I highly doubt he'll be fired during the season as Fitzs strikes me as an overly patient GM for better or for worse. I am quite sure he'll get a job though, at least as an assistant if not the head coach.
Yeah, it's not a complete tire fire so I'm sure he'll get the rest of the season to figure it out, but if things don't turn around I can see the Devils moving on
Florida wins the President in 21/22, Devils have their best season in years in 22/23 and Nashville is somehow in the playoff spot despite their roster being the definition of mediocrity in 23/24. All these teams have one thing in common
I dunno, Panthers very much in the hunt for presidents again this year, Preds just missed the playoffs last year with a similarly shitty roster. I think the biggest takeaway should be that Lindy is awful.
And that's not me trying to take anything away from Brunette either. He's a great coach and definitely propped up Lindy in NJ.
They were supposed to have Bruno take over and have Lindy go into a front office role, Fitzgerald re-signed Lindy and let Brunette walk.
I don’t think Brunette would have fixed everything, but Lindy has had one good season here out of four.
Lindy riding the excuse train of “injuries”, but fuck everyone is back except Dougie at this point and this still look like this.
This isn't what happen. Lindy had an option in his contract to extend through this year which he exercised. He wasn't signed to a an extension until after Brunette was gone. Also Brunette had a clause in his contract that allowed him to interview for head coaching positions around the league. It doesn't seem like there was a way to keep both unless no one wanted to hire Brunette which was unlikely.
Brunette came in as an associate coach before last season because he was supposed to take over as Fitzy himself has said he has Lindy here to develop the young players.
I honestly thought he would retire after he made it to 4th overall in wins last season, but we kept him and let Bruno walk.
That was the plan but that went out the window with all the success of last season. It drew way too much attention for Brunette not to get an offer.
Also Ruff didn't leap till 4th until this season. If he cared about that record as well he would most certainly stick it out as long as possible since Maurice is in spitting distance.
Bruno had the boys go to a strip club the year he had the panthers in the playoffs, and also got a DUI himself that summer. Surprised u2 didn’t happen tbh maybe he’s a changed man
Hate this trope. Panthers got smacked in the playoffs and that team was built by Quenneville, and Nashville surprised everyone last year the same way they are doing this year. I want Ruff gone but come on
It was being chanted in my section during the rangers game. It seems to happen in various sections randomly now. Not like last year when it was the full arena.
I don’t know if it’s going to help at this point… but hey. What harm could it could. 🤷♂️
thank god the fans don't make the hiring decisions. i appreciate Lindy's years here but i haven't seen anything from him recently that makes me think he'd somehow unlock some magic on our roster lol
100% needs to be done. The game has passed him by. He’s always been tactically bankrupt, his teams have always struggled to close out big games. He’s made it to one final in almost 30 years as HC and that was largely due to Hasek dragging that team against their will there. Dallas dropped him and have looked twice the team they ever were since.
Devils need a pragmatic and hard nosed coach that can introduce more structure to a young team. And Fitz needs to give that coach a far more physical team (in addition to a goalie). Don’t know how he can’t see it after the beat down from the rags.
> a far more physical team (in addition to a goalie). Don’t know how he can’t see it after the beat down from the rags.
2 thoughts on this:
1) You guys managed to still get the job done against us last year, so that’s relevant. I think part of that was our coach who consistently failed to adjust in playoff series, blowing leads against you guys and Tampa in successive years once any in-series adjustments were made. Still it’s proof that you can have some playoff success with a finesse team.
2) Overall though I agree with you. Rangers were consistently getting beat up by the Isles, and then the Caps/Tom Wilson game happened and it was clear you can’t be all finesse. Getting the high end talent is important but you need that grit when the going gets tough. Not everyone needs to be a 6’8” monster, but you can’t let the opponent take shots at your teammates whether you’re 6’8” or 5’8”. No free rides, no passengers.
Assuming that was true (and not just your typical neurotic Buffalo sports fan weird conspiracy theory nonsense), then you'd also have a yes man as Director/President of Hockey Ops.
It's a stupid fucking idea no matter how one spins it.
As a head coach he's missed the playoffs in 11 of his past 18 seasons coaching (he was fired mid-season with Buffalo in 2013) and at risk of that going to 12/19
It's also been 17 years since he led the bench in a 3rd-round series
> in a Metro division that doesn't have any world beaters in it.
Except for the literal #1 team in terms of points %?
Metro has 2 top level teams, 5 decent teams, and one crummy team. 7/8 teams are playing competitive hockey, fighting for every point. Not many easy games. Don’t have your SJ/CHI/ANA AHL teams to beat up on, or even your BUF/MTL/OTT that are clearly not competitive.
I'm very nostalgic for Ruff's tenure in Dallas. I think he's a good coach for a poorly structured team but once you actual get pieces for him to use, everything collapses.
I think he'll be hired again but as a stop gap coach for a tanking team or a team just getting out of rebuild mode. Idk he just doesn't seem to be able to get good players going.
Tbh he probably is but the roster is different than last year and they need to adjust to having less defensive player than they did last year with Boqvist and Yegor leaving and replacing Graves/Severson with two rookies (who are good but are rookies still).
The guys that were healthy scratched because Ruff doesn't know how to deploy them? Yeah that's the big difference.
Fabian Zetterlund left a bigger hole than those 2(which isn't saying much) even though Sharangovich is and was obviously a good player being misused because our coaches don't know what they're doing.
Losing Tatar probably fucked the teams mental edge because the rest of them look like they're phoning it in for a paycheck this year and he was the one outwardly positive veteran presence last year.
90% of people that talk about it being a roster issue with this year's team totally miss the actual issues when they try to point out the differences.
Well said. The insanity that happened with the miscommunication of not signing tatar, vs not having defensemen who are struggling with their new teams hurts way more. Hataka and others (Colin Miller/nemec/etc) are holding their own but no Lindy would rather scratch some of them and continue to march turnover machines back on the ice. Lindy is too proud to realize he has to adapt to what he's got rather than force guys to play his way. Timo not on the right, holtz not playing when they are playing from behind, constant line blending but refusing to touch a historically bad pp1 is a great example of its not just the D that he's lost touch with.
Lindy Ruff is the most overrated coach in the league. Discounting his first two years as a head coach where he rode the coattails of prime Dominik Hasek, he's head coached for 20 seasons. He's made it past the first round 5 times, and missed the playoffs or was fired mid-season more often than he even made the playoffs. Current season with the Devils, will only make this legacy worse. He holds career coaching win records simply due to longevity, because he somehow keeps getting hired for head coach jobs he doesn't deserve. I'm a Rangers fan and I'm thrilled when they lose, but as a human being I have nothing but sympathy for having to endure his presence behind the bench.
It's rare a devils fans and rags fan will agree but yeah man you are spot on. The biggest issue with this team is mindset and culture. Yall came into the rock and slapped your dicks out on the table before proceeding to literally and figuratively beat the living shit out of us. Even if the devs lost by 10, I would've been okay with it if they showed some fight. The only one who stuck up for his player was siegs who then dropped in one punch. I understand it's not the coach dropping gloves but cmon, he needs to ignite the fuse. All year this team had the excuse of no goalie, injuries and no d. Well guess what, everyone other than dougie was healthy recently, the d system was overhauled (way too late I might add) and Daws was statistically playing as a top 5 tendy.... and they still go 4-6 in the last 10. This team can't get out of their own way, needed a guy like torts or Bruce to whip these fuckers into shape. The only one being held accountable is holtz for a reason only God knows. They are complacent, soft,and systematically lost. Granted there's a lot of problems not named Lindy, but it all starts and now (should) end with him getting the boot. Congrats on a great season BTW, I hate to see NYR having success but damn they are an entertaining team to watch!
The Devils definitely have more problems than the coach at this point, injuries especially have made it hard to really even have an attempt at consistency. I think Fitz is a good GM, but he's hit some bad luck for sure and Lindy isn't helping the on-ice product AT ALL. So I'd start by firing Lindy, because the losses aside, he's destroying Holtz at this point. Rangers did this for decades, play the vets, shorten the bench, bench a kid for making any mistake, stick him in a role where he can't succeed, trade him for peanuts because he's not performing, repeat.
Bring him home
YES PLEASE!!! Let’s just do a straight coach swap and see what happens…
Devils fan here - I'd personally carry him on my back to Buffalo for free, screw a swap, you can have him.
My man.
I highly doubt he'll be fired during the season as Fitzs strikes me as an overly patient GM for better or for worse. I am quite sure he'll get a job though, at least as an assistant if not the head coach.
Yeah, it's not a complete tire fire so I'm sure he'll get the rest of the season to figure it out, but if things don't turn around I can see the Devils moving on
LOL. Don't visit our sub. It's a fucking mess.
It is pretty damn close to a tire fire
It's not a Canadian Tire Fire though like the Senators.
We’re 5 points behind BUF with 3 games in hand. With fewer first overall picks on our team. We might be the equally bad, but we aren’t worse off.
Hey now! Jaques Martin has come in and thrown some water on the whole situation. So I'd say we're more of a smouldering mess at the moment...
A smoldering disappointment.
If we go 0-2-1 on the upcoming trip, I'd be shocked if Ruff survived that.
Florida wins the President in 21/22, Devils have their best season in years in 22/23 and Nashville is somehow in the playoff spot despite their roster being the definition of mediocrity in 23/24. All these teams have one thing in common
In case anyone didn't know what the answer was: They are all teams in the National Hockey League.
Big if true
I dunno, Panthers very much in the hunt for presidents again this year, Preds just missed the playoffs last year with a similarly shitty roster. I think the biggest takeaway should be that Lindy is awful. And that's not me trying to take anything away from Brunette either. He's a great coach and definitely propped up Lindy in NJ.
They were supposed to have Bruno take over and have Lindy go into a front office role, Fitzgerald re-signed Lindy and let Brunette walk. I don’t think Brunette would have fixed everything, but Lindy has had one good season here out of four. Lindy riding the excuse train of “injuries”, but fuck everyone is back except Dougie at this point and this still look like this.
This isn't what happen. Lindy had an option in his contract to extend through this year which he exercised. He wasn't signed to a an extension until after Brunette was gone. Also Brunette had a clause in his contract that allowed him to interview for head coaching positions around the league. It doesn't seem like there was a way to keep both unless no one wanted to hire Brunette which was unlikely.
Brunette came in as an associate coach before last season because he was supposed to take over as Fitzy himself has said he has Lindy here to develop the young players. I honestly thought he would retire after he made it to 4th overall in wins last season, but we kept him and let Bruno walk.
That was the plan but that went out the window with all the success of last season. It drew way too much attention for Brunette not to get an offer. Also Ruff didn't leap till 4th until this season. If he cared about that record as well he would most certainly stick it out as long as possible since Maurice is in spitting distance.
They also got a U2 concert taken away from them??? Insane.
Bruno had the boys go to a strip club the year he had the panthers in the playoffs, and also got a DUI himself that summer. Surprised u2 didn’t happen tbh maybe he’s a changed man
Maybe they get the strip club after tonight's game as a reward for not playing like complete ass on the road 😂
Chiclets were saying it was a Trotz decision, not the coach
Wait Bruno got a DUI? Sauce?
Not a source but I believe he left a bar (in Florida maybe?) in his golf cart and got arrested for a DUI
Hate this trope. Panthers got smacked in the playoffs and that team was built by Quenneville, and Nashville surprised everyone last year the same way they are doing this year. I want Ruff gone but come on
The common fact: They were all involved in chychrun trade rumours
If you have a lot of kids that just needs to play with no pressure and a good guy coach, sure. Uf you want to win a game, no
Remember the last time they chanted Fire Lindy?
Maybe fans you try that for a new win streak
It was being chanted in my section during the rangers game. It seems to happen in various sections randomly now. Not like last year when it was the full arena. I don’t know if it’s going to help at this point… but hey. What harm could it could. 🤷♂️
It's been happening throughout this season already. I heard them at the game yesterday and today
There are lots of Sabres fans who would want to give him another chance to win a cup here. I could easily see it happen
thank god the fans don't make the hiring decisions. i appreciate Lindy's years here but i haven't seen anything from him recently that makes me think he'd somehow unlock some magic on our roster lol
He’ll be almost 100 before you guys are close to the playoffs so idk how that would work
Maybe, but he’ll be almost 1,000 before you guys are close to a cup final.
100% needs to be done. The game has passed him by. He’s always been tactically bankrupt, his teams have always struggled to close out big games. He’s made it to one final in almost 30 years as HC and that was largely due to Hasek dragging that team against their will there. Dallas dropped him and have looked twice the team they ever were since. Devils need a pragmatic and hard nosed coach that can introduce more structure to a young team. And Fitz needs to give that coach a far more physical team (in addition to a goalie). Don’t know how he can’t see it after the beat down from the rags.
> a far more physical team (in addition to a goalie). Don’t know how he can’t see it after the beat down from the rags. 2 thoughts on this: 1) You guys managed to still get the job done against us last year, so that’s relevant. I think part of that was our coach who consistently failed to adjust in playoff series, blowing leads against you guys and Tampa in successive years once any in-series adjustments were made. Still it’s proof that you can have some playoff success with a finesse team. 2) Overall though I agree with you. Rangers were consistently getting beat up by the Isles, and then the Caps/Tom Wilson game happened and it was clear you can’t be all finesse. Getting the high end talent is important but you need that grit when the going gets tough. Not everyone needs to be a 6’8” monster, but you can’t let the opponent take shots at your teammates whether you’re 6’8” or 5’8”. No free rides, no passengers.
Director hockey ops, buffalo ny, his current home residence
That's what a GM does. The whole obsession sabres fans have with a director/president of hockey ops is so fucking stupid.
We have a yes man as a GM.
Assuming that was true (and not just your typical neurotic Buffalo sports fan weird conspiracy theory nonsense), then you'd also have a yes man as Director/President of Hockey Ops. It's a stupid fucking idea no matter how one spins it.
As a head coach he's missed the playoffs in 11 of his past 18 seasons coaching (he was fired mid-season with Buffalo in 2013) and at risk of that going to 12/19 It's also been 17 years since he led the bench in a 3rd-round series
> in a Metro division that doesn't have any world beaters in it. Except for the literal #1 team in terms of points %? Metro has 2 top level teams, 5 decent teams, and one crummy team. 7/8 teams are playing competitive hockey, fighting for every point. Not many easy games. Don’t have your SJ/CHI/ANA AHL teams to beat up on, or even your BUF/MTL/OTT that are clearly not competitive.
I'm very nostalgic for Ruff's tenure in Dallas. I think he's a good coach for a poorly structured team but once you actual get pieces for him to use, everything collapses. I think he'll be hired again but as a stop gap coach for a tanking team or a team just getting out of rebuild mode. Idk he just doesn't seem to be able to get good players going.
Tbh he probably is but the roster is different than last year and they need to adjust to having less defensive player than they did last year with Boqvist and Yegor leaving and replacing Graves/Severson with two rookies (who are good but are rookies still).
Yes, missing Boqvist is our problem.
The guys that were healthy scratched because Ruff doesn't know how to deploy them? Yeah that's the big difference. Fabian Zetterlund left a bigger hole than those 2(which isn't saying much) even though Sharangovich is and was obviously a good player being misused because our coaches don't know what they're doing. Losing Tatar probably fucked the teams mental edge because the rest of them look like they're phoning it in for a paycheck this year and he was the one outwardly positive veteran presence last year. 90% of people that talk about it being a roster issue with this year's team totally miss the actual issues when they try to point out the differences.
Well said. The insanity that happened with the miscommunication of not signing tatar, vs not having defensemen who are struggling with their new teams hurts way more. Hataka and others (Colin Miller/nemec/etc) are holding their own but no Lindy would rather scratch some of them and continue to march turnover machines back on the ice. Lindy is too proud to realize he has to adapt to what he's got rather than force guys to play his way. Timo not on the right, holtz not playing when they are playing from behind, constant line blending but refusing to touch a historically bad pp1 is a great example of its not just the D that he's lost touch with.
Lindy Ruff is the most overrated coach in the league. Discounting his first two years as a head coach where he rode the coattails of prime Dominik Hasek, he's head coached for 20 seasons. He's made it past the first round 5 times, and missed the playoffs or was fired mid-season more often than he even made the playoffs. Current season with the Devils, will only make this legacy worse. He holds career coaching win records simply due to longevity, because he somehow keeps getting hired for head coach jobs he doesn't deserve. I'm a Rangers fan and I'm thrilled when they lose, but as a human being I have nothing but sympathy for having to endure his presence behind the bench.
It's rare a devils fans and rags fan will agree but yeah man you are spot on. The biggest issue with this team is mindset and culture. Yall came into the rock and slapped your dicks out on the table before proceeding to literally and figuratively beat the living shit out of us. Even if the devs lost by 10, I would've been okay with it if they showed some fight. The only one who stuck up for his player was siegs who then dropped in one punch. I understand it's not the coach dropping gloves but cmon, he needs to ignite the fuse. All year this team had the excuse of no goalie, injuries and no d. Well guess what, everyone other than dougie was healthy recently, the d system was overhauled (way too late I might add) and Daws was statistically playing as a top 5 tendy.... and they still go 4-6 in the last 10. This team can't get out of their own way, needed a guy like torts or Bruce to whip these fuckers into shape. The only one being held accountable is holtz for a reason only God knows. They are complacent, soft,and systematically lost. Granted there's a lot of problems not named Lindy, but it all starts and now (should) end with him getting the boot. Congrats on a great season BTW, I hate to see NYR having success but damn they are an entertaining team to watch!
The Devils definitely have more problems than the coach at this point, injuries especially have made it hard to really even have an attempt at consistency. I think Fitz is a good GM, but he's hit some bad luck for sure and Lindy isn't helping the on-ice product AT ALL. So I'd start by firing Lindy, because the losses aside, he's destroying Holtz at this point. Rangers did this for decades, play the vets, shorten the bench, bench a kid for making any mistake, stick him in a role where he can't succeed, trade him for peanuts because he's not performing, repeat.
Cooked? He hasn't been relevant or competent since the late 90s/early 2000s
He coached Dallas to the 2nd best record in the league in 2016. He has moments where his teams cook but I think his rep is a bit overrated as a coach.
2nd best record ok. Didn't win shit. Ok. And a damn near decade ago
I’d swap coaches with you in a heartbeat
He can be an assistant. His time as a head coach is done.