I've come down from being extremely excited about a devils team, to semi optimistic about the future, to not caring about if they make the playoffs, to now not even wanting to watch the games.
They really shouldn't be this bad, I might be delusional about our players skill level, but seems to me even players coming from other teams are way worse when they play here. Is it the coaching? Recchi for sure needs to be fired, but I wouldn't want to swap Ruff for any of the prior head coaches we've had in the last decade+. And how much can you really put on Nas for all of this?
Seeing Nico struggle and being an average player really makes me sad. I think we could manage if one or two players had an off season, but right now Smith, Severson, Sharangovich, Hischier, Kuokkanen, McLeod, Tatar are all playing below their skill level. And even Zacha and Graves (goals aside) have struggled recently. Blackwood has also come down from looking like a future Vezina winner to just another NHL goalie.
Don't really know how would you fix this other than just shuffling lines calling up new players and hope things click. Powerplay could be sorted out with a new special teams coach, but other than that I doubt changing the staff does much.
Anyway I'd let Kuokkanen sit another game, scratch Sharangovich, waive Gertsen, call up Holtz and someone to play LW (boq, de leo) and run these lines:
Johnsson Mercer Bratt
Zacha Nico Tatar
Boqvist Hughes Holtz
Vesey McLeod Bastian