Fire Lindy and Green, Now

[Goptor]

Sullivan has worn out his welcome in Pittsburgh and should be fired at the end of the year. He's good tactically

 

[HughesCorporation]

Fitz was in front of the media plenty last year when it was time to take the plaudits and back slaps

yup, nice point!

 

[IDEKWTM]

There's defn a possibility that Fitz is waiting for Sullivan to be fired...

 

[Bleedred]

Look goaltending is an issue, but please. TB trotted out a statistical worse then Vanecek goalie last night and we shit the bet

Please do not bring up goaltending for the struggles of the system and players in place

Goaltending is still much to blame for our mediocre standing. Especially with the boner for Vitek, particularly displayed in November by Ruff and company.

But now the wheels have completely come off to the point where the bad goaltending won't buy anyone a pass anymore.

It doesn't make up for the rest of the year, but we've had roughly league average goaltending since the new year and I think we're still only 10-11-2 in that time.

Some of expected goals stats since that time (on evolving hockey particularly) are near the bottom part of the league.

 

[Bleedred]

There's defn a possibility that Fitz is waiting for Sullivan to be fired...

Even before the wheels fell off I've been of the mind that Fitz would try for him if Pittsburgh lets him go.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Sullivan has worn out his welcome in Pittsburgh and should be fired at the end of the year. He's good tactically

I have a feeling they make the playoffs at this rate

 

[ZYXWVUT]

There was a coach recently, I can’t remember who, that was asked about how teams can stay afloat and keep plugging along even when at times hit hard with injuries. It was from one of the teams who has had a ton of injuries in recent years (wish I could recall). And the answer was essentially if you have a structured system that guys trust, the mentality becomes just slotting the next guy in to play the right way and off you go. And that’s so clearly nonexistent in NJ. Any semblance of true sensible structure to fall back on. And regarding sullivan or any higher profile coach, isnt it documented that laviolette was the first choice when they hired ruff, but t ownership wasn’t willing to fork over the type of $$$ he wanted so it all broke down? Makes you wonder if that’s the philosophy for coaches, not paying the top dollar for any of the established guys.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

There was a coach recently, I can’t remember who, that was asked about how teams can stay afloat and keep plugging along even when at times hit hard with injuries. It was from one of the teams who has had a ton of injuries in recent years (wish I could recall). And the answer was essentially if you have a structured system that guys trust, the mentality becomes just slotting the next guy in to play the right way and off you go. And that’s so clearly nonexistent in NJ. Any semblance of true sensible structure to fall back on. And regarding sullivan or any higher profile coach, isnt it documented that laviolette was the first choice when they hired ruff, but t ownership wasn’t willing to fork over the type of $$$ he wanted so it all broke down? Makes you wonder if that’s the philosophy for coaches, not paying the top dollar for any of the established guys.

It was Cassidy when Vegas was in NJ this year for their game I'm pretty sure

 

[HugeInTheShire]

Ruff needs to go, even if they intern Dineen for the rest of the season and look for a new guy in the offseason. Just please, please, please don't let Green take over.

 

[JimEIV]

Nevermind... I quoted something from the first page thinking it was new

 

[Emperoreddy]

Old boys club are just going to further circle the wagon and blame all our troubles on everything but Ruff.

I think Fitz ends up agreeing with them and Ruff survives again

It's a bit funny though as their criticisms make it sound like the core problem is really Fitz as he is the one who built the roster

 

[ZYXWVUT]

Old boys club are just going to further circle the wagon and blame all our troubles on everything but Ruff.

I think Fitz ends up agreeing with them and Ruff survives again

It's a bit funny though as their criticisms make it sound like the core problem is really Fitz as he is the one who built the roster

Everyone’s nightmare and I honestly won’t be surprised whatsoever if it plays out like that. In fact, I think it’s the more likely scenario. And in all honesty, we’ll see how my headspace actually turns out, but I could see myself mentally just no longer caring to take the organization seriously anymore if they keep the coach.

 

[My3Sons]

Old boys club are just going to further circle the wagon and blame all our troubles on everything but Ruff.

I think Fitz ends up agreeing with them and Ruff survives again

It's a bit funny though as their criticisms make it sound like the core problem is really Fitz as he is the one who built the roster

My sauces tell me that the voices are rising that the moderating on this sub is what ails the team.

 

[NJDevs26]

Old boys club are just going to further circle the wagon and blame all our troubles on everything but Ruff.

I think Fitz ends up agreeing with them and Ruff survives again

It's a bit funny though as their criticisms make it sound like the core problem is really Fitz as he is the one who built the roster

If they keep Lindy and fire Fitz I may pull a RangerDoggo

That'd be like the end of the Mary Tyler Moore show when everyone BUT Ted Baxter got fired lol

 

[Marv4Life]

If Ruff, Green, etc gets canned but the team is still soft-as-Charmin, can't score on the PP and fail to put together a nice winning streak then at the end of the day the architect of this roster should get the blame, and if ownership does care about winning, they'd focus on the architect instead of his underlings.

 

[My3Sons]

If they keep Lindy and fire Fitz I may pull a RangerDoggo

That'd be like the end of the Mary Tyler Moore show when everyone BUT Ted Baxter got fired lol

I already tried to be My3CoyotesDoggo and it didn’t work. That era hasn’t gone all that well.

 

[Devs3cups]

I will post this every day:

Firing Fitz would be a mistake.

 

[MadDevil]

It would be kind of funny if losing to Mackenzie Blackwood tomorrow is the final straw for Ruff getting canned.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Honestly the best thing Ruff has done for this franchise was playing Blackwood in Game 82 last year. If Blackwood doesn’t give such a comprehensively dog shit performance in that game, he’s probably the backup going into the Rangers series with Schmid in the press box. We pretty easily get swept in that scenario.

 

[JimEIV]

Even if you are going to fire Ruff...It makes much more sense to wait until the off season.

 

[Bleedred]

I don’t see too many scenarios where Ruff is the head coach for this team for a second in 24-25. Not anymore I don’t.

One of them would be making the playoffs

The other would be a massive surge at some point down the stretch just to barely miss the playoffs. And I mean miss the playoffs by just a few points. We’re currently pacing to miss the playoffs by about 7 or 8 points. And even before yesterday’s game ended I found myself for the first time all year wondering if we’d even finish above NHL 500 and by how many games if so?

 

[MadDevil]

Even if you are going to fire Ruff...It makes much more sense to wait until the off season.

If you make the decision to fire the coach, why drag it out?

 

[JimEIV]

If you make the decision to fire the coach, why drag it out?

I don't particularly like the temp situation. It feels weird and in limbo. ..After the season presumably more options will be available. Seems cleaner.... like firing an employee on a Friday

 

[HBK27]

Even if you are going to fire Ruff...It makes much more sense to wait until the off season.

It makes more sense to replace him in the offseason, as there will most likely be a better array of candidates.

I personally would like to see them fire him (and Green) and promote Dineen in a clearly interim role (hell, he can bring the AHL goalie coach while he's at it). Let's see how the team reacts to a different voice and scheme. See how Holtz produces with a coach that has confidence in him (Holtz was close to a PPG player in the AHL under Dineen). See how Meier plays in a top 6 role on the RW and maybe even PP1. See if he can change up the Power Play. Hold players besides Holtz accountable. Develop some of our younger players (which worked out seemingly well for guys like Nemec, Zetterlund, Holtz in Utica).

The team seems to have mentally checked out on Ruff. Nice guy, runner up to coach of the year last year and all (though that award is generally just given to teams with the biggest rise versus prior year versus the actual best year-in, year-out coaches) - like I've said many times, I was genuinely rooting for the guy, but the writing is clearly on the wall and it's time to move on. Kick him up to some advisory role if his coaching days are over.

Not like Dineen lacks NHL experience - the guy coached the Panthers for 2+ seasons and very nearly knocked our 2012 Cup Finals team out in the opening round - losing games 6 & 7 in OT. Add in another 5 seasons as an assistant coach and him now being in his 11th year as an AHL Head Coach and the guy is more than qualified for an interim role the rest of the season. Gives him a nice job audition for the role going forward as well (though Devils shouldn't be lacking for interested more qualified candidates this offseason.

To me, it's a no-brainer. Can Ruff, Green & the Rogalski ASAP - promote Dineen & maybe he brings a couple guys with him. This is the exact reason you have a guy like Dineen as your AHL coach.

 

[Bone Density]

Stay away from Todd McLellan. That's all I ask. I wouldn't be opposed to Woodcroft. It probably goes down in the offseason, but I could see the argument for getting someone in there to make some assessments for the rest of the season, and see how the players react to a new coach.