Ruff focuses on finishing job to fix the Sabres next year after 600th win as Buffalo's coach

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Ruff focuses on finishing job to fix the Sabres next year after 600th win as Buffalo's coach

2025-03-26 12:39 Last Updated At：12:41

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Lindy Ruff gave a brief wave to acknowledge the applauding crowd before turning up the tunnel in what proved to be a modest moment to celebrate his 600th career win as Buffalo Sabres coach.

Humbling as it was in becoming the NHL’s second coach to achieve the milestone with one franchise, Ruff was preoccupied with other thoughts following a 3-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night.

Weighing heavily on Ruff in the closing weeks of his first season in his second stint in Buffalo was the disappointment of falling well short of his objective in transforming the Sabres into winners . And the frustration of a job unfinished compelled him to already begin looking ahead to next season, with Buffalo all but assured of extending its NHL-record playoff drought to a 14th season.

“I’m a guy that from Day 1 always thinks I can fix everything. And I haven’t been able to fix everything,” Ruff said.

“This year has been a disappointment for me,” he added, specifically referring to the team’s playoff hopes unraveling during an 0-10-3 skid spanning November and December. “I feel personally responsible that there were games that were right there that could’ve turned it and got it the other way. And we didn’t get it done.”

As for the milestone, Ruff wasn’t even aware of his achievement until a team official told him as he was leaving the bench moments after the final horn, and just before the public address announcer informed the crowd.

“I really wasn’t aware of it, but obviously feels good. I mean, just to get the win tonight felt good, how hard we battled,” he said of an outing in which Buffalo overcame two one-goal deficits and won on Tage Thompson’s go-ahead goal 1:23 into the third period.

“I’ve been fortunate,” he added, listing former GMs and owners. “A lot of good people around me that have helped throughout the years, and coaches, unbelievable fan support here in this building.”

Ruff improved his Buffalo record to 600-467-90 and 78 ties, and trails only Al Arbour, who won 740 games with the New York Islanders.

The 65-year-old Ruff got his second chance to coach the Sabres in April after Don Granato was fired following three-plus seasons. In being rehired after head-coaching stops in Dallas and New Jersey, Ruff became the Sabres seventh coach since he was fired two months into the labor-dispute-shortened 2014 season.

In 2011, he was Buffalo’s last to coach lead the team to the playoffs. Ruff's first term in Buffalo lasted 14-plus-season, during which was the NHL's coach of the year in 2006. Under his watch, the Sabres lost the Stanley Cup Final in six games to Dallas in 1999, and lost in the Eastern Conference finals to Carolina and Ottawa in 2006 and ’07.

Ruff’s ties to Buffalo date to his playing days in the 1980s, when he spent nine of his fist 12 NHL seasons with the Sabres, including a three-year term as captain.

Overall, Ruff’s 1,844 games coached rank third on the NHL list. He ranks fifth with 893 career victories and second with 714 losses.

What encourages him is how the Sabres have responded of late.

Though still sitting last in the Eastern Conference standings, Buffalo has won two straight following an 5-3 win over West-leading Winnipeg on Sunday, and is 5-3 in its past eight outings.

“The way we’re playing now, these last 40 games is conducive to winning,” Ruff said.

He likened his desire to fix things to tinkering with his car and being a handyman around the house.

“I can honestly say it drives my wife crazy, when she thinks I can fix everything,” Ruff said with a laugh. “I’ve had to call a few electricians over time.”

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Myanmar's earthquake death toll jumps to more than 1,000 as more bodies recovered from the rubble

2025-03-29 16:07 Last Updated At：16:11

BANGKOK (AP) — The death toll from a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar jumped to more than 1,000 on Saturday as more bodies were pulled from the rubble of the scores of buildings that collapsed when it struck near the country's second-largest city.

The country's military-led government said in a statement that 1,002 people have now been found dead and another 2,376 injured, with 30 others missing. The statement suggested the numbers could still rise, saying “detailed figures are still being collected.”

Myanmar is in the throes of a prolonged and bloody civil war, which is already responsible for a massive humanitarian crisis. It makes movement around the country both difficult and dangerous, complicating relief efforts and raising fears that the death toll could still rise precipitously.

The earthquake struck midday Friday with an epicenter not far from Mandalay, followed by several aftershocks including one measuring a strong 6.4 magnitude. It sent buildings in many areas toppling to the ground, buckled roads, caused bridges to collapse and burst a dam.

In the capital Naypyidaw, crews worked Saturday to repair damaged roads, while electricity, phone and internet services remained down for most of the city. The earthquake brought down many buildings, including multiple units that housed government civil servants, but that section of the city was blocked off by authorities on Saturday.

In neighboring Thailand, the quake rocked the greater Bangkok area, home to some 17 million people, and other parts of the country.

Bangkok city authorities said so far six people have been found dead, 26 injured and 47 are still missing, most from a construction site near the capital's popular Chatuchak market.

On Saturday, more heavy equipment was brought in to move the tons of rubble, but hope was fading among friends and family members of the missing that they would be found alive.

“I was praying that that they had survived but when I got here and saw the ruin — where could they be? In which corner? Are they still alive? I am still praying that all six are alive,” said 45-year-old Naruemol Thonglek, sobbing as she awaited news about her partner, who is from Myanmar, and five friends who worked at the site.

“I cannot accept this. When I see this I can’t accept this. A close friend of mine is in there, too,” she said.

Waenphet Panta said she hadn't heard from her daughter Kanlayanee since a phone call about an hour before the quake. A friend told her Kanlayanee had been working high on the building on Friday.

“I am praying my daughter is safe, that she has survived and that she’s at the hospital,” she said, Kanlayanee’s father sitting beside her.

Thai authorities said that the quake and aftershocks were felt in most of the country's provinces. Many places in the north reported damage to residential buildings, hospitals and temples, including in Chiang Mai, but the only casualties were reported in Bangkok

Earthquakes are rare in Bangkok, but relatively common in Myanmar. The country sits on the Sagaing Fault, a major north-south fault that separates the India plate and the Sunda plate.

Brian Baptie, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey, said it appears a 200-kilometer (125-mile) section of the fault ruptured for just over a minute, with a slip of up to 5 meters (16.4 feet) in places, causing intense ground shaking in an area where most of the population lives in buildings constructed of timber and unreinforced brick masonry.

“When you have a large earthquake in an area where there are over a million people, many of them living in vulnerable buildings, the consequences can often be disastrous," he said in a statement.

“From initial reports, that seems likely to be the case here.”

Myanmar’s government said blood was in high demand in the hardest-hit areas. In a country where prior governments sometimes have been slow to accept foreign aid, Min Aung Hlaing said Myanmar was ready to accept outside assistance.

Myanmar’s military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, and is now involved in a bloody civil war with long-established militias and newly formed pro-democracy ones.

Military forces continued their attacks even after the quake, with three airstrikes in northern Kayin state, also called Karenni state, and southern Shan — both of which border Mandalay state, said Dave Eubank, a former U.S. Special Forces soldier who founded the Free Burma Rangers, a humanitarian aid organization that has provided assistance to both combatants and civilians in Myanmar since the 1990s.

Eubank told The Associated Press that in the area he was operating in, most villages have already been destroyed by the military so the earthquake had little impact.

“People are in the jungle and I was out in the jungle when the earthquake hit — it was powerful, but the trees just moved, that was it for us, so we haven't had a direct impact other than that the Burma army keeps attacking, even after the quake,” he said.

Government forces have lost control of much of Myanmar, and many places are incredibly dangerous or simply impossible for aid groups to reach. More than 3 million people have been displaced by the fighting and nearly 20 million are in need, according to the United Nations.

“Although a full picture of the damage is still emerging, most of us have never seen such destruction," said Haider Yaqub, Myanmar country director for the NGO Plan International, from Yangon.

“Without a doubt, the humanitarian needs will be significant.”

China and Russia are the largest suppliers of weapons to Myanmar's military, and were among the first to step in with humanitarian aid.

A 37-member team from the Chinese province of Yunnan reached the city of Yangon early Saturday with earthquake detectors, drones and other supplies, the official Xinhua news agency reported. An additional team of 82 was sent later from Beijing, and 16 members of the Chinese civil relief squad Blue Sky Rescue Team were sent from Yunnan to northern Myanmar with medical kits, generators and other supplies, state broadcaster CGTN reported.

Russia’s emergencies ministry dispatched two planes carrying 120 rescuers and supplies, according to a report from the Russian state news agency Tass.

India sent a search and rescue team and a medical team as well as provisions, while Malaysia’s foreign ministry said the country will send 50 people on Sunday to help identify and provide aid to the worst-hit areas.

South Korea said it would provide $2 million worth of humanitarian aid through international organizations.

The United Nations allocated $5 million to start relief efforts. President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. was going to help with the response, but some experts were concerned about this effort given his administration’s deep cuts in foreign assistance.

AP writers Jerry Harmer and Grant Peck in Bangkok, Simina Mistreanu in Taipei and Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.