My brother and I attended game 2 at the Rock. Needless to say after that experience, emotions were pretty raw over the last 24 hours. I wanted to let some time pass before sharing my thoughts, however, the rage remains in full effect.
There’s a lot that made me sick.
I’ll start here. Players are the ones who decide the games. When you lose 5-1 in back-to-back games, the players shoulder much of the blame, as they should.
But through two games, this has been one of the worst displays of coaching I have ever seen by Lindy Ruff and his staff. Hockey is a sport where coaching can be hard to notice, relative to sports like football or basketball. In this case, for anyone with eyes and an amateur level of hockey knowledge, this has been a coaching clinic by Gallant over Ruff.
Even more disheartening, it is reminiscent of the clinic put on by John Cooper of the Tampa Bay Lightning in their sweep of Andrew Brunette’s Florida Panthers in round two of last year’s NHL Playoffs.
The same Andrew Brunette who is currently the top associate coach on the Devils staff, and who is also responsible for the Devils disastrous power play.
The Rangers have made easy work of our high-octane, off-the-rush offensive attack and there have been literally no adjustments. After a great first period by the Devils on Thursday night, the Rangers came out with a whole different style in period 2 – the direct result of good coaching.
Meanwhile, the Devils coughed up another TWO power play goals to the SAME FUCKING PLAYER WHO SCORED TWO POWER PLAY GOALS IN GAME 1!
Other inexcusable and egregious decisions by Ruff:
- Pulling Boqvist out of the lineup in favor of Sharangovich, just to give him 4th line minutes with McLeod & Bastian, all the while
- PROMOTING Miles Wood, the Devils WORST player in game 1, to the 3rd line with Haula & Tatar – two possession players who could use a shooter on their line LIKE Sharangovich
- Inserting Brendan Smith to the lineup in place of the Devils arguable top defender, Jonas Siegenthaler
- Making no adjustments to the PP1 unit, which features two 40 goal scorers, and five players who scored 70+ points this season, after having 0 shots over four opportunities in game 1
- Team discipline, offensive zone penalties falls on the coach as much as the player
- Ruff’s general lack of fire and passion, which brings me to my next point of disgust – the officiating that took place in game two
In no way am I upset with or blaming the officiating for the Devils failures, the way many a-biased-and-butthurt fan would. No – it was the insanity that occurred at the hand of the officials in game 2, which BOTH Devils and Rangers fans should be disgusted by.
The fucking linesmen taking FOREVER to drop pucks and constantly kicking players out of the faceoff circle. Some generally soft calls. Then the third period debacle.
I have never in my life seen referees wield the power to hand-pick players sitting on the bench, that might stir up a future scrum, and kick them out of the game with 10 minute misconducts. Miles Wood, Brendan Smith, Kevin Bahl, Nate Bastian, Michael McLeod, Timo Meier were all assessed 10 minute misconducts and kicked from the game with under 7 minutes to go. Only one of those players was involved in a fight. I believe Motte, Goodrow, Vesey, Schneider and few others were also kicked from the game for the Rangers.
You would think a coach who is about to lose a 2nd straight game 5-1 in their home arena to their biggest rivals might have a few choice words for the officials. NOPE, nothing but silence and complacency from Ruff and his staff. I get what the NHL and the officials are doing – taking control of the game to prevent the inevitable melee that occurs in lopsided playoff games. But guess what – THAT IS WHAT MAKES PLAYOFF HOCKEY, PLAYOFF HOCKEY.
And when you are on the losing side of those lopsided games, your SOLE weapon to leverage in the dwindling minutes of the game is to bring anger, frustration, passion, to send a message to your opponent that they’re not out of the woods yet. The officials stymied the Devils ability to do that. And Ruff sat there and took it, like a complacent, “hey-we’re-just-happy-to-be-here” coach would. A far cry from the Peter DeBoer 2012 Devils.
As a Rangers player, how can you not be thinking to yourself: Man, this is fucking easy. We are rolling them in every facet, AND, I’m not even getting hit, sticked, or messed with!
The fact that the softest and most obnoxious officiating I’ve ever seen in the NHL playoffs took place under a Wes McCauley led staff is all the more troublesome, simply as a fan of the NHL.
Felt good to get that out. Few more thoughts here and let’s finish on a positive note.
To put it simply: the Devils have been out-playoff’d through two games. I know that’s not a word but it feels like the closest way to summarize this disaster . Coaching, effort, playing style, adjustments, leadership, willingness to do the dirty work, goaltending – all the things that mesh together for playoff success – has been 100% missing from the Devils, and fully on display by the Rangers.
To preview the series, I talked about what needs to go right for the Devils. I also started a Twitter account to share quick-hitting thoughts, which I used for keys to victory before game two.
To make a long story short, none of it has happened. In fact, if you check the last post, the opposites have occurred:
- Dougie has been pedestrian
- It hasn’t been Vanecek’s fault, but goaltending is now a question mark (specifically mentioned this as a disaster scenario)
- Graves/Marino/Siegenthaler haven’t been what they’ve been all season
- Passenger performances by X-factor players Meier, Mercer, Palat
- 4th line outside of McLeod has had no impact
- Hischier looked tired in game 2, and Patrick Kane found his game
Here is the only major silver lining I can come up with at this point. The one positive of getting absolutely worked in two games, instead of losing them in really close contests, is that you’ve got nothing to lose now. You can put the lineup in the blender. You can switch out your goaltender. You can do whatever the hell you want to try and spark the team.
And that’s exactly what Ruff should do. His incompetence thus far is what’s giving me continued anxiety and disgust. His lines at practice yesterday do not inspire any confidence.
If it were up to me: Schmid would start. Luke Hughes and Siegenthaler would draw in for Smith & Bahl. Lazar gets in over Wood. Boqvist gets in over Sharangovich. I’d actual consider calling up Nolan Foote for the 4th line.
What the fuck do you have to lose? My lineup tonight would be:
Tatar-Hischier-Mercer
Meier-Hughes-Bratt
Palat-Haula-Boqvist
Foote-McLeod-Lazar
Graves-Hamilton
Hughes-Marino
Siegenthaler-Severson
Schmid
Forget keys to the game tonight. I think more important than any other coaching decision, line combination, goaltender, systems adjustments, etc. is this:
When the puck drops tonight, the Devils need someone to pull them into the battle. We’ve seen shades of it from Nico in game 1, and Haula in game 2. But SOMEONE needs to put their fuckin’ head down, dig in, and pull the rest of the team into the trenches.
Let’s see what happens. C’mon Devils.
Word Of The Devil 