The New Jersey Devils have basically nothing to play for but pride. Despite this, the Devils went into Las Vegas, played a desperate team, and beat them pretty easily. Nathan Bastian got the boys started with a goal in the first period. It was his first goal since March 15th. Andreas Johnsson cleaned things up to break a tie game in the third period. Jesper Boqvist continues his hot streak and scored for the third game in a row. That was enough to take down the Knights, pushing them basically out of the playoff race barring a miracle.
That likely also ends the tenure of Peter DeBoer, who the Knights replaced Gerard Gallant with. The Knights are becoming known more and more as a ruthless franchise despite only being around for five seasons. However, the way they just let Gallant go might have been even worse than the way Florida did it. Although, this time didn’t involve a taxi in any way.
If the Knights were willing to say goodbye to Marc-Andre Fleury, Nate Schmidt, Ryan Reaves, and others just to get salary cap space, what would they do when they were actually disappointed with the season? It seems pretty clear that DeBoer is out of here at the end of the season.
Of course, the Devils have a history with DeBoer. After he was let go by the Florida Panthers himself, DeBoer landed in New Jersey. In his very first season, he took the Devils to the Stanley Cup Final led by Martin Brodeur, Patrik Elias, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Zach Parise. Then, Parise left, Kovalchuk retired, David Clarkson went to Toronto, and the team fell apart. The issues were beyond what DeBoer could control, but he was fired anyway on the day after Christmas in 2014.
Many Devils fans are still salty with DeBoer, so they found even more joy in Monday night’s win. DeBoer did make some mistakes in New Jersey. He mishandled a lot of the young players. Adam Larsson was benched in favor of guys like Peter Harrold. No offense to Harrold, but the Devils had a fourth-overall pick on their hands who needed time on the ice.
The NHL constantly recycles coaches, but how many chances can DeBoer realistically get? After he gets fired by the Knights, he will have a coaching career in which he has had four jobs and the longest he lasted was less than five years. He was fired in the middle of two seasons, and it would have been three if Vegas had anywhere else to turn to.
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The Devils might have sealed the fate of its former coach. DeBoer brought some good memories for Devils fans, but others think of him as an enemy. Now, it seems like the Devils might have put the nail in the coffin of DeBoer, at least for now.