Devils fire head coach Lindy Ruff, name Travis Green interim replacement
The Devils have fired Lindy Ruff and named associate coach Travis Green the interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
After accumulating 112 points and reaching the second round of the playoffs last season, New Jersey has put together a very up-and-down campaign, and the team currently sits in sixth place in the Metropolitan Division.
The Devils have dealt with their fair share of injuries throughout the season as key pieces like forwards Timo Meier, Jack Hughes, Curtis Lazar, and defenseman Dougie Hamilton have all missed time.
Hamilton is the only one of those four who hasn’t returned to the ice yet, but New Jersey's struggles have continued, and “Fire Lindy” chants have been raining down at the past few Devils home games.
Finally, after Sunday's loss to the Kings, Devils president of hockey operations and general manager Tom Fitzgerald decided he’d seen enough as well and the two sides parted ways.
"I hold our entire organization to the highest levels of accountability to focus on being a competitive team that expects to be a perennial playoff contender. Unfortunately, we are not currently at that level, and I needed to make this decision," Fitzgerald said in a statement.
"This was an extremely difficult conversation to have with Lindy based on the relationship that he and I have. He was the right coach to develop our young players on the ice, and above all else, he is a tremendous person."
Ruff spent three seasons as an assistant with the Rangers before being hired by New Jersey to take over for Alain Nasreddine, who stepped in as the interim head coach when John Hynes was fired.
After back-to-back seventh place finishes, the 63-year-old helped lead the Devils back to the postseason last year, where they took down the rival Rangers but fell to the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round.
Ruff was named a Jack Adams award finalist and signed a multi-year extension this offseason, but with things not going as planned and the team quickly falling out of the playoff picture, his time in New Jersey has been cut short.
He finishes his Devils tenure with a 128-125-28 record.
