Nas & Recchi Fired

[ajsgolf]

I’m sorry but why should the devils give ruff a shot with his own staff?  Never won anything as a head coach, hardly anything as an assistant coach, once made it to the finals.  Listening to him speak, zero substance.  Same look on his face when the team gives up goals.  He brings nothing to this team.  He should’ve been gone in 2021.  Management just proves they don’t care.  Recchi and Na$$hole was not nearly enough.  This franchise is beyond frustrating.

[mfitz804]

27 minutes ago, ajsgolf said:

I’m sorry but why should the devils give ruff a shot with his own staff?  Never won anything as a head coach, hardly anything as an assistant coach, once made it to the finals.  Listening to him speak, zero substance.  Same look on his face when the team gives up goals.  He brings nothing to this team.  He should’ve been gone in 2021.  Management just proves they don’t care.  Recchi and Na$$hole was not nearly enough.  This franchise is beyond frustrating.

On the surface I agree, but what is it that Jack likes about him? Or the other players? There may be something we aren’t privy to. 

[titans04]

Everybody likes their feeble minded old uncle who doesn't have the energy at this point in their life to get in their faces. But hey there was that one time....

Pardon my french but Jack and Nico haven't done sh*t in this league to have earned the right to save a coach who should have been shown the door because they like him. As CR76 points out I guess maybe he still goes, I kinda doubt it. 

[slasher72]

1 hour ago, ajsgolf said:

I’m sorry but why should the devils give ruff a shot with his own staff?  Never won anything as a head coach, hardly anything as an assistant coach, once made it to the finals.  Listening to him speak, zero substance.  Same look on his face when the team gives up goals.  He brings nothing to this team.  He should’ve been gone in 2021.  Management just proves they don’t care.  Recchi and Na$$hole was not nearly enough.  This franchise is beyond frustrating.

Philly and Detroit will likely get the coach they need this offseason and we'll roll the dice again with Ruff because he comes with a bargain basement discount.  

[jagknife]

8 hours ago, slasher72 said:

Philly and Detroit will likely get the coach they need this offseason and we'll roll the dice again with Ruff because he comes with a bargain basement discount.  

Philly also hired AV when we hired Ruff and are in the same boat.

I know they still have a month to figure something out, but its surprising to me that Boudreau is already locked up by Vancouver. They set a 1 June deadline

[DevsMan84]

I am still 100% convinced Jack's comments about Ruff is what saved him.

It goes from God to Jerry to Jack to Harris/Blitzer.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

At this point, I just want to hear from Fitz.  

[CarpathianForest]

21 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

At this point, I just want to hear from Fitz.  

Too busy watching his son play in Pittsburgh

[mfitz804]

19 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

At this point, I just want to hear from Fitz.  

Is this tweet referring to what happened yesterday or another one today?

 

[MadDog2020]

10 minutes ago, CarpathianForest said:

Too busy watching his son play in Pittsburgh

His son plays for Buffalo.

[Devilsfan118]

38 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

At this point, I just want to hear from Fitz.  

I'm a broken record here but - zero accountability.

Learned real well from Shero.

[DevsMan84]

Someone joked on Twitter that he will be available at 11 today to answer the questions he emailed to Stein earlier this morning.

I do think there is some truth in there.

[mfitz804]

18 minutes ago, DevsMan84 said:

Someone joked on Twitter that he will be available at 11 today to answer the questions he emailed to Stein earlier this morning.

I do think there is some truth in there.

Ahh ok. 

29 minutes ago, MadDog2020 said:

His son plays for Buffalo.

He'd better bring a telescope to Pittsburgh then. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

17 minutes ago, Devilsfan118 said:

I'm a broken record here but - zero accountability.

Learned real well from Shero.

My whole thing is the narrative that was starting to gain steam was that there was a good chance that Fitz was going to either come back with next year's staff completely intact, or without Recchi, who would have been made the fall guy...almost to the point where some were close to certain this was going to happen.

nASS (who some were beginning to believe might be untouchable) was jettisoned along with Recchi.  So I'm at "Well OK, you've got my attention Fitz, what's next?".

And that's just it.  What's next?  It's easy to go full negative/pessimist just because (years of losing will do that to majority within any fanbase), but I don't want to instantly go there and pile on until I get some kind of idea of what's actually next.  OK, so Lindy's still here, but Fitz hasn't yet come out and fully endorsed him or yet made it clear that the internal "evaluation" of the staff is fully over.  I want to know if it is.  If Ruff's the guy for next season, then I want to hear him confirm that...I hate the idea of it and I'm definitely not going to happy about it in the slightest, but at least I can rip the decision knowing that it's been made.  And I'd want to know WHY the decision was made.  Fitz, what makes you think Ruff is the man to take the Devils forward?  What specifically have you seen during the past couple of seasons with Ruff that gives you confidence that he should remain the head coach?  I may not like the answers given, but at this point, that's what I want...just some ANSWERS.  As happy as I am that two awful assistant coaches are finally out of here, I feel like them having been let go (and Ruff still here for the time being) has only led to more questions.     

[DevsMan84]

17 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

My whole thing is the narrative that was starting to gain steam was that there was a good chance that Fitz was going to either come back with next year's staff completely intact, or without Recchi, who would have been made the fall guy...almost to the point where some were close to certain this was going to happen.

nASS (who some were beginning to believe might be untouchable) was jettisoned along with Recchi.  So I'm at "Well OK, you've got my attention Fitz, what's next?".

And that's just it.  What's next?  It's easy to go full negative/pessimist just because (years of losing will do that to majority within any fanbase), but I don't want to instantly go there and pile on until I get some kind of idea of what's actually next.  OK, so Lindy's still here, but Fitz hasn't yet come out and fully endorsed him or yet made it clear that the internal "evaluation" of the staff is fully over.  I want to know if it is.  If Ruff's the guy for next season, then I want to hear him confirm that...I hate the idea of it and I'm definitely not going to happy about it in the slightest, but at least I can rip the decision knowing that it's been made.  And I'd want to know WHY the decision was made.  Fitz, what makes you think Ruff is the man to take the Devils forward?  What specifically have you seen during the past couple of seasons with Ruff that gives you confidence that he should remain the head coach?  I may not like the answers given, but at this point, that's what I want...just some ANSWERS.  As happy as I am that two awful assistant coaches are finally out of here, I feel like them having been let go (and Ruff still here for the time being) has only led to more questions.     

Fitz in his press conference has all but endorsed Ruff for next season.  He said guys like Hughes and Hischier spoke positively of Ruff.

Failure Fitz could also be called Gutless Fitz.

Edited May 5, 2022 by DevsMan84

[DevsMan84]

One thing I guess you can call good news is that Muk got his visa and is heading to Utica.  Could play in their playoffs coming up.

[mfitz804]

6 minutes ago, DevsMan84 said:

One thing I guess you can call good news is that Muk got his visa and is heading to Utica.  Could play in their playoffs coming up.

Well that's certainly interesting, I was not anticipating that. 

[Jerzey]

Let’s be a little fair to Ruff here. It’s not like he had the best teams to work with and the goaltending situation really screwed everyone over.

I don’t know the percentage but scoring is way up under him and his style is exciting (something very important to me). 
 

 

[mfitz804]

13 minutes ago, Jerzey said:

Let’s be a little fair to Ruff here. It’s not like he had the best teams to work with and the goaltending situation really screwed everyone over.

I don’t know the percentage but scoring is way up under him and his style is exciting (something very important to me). 
 

My concern is that the "exciting style" might be part of our special teams and defensive issues. 

[DevsMan84]

17 minutes ago, Jerzey said:

Let’s be a little fair to Ruff here. It’s not like he had the best teams to work with and the goaltending situation really screwed everyone over.

I don’t know the percentage but scoring is way up under him and his style is exciting (something very important to me). 
 

 

I wouldn't call losing 7-4 as being exciting.

[NJDevils1214]

30 minutes ago, DevsMan84 said:

Fitz in his press conference has all but endorsed Ruff for next season.  He said guys like Hughes and Hischier spoke positively of Ruff.

Failure Fitz could also be called Gutless Fitz.

The fact that the two assistants were let go so quickly after their evaluations proves that no one internal was endorsing keeping them. That right there put's a damper on the narrative around here that Fitz hasn't been paying attention, doesn't give a sh!t, or whatever. His hands may very well be tied by other factors. As much as I am also on the fence about Ruff I am not going to just assume Fitz, management, or whoever is considering him the long term solution because he backs him to the media. If the only choice is to keep him around for another year, for reasons unknown, I certainly wouldn't expect Fitz to speak negatively to the media about him. How does that, in any way, help set the team up for success next year?

[titans04]

7 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

My concern is that the "exciting style" might be part of our special teams and defensive issues. 

Yep, pond hockey surrounded by garbage time and meaningless games with zero pressure, fling it all over the ice.  No need to make a somewhat drastic and meaningful culture change when status quo works. Hell the data guys probably counted the swell new black jersey as the big change this org needed going forward. 

So is it safe to safe to say he has now spoken and can we now assume Ruff is a keeper or did he not spell it out clearly enough if he did speak? 

[mfitz804]

12 minutes ago, MB3 said:

One month in solitary confinement as a lurker and I can honestly say if @Satans Hockey, @mfitz804, @Nicomo, @Devilsfan118 or @RunninWithTheDevilever leave this place I'll probably just peace out. 

Rest of y'all are dull as hell lmao.

My man, back from the dead. Hope all is well, glad to see you. 

 

[Devil Dan 56]

37 minutes ago, MB3 said:

One month in solitary confinement as a lurker and I can honestly say if @Satans Hockey, @mfitz804, @Nicomo, @Devilsfan118 or @RunninWithTheDevilever leave this place I'll probably just peace out. 

Rest of y'all are dull as hell lmao.

“Oh cool MB3 is posting agai… well that wasn’t very nice.”

[Devil Dan 56]

I get some of Fitz’ reasoning on Ruff. Apparently he wanted Ruff to help the younger players and in Ruffs defense, a lot of them have improved. I still think doing nothing to fix the power play and defense was indefensible but I do get that part.