Hot Seat Lookout - Lindy Ruff (NJD)

It is no secret that the New Jersey Devils don't have a great team. At this point it's getting harder to say they even have an OK team. They will likely finish near the bottom of the NHL for the fourth straight season, and the New Jersey fans are absolutely sick of it. Recency bias is in full effect, but the larger question looms. Where do the Devils go from here?

The story of the team this season has been an explosive, run & gun offense reduced to ash by NHL-worst goaltending & second worst powerplay. Aside from those two metrics, the team is actually highly effective.

But if it weren't for that giant iceberg the Titanic would have made it to New York, so what are we really saying here?

Now to the recency bias for those of you who don't follow every team in the NHL. The Devils recently fell to the Boston Bruins by a score of 8-1. Embarrassing. Then Saturday afternoon blew a 6-2 lead & lost in overtime to the Florida Panthers. They graduated from embarrassing to outright humiliating. Fans are disgusted & are calling for Head Coach Lindy Ruff's head. They did it with John Hynes & two years later they are right back to square one.

Some fans even call for the heads of the ownership, Josh Harris & David Blitzer. Absentee Owners, one fan who shall remain anonymous said. I don't know who fires the owners, so the Head Coach makes more sense. Under Ruff the Devils' record of 43-68-13 over two seasons is pretty terrible. More concerning, though, are the types of losses mentioned above. Those are the types of embarrassments that get people fired. See the 2020-21 Rangers.

Should Lindy Ruff be held accountable for the worst goaltending in the NHL accompanied by 31st ranked PP? What about Assistant Coach Mark Recchi, Powerplay Coach? Seems he has questions to answer because guys like Jesper Bratt, Jack Hughes, Dougie Hamilton & the like its clearly not a personnel problem...

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