Struggling Sabres Part Ways With Ruff Ruff was hired on July 21, 1997, and served 5,693 days. Barry Trotz was hired less than three weeks later to coach the Nashville Predators, who began play in the 1998-99 season; he is now the longest tenured coach. Before he became the Sabres' coach, Ruff played 10 seasons in Buffalo as a rugged winger and defenseman. His association with the club dated back to 1979, when the Sabres drafted him out of Lethbridge in the Western Hockey League. According to nhl.com, Ruff was also the second-longest tenured coach in North American professional sports, after Gregg Popovich of the N.B.A.'s San Antonio Spurs. Ruff's dismissal was announced by General Manager Darcy Regier via the Sabres' Twitter feed. Regier hired Ruff shortly after becoming Buffalo's general manager in the summer of 1997. Later Wednesday, Ron Rolston, the coach of the A.H.L.'s Rochester Americans, was named the interim coach for the rest of the season. The Sabres have struggled this season, going 6-10-1 and losing by 2-1 Tuesday night at home to Winnipeg, the last-place team in the Eastern Conference at the time. The loss put Buffalo in 13th place. Ruff ran practice Wednesday morning and briefed reporters afterward. He told them that the Sabres were waiving the fourth-line enforcer Cody McCormick. According to The Associated Press, Ruff then cut short his briefing and suggested more changes could be on the horizon because "it isn't working the way we're going." He didn't specify what those changes might be, but his dismissal was announced later that afternoon. Ruff coached 1,765 regular-season games with Buffalo, compiling 562 victories, 452 regulation losses and 78 ties. The Sabres lost an additional 84 games in overtime or shootouts. In the playoffs his teams won 10 series and lost 8, while winning 57 games and losing 44. The Sabres reached the Stanley Cup finals once under his direction, in 1998-99. They lost to the Dallas Stars in the third overtime period of Game 6 at Buffalo on a controversial goal by Brett Hull, who had one skate in the crease when he knocked the puck past a sprawling Dominik Hasek. Ruff protested that the goal should not have counted because of where Hull was standing, and complained in vain about it long into the morning. Two days later he spoke at a rally at Niagara Square in downtown Buffalo, saying, "I'm going to leave you with two words, the final two words for the summer: NO GOAL!" "No goal!" that has become the unofficial trademark of the 1999 Stanley Cup finals. The Sabres won the Presidents' Trophy in 2007 as the N.H.L. top regular-season team. But that post-season was the last time the Sabres won a playoff series. On Wednesday, the losses finally mounted too high, and Ruff's tenure finally came to an end.