$8.8 million-player benched sends a clear message!

On Monday night, New Jersey Devils head coach Lindy Ruff benched forward Timo Meier for almost the entire third period of the team’s 4-3 loss to the Florida Panthers. Meier was glued to the bench after taking back-to-back tripping penalties in the second period. Only playing one shift in the third period, Meier ended up with only 11:29 of ice time, third-lowest for New Jersey.

The move raised a lot of eyebrows since Meier is in the first year in an 8-year/$70.4 million deal signed last June. Pierre LeBrun explained on last night’s Insider Trading on TSN what kind of message Ruff is hoping to see to his players.

“I can tell you that no one in the Devils organization had an issue with what Ruff said. This is about higher standards this year for a team that aspires to take that next step and be among the elite. Meier is a player they believe in but, so far, he’s trying to do too much. He has spoken to Ruff and they all feel that they’ve turned the page.

"The Devils had a pretty hard practice on Tuesday because this is about the whole team, not just one player getting out of the gates on the right foot.”

Ruff made it clear after that game that he expects way more out of all his players moving forward. The Devils have some time off until their next game on Friday when they will face off against the New York Islanders.

Meier will aim to re-enter Ruff’s good graces as he’s been held off the scoresheet in all three games thus far.

There are high expectations for Meier, who was acquired in a blockbuster deal ahead of last season’s trade deadline. He was rewarded with that monster contract, but so far, he’s not proving to be worth the money!

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