It’s no secret that no one in Newark is happy with how the 2023-24 New Jersey Devils’ season is going. A year removed from being a top-three team in the National Hockey League, Lindy Ruff’s club is on the outside looking in as of Friday.
The problems were exacerbated by an embarrassing 5-1 loss at home to the New York Rangers on Thursday night, and Ruff was clearly not at all pleased in his post-game presser.
The 64-year-old did not hold back when asked about the team’s brutal powerplay — which has scored just two times in its last 46 opportunities.
“When you’re struggling, and I imagine you’ve asked every player, now they’re feeling it,” Ruff explained. “You guys are creating excess pressure. Us, as a staff, we’ll go through that power play. We changed things up. We met with individual groups tonight versus, usually, you meet with all 10 or 11 of your power-play guys. We’ll go through the whole thing again and just try to keep getting better.”
Certainly interesting comments from the longtime NHL coach, but it’s not surprising that he is fed up right now. Despite having the 15th best powerplay in the league, they’ve been by far the worst over the last 14 games.
Dougie Hamiton’s absence felt deeply by Devils
The absence of Dougie Hamilton continues to loom large on the blue line, with youngsters Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec playing big minutes in each of their rookie seasons.
“When we have two young defensemen that are anchoring, there’s really not a replacement up top for us,” the bench boss continued.
“They’ve probably done a better than expected job for me – both those kids – and they’re going to continue to grow. There’s a lot of stuff you like about their game. But … with young defensemen, there are going to be mistakes and poor decisions at times. But you have to just live with that and grow through it.”
Now 28-24-4, the Devils are sixth place in the Metropolitan Division and a full five games back of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. If New Jersey can’t turn things around in the last two months of the campaign, they’ll miss the postseason for the fourth time in five years.
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