Lindy Ruff Rips Sabres 'Christmas Hockey' In Loss To Flyers

Things are not going well for the Buffalo Sabres, and now their head coach is letting them have it.

The Sabres were in Philadelphia on Saturday for a showdown between two of the Eastern Conference's basement dwellers.

However — and I called this because this is how the Flyers work and have worked for years — Philadelphia has looked pretty decent since firing head coach John Tortorella this week, which just means they're going to put themselves in a position to not draft as high.

Rookie phenom Matvei Michkov has four goals in two games, and the Fly Guys are 2-0 with interim head coach Brad Shaw behind the bench, after a 7-4 win over the Sabres.

Considering the Flyers struggles, this was a winnable game for the Sabres, and that's one of the reasons that Ruff was extremely disappointed in his team's performance.

In fact, he was so disappointed in them…

How disappointed in them was he?!

He was so disappointed in them that he said they disrespected the game and played "Christmas hockey."

I didn't know what that meant either, but luckily for us, he explained it.

"Totally disrespected the game," Ruff said, per Sportsnet. "It was like Christmas hockey, we handed gifts out for the first three goals and you won't win on the road (like that) and the road's been something we've been working on. We had lack of discipline and we had lack of attention to detail when it comes to managing the puck early that really hurt us."

Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff laid into his team after a disappointing performance against the Philadelphia Flyers. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)

Ruff should've called me to talk to the fellas before this game. I know the Flyers don't look great on paper and haven't been stellar all season, but, as I said, winning out after firing the coach with under 10 games left on the schedule and taking their own draft position would be the most Flyers thing ever.

I would have made sure they didn't disrespect that game.

Anyway, speaking of Ruff, he's only in his first season back with the Sabres after first coaching them from 1997 to 2013.

He should get more than one year, but things are going to need to turn around in a hurry next season or the Sabres might need to make yet another coaching change.