Ruff Set Higher Expectations For Devils—And Then Failed To Meet Them
When the Devils hired Lindy Ruff to be their Head Coach in 2020, I wasn’t a fan. He crossed the Hudson River with diminished credentials from his assistant coach gig with the Rangers and then piloted New Jersey to a pair of lousy seasons.
Not all of it was his fault—in 2021-22, the team required seven different goalies thanks to injuries and incompetence. Still, Ruff’s lack of awareness with things like using timeouts, pulling goalies who had obvious off nights, and on-ice chemistry drove Devils fans nuts.
But then came last season, when the Devils—and Ruff—caught lightning in a bottle. It seemed every tweak he made worked out. His line juggling would pay immediate dividends. He’d replace a goalie and then the team would play inspired and come back to win. The “Fire Lindy!” chants raining down during the first week at Prudential Center evolved into “Sorry, Lindy!” mea culpas by midseason. New Jersey set several regular season franchise records, beat the Rangers in Game 7 of a thrilling first-round playoff series, and Ruff joked he wanted to share beers with the Devils faithful.
And then it was over. This season has been all spurts and stumbles. Injuries wreaked havoc all over the lineup. The goaltending flat out stunk. Desperately needing to accumulate points during its three-game California road trip, New Jersey limped home looking like a dead team walking, eight points out of a playoff seed. The season looks shot.
As I wrote previously ((3) Plenty of Blame To Sprinkle Around For Devils’ Malaise (substack.com)), Ruff was as culpable as anyone in the organization. Unlike last season, he never could configure, never mind settle on, winning combinations. He ran goalie Nico Daws into the ground over the last few weeks to the point where he looks slow reacting to plays in front of him. And then Ruff would leave him in as pucks flew past and through him.
Throughout the season, I’ve mentioned several other Ruff calls that were dubious, so it’s not necessary to repeat them here. But the predominating piece of evidence is the record (30-27-4). The Devils, who were considered to be on the brink of Stanley Cup contention by many preseason prognosticators, will likely land in the Draft lottery for the 10th time in the last 12 seasons.
That, however, might override the important accomplishment of Ruff’s tenure, something that might unfortunately get lost in the mess of this sorry Devils season—the heightened expectations. After nearly a decade of what I called a neverending rebuild, there was finally some results-based accountability. We started to see the change last season when learning curve mistakes were no longer excused as a matter of course. At some point, the priority had to shift from development to winning, and that happened under Ruff.
Perhaps that’s why this season’s level of disappointment is so excruciating. This isn’t who the Devils are supposed to be anymore. And since Ruff wasn’t able to plug the gushing number of gaffes that consistently plagued the team, he had to go. Like with many coaches, Ruff’s message was usually on point; it just wasn’t being heard.
Look, I’m under no delusions that Travis Green will be able to shake things up in the interim. Though he’s had prior NHL head coaching experience during four-plus seasons in Vancouver, the remainder of this campaign is just too condensed, against one of the toughest schedules, to believe the Devils will pull off one of those meteoric rises into the postseason.
Green will be looking at the same lousy options Ruff had in goal, the same youthful defense corps, and the same underachieving group of deadwood among his bottom-six forwards. If anything, General Manager Tom Fitzgerald should be looking to offload talent for Draft compensation in advance of the March 8 trade deadline.
Green will get his shot, but I’m expecting the Devils to conduct a full head coaching search in the offseason. They need a fresh voice to lead them to higher sights before the losing culture seeps back into the organization for good.