Devils fans, do you think Ruff is not using Meier properly or is it more a case of him sucking/playing through injury?
All three. This has been the season from hell for him.
-Ruff insisted on playing Meier on LW despite him being a RW basically his whole career. He's also not putting him with Hischer (Bratt/Palat) or Hughes (Haula/Toffoli). mostly he's played with Mercer (who should not be playing center) and either Holtz or Lazar.
-He was actually playing pretty well in late October/early November hen he sustained a lower body injury that kept him out for an oddly long period of time. We never got any clarification on what the injury was, but since he came back his skating is noticeably worse. He missed time again, unclear if it's a second lower body injury or a reaggravation of the earlier injury.
-He has also just not played well. Last year against the Rangers, he didn't find the scoresheet but was still a pain in the ass and made life miserable for NYR. There's been none of that this season. he's not that physical, not crashing the net. Some of this may be injury related, some of it may be usage related, but even when he shoots the puck it's just not going in.