GDT: Devils @ Rags - Give me something for the pain and let me die edition.

[Guttersniped]

Steve Thomas back in 1995-1996 is probably one of my most hated Devils ever. Including coaches.

Honestly, one of the first Devils players I really HATED, which would not surprise anybody is Sean Burke.

He was no good here, other than the first few months of 1988. His debut at the end of that regular season through the playoffs was his peak as a Devil. It wasn't the peak of his career, but it was his peak as a Devil.

That was definitely his longest playoff run though. He was the backup for the Flyers on their 2004 team that made the conference finals. Burke had 12 career playoff wins and 9 of them came with us in 1988. He had three straight playoff runs of 1-4 in 5 game playoff runs. 1 with Philly in 98 and 2 with Phoenix in 00 and 01. Other than being 0-2 in the 1990 playoffs with us,

I think Herb Brooks was the first ever coach I hated here. College caliber head coach who got a couple of NHL head boss gigs because of an impossible gold medal win with college kids. He was one of those ''Real American heroes!'' coaches because of that. He was a one and done here under Lou.

Loved Sean Burke because of this ad from when the very low rent SportsChannel America that had the NHL national deal from 1988-1992.

“Gretzky, Lemieux, Burke…” was a catchphrase for years from this.



If you’re wondering how they picked these players, SportsChannel was only available in limited number major markets: New York (w/ NJD & NYI), Philadelphia (PHI), New England (just Whalers) and Chicago (CHI).

So Burke (NJD), LaFontaine (NYI), Dineen (HAR), Hextall (PHI) and Savard (CHI) join Wayne and Mario as the NHL’s 7 biggest superstars.

 

[Bleedred]

Loved Sean Burke because of this ad from when the very low rent SportsChannel America had the NHL national deal from 1988-1992.

“Gretzky, Lemieux, Burke…” was a catchphrase for years from this.



If you’re wondering how they picked these players, SportsChannel was only available in limited number major markets: New York (w/ NJD & NYI), Philadelphia (PHI), New England (just Whalers) and Chicago (CHI).

So Burke (NJD), LaFontaine (NYI), Dineen (HAR), Hextall (PHI) and Savard (CHI) join Wayne and Mario as the NHL’s 7 biggest superstars.*

Burke was certainly a darling after that 1988 run. He was on the cover of magazines and everything.

And I'm sure we've all seen the General Hospital clip from 1988 or 1989 where Doug Brown comes to the hospital and a young Ken Daneyko and John MacLean with the Axel Rose/David Lee Roth hair weave make an appearance to come pick him up and some guy makes a comment about how great of a goalie that Sean Burke is.

I haven't watched that clip since someone last posted it here.

 

[mdj12784]

Yeah, that too but I have long assumed that Green is not really a candidate for next season. Will be too many other good candidates available to choose from.

This is the biggest issue. No one will be satisfied when we have very little to choose from.

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

Green should've at least been better prepared for the possibility of it happening by putting Smith in over Marino.

I kinda think he threw Marino out there for a bit of plausible deniability.

 

[Bleedred]

I'm not a huge fan of having an interim coach from the same staff, everyone knew this guy sucks.

I wanted Ruff gone, but I was very adamant about the fact that it can't be for Green.

And my figure about the goalies team save percentage under Ruff being .897% was wrong. Because right now it's only .896% after getting .916% in the 15 games post-Ruff firing.

I ran those numbers by hand, I obviously messed up on something. Ruff goalie save percentage this year was probably more like .893% and not .897%.

Over two percent better since he's gone, only to go 6-9-0.

If that doesn't tell you that Green has completely destroyed this team from what they were doing under Ruff, then you'll never believe.

 

[JimEIV]

I wanted Ruff gone, but I was very adamant about the fact that it can't be for Green.

Who else could it have been? I mean were not going to bring some guy off the street with 25 games left...any real replacement is going to need careful vetting and multiple rounds of interviews...

Firing Lindy always meant an interim replacement from within.

That's why even though I never liked Ruff or his ad-lib approach, I didn't want him fired until the off season.

 

[Bleedred]

Who else could it have been? I mean were not going to bring some guy off the street with 25 games left...any real replacement is going to need careful vetting and multiple rounds of interviews...

Firing Lindy always meant an interim replacement from within.

That's why even though I never liked Ruff or his ad-lib approach, I didn't want him fired until the off season.

And that's exactly what I was telling people when they were calling for his firing.

That it was only gonna be for Green. There was hope that Green would go out the door with him (''The Devils need to fire Ruff and Green now'' thread), and I guess there was always a chance Dineen would take over as interim or a very outside shot that it would be Evason, Berube (for those that want him) or Woodcroft. One of the guys that had already been fired by their teams in-season.

But I felt the writing was always on the wall that it would be Green if it was happening in-season.

I did think that Green may have been hired all along to be the heir to Ruff whenever he did go, especially by giving him the ''Associate coach'', which I don't think the Devils ever had an associate coach in team history before Brunette last year.

The hope was to probably get another 1-2 years out of Ruff, hence the ''Multi-year extension'' that started after this year.

 

[My3Sons]

Who else could it have been? I mean were not going to bring some guy off the street with 25 games left...any real replacement is going to need careful vetting and multiple rounds of interviews...

Firing Lindy always meant an interim replacement from within.

That's why even though I never liked Ruff or his ad-lib approach, I didn't want him fired until the off season.

I don’t think the team had any interest in sending stuff home. As others have noted it was euthanasia to avoid him getting mercilessly razzed at the rock when they realized it wasn’t going to get any better on the ice.

 

[Bleedred]

The silver lining to the Green ERROR is that if Lindy were fired in the offseason and not on March 4th, Fitz may have been more inclined to promote Travis Green starting in 24-25 if he didn't get who he wanted in the offseason.

With our clear regression in play, which our record since he took over is congruent with, I think Travis Green is no longer a candidate to be head coach beyond these last 6 games.

I don’t think the team had any interest in sending stuff home. As others have noted it was euthanasia to avoid him getting mercilessly razzed at the rock when they realized it wasn’t going to get any better on the ice.

What kind of stuff do you think the team had no interest in sending home?

 

[MadDevil]

I kinda think he threw Marino out there for a bit of plausible deniability.

Both he and Tierney were just kind of like "Well I guess we might as well too" after the initial fights broke out. I'm sure we'll be seeing that shot of Miller standing over Marino forever. Congrats tough guy, you beat up a guy who doesn't fight.

 

[Unknown Caller]

Both he and Tierney were just kind of like "Well I guess we might as well too" after the initial fights broke out. I'm sure we'll be seeing that shot of Miller standing over Marino forever. Congrats tough guy, you beat up a guy who doesn't fight.

I don't think Miller fights either in fairness, but the size disparity is insane. No experienced fighter would give up that much size.

The recycled "too small" motion that Miller did was completely classless though. Not all that surprising coming from the Rangers. You have guys who have been knocked out cold countless times in NHL fights and most respectable players just skate away. It's a disrespectful childish move that belongs in the NBA.

But between Shesterkin skating out to the blueline and standing over Meier who was knocked out cold last year, Rempe waving goodbye after not fighting, and Miller doing the "too small" and now saying that Marino "found out", the Rangers are just complete scum.

 

[HBK27]

I kinda think he threw Marino out there for a bit of plausible deniability.

Aside from Lazar & Vesey going right at it, which probably was a result of the two talking before the puck drop, and MacDermid/Rempe knowing what's up...the other 3 Devils skaters weren't looking to brawl at the drop of the puck. Goodrow went straight for Bahl and at that point, Marino and Tierney figured they'd might as well scrap since everyone else was doing it.

 

[HBK27]

This is the biggest issue. No one will be satisfied when we have very little to choose from.

Why would we have very little to choose from? Teams that are just entering what should be a lengthy contention window are very attractive to head coaches.

 

[Unknown Caller]

Why would we have very little to choose from? Teams that are just entering what should be a lengthy contention window are very attractive to head coaches.

Unless Carolina, Dallas, Florida, or maybe Colorado opens up (not happening), the Devils are far and away the #1 opening in the league and it isn't even close.

As long as they're competitive on salary/term and don't do something insane like make the coach take lineup decisions from other people, they have a dream opening for a coach.

 

[Nocashstyle]

Unless Carolina, Dallas, Florida, or maybe Colorado opens up (not happening), the Devils are far and away the #1 opening in the league and it isn't even close.

As long as they're competitive on salary/term and don't do something insane like make the coach take lineup decisions from other people, they have a dream opening for a coach.

Yep. There’s no way the team is truly as bad as they are this year. I think anyone paying attention knows that. A good coach can come in and easily look like a great coach whether they fully earn the praise or not.

 

[Bleedred]

The biggest reason the team is really bad for the last month is far and away because Travis Green is now the head coach.

Ruff wishes he got a chance with the goalies we got at the deadline.

 

[Guttersniped]

And that's exactly what I was telling people when they were calling for his firing.

That it was only gonna be for Green. There was hope that Green would go out the door with him (''The Devils need to fire Ruff and Green now'' thread), and I guess there was always a chance Dineen would take over as interim or a very outside shot that it would be Evason, Berube (for those that want him) or Woodcroft. One of the guys that had already been fired by their teams in-season.

But I felt the writing was always on the wall that it would be Green if it was happening in-season.

I did think that Green may have been hired all along to be the heir to Ruff whenever he did go, especially by giving him the ''Associate coach'', which I don't think the Devils ever had an associate coach in team history before Brunette last year.

The hope was to probably get another 1-2 years out of Ruff, hence the ''Multi-year extension'' that started after this year.

Ruff needed to get fired. We looked like listless dogshit at home vs Tampa and that was followed by the bad road trip.

The “Fire Ruff” chants were going to start again, 20 games of that would have been ugly and cruel.

I didn’t see it as an attempt to savage the season either.

We kept theoretically hanging around because it might only take ~90 points to get the last two spots, not because we were poised to make a run.

I didn’t want Ruff here next year, and I didn’t want the fan base to abuse him, so firing him was the right move IMO.

I wasn’t particularly worried about Green doing enough to keep his job either, and that isn’t looking like a problem now, so who cares if he’s the interim HC? (Well, other than you lol.)

Maybe I’m underestimating Kevin Dineen’s coaching skills, but I have zero interest in him as a coaching candidate, so I had zero interest in him getting the interim job. I guess the team felt the same way.

People here read too much into hirings. We hired guys with HC experience because a lot of teams do and this is a good gig now. It doesn’t make every hire the next HC in waiting.

 

[Bleedred]

Ruff needed to get fired. We looked like listless dogshit at home vs Tampa and that was followed by the bad road trip.

The “Fire Ruff” chants were going to start again, 20 games of that would have been ugly and cruel.

I didn’t see it as an attempt to savage the season either.

We kept theoretically hanging around because it might only take ~90 points to get the last two spots, not because we were poised to make a run.

I didn’t want Ruff here next year, and I didn’t want the fan base to abuse him, so firing him was the right move IMO.

I wasn’t particularly worried about Green doing enough to keep his job either, and that isn’t looking like a problem now, so who cares if he’s the interim HC? (Well, other than you lol.)

Maybe I’m underestimating Kevin Dineen’s coaching skills, but I have zero interest in him as a coaching candidate, so I had zero interest in him getting the interim job. I guess the team felt the same way.

People here read too much into hirings. We hired guys with HC experience because a lot of teams do and this is a good gig now. It doesn’t make every hire the next HC in waiting.

I don't think Dineen is good either, I've been over that extensively.

I do think he may have been a lesser of two evils from Green, but that's based on the rationale that at least he wasn't here with the NHL team this season contributing to any of the problems of the season.

My fear Green would be coach in waiting/permanent Ruff heir even before Ruff was fired was based on irrational paranoia over how bad he was in Vancouver and how much he was loved at one point in the hockey world.

That irrational paranoia on my part being him taking over as permanent coach. Paranoia over him being bad is NOT IRRATIONAL, because he's showing everybody what I thought he would.

 

[Brooklyndevil]

Who else could it have been? I mean were not going to bring some guy off the street with 25 games left...any real replacement is going to need careful vetting and multiple rounds of interviews...

Firing Lindy always meant an interim replacement from within.

That's why even though I never liked Ruff or his ad-lib approach, I didn't want him fired until the off season.

With Green being promoted by Fitz, we should have just kept Ruff until the end of the season. Many posters here didn’t want Green and they were right. The guy is lost.

 

[NjDevsRR]

LOL at TNT not showing all the fights and instead, Shesterkin

 

[JrFischer54]

man miller roasting marino on IG to the victor goes the spoils

 

[Bleedred]

With Green being promoted by Fitz, we should have just kept Ruff until the end of the season. Many posters here didn’t want Green and they were right. The guy is lost.

I understand why Ruff was fired, but it was merely a mercy firing.

There were also a few people convinced Ruff was going to come back next season regardless. That wasn't quelled until Ruff was fired a few days into March, which is a pretty late time in a year to fire a head coach, unless you're completely spun out and are still hanging on to a playoff spot. I think Renney was fired by the Rangers for Torts around that same point in the year when they got him. Same with Therrien being fired for Bylsma in the year the Pens first won with Crosby/Malkin/Letang.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

man miller roasting marino on IG to the victor goes the spoils

Nah, this still exists

 

[JrFischer54]

Nah, this still exists

thats true but we live in a world with a short attention span sadly.

 

[theoptimist]

man miller roasting marino on IG to the victor goes the spoils

Like meeting someone on a first date and posting your dinner table on IG #wedontcare