Plenty of Blame To Sprinkle Around For Devils’ Malaise
The Devils may not officially be toast in their race for a second consecutive postseason bid, but they sure played like they were burnt during Sunday’s lackluster 4-1 loss to Tampa Bay at Prudential Center.
Given the urgency of the game versus a team they were chasing for the final Wild Card slot, New Jersey’s battle level and execution was deeply disturbing. Trailing by a goal entering the third period, the Devils managed a meek three shots on goal all frame despite two power play opportunities.
Both clubs were on the second half of a back-to-back and each was missing a key defenseman, as Tampa Bay’s Mikhail Sergachev and New Jersey’s Dougie Hamilton are on long-term injured reserve. Whereas the Devils turned to Akira Schmid in net to spare Nico Daws an eighth straight start (and it would have been his fourth in the last six days), the Lightning started their unimpressive backup Jonas Johansson, he of the 3.54 goals against average and .886 save percentage going into the contest.
So, with all things being relatively equal, the Devils again found a way to deliver the inferior product, which should no longer be surprising to a fan base that has seen their club go 14-15-2 at home this season. This is the same team that barely squeaked by bottom-feeding Montreal, 4-3, on Saturday.
Weird stuff happens in the NHL all the time, so no one can count the Devils (29-25-4) out this early. Still, they have yet to provide any evidence that a sustainable winning streak is in the cards. As they get set to embark on a three-game California trip, they have to know that a continuation of their .500 pattern won’t cut it.
And by “they”, I mean all stakeholders. For if you want to parcel blame for this season’s massive underachievement, you can’t stop on any one person. Feel free to put them in your own order:
1) The GM
Tom Fitzgerald moved a large chunk of his chips to the middle of the table in advance of this season, and he’s in danger of blowing that entire wad. He gambled heavily all over the ice, and it has plainly backfired. If you wish, feel free to peruse the archives where all of his misfires that have cost this team valuable points lost have been dissected, from banking on shaky goalies and young defensemen to sacrificing their patented team speed for star power. Other than going into the season with Schmid and Vitek Vanecek as the goaltending plan—and then waiting too long to move on from internal sources for boosts—it’s still hard to argue even after the fact that he was wrong to trade for high-scoring Timo Meier, a very expensive pending free agent at the time, and Tyler Toffoli, or pass on overpaying veteran defenseman Damon Severson and Ryan Graves last offseason. But this is what he has wrought.
2) The Head Coach
I’m sure most of the fan base’s ire is in the direction of Lindy Ruff, who in a matter of about 16 months, went from hearing, “Fire Lindy!”, to “Sorry, Lindy!”, and now back to the original calls for his job. Did he suddenly forget how to coach? Was last season’s incredible success the result of something fantastical like when I wondered if the real Ruff was replaced by one of those “Westworld” host robots who could instantaneously calculate the best options? I wish I knew. The record doesn’t lie, so even Ruff understands that this on him—all those decisions to overwork goalies, stick with a malfunctioning power play, and his inconceivable obsession with Brendan Smith were just the tip of the iceberg. Ruff didn’t help himself last week with his misguided allusion to media pressure as the source of his squad’s power play woes. Still, the biggest concern from my perspective is that the players may have tuned him out, for which he may only deserve half a knock, because…
3) The Players
Ruff is only responsible for how he places his players in their best positions to win games. He can’t control what happens thereafter. He can’t make or receive passes, lift pucks over goalies who know how to take away shots along the ice to convert scoring chances, or make saves the analytics services deem stoppable. There have been way too many egregious execution gaffes, from youngsters AND veterans, that have proven costly to the final results. Ruff will bench players for mental errors such as taking penalties; but what’s he supposed to do when a Hughes brother loses the puck off his stick despite no pressure? Had he pulled Daws in one of these games that got away from him, his alternative was Schmid, a goalie who posted a sub-.900 save percentage at AHL Utica. The Devils have too much talent to be this mediocre. They’re paying top dollars for guys like Meier and Ondrej Palat and receiving performances that have ranged from inconsistent to nonexistent. The real solution to the players’ malaise is staring them in the mirror.