Montreal Canadiens in an entertaining seven-game series.
Kekalainen called extending Ruff a “no-brainer.”
Ruff’s ability to adapt impresses Kekalainen. At 66, he’s the NHL’s third-oldest coach.
“He’s not a spring chicken anymore, but he’s a student of the game,” Kekalainen said.
Ruff has embraced how the game has evolved over the years with analytics and science. Of course, if he hadn’t, he likely wouldn’t keep getting coaching gigs.
“I think he has a really good feel for the pulse of the team, but he also listens,” Kekalainen said. “He has a good relationship with the strength and conditioning staff. There’s a lot of data involved in today’s world, so science backed where we’re at, what we need to do to prepare for the next game, and he’s very open to that.
“Some coaches can be stubborn, ‘This is the way I’ve done it always, this is the way we do it.’ He’s not like that at all. And to me, that shows a coach that still wants to get better and believes in the new technology and the science behind it and all that.”