Well, it happened and now we wait to see if it helps.
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45 Comments
Devs fan and yeah, this needed to happen. Like Lindy as a guy but his constant poor decision-making behind the bench was really hurting us in addition to injuries, bad goaltending, etc.
If the Leafs are out of first round this year, there’s a job vacant for Ruff next year 👍
Travis Green is terrible
Greene is not the answer moving forward. What he is Fitz’s attempt at telling the Devils that he still has the players back at this very tough time for them. Not happy with how quiet he’s been but he finally did the right today.
I’m a Stars fan. I’ve seen this song and dance before and this team looks exactly like the 2017 Dallas Stars its shocking
I think it would be a very interesting twist if coaches had contracts similar to those of players, could be (almost had to be but not quite) traded, had NTCs, and had to respect the trade deadline (no trading, no firing, no buyout).
Owners and GMs would have to sleep in the bed they made, stop blaming the coaches for personnel performance, stop blaming coaches for weak rosters, and stop under performing themselves (owners not wanting to spend and GMs not drafting/trading/signing well).
This won’t solve the issue… not because of Ruff, but because Green is a mediocre replacement. Green should have been fired too.
As a Devils fan, I wasn't hoping to see Ruff get fired but I'm also not mad that it happened. The players stopped responding to him and you could see how they had a harder and harder time keeping their spirits up when they dealt with adversity on the ice. (They'd score a goal, then get scored against and you could see the wind leave their sails immediately and it would be a struggle to get over it). My main concern with NJ is the defense. As bad as the goalie situation has been, the defense is too young and allows far too many quality chances for the opponents to score. I don't think it would matter all that much WHO was in net if the defense continues to let up all these chances. Yes, they need a top tier goalie, but they also need that shutdown defenseman to make up for the lapses from the youth on the blue line.
Devils need a goalie and Dougie Hamilton back.
Has anyone made the golf joke yet? Fitzgerald makes a chip shot from the Ruff to the Green. (ba-dump-dum)
Damnit, i wasnt againt firing Donnie until this happened. Im all for bringing Lindy back to Buffalo.
How many teams has that guy been fired from??.. Why does the NHL love recycling constant failures of Head Coaches??
Need better defensive structure first and foremost
Coaching was def part of the issue. A good example was the last few minutes of the Kings game. You pull a goalie and it takes the puck handler to realize they never sent out the extra attacker. Lack of discipline and accountability means the captain of the ship gets the axe. There needs to be someone to hold this team accountable for their mistakes as well.
Defense and goaltending are still serious concerns but the coaching was not perfect. Travis green will not fix that, but I suspect they will shop hard for a coach in the offseason.
My dark horse pick will be Jay Pandolfo with BU.
Lindy didn't help but he's not why we failed. Probably needed a change though, if only coz Jack likes Lindy. It's a team business, Jack!
No, it wouldn't. Fitzgerald threw away the season by not trading for a goalie all year. Lindy was probably fired to save grace for Fitzgerald. Although Lindy was dealt a bad hand with most of the team being injured all year, terrible goaltending, and inexperienced d-fence, he made the situation worse by playing Timo Meir on the left wing, bearly playing Alexander Holtz, blaming the media for the power play going 2 for 40, and making bad decisions (for example starting Daws against the Kings when he was pulled against the Ducks).
I agree that ruff needed to go. Goaltending aside, alot of what has happened this season can be blamed on him.
Running a system that clearly did not work. Burying young talent in holtz on the 4th line. Starting the same goalie far too many times in a row (and somehow people can still blame daws). Poor defense falls on him too, devils dmen are good, last year proved that but theyre being hamstrung by a system that doesnt work
Consistently getting 40+ shots on net and being unable to score tells that alot of these shots are from the outside or poor chance areas…which means the team cant get itself into prime areas…which means the system doesnt work
Fitzgerald should be next in the firing block if he doesnt get a goalie by this friday.
Ruff.
This really feels like 2016-17 with Dallas doesn't it… At least the guys in net aren't highly paid?
Feels like a lot of firings this year. Wonder how it compares to others
G.M. fires the coach to cover his a**.
Ruff thrown under the bus
Yesterday: No, no… expansion won't dilute the NHL's talent at all; there are PLENTY enough players in the world to play… Today: How many teams NEED competent goaltending? How many teams need competent defense? How many teams need a scoring winger? Betteman FOREVER: It's ALL just A COINCIDENCE!
Sorry to go off topic, but, holy cow, the Kraken-Flames game this evening was quite a sight. I would expect Pospisil is going to be attending a hearing very soon. I want to like this guy, but he's trending towards just another dirty player at this point.
Well devils fans, are u happy now? Lol. I really can't see how the coach was the problem
I do think coaching has become a bit of the issue with the Devils – some puzzling decision making lately. But there are many other issues: goaltending, defensive inconsistencies, special teams (PP has been brutal) and underperforming forwards. This should be a playoff team. Let's see what happens by the deadline.
I think this might help the offense and maybe get holtz some better playtime but frankly as a devils fan i'm still looking at draft stuff right now
personally i'd have liked this decision to be made in november but it seems like fitzy let personal connections and friendship get in the way of making hard decisions
it's on him to make trades to beef up the defense and bring in goaltending if they still think they can make the playoffs
Ruff needed to go. His defensive system is garbage. Throw both D into a corner and creep the center man and hope the wings pick up any trailers coming in. Plus, letting this team not play the body at all and use all stick work isn’t going to help either. It worked when Hasek and a peak Ryan Miller were you’re goalies, not when you have less than average to average goaltending. He never really adjusted to that. Even so, he should’ve gotten rid of Dave Rogalski as G coach. That hire has not looked good at all.
Ruff’s lack of accountability. Too many times Dougie Hamilton played a turnstile defensive game or if caught in a pinch, you could use a sun dial to time his way back. Toffoli many of times this year, regardless of his goals; looks lax on defense. Meier looks lost the whole first half of the season. Yet none of them missed shifts.
Rolling the lines. Ruff rolled 4 lines almost every time, regardless if the game was close or losing. There’s no reason down two that the 4th line should be getting minutes w/ 4 minutes left. Heck his team management was horrible. Nico Daws just came back before the season w/ injury and Ruff just keeps rolling him out there.
Playing the youngsters. We’ve seen Pavel Zacha and now Sharangovich flourish w/ their new clubs. Yet under Ruff, they never had a consistent line to play with and would get shuffled from the top to the 4th line and never having any continuity. Now Holtz is the same way. If you give Holtz the same amount of minutes as Toffoli, he’s around the same number and the majority of that was put up w/ 3rd and 4th liners.
The power play. I cannot believe that Ruff at any point didn’t force the hand to swap lines up. Both PP units carried 4 LH shooters and it makes it quite easy to flow a PP onto their backhand with that many. Yes it’s a case of offensive talent being LH but at least have your #1 PP unit have some mix.
I’m just pissed that two years ago when John Tortorella was hired by Philly that NJ screwed themselves not firing Ruff beforehand and make a run on Torts. Other than a few players, this teams 200ft game is weak. The Devils might not have broke the team record in points last year but they would’ve learned how to play the right way and probably wouldn’t be in the situation they are now
A young defense and young goaltending is a bad combination. I don't think Daws or Schmid are as bad as their numbers would suggest. Vanecek is sort of a veteran, but he was just awful this year. They shouldn't have been counting on Vanecek and Schmid going into this year, especially seeing Vanecek in the playoffs. He was terrible vs the Rangers and just as bad against Carolina and he's looked rattled ever since.
Ruff had a chance to turn this season around. They were getting healthy leading up to the outdoor game and playing better, especially defensively, for a few games. They followed that win with two embarrassing losses to the Caps and Rangers. That's how the whole season has gone, and that sealed Ruff's fate, imo. It was a matter of time.
Coach replacement will solve the problem at least partially, but not with Travis Green. It has become apparent that the success of last year was somehow linked to Brunette and both Ruff and Green have shown their lack of flexibility in building the game and adjusting to the opponents. All hysteria from Jack and constantly disappointed face of Nico mostly come from the lack of faith in the coaching and Ruff / Green system, hence growing frustration in the locker room and within fan base. This lack of flexibility made Devils predictable for other teams and this needs to change if Devils are willing to succeed.
If they would have kept Brunette instead of Ruff, they would be in a playoff spot today.
This will solve Nothing.
I would love to see the Sabres bring Lindy back to Buffalo. Maybe not as the coach, but as the President of hockey operations maybe! Bring Lindy home!
That's Ruff.
Last year was the outlier, not this season. They'll keep improving though, and soon (I hope) be a real threat
Maybe lindy goes back to buffalo?
Islanders legends Travis Green and Tom Fitzgerald (1993) for the Devils and Peter Laviolette and Michael Peca (2002)
Since their cup I've always associated the Devils with goaltending and defence. How the tables have turned.
OMG not Green. Everybody gets a ribbon country club. His years in Vancouver saw the most pussified team in their history. A coaching bump and no playoffs!
🤣😂Green. Turn the other cheek hockey. Meanwhile the puck in your own zone as we experienced in Vancouver gave you time to go the washroom and grab a beer before they cleared or were scored on.
Should have kept one of Graves or Severson. They lost a few key players, plus injuries. Vanecek and Schmid fell off a cliff, Hamilton gone for the year. Hughes, Hischier, Haula, Meier and Palat missed significant time. McLeod was having a great year until the assault charges came up. How many rookies on D do we have now that are playing monster minutes? No physical defensemen, no grit on the forward side except for Timo, who we want scoring and not dropping the mitts. Lazy passes, playing too fancy in our own zone. Perfect storm. We don't score, we lose close games. We get up by 3-4 goals and the opposing team kicks our ass in the 3rd period and catches up and we go to OT. Its frustrating. Zero consisteny night in, night out.
Canucks fans laughing their asses off right now
The Devils and a few other teams were rumoured to be interested in Hellebuyck. Think where they (and a few others) could've been.
Lindy Ruff paid the price for lots of things out of his control (injuries, roster build, regressions) but he also failed to make needed adjustments to system, especially defensively, to adapt to having young players in key roles. Without injuries, Devils would almost certainly be a top 3 team in the Metro. But look at Carolina (which had had its own goalie issues) and Philadelphia (which arguably has fewer star players) and you see what a different coach can get out of a team.