Ruff Moves into 5th All-Time Games Coached in NHL History | BLOG

As the puck drops on the New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks game, Devils head coach Lindy Ruff will be behind an NHL bench as a head coach for his 1608th game.
The milestone marks the fifth-most games coached in NHL history, as Ruff surpasses legendary coach Al Arbour, who coached 1,607 games in his career. This morning, the 62-year-old Ruff shared that Arbour was one of his mentors, along with Scotty Bowman and Roger Neilson. Neilson coached 1,000 NHL games, while Bowman is the all-time leader with 2,141 games.
"What it means is I've been fortunate to have a lot of good teams, have a lot of good players. I've been involved with a lot of really good coaches, and have had great experiences," Ruff said, "I've had a lot of help along the way. And I think to survive this long, you have to be adaptable. You have to be open to change. But at the same time, you've got to have a lot of good people around you. And I've been fortunate to be surrounded by other good coaches and a management group that believes in what you're trying to do."

Ruff began his head coaching career during the 1997-98 NHL season with the Buffalo Sabres, where he coached 15 of his 22 seasons as a bench boss to date. In that time, he explained how being adaptable has been central to his longevity.
"You have to take a lot of input from the players, players want involvement, they want ownership, they really want a partnership," he shared of how things have changed since his coaching debut. "Not that they're going to be right, and not that I'm always going to be right. But you have to be open to listening to what they want to bring and the understanding of what they're trying to do."
It wasn't always that way he admitted, and that has been part of needing to be adaptable. The players he coached in his early years had a contrasting approach to the player/coach relationship than the generations he's coached in the past few years.
"You know, I really think where the game has gone, it's been a lot more of an open relationship and a two-way relationship versus just a one-way demanding relationship, 'do it or else'."
Ruff spent the majority of his career with the Buffalo Sabres, with 1,165 of his 1,607 games behind the Buffalo bench. Between 2013 and 2017 he was with the Dallas Stars, before taking over the New Jersey bench at the start of the 2020-21 season.
The NY Islanders' Barry Trotz is the only other active coach on the all-time list above Ruff. He is second all-time with 1,785 games coached.
Congratulations to coach Lindy Ruff on achieving this milestone!