New Jersey Devils Shouldn’t Fire Lindy Ruff At All

The fanbase has been calling for the head of the New Jersey Devils coaching staff. It’s clearly not the right time to clean house just two years after the Lindy Ruff era started. 

The New Jersey Devils have been absolutely atrocious over the past two games prior to Monday’s game against the Ottawa Senators. They came out flat against the San Jose Sharks and Winnipeg Jets, and they ended up getting railroaded on the scoresheet. The goalies looked bad, the defensemen looked like turnstiles, and the offense could not keep up with the sustained pressure from the opponents. A lot of the issues with the team over the past two games come down to the coaching staff.

Just because the coaching staff had a couple of bad games does not mean it’s time to fire the coaching staff. This happens every time other teams fire their coaches. A certain segment of the Devils fanbase calls for the heads of their coaching staff. Maybe it’s because Lou Lamoriello was famously quick to pull the trigger for the guys on the bench. Lamoriello fired head coach Robbie Ftorek right before the playoffs in the year 2000 and the team ended up winning the Cup with Larry Robinson.

However, things aren’t how they were then. The NHL is different in 2021 than it was two decades ago. Teams need structure, especially a team like the 2021-22 Devils who are the youngest team in the NHL.

New Jersey Devils should not fire their head coach Lindy Ruff right now.

The Philadelphia Flyers and the Vancouver Canucks both fired their head coaches within a 24-hour window. They are both in different situations than the Devils, especially the Canucks. Vancouver is in serious flux, and they needed to clean house completely. They fired Jim Benning as well as Travis Green, so it’s clear the Canucks need a change of philosophy. The Devils don’t need that. Tom Fitzgerald has the team in the right direction.

As far as Philadelphia is concerned, the Flyers just needed a different voice. The team is spiraling out of control, similar to what happened to John Hynes before he got fired in 2019. The Devils are in a bad spot, but they aren’t where the Flyers are just yet. In fact, the one Devils dominant performance was against the Flyers.

The Devils power play is having a rough time, and it has a lot to do with Mark Recchi. His power-play philosophy has been brutal, but to be fair, his entire thought process for the power play was similar to what he did in Pittsburgh. He wants to build it around Jack Hughes, which is what the Pens did with Sidney Crosby. Hughes has been out for most of the season. He is a zone entry phenom. That’s clearly what the PP is built upon. Let’s give him five games with Hughes in the lineup before we call for him to get left on the side of the Prudential Center. He deserves to get disdain for how the PP has been this season, but now that Hughes is back let’s hope it gets better.

Alain Nasreddine has been not bad. The defense has been good outside of the last two games. The pairings of Dougie Hamilton-Ryan Graves, Ty Smith-Damon Severson, and P.K. Subban-Jonas Siegenthaler make the most sense. Sometimes making sense is good. Nasreddine was brutal with his penalty kill last season. Give him credit, because the unit has kept the Devils in games at times this season. Their 80.26% isn’t going to be at the top of the league, but the unit is getting better every week.

As far as Lindy Ruff is concerned, the Devils have the guy who makes the most sense right now. He’s helping Jack Hughes grow, he’s teaching defensive responsibility to the young guys, and his system works at times. It doesn’t work at times, and that’s something we also need to consider. For now, firing the head coach is the wrong decision. We know everyone wants results automatically, and the Devils made a mistake with John Hynes by waiting too long to let him go. This isn’t the same situation.

The Devils made multiple splashes this offseason, and it’s time for the Devils to be better. Being at hockey .500 is disappointing, but the team has had an incredibly hard schedule, and things get easier for the next month. Let’s be patient. It’s the completely wrong decision to fire a coach right now. There isn’t someone in the room to take over the job, and we don’t want to take Kevin Dineen off the gig he’s doing with the Utica Comets right now. Let the entire thing develop. It’s good for now and in the long run.