Sabres take 2-0 lead, Ruff pitches fit

On Friday night, the Sabres had to work hard late in the game to cling to a 3-2 lead, and now hold a 2-0 series lead over the Rangers as the teams head into Madison Square Garden on Sunday afternoon.

I was working, so I missed the game, but I talked to a Rangers fan out in the street late last night and he told me all about the heroics of Ryan Miller. In particular, the insane save he made against BitchJaro Jagr late in the third.

None of the game recaps mentioned it, but Sabres coach Lindy Ruff exploded on the refs late in the game for what he thought was a missed too many men call and a blown off-side call. He was apparently given a gross misconduct penalty. There's no record of a bench penalty for abuse of officials, so I'm guessing that it came in the tunnel after the game, in the style of Jim Schoenfeld v Don Koharski.

Anyway, Ruff has been fined an "undisclosed" amount. Neither the Buffalo News nor the New York Times mentioned this in their respective home-team coverage of the game, but it's all over the hockey websites.

I searched all over for some mention of it, or maybe some video of Ruff screaming at the officials. It was all to no avail. However, I did find this clip of Ruff which I will childishly post here. I am fully aware of the fact that this is hateful and juvenile.


For the record, I am also aware that Lindy Ruff had a productive career as a player in the NHL, while the coach of my team had a very short and unproductive (read : 12 games) career in the NHL.

UPDATE
Someone posted Ruff's little outburst. I don't know what precisely led to the fine and gross misconduct penalty. I'm guessing he referred to one of the officials as a cork soaker. Maybe it had something to do with something he said in the post-game presser. Anyway, here's the clip of Ruff screaming, then stomping off, then throwing things.