Post-Game Talk: We need a New Goaltender(and Coach); Devils lose 4-1 (Poll)

[Bleedred]

If Ruff isn’t fired tomorrow, then he won’t be till after the season ends.

I’ll go a little later and say if he sees the first few days of February then he’s probably here the rest of the year. You don’t see many coaches fired after January or far into February, unless it’s to save the season. There’s clearly no season left to be saved at this point. It’s toast.

My original prediction was January 13th I think which I made on December 13th, but I did say that it would only be if we were 4-5 games under NHL .500. I think we were maybe 3-4 games under on that date and that was before the massive covid outbreaks that started just a week after that prediction I made.

I think those bought him some time and I think him being out for 3 games (where we went 2-1-0 lol and clearly only lost the 1 to Boston because of Blackwood single handedly) also helped give him a stay of execution.

The quotes from Tom right before Christmas about believing in him and not blaming him was almost a kiss of death. When the GM starts saying that about a head coach they usually only last another couple weeks.

One of my predictions back around mid December for the upcoming games was an embarrassing loss to the Canadiens on home ice, who we were scheduled to play on December 23Rd but that got postponed. I think we had close enough to that tonight to make up for it with an embarrassing loss on home ice to the Coyotes.

 

[tr83]

Nico let a nice F-bomb fly during his interview on the post game youtube show, at least someone cares.

Now he can march his ass up to Fitz's office and demand Ruff be fired.

And if not, the fire a puck at him in practice

 

[Bleedred]

Almost sure it was Jaros who was screening Blackwood, my brother said “a lot of traffic in front” right before it happened too.

It was Jaros. I went back and watched it.

See, even I’m starting to blame Severson now when he has nothing to do with it lol.

 

[tr83]

Welp, being almost 40, my time is pretty valuable. I cant see myself watching a team of uninspired trash for the rest of the year. Maybe I'll tune in if its a weekend matinee and the weather sucks. I hate feeling like this. I wish I had one decent team to root for.

Frankly, I'm over Fitz for just allowing the team to flounder a la Shero and doing f***-all about it.

And f*** our banker owners forever. The team is just an asset on paper to be managed.

 

[JK3]

Eddy eluded to it a bit but I can't believe Ruff is just going to ride Blackwood and the team into the ground. He's made some questionable decisions with the rotation going back to last year. We've had our issues with our backup situation for sure but it's not like Blackwood is keeping the team afloat and stealing games. Throw Gillies in there or whoever we got, it can't hurt. It really sucks about Bernier, it would have been great to push Blackwood to see if he could be the guy. He's done nothing to earn all these games other than be on a team with a shit backup situation.

 

[Triumph]

If anything, that makes it 10x worse. Almost a week to prepare for one of the worst teams in the league that is clearly tanking and then coming out and putting this stinker isn’t a good look.

It doesn't because it is not a situation that hockey players are usually in. They came out and dominated the first period and then played pretty underwhelming for the next 2.

 

[MauDevils]

I thought Gillies played well. I'm not sure what the rush is to constantly throw the corpse of Blackwood back out there every night.

 

[Bleedred]

Eddy eluded to it a bit but I can't believe Ruff is just going to ride Blackwood and the team into the ground. He's made some questionable decisions with the rotation going back to last year. We've had our issues with our backup situation for sure but it's not like Blackwood is keeping the team afloat and stealing games. Throw Gillies in there or whoever we got, it can't hurt. It really sucks about Bernier, it would have been great to push Blackwood to see if he could be the guy. He's done nothing to earn all these games other than be on a team with a shit backup situation.

If they are playing him injured I think that falls more on management for allowing him to play than Ruff. If he’s too injured to play then that’s on management and the medical department for allowing that to happen.

But Ruff seems like he wants to die on the Blackwood hill and it looks like he will.

The stupid political campaign from a couple weeks ago is still making me laugh. All of his quotes and the broadcast touching on it as well. How we’re gonna play him a lot and give him the ball. It was a joke. How’s that gonna work out for you Lindy?

 

[Bleedred]

I thought Gillies played well. I'm not sure what the rush is to constantly throw the corpse of Blackwood back out there every night.

I don’t think Gillies is better than Blackwood, but he sure isn’t worse right now.

And I think it took 13 shots to get a goal on him last game.

Once again, Blackwood has been beaten on one of the first 5 shots in 6 of his last 7 games played. At least 6 of his last 7 and I haven’t even gone back further than that.

 

[Bankers Box]

This was the final nail in the coffin.

Ruff should have been fired yesterday. His defensive system is putrid.

This team is lopsided and needs some tweaking. Fitz is just sitting on his hands though.

I miss Lou more every year, he would never allowed this franchise to stoop so low.

 

[My3Sons]

I’d play guys together who bring the effort rather than saddle then with floaters.

Johnsson Hughes Bratt
Nico Mercer
Studenic McLeod Bastian

beyond that you don’t have anyone pushing hard. Tatar Shara Zacha Boquist even Vesey to some extent are just struggling. It’s a shame and there is still enough season left to turn it around for some of then but they need to play on a line of misfit toys to work it out. Best one on any given night gets to be LW2 the next game.

 

[McDuffz88]

I thought Gillies played well. I'm not sure what the rush is to constantly throw the corpse of Blackwood back out there every night.

Gillies played good last game. Compared to Blackwood he looks like a superstar. I would rather put in a kid who genuinely wants to play over Blackwood. Theres no need to roll with Blackwood every game unless we're low key tanking. Whenever I think Blackwood has reached rock bottom, he then somehow finds another bottom.

 

[RNCDevil]

Want to be inspired? Listen to Blackwood's post game presser. Yikes.

I pick on Subban, sometimes unfairly, but how do you keep winding up and breaking twigs... and not change either of those things?

 

[JK3]

If they are playing him injured I think that falls more on management for allowing him to play than Ruff. If he’s too injured to play then that’s on management and the medical department for allowing that to happen.

But Ruff seems like he wants to die on the Blackwood hill and it looks like he will.

The stupid political campaign from a couple weeks ago is still making me laugh. All of his quotes and the broadcast touching on it as well. How we’re gonna play him a lot and give him the ball. It was a joke. How’s that gonna work out for you Lindy?

That whole push about him being the guy was just odd, why would they even do that? It's one thing if it came up in a presser with Ruff but it was all over the place, during their broadcasts, on the website, twitter and instagram.

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

Sharangovich didn’t have a single shot on goal. That seems bad.

 

[MadDevil]

Blackwood hadn't played since the 8th, so I don't think this is one where you can necessarily say "Why do they keep playing him?" like earlier in the year when he was playing like every other night (or close to it).

 

[NjDevsRR]

I miss Lou more every year, he would never allowed this franchise to stoop so low.

LMFAO. Holy Hell. Please let this be satire….

If Lou did his job well we wouldn’t have been in this hole for this long.

Flashback to 2014-2015:

Barely any draft picks in the arsenal
Oldest roster in the league
Worst prospect pool in the league

^^ Ah, the glory days right? Gtfo.

Lou and Conte were literally the reason we’ve been climbing our way up from the gutter since 2015. Only now we have the prospects, roster players and draft picks to make moves and improve the team. I don’t know how some of you can completely ignore logic and context like this.

 

[Buck Dancer]

Blackwood hadn't played since the 8th, so I don't think this is one where you can necessarily say "Why do they keep playing him?" like earlier in the year when he was playing like every other night (or close to it).

He’s been god awful for weeks now. Stamina isn’t the issue, it’s between the ears more then anything else.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Mac needs to be shut down for a while. Play the scrubs, what’s the difference at this point?

 

[jkrdevil]

We are well past the point of blaming Lou and Conte for this mess.

And I have said before I think it is fair to say the franchise is missing the organization and accountability he brought without glossing over the flaws and mistakes he made at the end (and the mistakes he made in large part was trying to extend sustained success, which is hardly a deadly sin).

The organization could use some ruthlessness right now.

 

[Devs3cups]

Mac needs to be shut down for a while. Play the scrubs, what’s the difference at this point?

I honestly wouldn't mind seeing Daws get another shot. Let Mac be off for a week or two. Play Gillies and Daws. I'm sure the team would trust them more right now.

 

[NJDevs26]

We are well past the point of blaming Lou and Conte for this mess.

We should be anyway. Shero, Fitz and whoever follows them shouldn't get lifetime immunity. I don't even think Fitz has made a lot of bad decisions to this point but this blindly ride or die with Blackwood crap - whether it's him or the staff - has got to end.

 

[Buck Dancer]

I’ll say it again, giving the keys to the bus to a bunch of kids with no support is not how you build a winning team. We can add a Norris candidate on the blue line, it won’t cover up the several other remaining holes on our roster.

 

[I3LI3]

 

[crashline]

Nico let a nice F-bomb fly during his interview on the post game youtube show, at least someone cares.

Now he can march his ass up to Fitz's office and demand Ruff be fired.