Lindy Ruff blames reporters for Devils’ recent struggles!

New Jersey Devils head coach Lindy Ruff stunned many on Friday when he revealed who was responsible for the team’s recent woes on the man advantage. According to the bench boss, media is to blame.

“When you’re struggling, and I imagine you’ve asked every player, now they’re feeling it,” Ruff told reporters after last night’s 5-1 loss to the New York Rangers.

“You guys are creating excess pressure,” the bench boss continued. “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.”

Ahead of Friday night’s action, New Jersey has the 15th-ranked power play in the NHL this season, converting 22% of the time. In their past 14 outings, the Devils have scored in only two of 46 opportunities, which stands as the worst rate in the league in that span.

The fact the star defenseman and team quarterback on the man advantage Dougie Hamilton has been missing surely explains why the struggles have been so evident. The Devils have slotted in rookies Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec in his spot on the power-play, but success isn’t in reach.

“When we have two young defensemen that are anchoring, there’s really not a replacement up top for us,” Ruff said.

“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.”

The Devils currently sit sixth in the Metropolitan Division, standing five points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning who is holding on to the last Wild card playoff spot in the Eastern conference.

New Jersey has been involved in trade rumours lately, reportedly looking to acquire a major boost in net. The Devils have been linked to Calgary Flames’ Jacob Markstrom and Nashville Predators’ Juuse Saros.

However, they should also focus on improving the man advantage and forget about Ruff’s bogus reason for why it ain’t working out…

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