NHL fans shocked as 66-year-old Buffalo Sabres HC loses out Jack Adams award by 3 points

NHL fans on social media were stunned after Lindy Ruff narrowly lost the Jack Adams Trophy to Jon Cooper. The Jack Adams Trophy is awarded annually to the NHL’s best head coach.

This year’s voting was extremely close, with Tampa Bay Lightning boss Jon Cooper receiving 226 points to edge out Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff by just three points. Ruff finished with 223 points.

The Montreal Canadiens eliminated Jon Cooper and the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the playoffs. Lindy Ruff, meanwhile, guided the Buffalo Sabres to the postseason, ending a 14-year playoff drought. The Sabres advanced to the second round before also being eliminated by the Canadiens.

Here’s how fans on X (formerly called Twitter) reacted to the Jack Adams winner. One tweeted:

“Lindy Ruff was mugged.”

Another chimed in:

“Lindy Ruff was robbed. The turnaround in Buffalo was impressive.”

Here are some of the other top reactions on X:

“36 people don’t know what they’re doing. The Lightning was picked to win the Atlantic. Most if not all voters had the Sabres missing the playoffs, many of which thought that Lindy Ruff was the next coach to be fired back in November. Fans see it. Why can’t they?” a third fan wrote.

“Jon Cooper getting the lifetime achievement award here…Congrats…I guess..Muse and Ruff were more deserving,” one X user opined.

“How does Jon Cooper get this award? I think Ruff deserved it the most, Sturm should’ve been top 5 easily,” another chimmed in.

“Embarrassed for the men and women who didn’t vote for Lindy Ruff!!! Robbed of all his hard work and dedication to this team and organization. Shocking,” added another.

“Never thought this day would come” – Jon Cooper shares his thoughts after winning the Jack Adams Award

Notably, Jon Cooper won his first Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s best head coach. After receiving the award, Cooper admitted he had never considered winning the prestigious accolade.

“Okay, you got me,” Cooper said via NHL. “I never thought this day would come. It was a magical group, and to think that we had one win in our first seven games, but nobody questioned what was happening. Nobody questioned our belief in what we were doing. And then we slowly took off. There were times with doubt, especially when a lot of the players went down the way they did.”

Cooper guided the Tampa Bay Lightning to 50 wins and a second-place finish in the Atlantic Division. The team finished fifth overall in the league standings with a 50-26-6 record.

Lindy Ruff had a historic season with Sabres

Despite falling just short in the Jack Adams Trophy, Lindy Ruff delivered one of the strongest coaching performances of his career with the Buffalo Sabres.

The 66-year-old guided the Sabres back to the playoffs for the first time in 14 years, ending a long postseason drought. The team advanced to the second round before being eliminated by the Montreal Canadiens.

The Sabres won the Atlantic Division with 109 points. The historic season helped fuel Ruff’s near-miss in the voting, just three behind eventual winner Jon Cooper.