5 Goals New Jersey Devils Must Have In 2022

Goal #2: Figure Out The Head Coach

Don’t get this twisted, Lindy Ruff might be “figuring out the head coach”, but the prevailing wisdom across the league is that Lindy Ruff has one of the hottest seats in the league. There are other coaching options available, and after seeing Bruce Boudreau get the Canucks back into the playoff hunt single handedly, and seeing Alain Nasreddine do such a good job behind the bench, the questions about Ruff’s status are warranted.

These are goals for 2022, so they don’t need to be fixed this season. What the Devils can’t do is “give Ruff one last chance”. He either needs to earn his job in the second half of this season, or the Devils need to move on. Maybe the players are the reason the team is currently where they are in the standings. That doesn’t change the fact some kind of change is needed. Tom Fitzgerald may not want to fail in one of his first decisions as GM, but it happens. He’s done so much well that he can make this one mistake.

Or, again, Lindy Ruff might come back from his COVID diagnosis and the good times will continue for New Jersey. They have a chance to come out of January in good shape. They have two games against Columbus this week and an undermanned Tampa team. They also have Boston who they’ve always struggled against.

If the Devils can be the competitive team by the end of the season that the Devils strived for, Lindy Ruff will have proven himself as the right man for the job. If not, then the Devils have to figure out the right voice to lead this team in its most important era in a long time.