This entire game was completely bonkers and the final score was just fucking brutal.
My MVP so far has been Erik Haula.
What’s on your mind – let it all out – we’ll definitely understand.
[NHL FULL GAME HIGHLIGHTS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gImE4MXO9Tc)
[ESPN Facts](https://www.espn.com/nhl/game/_/gameId/401541441)
[NJD.TV Rewind](https://www.nhl.com/devils/video/a-challenge-ahead–rewind/t-277437418/c-16737012)
[Shift Chart](http://shiftchart.com/game/2023-04-20-rangers-devils)
[YouTube Post Game Show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1uQXDSKqGo)
[Amanda Stein Game Story: Devils Down 2-0 in Series After Game 2 Loss](https://www.nhl.com/devils/news/devils-down-2-0-in-series-after-game-2-loss–game-story/c-343733870)
[Mike Morreale Game Recap: Rangers ease past Devils again in Game 2 of Eastern 1st Round](https://www.nhl.com/news/new-york-rangers-new-jersey-devils-game-2-recap/c-343602458)
by Devil_Dane
33 Comments
Wood and Smith have hopefully played their last games as Devils and Ruff has coached his last season for the Devils. Every single player has been a ghost these 2 games, they’re playing a physical game when their game should be played using their speed. These costly oddman rushes are even more noticeable when stakes are higher.
The fact that fans have been saying Wood only takes penalties for the last 3 years (some including myself even said he’ll take a penalty and they’ll get scored on) and Ruff doesn’t see the fucking issue with playing Wood is just shit coaching. Seigs was their best dman in the game 1 shit show and he’s the healthy scratch…
The one guy they brought in for playoff experience has been one of the least noticeable players out there (Palat). V2 looks worse than Blackwood now for some reason, PP can’t get anything going and then the 1 time they did and scored they got away from that plan and decided to go for pretty plays…
Sorry for the rant but I’m absolutely done with this senile coach and players not giving a shit.
https://i.imgur.com/2u3vbKY.png
All their interviews last night, “Yeah we are not playing how we want.” “We had a bad start to the season, look where we got.” “Gotta play smarter.”
How in the world am I supposed to believe this team is gonna get any better? They got absolutely run over the last two games. I know I’m a fan and not a professional hockey coach but our coaching staff has to do something tomorrow night to make a change.
My biggest fear is that Ruff’s success during the regular season is the reason he isn’t fired and I think that’s a real possibility. You can lack experience, size, grit in playoffs but that isn’t an excuse to get your brakes beat out of you twice at home. Coaching has left the team unprepared and the devils fell flat on their face both games. We got fucking embarrassed
I am not a doomer. The fact that we are even playing these games are house money, and I am so proud that this team has gotten this far so fast after the last few years. But there are lessons that we need to learn from this to move forward and take the next step into being a truly elite team.
– Wood needs to be done. Being in house for both games, it was both of his penalties that completely collapsed the house. I’m glad the guys in the room like him, but the game isn’t played in the room, and his play is a legitimate detriment to the team.
– We should have listened to all the Canes/Flames fans who told us what’s up on Douglas Hamilton. For Months now we’ve watched him float on defense and hand wave it away because he scores points. He has not elevated his game at all come play offs. Defensemen play DEFENSE, and if Dougie isn’t scoring, he’s not bringing anything else to the table. He is not the #1 defensemen we’ve been slotting him as.
– I by no means blame Vitek for any of this. The boy up front are just leaving him out to dry every single play. I lost count of the amount of 2 on 1s and 3 on 1s we gave up last night. Even with both games ending 5-1 he’s kept it from being worse. I still say we go with Schmid for game 3. A clear message needs to be sent to the rest of the team, and this is the best way to do it.
– He received a slight reprieve from us at the end of the year, but Playoff Tatar has once again showed up. It’s time to move on from him.
-Bratt has not looked non-existent, he has looked straight up BAD. Despite being the best skater we’ve seen here for a long while, he’s not worth the mega contract he’s looking for.
– We need to resign Timo stat. All the ingredients are there but it’s tough to come to a new team, play 20 games with 20 different line combos and look settled.
– Erik Haula redemption tour is in full swing. I posted earlier in the year when he was getting torn apart defending him and he has repaid the patients. He has been our best player in the playoffs. Repeat. Erik Haula has been our best player in the playoffs.
– Kevin Bahl is him. He has been looking better and better every game. He defends his teammates, he lays big hits that don’t cost us going the other way. Isn’t afraid to shoot. He’s a guy I want to be a devil for a long time.
– Nico and, after midway through game one, Jack have been doing their damnedest to get anything out of this team, but are falling into the “trying to do everything themselves” trap. It’s understandable as they’re not getting a ton of support. They will learn. This is a playoff experience thing.
– Mercer has tried to be too fancy, and just needs to make the simple play. This too, playoff experience.
– Finally Lindy. It’s time. He has done incredible things to get us here and I will forever be in his debt for making Devils hockey relevant again, but he is not it. We need a coach who has structure, who can make the in game strategy changes we have obviously been missing, who will *let these boys cook* rather than throw the lines in the blender every 5 minutes. Peter Laviolette is available now. He is one of 4 coaches to have lead 3 different teams to a cup final. He has the playoff pedigree we need. He has the Gravitas we need. He can grab this horse by the reigns and turn it into a triple crown winner. Pete would be best case scenario, but we need a coach who is a firm leader.
The lumps we’re getting are tough, but we weren’t going to go from a bottom feeder to cup champions over night. This season has still been one of the best seasons I’ve seen as a devils fan since I was a young lad in the 90’s. We have lots of the right pieces and are learning the lessons we need to. If we can make the hard choices and build off this season properly, there is nothing this team can’t achieve.
I just want to say some of your actions in that thread last night was horrendous. I am totally fine with questioning lineups and things like that but everyone literally diving off the bus shows us the basins bandwagon fans are. Where the fuck is your faith in this team? It’s playoffs we know this was going to be hard for the team but yet here we are where a lot of you are starting to say we’re gonna get swept.
Have some faith question and criticize choices that are made by the coaches and know it’s not over till it’s over. We were the third best team this year and we know this team doesn’t go down without a fight OR likes playing with a lead anyways. Consider this our wake up call we go on the road let’s fucking get it done. GO DEVILS
– signed a hurt Devils fan
I’m puzzled. Half this sub is upset because the Devils changed their style of play in Game 2, and half the sub is yelling that we have to adjust our game plan because that’s what good teams do.
I’m nauseous and angry thinking about how we just pissed away our chance to make a meaningful impact after a record season. We are not playoff hockey and that’s just depressing.
I really think the coaching is a big issue here. No one knows what is said in the locker room behind closed doors, but every time the camera cuts to Ruff behind the bench I see no passion, no anger, no sense of urgency from him. More like he’s a spectator watching the game.
[Here is Ruff saying that the reason they benched one of our best defensive defenseman and penalty killers for Brendan Smith is because of physicality](https://twitter.com/devilsarmyblog/status/1649247431068876801?s=46&t=wH2VXKj4WNfV-LtoFy-xVQ). Please get this man away from my team. What a moron.
I’m sad
Nope, still embarrassed this morning.
Stay out of the box.
https://youtu.be/qi1LMIUOOAI
No 5 on 5 goals in 2 games. Giving up 2 powerplay goals each game. Hischier, Bratt and Hamilton all with 0 points. I don’t think this is the formula to success
The season basically comes down to tomorrow. No show tomorrow and the team can get an early start to their offseason. I know the series won’t be over but I’m pretty sure most of us here know the Devils aren’t coming back down 3-0.
I’ve said a lot of stuff here over the last couple of days. I’m as much pissed as everyone here if not more. My cling to hope here is that the Devils have been a great team in the road this season. We all know MSG is gonna be rocking on Saturday. If somehow the Devils get off to a quick start (yes I know they did last night too) they can silence the crowd and get back into this series.
I sure hope Miles and Smith are watching the next game in the press box. Miles has actually hurt us in the 1st 2 games with the 2 offensive zone penalties that led to PP goals. I know some other players like Bratt and Tatar have been quiet.
I’m on the fence about VV. I thought VV was very good last night for the 1st 30 min or so. I think that 2nd Keider goal should’ve been stopped. Easy save, no, but your goalie sometimes needs to bail his team out sometimes. I know he did at other times early in the game.
I know we are ahead of schedule here and when this season is over most of us will look back and say it’s been a successful season.
I want to look back to see how the Chicago and Pittsburgh teams fared in their 1st playoff series with the initial core. Maybe they didn’t win a series but I’m sure they fared better than this.
Enough with my ranting. All I can do is hope for a good outing in game 3.
> My MVP so far has been Erik Haula.
Props to Haula because he’s been solid but that shows why the Devils are getting ass blasted. It means that none of Hughes, Nico, Timo, Bratt, or Hamilton are our best player.
Ruffs line change after game 1 didn’t instill confidence with this young team.
There are some good thoughts here but I picked up a very simple perspective last night that helped me feel a bit better about this series so far. We are a team that’s been building to get IN to the playoffs. They are a team that’s been built FOR the playoffs. It’s just (painfully) obvious. It sucks getting pistol whipped by these asshats and every fiber of my being is hoping and praying for this team to regain their rush prowess, stay out of the fucking box, and take the next 2 at the Garden, but this experience is so valuable for our young core so let’s try to keep the bigger picture in mind and continue to rally behind this team because the next 5 years are looking bright af. LFGD!
Being down 2-0 wouldn’t be so bad had we displayed any resiliency, tenacity, heart, what have you.
I will watch the remainder of the series but I’m finding it hard to be hopeful.
A day later and I am still absolutely stunned by Lindy Ruff’s decision to sit Jonas Siegenthaler and Jesper Boqvist for Brendan Smith and Miles Wood.
Down 0-1 in the series after a Game 1 loss where our untimely penalties and inability to kill them were major factors, this man scratches one of our best defensive defensemen who is also a key penalty killer, as well as a forward who has taken the fewest penalties per 60 minutes out of anyone on the team this year.
In their places he adds Brendan Smith, a fringe NHLer who leads the team’s defensemen in minors taken per 60, and promotes Miles Wood to the third line, who leads the team’s forwards in minors taken per 60 and had already taken a bad penalty in the previous game. You could not have made a worse decision if you tried.
I am not exaggerating when I say that this might be the dumbest coaching decision I’ve ever seen from anyone who has ever coached this team. It is completely indefensible to make a decision like that in the playoffs. Every single one of us knew what would happen here except for the guy making a few million dollars to be coach.
Lindy Ruff should be fired. Today. This team succeeds in spite of him, not because of him. There’s a reason he’s never won a goddamned thing in this league — he’s not a good coach. The man has conned this league’s teams into letting him coach more than 1800 games and he still hasn’t figured out the basics. We are probably going to be swept for the first time ever while this clueless moron looks on in disbelief as he is being outcoached by people on reddit. It is infuriating to see an entire season of hard work pissed away in a week by unforced errors like this.
I’m definitely ready for whoever has been wearing the Devils jerseys the past two games to give them back to our actual team while there’s still a chance to get back in this series
We’re tryna do way too much all at once. Play simple fast Devils hockey like we saw in the regular season, be tough on the puck & make simple plays & get pucks to the net.
We’re tryna make one too many passes & it ends up not connecting and then it’s a turnover where the rangers are going the other way. We need to be putting 30+ shots on Igor and actually test him. Let’s be honest, he really hasn’t been tested. Put pucks to the net and good things happen.
Ruff NEEDS to bring back Siegs, scratch Smith & Wood for next game. Maybe try slotting Lazar in? Or put Boqvist back in Idk… we need to get bodies in front of the net and make it more challenging for Igor to see the puck. Besides the odd man rushes, we are looking really soft protecting our crease and allowing Rags/Kreider to camp in front with no repercussions.
Next game up… one win and it’s back to being a series. Another loss & it’s yeah no good… we are making the rangers look alot better than they actually are.
Lastly, LGD!
Two embarrassing showings. You can pick out any two games from the regular season and they would not be worse than the two we played. I would like to see us run something like this:
Tatar-Hischier-Mercer
Jack-Haula-Bratt
Timo-Boqvist-Palat
Lazar-McLeod-Bastian
Dougie-Bahl
Siegs-Marino
L. Hughes-Sevo
VV (Schmid)
Obviously we can be physical. We’ve shown that. We’ve also shown it gets us absolutely nowhere. Revert to top lines that have been good for us this year and go back to playing the style we’ve played all year. Jack gets his safety blanket in Haula, who has been finishing better and has been one of our most effective players this series. Simplify offensively, don’t be afraid to dump and chase if your pass isn’t there, forecheck hard.
Lazar, Boq, Siegs and Luke draw in for Wood/Shango/Graves/Smith. Miles has brought some brutal o zone penalties and not much else. Smith drew in for his physicality, which also netted a penalty. I’m open to different pairings, but these are the 6D I’d like to see.
VV has played well when he can see the puck. He was phenomenal in the first yesterday. Something needs to be done about Kreider on the PK. I don’t care that to do so you have to give up big outside shots, VV was moving laterally very well and tracking those. One guy has burned us for the exact same goal 4 times in 2 games and not a thing has been done about it.
But just come out and act like you fucking care, please.
This series isn’t over yet. Road games haven’t been a problem for us. This group has been resilient I haven’t given up on the boys.
Ruff, however, is a totally different story. Questionable personnel decisions all season long and the man comes into the playoffs and make a borderline fire able offense with Siegs. Not reprimanding Wood is insane as well.
Beyond personnel, I can’t help but wonder how much he is responsible for throwing the boys off their game. All the physicality and playoff atmosphere shit that seems to have gotten into their heads probably came from him.
Hopefully Nico or the leadership group amongst players rally the guys for this next game. They have a comeback in them, if they can get back to what has worked all year long.
What an embarassment for the team from top to bottom.
Just a pathetic showing after a strong 1st period.
We look like shit offensively. We look like shit defensively. We look like shit in transition (our supposed strength all year). We look like shit on the PP. We look like absolute shit on the PK (another one of our supposed strengths all year).
The excuse that we lack experience is such a cop-out.
If they can somehow manage to steal 2 games at MSG, I will consider it a bonus. At this point, I am fully expecting 2 more blowouts and a sweep.
If we’re going to defy the odds and win this series, I need to see something I haven’t seen in the first two games. Odds are not in our favor but you never know.
If we’re going to lose, I want to lose with Luke Hughes and I want to lose playing our game, not trying to play theirs.
After listening to Lindy’s presser, I am fully aboard the fire Lindy train.
When asked about Miles’ penalties, he said “it’s not about individuals, I’ve already addressed that they can’t be taking bad penalties.”
Then take out the guys that don’t contribute anything except for penalties.
When asked about scratching Siegs, he literally admitted that it was for the sake of physicality and the fact that Smith is a former ranger, and that THERE WAS NOTHING TO DISLIKE ABOUT SMITH’S PLAY. Smith, by the way, also known to take a bad penalty per game.
Lindy is trying to force this team to play a different style of hockey than what got them there in the first place.
I wonder what this series would look like if:
1. We didn’t break up a top line that dominated all season long.
2. We didn’t scratch our second-best defender in game 2 for our worst defenseman (while a stud rookie is also just sitting and waiting – not that I’m for playing Luke, either)
3. Wood was literally ever scratched. He’s fucking terrible.
4. Meier, a RW, was ever put on the right wing for more than two shifts in a row.
5. We’d stop trying to play their game. Our average hits per game this season was 16.68. Game 1: 31. That wasn’t enough, apparently, so bring Smith in over literally our best defenseman in Game 1. Game 2: 37. Look how well that turned out. Get this team back to playing their game. It is asinine that you would change literally anything. We beat this exact team 3/4 time this season.
I could go on and on. Don’t get me started on special teams.
These issues are systemic, and there is only one guy in charge of these things.
The Devils look like a team that limped into the playoffs. It’s not even competitive, that’s what the worst part is. They’re doing nothing right.
Outscored 10-2 after 2 games is brutal. Series is far from over, but whatever anticipation I felt and excitement about being in the playoffs is just gone. To be completely outclassed and frankly embarrassed on home ice is disgusting. Unless things look a whole lot different very quickly, this is becoming a very bitter aftertaste on an incredible season.
The most frustrating part is it doesn’t feel like we’re playing our best hockey, and they’re just better than us. I could accept that, but it just doesn’t feel like there’s any real push or fight, like we went into this series already defeated.
We don’t look mentally prepared for these games at all, and it doesn’t seem like anyone on the team, plays and coaches included, knows what to do about it.
On top of that, it really feels like the organization itself left the fans out to dry, with lackluster in-game experience (from what I’ve heard), poor handling of ticket availability, ticket prices, atmosphere, etc.
Basically, from the top down, it doesn’t feel like anyone in the organization gives a shit we’re here, outside of making a few more bucks, and that’s deeply disappointing.
Besides the whole PP and PK thing, I think the play that annoyed me the most was Bratt getting his pocket picked and Kane, who’s ten years older than him, just skating away and scoring like it was nothing. Bratt just simply glided behind him and watched it all.
Another thought about last night. VV didn’t lose us this game as you will need more than 1 goal to win 99% of the time, but Ruff could have yanked him at some point. I’m not blaming VV, just saying subbing Schmid would’ve kicked the team in the butt and perhaps provided an extra spark like we saw against the Caps. Even if we were out of the game by then, the point is not just rolling over and accepting it, but setting the stage for game 3.