A Thank You Letter To Lindy Ruff As His New Jersey Devils Tenure Ends

Following his dismissal as the Head Coach of the New Jersey Devils on March 4, there were a plethora of comments about Lindy Ruff being replaced behind the bench by Associate Coach Travis Green. I read a lot of the comments, tweets, and articles. Not much surprised me, to be honest. But one thing I didn’t see was anyone saying thank you, so I will.

Thank you, Lindy Ruff. Thank you for guiding the Devils to the best regular season in franchise history - which happened to be last season. 52-22-8. Thirty games above .500, and they had a franchise-record 13-game winning streak. The cynical ones reading this will automatically suggest that the team did it in spite of him. That’s just untrue. 

How many players on that team had career seasons last year? How many players on that team got paid because of the season they had? All of that was under his guidance. Jesper Bratt, who is one of the only players this season who has been healthy and producing consistently, became a legit NHL star after Ruff took the job as Head Coach in 2020. You think that’s coincidence? How about the development of Jack Hughes or Dawson Mercer?

Thank you, Lindy Ruff - for guiding the Devils to a Game 7 win against the fanbase’s most hated rival and the franchise’s first playoff series win in over a decade. Up until last season (following the insane winning streak), New Jersey was not a serious playoff-contending team with Stanley Cup aspirations. This team is there now, and the window is just opening, and a large part of that was Ruff guiding them here through some brutal COVID seasons.

His tenure ends with the third-most wins in franchise history (128), which isn’t saying much because they have changed coaches more often than the Rangers have had third jerseys, but I digress. Even this season, at the time of his dismissal, Ruff had more wins than losses (30-27-4). Maybe y’all should be complaining that they didn’t lose good enough to get more loser points so they’d be higher in the standings.

Considering all of the circumstances around this season - Dougie Hamilton missing all but 20 games, Jack Hughes missing two months, two rookie defensemen playing more minutes than they are ready for, below-average goaltending from multiple goaltenders…maybe Ruff should be in the running for the Jack Adams again this season. Kidding.

Thank you, Lindy Ruff, for getting this team back to relevance and restoring the pride of many of the team’s fans. Remember, the core of the team is still super young, and their window of contention is just opening. 

Lastly, thank you, Lindy Ruff - for being a true professional. As someone who has covered at least three quarters of the head coaches that New Jersey has employed over the years, I think he was one of the most insightful men to hold the role and if you showed respect, you got respect back. That wasn’t always the case. 

We all may agree that he likely took them as far as he could given the current circumstances, but that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate the job that was done, either. Considering all of the coaches New Jersey has employed throughout the years, Ruff is one of the best - right below the three Cup-winning coaches.