Fire Lindy and Green, Now

[Oneiro]

So, Novo expressing an opinion now makes him a blogger? I don't get this argument.

The guy is obviously a credentialed reporter and perhaps the only one to actually ask Ruff tough questions. Do you want him to just be another Amanda Stein and just relay quotes and write team-friendly fluff pieces? Is he not supposed to offer any opinion/criticism and just stick purely to reporting the facts?

That you can’t see a middle ground between team PR and reporting facts without injecting editorial is pretty funny.

Being a mouthpiece for the fans feels good but it costs you in connections and better more timely information over the long term. He’s young, he’ll learn. And by the way, I loathed the Ruff hire from day one.

TG called it like it is on social media without caving into crowd think but still did his job as a professional.

 

[Devilsfan118]

Where Fitz

It's frankly embarrassing how little he addresses the media.

 

[imMagnum]

Fitz is committing with Ruff the same way as Shero did with Hynes. Didn't turn out well for Shero.

The players like Ruff and I'm sure no one in the organization wants to see him go. There has to be accountability however. The players and coaches aren't performing. You can not build a winning mindset in the locker room if you let losing be acceptable and hold no one accountable. The fact we were 2-for-46 on the PP and the only thing our organization did was say, "sometimes pucks don't bounce your way" shows how little accountability is going on in the organization.

Also, good on Novo. He's going to get blocked from interviews or have people in the organization hostile with him going forward, which is a chicken shit move by the Devils. Somebody needs to hold the Devils accountable, and Fitz surely isn't the one doing so.

Also, Shero's demise was he wasn't successful in addressing defense. Fitz has done the same with goaltending. Lots of similarities between Fitz and Shero, which makes sense. I liked them both but Fitz being oblivious to what got Shero turfed is certainly concerning.

 

[Better Call Sal]

That you can’t see a middle ground between team PR and reporting facts without injecting editorial is pretty funny.

Being a mouthpiece for the fans feels good but it costs you in connections and better more timely information over the long term. He’s young, he’ll learn. And by the way, I loathed the Ruff hire from day one.

TG called it like it is on social media without caving into crowd think but still did his job as a professional.

I'm largely in agreement with you. There's definitely a middle ground that Novo seems to be shifting away from.

He'll be happy to get his props from the fans, I'm sure, but will probably get shafted connection wise as you mentioned.

TG was certainly a pro, and he did great having to navigate a borderline prehistoric information hub in the Lou-era Devils teams.

 

[HBK27]

That you can’t see a middle ground between team PR and reporting facts without injecting editorial is pretty funny.

Being a mouthpiece for the fans feels good but it costs you in connections and better more timely information over the long term. He’s young, he’ll learn. And by the way, I loathed the Ruff hire from day one.

TG called it like it is on social media without caving into crowd think but still did his job as a professional.

Being a mouthpiece for the fans is how you build a following. Ultimately, we should want at least one reporter that largely speaks for the fans and is not afraid to critique the team (when appropriate) or ask tough questions. Ultimately, his job is to report on this team and drive subs to NJ.com, which I guess can be argued whether or not this helps.

I get what you're saying though - that you'd prefer he just stick to reporting the facts and not interject his own opinion, which is a reasonable stance for you to have. I also get the risk of what stuff like this does in alienating connections, though beat writers are not usually the guys breaking news. Larry Brooks has also been very outspoken throughout his time covering the Rangers and yet seems very well connected with the organization.

I'm not going to blast Novo for this as I don't think he's jumping the gun or letting his own opinions supersede his coverage of the team. I think he waited about as long as you could before calling for Ruff's head. Guess we'll see how this all plays out for Novo.

 

[Bleedred]

Fitz is committing with Ruff the same way as Shero did with Hynes. Didn't turn out well for Shero.I d

It's too early to say this

Only if Ruff comes back next year. I think any chances of that went out the window yesterday. There will be Fire Fitzy chants (just like the article says) as soon as things go the least bit bad with Ruff if he comes back next year. It's over for him.

Maybe if we have finish the season with the same record we had after the first Fire Lindy game in October of 2022.

We went something like 20-2-2 after that? Or roughly?

20-2-2 to end the year will get to us to 104 points and a guaranteed playoff berth lol.

 

[Nocashstyle]

I don’t think Ruff did himself any favors by snapping at Novo for asking the (very valid) question about Holtz.

As almost everyone here probably agrees: Novo isn’t wrong in stating that Ruff’s time behind the bench should be over. I also do agree that Novo probably needs to be careful that he doesn’t just become a mouthpiece for fan angst.

 

[jkrdevil]

If Novo was just a quote taker like Abby was he would be out of a job already. I don’t think he has been out of line with any questions he has asked.

Writing a column that says a team needs to think about a change or the coach looks like he is out of answers is pretty standard fair. Go back a read some of the stuff out of Pittsburgh last year ahead of Hextall getting fired. Those reporters still have their connections. Brooks has been doing this for 30 years on the Rangers best for the post.

Everson used to tear the organization to shreds at time (and this was when they were generally good). He still got the scoop of the Kovalchuk contract ahead of everyone else.

 

[HBK27]

I'm largely in agreement with you. There's definitely a middle ground that Novo seems to be shifting away from.

He'll be happy to get his props from the fans, I'm sure, but will probably get shafted connection wise as you mentioned.

TG was certainly a pro, and he did great having to navigate a borderline prehistoric information hub in the Lou-era Devils teams.

TG was a certainly a pro did good reporting and rarely interjected any opinion into his articles. This got him a cushy job at NHL.com, where
he does standard league-approved bland reporting articles. Honestly, that's not a bad place to be as he seems to have a good amount of job stability in a very unstable world right now for journalists. However, I don't recall hearing about or reading any interesting content that TG is putting out. At best we see the occasional interesting Tweet from him.

I do wonder where Novo is looking to go with his career - not sure how much of a long-term career path there is to be a traditional beat reporter. If you want to go beyond that, I think (somewhat) being a mouthpiece for the fans and being someone is unafraid to ask tough questions and be willing to offer tough critique when warranted (with strong supporting reasoning/evidence) is not a bad way to go.

 

[Cheddabombs]

It's frankly embarrassing how little he addresses the media.

Personally I don't care too much about Fitz not speaking out more often, though I understand the want for that.

I'm more upset about the lack of any action. Yes injuries have been terrible this year and should be considered when evaluating the season. But there still could have been things done to address the team's deficiencies. It just shows no accountability.

 

[jkrdevil]

Btw, it is probably more likely that Novo ends up moving to a bigger bear than him losing connection with the team. Mainly because from the outside he seems like a hard worker.

 

[HBK27]

Btw, it is probably more likely that Novo ends up moving to a bigger bear than him losing connection with the team. Mainly because from the outside he seems like a hard worker.

Good point. Plus people like to see a little bit of personally mixed in - otherwise, you have 4-6 reporters just regurgitating the same quotes and information.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Novo is great for our situation. Because someone has to ask these questions. If not for him, no one would. I will admit, he can sound a bit, I don't know, whiny. Or like a bit of a douche. But he's at least what seems to be the only voice for the fans we have.

 

[Bleedred]

Very sadly, one thing that will get lost in this article was this line

''He’s a storied hockey figure, coaching the Buffalo Sabres for 15 years and manning an NHL bench for 23. He doesn’t deserve to sit and watch as fans call for his job night in and night out.''

Especially that last sentence. Most of the concentration will be that this was somewhat an assassination piece on the head coach, but he specifically points out that Ruff doesn't deserve to have to hear the Fire Lindy chant however many times again before he's finally put out of his misery. I personally don't think the Fire Lindy chant is at all necessary at this point. I think we're gonna see the end of his time here as head coach one way or another come April.

I kind of go back to Brian Burke's comment once about how he fired Ron Wilson late in the year (after extending him around Christmas time 2 months before lol) because letting him coach another game there would be ''Cruel and unusual punishment''. Which to me is the only reason to really fire Lindy at this point.

The worst thing that can happen is Travis Green takes over on the interim and he's our new head coach next year.

Conversely, one of the best things that can happen is Lindy is fired this week, Green takes over and the team looks even worse than they did under Ruff and wins at a rate as less than we've seen this year. And that ends any chance of seeing that bullfrog neck another second past this year.

 

[Bleedred]

Honestly, this guy is the best coverage we've seen of the team since TG.

Everybody in between TG and him were not adequate and it started getting worse and with every new replacement. To the point where Andrew Gross didn't seem that bad, despite him being a huge dropoff from TG at the time as his successor.

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

Also, Shero's demise was he wasn't successful in addressing defense. Fitz has done the same with goaltending. Lots of similarities between Fitz and Shero, which makes sense. I liked them both but Fitz being oblivious to what got Shero turfed is certainly concerning.

It is concerning because I don't think Shero got fired because of his tendencies. I think he got fired because his views clashed with the owners. That much, I feel very strongly about. What specifically though....we can't say for certain. Idk why but I have this feeling Fitz is safe.

How much longer we gotta wait till someone gets held accountable? Whether it's Ruff or Fitz

 

[Normal Devil]

It's frankly embarrassing how little he addresses the media.

I don't think GM's in general do a lot of talking during the regular season. I don't think this is unusual.

 

[Devilsfan118]

I don't think GM's in general do a lot of talking during the regular season. I don't think this is unusual.

Perhaps my gut is off, but if we went around the league and looked at the last time any given team's GM made a public statement - I would bet Fitz would be one of the longest, if not the longest, to have gone without making a statement.

But who knows. Could be wrong, probably am.

 

[Emperoreddy]

There is a rush to blame the kids from outsiders but until very recently, Luke was playing very good hockey and was not the reason we were struggling.

 

[Zacha37]

Perhaps my gut is off, but if we went around the league and looked at the last time any given team's GM made a public statement - I would bet Fitz would be one of the longest, if not the longest, to have gone without making a statement.

But who knows. Could be wrong, probably am.

I feel he was very vocal over the offseason, making himself available for a lot of things like the Spittin Chiclets podcast and he made several appearances on NHL network. Hopefully that wasn’t just him taking a victory lap, though, and that he’ll also be willing to face the music with the media now that shit is hitting the fan.

 

[Better Call Sal]

I feel he was very vocal over the offseason, making himself available for a lot of things like the Spittin Chiclets podcast and he made several appearances on NHL network. Hopefully that wasn’t just him taking a victory lap, though, and that he’ll also be willing to face the music with the media now that shit is hitting the fan.

If I'm not mistaken, GMs tend to often be more available during the offseason because that's when they are doing more work for the team with the draft, free agency, etc. In-season, I don't think you tend to find them being available to the media aside from a handful of times, probably to avoid serving as a distraction.

I think it'd be more uncommon if he were available to the media more regularly, but I could be offbase here.

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

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The lack of swagger from last year is what is scary. They looked like they could win every game last year.

This year its lifeless losers

They have too much talent for that.

They look unmotivated and they don’t have jump.

Clear signs of a team needing a new voice.

The game that stands out for me from last season was not a win but a loss. It was the game in the fall versus NYI where the goalie was horrible and the team came coming back to make it a game. Jack played the last 5 minutes or so and even though they lost, it almost felt like a win cause they kept coming.

I haven’t seen that confidence nor swagger overall at all this season. The early power play had a bit of that but that was just a glimmer of it.

Also, this past preseason there was a crazy tic-tac-toe goal with Nemec and Jack passing, forgot who finished and I think it was on the power play, that keeps me thinking, “why haven’t they tried Simon on PP1?”

That’s it, I got nothing else. They broke me with the Calgary game. I was glad they won the SS game but I just haven’t had the ”feel goods” for this team all season long and that Calgary game lost me completely.

I understand dignity and respect, but one playoff run and a bunch of bad, stubborn decisions shouldn’t buy you goodwill just because you’re a vet coach. Heck, Cooper has been coaching less years than him and is only 60-70 wins behind him. This is the business of sports and Ruff is not some kind of NJD hall of famer that deserve to get anything more than the boot at this point.

 

[Emperoreddy]

 

[AfroThunder396]

It's not typical for GM's to just talk to the media unprovoked.

Fitzgerald had a sit down interview with Novo for NJ.com back in November where he ripped the team's defense and said they needed to protect their goaltenders better. Clearly that hasn't been addressed internally and it's very difficult to fix that with an external move in the middle of the season.

He also addressed the media for over 20 minutes just last month during the extension announcement where he fielded questions about all sorts of things around the team.

It's also just not good business to tip your hand to other GMs - the reason Trotz is asking for the farm for Saros is because he knows he has all the leverage. If Fitz comes out and says "yeah I really need a left handed defenseman who can penalty kill," won't any GM who is shopping such a player jack up the price? It's just not a smart idea for the GM to talk publicly in season.

They might give a few token appearances here and there but rarely is anything substantial said during the season, just generic 'we have to execute better' and 'I believe in this team' yadda yadda yadda

 

[Nocashstyle]

Yep. That’s a pretty ridiculous and ill-informed claim from Marek. Injuries and bad goalies, sure. But fully healthy, a coach should get a lot more out of this roster. That’s not even up for debate.