The Buffalo Sabres have fired their longtime head coach on Wednesday after the team sputtered to a 6-10-1 start to the season. Ruff was in the middle of his 14th seasons as head coach.

Lindy Ruff had become a Buffalo fixture. Not only has he been head coach since 1997-98, he also played with the Sabres for 10 years during his NHL career, beginning in 1979.

The Sabres made the playoffs in eight of his full 13 seasons with the club, including a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 1999. However, the Sabres haven’t been to a conference final since 2007, and they have only finished better than third in the division once in the last four seasons.

Buffalo had high expectations heading into this season after some offseason moves, but it never came to fruition in the season’s first month.

The Sabres had been playing uninspired hockey as of late, scoring just one goal a loss to Winnipeg on Tuesday, just a couple of days after blowing a late lead against the Penguins.