Devils Are Overdue for Coaching Change
After a 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, it's time for a new voice behind the New Jersey Devils' bench
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Enough is enough. After a 5-1 blowout loss to the Los Angeles Kings, it's time for the New Jersey Devils to start making some changes. They probably should lean toward being sellers ahead of this Friday's trade deadline, but that's not the only change they need to make. After yesterday's loss, it's also time for a different voice behind the bench.
Kings Loss Reinforces Need for Change
Yesterday's game got off to a great start. Timo Meier scored 15 seconds into the game, but unfortunately, that is where it peaked for the Devils. Phillip Danault's breakaway goal wasn't a back-breaker, but the second goal Nico Daws gave up to Alex Laferriere essentially sealed the Devils' fate.
That was a bad goal against and should not have found the back of the net. Similar to the 2021-22 season, bad goaltending is taking the life out of the Devils. They put up a good effort to the Anaheim Ducks a couple of nights ago, but poor goaltending cost them that game, too.
Bad goaltending will likely cost Lindy Ruff his job, whether in the next day or two or at the end of the season. But make no mistake, the team's problems are much larger than goaltending. In the Ducks game, we saw poor net-front and rush defense that left Daws out to dry. He should have made some saves, but the defensive effort in front of him wasn't great, either.
Take Danault's breakaway goal, too. Danault sneaks onto the ice during a line change. Luke Hughes got caught napping, and Danault slipped in behind him for a breakaway on a great pass from Kevin Fiala. Part of this is personnel-related, but the Devils play too loose a game defensively.
Even the Devils' offense, which is supposed to be their strength, has gone missing over the last few weeks other than a couple of instances. The shots and chances have been there, but they're not finishing. There's also been a lot of one-and-done in the offensive zone, something Dimitri Filipovic and Darryl Belfry talked about on the Šimon Nemec episode of The Hockey PDOcast.
Against the Kings, most of the Devils' shots and chances came from the perimeter. They weren't generating anything from the slot and high-danger areas. Look at these stats Mike Kelly shared after the game:
If that game looked familiar to the first time these two teams played, that's because it was. Sure, the Devils scored first, but the Kings suffocated the Devils and didn't allow them to generate anything off the rush. Is that an indictment on the coaching staff? It sure seems to be since they aren't finding ways to make adjustments.
In the last two weeks, the Devils' only wins have been against the San Jose Sharks and Montreal Canadiens, two lottery teams. After that, the Devils have lost 6-2 to the Washington Capitals, 5-1 to the New York Rangers, 4-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-3 to the Ducks, and 5-1 to the Kings.
Other than the Ducks game, none of these losses have been close. They have not been competitive against teams they should be competitive against, a sign of the wheels coming off.
Devils' Issues Have Been Building Over Time
These last couple of games have been enough to warrant a coaching change. Really, the 5-1 loss to the Rangers should have been it for Ruff. But these losses are because of issues that have been building for some time, not just the last few weeks.
The Devils have taken a big step back defensively this season. This tweet from JFresh is a couple of weeks old, but I can assure you they have not improved defensively since then. This adds to the fact that it's not just goaltending costing the Devils:
Dougie Hamilton's injury was a killer for the Devils' defense (as well as their power play), but big-time steps back from Jonas Siegenthaler and John Marino have only made matters worse. And it's not just Siegenthaler and Marino who have regressed.
Obviously, Akira Schmid and Vitek Vaněček have gone from being well above-league-average netminders to well below. How the Devils have been playing in front of them certainly hasn't helped, either.
After nearly totaling 60 points a season ago, Dawson Mercer has been a shell of himself. Timo Meier has been playing better lately, but he's never looked entirely comfortable under Ruff (I think injuries have played a significant part in that this season).
Aside from underperforming players, and this is more on the coach than underperforming players, Ruff's lineup decisions have been questionable on more than a few occasions.
Take his decision to start Daws over Schmid yesterday. Daws gave up four goals on 0.84 expected goals against the Ducks. That's pretty bad! But instead of turning to Schmid, who saved all nine shots he faced in relief of Daws on Friday night, Ruff and his staff started Daws again. He's played a lot of hockey recently; yesterday was his 10th start in 11 games. He may be young, but that's a significant workload for anyone.
Of course, there's been Alex Holtz getting buried on the fourth line the entire season. The Devils haven't been able to score goals if their lives depended on it in recent games. Holtz has been the team's third-most efficient five-on-five scorer this season, but he has to play with Kurtis MacDermid and Tomáš Nosek for some reason, while Mercer remains invisible in the top-nine.
Change Is About Building for Next Season
It's too late to save the Devils' playoff hopes. At least, it most likely is. But Ruff should not be the coach when the team takes on the Florida Panthers tomorrow night. One) You have to make the change for the locker room at this point. This isn't rock bottom. It can get worse if the players aren't responding to Ruff anymore.
Two) The Devils have some bad habits right now. Is Travis Green the answer? I don't know, but it'd be silly to think he can't make some changes as the interim coach. Look at the Kings, Minnesota Wild and Edmonton Oilers, who have improved with coaching changes.
The reality is this change should have taken place some time ago. Jack Hughes was never going to return from injury and save this team. There were issues before then that were building up. Many of us saw it. Now, it's probably too late to save their playoff hopes.
But even if that's the case, the Devils still need to give Green the keys for the rest of the season. How they play defensively, the poor lineup decisions, team morale, players regressing, becoming too one-dimensional offensively. There's plenty to warrant a coaching change. It's time to move in a direction from Ruff, even if it's too late to save the season.