Dallas Stars: What All Happened During Lindy Ruff’s Tenure

Lindy Ruff’s First Season in Dallas

There was plenty to follow in Ruff’s first season with the Stars. The great overhaul of Dallas hockey had just begun, and Ruff was one of the main orchestrators behind all of it.

Let’s see exactly how much you remember.

Dallas Stars

Stars draft Valeri Nichushkin with 10th overall pick

The big 18-year-old Russian was nothing more than a bright-eyed forward with a dream and few English skills before the Stars scooped him up in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.

The draft happened no more than a week after Ruff was hired, and the Stars’ new head coach was given the task of developing and finding the right fit for Nichushkin.

Though the recent past did not show the strongest relationship between the two, Nichushkin’s successful rookie season was due in large part to Ruff’s moves.

Ruff makes a defense of six left-handers work

In today’s NHL, balance is everything. When a six-man defensive group is made up of six left-handed skaters, plenty of problems can arise. But even with Alex Goligoski, Trevor Daley, Sergei Gonchar, Brenden Dillon, Patrik Nemeth, and Jordie Benn on the blue line towards the home stretch of the season, Ruff found a way to make it work. That cannot be overlooked.

The Rich Peverley story

Though this one tugs more at the heartstrings than anything, Lindy Ruff happened to be the bench boss for the Stars on the night of Rich Peverley’s near fatal cardiac incident. His quick actions along with those from the players and medical staff helped save Peverley’s life.

The playoff drought ends

Taking over the reins of a team that is currently in the midst of a five-season playoff drought doesn’t sound like the ideal job. But for some reason, Ruff took it and blew everyone away.

Instead of taking on a rebuild, Ruff helped right the ship in a mere 82 games and push the Stars back into the playoffs, successfully restoring hope in Big D. This might be considered Ruff’s biggest accomplishment in his tenure in Dallas.

Lindy Ruff’s Second Season in Dallas

After a season filled with immense excitement and promise, Ruff embarked on his second season behind the bench with the Dallas Stars. Though the results seemed bleak, the Stars still had plenty of bright spots in 2014-15.

Spezza’s arrival

Jason Spezza was traded to the Dallas Stars on July 1, 2014, and Ruff knew just where to put him. Using him as a second-line center, the Stars quickly went from being slim down the middle to having arguably the best one-two punch in the NHL with Seguin and Spezza. Ruff definitely knew how to use Spezza to his advantage.

Offensive firepower

The Stars actually finished second overall in the NHL in 14-15 in the goals for department. They scored a total of 257, which is just two less than the Lightning who claimed first place. That gave them an average of 3.13 goals per game. They would only go up from there.

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Stars improve on 2013-14 performance

It might seem crazy considering the Dallas Stars missed the playoffs in 2014-15, but they actually improved on their record from the year before by one point (92 points).

With all of the defensive deficiencies and the lack of a competent two-goaltender set in the crease, Ruff still found a way to salvage the season and make a tiny step in the right direction.

Benn wins the Art Ross Trophy in dramatic fashion

In a game 82 that was disappointing because of the lack of playoffs following it, there was still a bright spot involved. Jamie Benn, who had quickly become one of the most dynamic players in the NHL, had a chance to win the Art Ross Trophy, which is awarded to the player who tallies the most points in a season, on the final night.

With 8.5 seconds to go in the third period, Benn tallied an assist which pushed him into first place in the league with 87 points. It was a great end to Ruff’s second year in Dallas.

Lindy Ruff’s Third Season in Dallas

2015-16 was hands down the obvious choice for Ruff’s best season as coach of the Dallas Stars. Practically everything that could have gone right did go right.

Stars come out firing

On the Stars’ exit interview day in April 2015, there was one clear phrase that everyone stuck to: starting fast in 2015-16.

And start fast they did. After a 3-0 shutout of the Pittsburgh Penguins on home ice on opening night, the Stars were off and running. They quickly made their way out to a 19-5-0 record through the first two months of the season and were first place in the NHL standings for a little while. Ruff must have lit the right fire that got them up and moving.

Pucks and Pitchforks

Molding a brand new team into something beautiful

With GM Jim Nill, the Dallas Stars have learned that a substantially different looking roster each season is nothing out of the ordinary.

For a head coach, trying to incorporate multiple new players and fill the void of players who have departed can be a trying exercise. But even with Patrick Sharp, Johnny Oduya, and Antti Niemi entering the fold, Ruff made it all work into a beautiful mixture.

New banners for the rafters

Under Ruff’s leadership, the Dallas Stars finished the 2015-16 season with an impressive 50-23-9 record with 109 points. These results helped Dallas secure their first ever Central Division champions title along with a Western Conference regular season champions title. It also propelled Dallas into the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second time in three years.

Winning a playoff series ain’t easy

The Stars also broke an eight-year drought without a playoff series win by defeating the Minnesota Wild in six games in the Western Conference quarterfinals.

Jack Adams nomination

Due to Ruff’s success and contribution to the Stars’ massive turnaround, he was nominated for the Jack Adams Award, which is given to the NHL’s best coach each season.

Lindy Ruff’s Final Season in Dallas

This slide shouldn’t even need to be written. The disappointment and frustration is probably still fresh on everyone’s minds, so we’ll keep it brief.

Stars lose a lot of key pieces in offseason and to injury

In game one of this past season, the Dallas Stars did not look like the regular Dallas Stars. Sure they found a way to beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-2, but there were so many familiar faces missing from the lineup. Mattias Janmark, Cody Eakin, Ales Hemsky, Alex Goligoski, Jason Demers, Kris Russell, Colton Sceviour, and Vernon Fiddler were all missing from the lineup and all had substitutes taking their place.

As a result, the Dallas Stars had to take some time to adjust to such a new group. That could not have been easy on Ruff.

Using Eaves and Cracknell to their full advantage

If you are looking for something noteworthy that Ruff did this season, look no further than the production of Patrick Eaves (before the trade deadline, of course) and Adam Cracknell. Ruff gave each of them an extended chance and valuable playing time, and the two proved to be some of the Stars’ most diverse forwards.

Ruff tries out a lot of rookies

Devin Shore, Esa Lindell, Julius Honka, Gemel Smith, Justin Dowling. These are just a few of the rookies who got an extensive chance at playing NHL hockey this year under Ruff. He gave significant playing time to the rookies, who in turn got better with each passing game.

Stars fall off the deep end

It’s no secret that the Dallas Stars had a very disappointing and underwhelming 2016-17 season. A final record of 34-37-11 will tell the story on that one, and it happened to be just bad enough to force Ruff out the door. The season will go down as the second worst in franchise history and will hopefully be forgotten about quickly and swiftly.

Maybe you are excited that he is finally gone. Maybe you wish that he hadn’t have been dealt such a brutal hand this year. However you feel about the matter, Lindy Ruff is out in Dallas.

Next: Teams For Stars Fans To Root For In Postseason

But you cannot say that it wasn’t a fun ride filled with exciting milestones. That is one thing that Ruff brought to the table in his four-year career with the Stars: memories that will last forever. Just look at his smile in the picture at the front of the article. It’s hard to forget something like that, isn’t it?