The New Jersey Devils made headlines on Monday when they fired Lindy Ruff as their head coach just days before the NHL Trade Deadline.
The team named former Vancouver Canucks head coach Travis Green as the interim bench boss for the remainder of the season.
As it stands, the Devils (30-27-4) are sixth in the Metro, eight points back of the Philadelphia Flyers for third, and eight behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for the last Wild Card spot in the East.
Yet, despite the circumstances, did general manager Tom Fitzgerald take too long to pull the trigger? Ruff did sign a multi-year extension with New Jersey before the season began.
On Tuesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discussed the Devils’ decision to relieve Ruff of his duties.
Frank Seravalli: I think when you watch this team play really closely this season, they’ve got a nice collection of talent that had poor attention to detail…it had really slipped. I think they were just trying to get through games and get by on their talent, and really hoping to outscore teams.
I just think there’s a lot to unpack here, but the coaching change, if this team really wanted a shot and proper runway to get in, it needed to happen about, I don’t know, six weeks ago. It would’ve given you at least another 10-15 games to work with.
I think it was important, not just for whatever they might be able to accomplish at the end of this season, but I think also to set some expectations heading into the summer. I think Travis Green has a really good chance to stay on as the permanent coach of this team. He’s obviously getting the rest of the year to figure it out.
You can watch the full segment, and entire episode here…
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