The Right Fit | 10 TAKEAWAYS

Devils head coach Lindy Ruff has been known to occasionally crack a really solid joke during his media availabilities. It's not all the time, but he always seems to nail it. And because he doesn't do it all the time, when he throws out the zingers, not only does he get a good laugh out of the media in front of him, but often he's even laughing himself. 

He knows when he's hit the mark.

His most recent one was just this morning on the road in Montreal when he was asked about the unique benefit Luke Hughes has in having older brother Jack on the team. 

Ruff took a beat. 

"Free room and board... that's the value!" 

Aced it! 

And so, it is with Lindy where we start this week's 10 Takeaways, presented by Ticketmaster!

1.

A big congratulations to Lindy Ruff on his 100th career win as the coach of the New Jersey Devils! One thing that general manager Tom Fitzgerald has never strayed from was that Lindy has been and is the right coach to be guiding this New Jersey squad. He said it right from the get-go on July 9, 2020, when Ruff was first introduced as head coach. 

Here's what Fitzgerald said when Ruff was first hired: 

“The group needs a teacher – someone who’s going to come in and teach and the message is going to be extremely clear. As the process continued to move forward, Lindy just continued to step to the forefront. One, I was looking for experience: NHL head coaching experience. Two, presence: someone who has been there, done that and could walk into a room and actually grab the attention of our young team.”

I had to read that quote multiple times as I was prepping this article because it blew me away how dead-on Fitzgerald was and continues to be.

2.

It truly feels like gone are the days we hear the common refrain "We're a young team, still learning".

What we're starting to hear more of is "If I/we permit it, I/we promote it."

It trickled into the Devils lexicon slightly last season, but it's starting to take greater shape this season. I wrote about it's early beginnings last season, and now we're hearing it more often. 

It's all about higher standards, standards that were set by virtue of their own success and growth. So whatever decisions are made, whatever is expected of a player, if it is less than meeting the highest of standards, it can't be permitted. Otherwise, it's something, in theory, you promote as acceptable. 

General manager Tom Fitzgerald recently used the refrain in conversation with The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun and laid it out perfectly.

When talking about Lindy Ruff's decision to sit Timo Meier after taking two penalties against the Panthers last week, here's how Fitzgerald used the saying: 

"We're in a different phase. Accountability and culture is huge for us to get to where we want to go. I say it all the time and Lindy expressed it to Timo: 'If I permit it, I'm promoting it.' We're not permitting it, but we want to help our players."

3.

Did you know that Luke Hughes' nickname is Rusty? 

It was first discovered publicly this summer when his oldest brother, Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes mentioned it in a hometown series the Canucks put together.

Rusty, after the Oceans 11 character Rusty Ryan, played by Bratt Pitt who, if you hadn't noticed is eating something in nearly every single scene in the movie. 

Turns out, Luke is often always seen eating something or other, and thus the birth of the nickname Rusty. 

Watch the opening three seconds of this post-game interview with Luke and you can see he's just finishing chewing his post-game piece of bread!

4.

As I was reading NewJerseyDevils.com's Sam Kasan’s feature last week on the thriving power play, one quote stuck out to me in particular… a quote from Dougie Hamilton.

“It’s more like basketball where you have some set plays and then you read off of it,” he said.

Of course, he would liken it to basketball.

Dougie’s mother Lynn was a point guard on the Canadian Olympic basketball team at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

That aside, make sure you check out Sam's article, it is filled with perspectives from a myriad of players that have contributed to the Devils 9-for-21 power play efficiency.

5. 

This is pretty neat. The NHL has opened up a whole new avenue for fans to get to know their favorite teams and players better, right down to the tiniest, most intricate detail.

Puck and player tracking has been going on for years but on Monday the NHL, for the first time, made their metrics open and available to the public.

Through their new website EDGE, you can spend hours upon hours learning more about your favorite players and how they stack up against their opponents. It's truly a remarkable collection of data.

I was clicking through it today to toy around with how it works. I was waiting until a Devil showed up in one of the categories… and lo and behold, up popped Erik Haula’s profile when it came to the top skater in the league who spends the most time in the offensive zone while on the power play. He’s a whopping 97.8 percent, ahead of Detroit’s Christian Fischer at 80.5 percent.

My only warning…. you can get lost in a complete vortex and just be clicking through stats for hours.

It happened to me, don’t let it happen to you!

6.

Jack Hughes, by the way, is the first individual featured player profile on the homepage of NHL EDGE. 

The details are incredible. For example, the most Hughes has skated in miles in a single game this season was on Long Islander, when he skated 4.62 miles. The league average is 2.71, ranking him in the 99th percentile. 

You can check it out here!

7.

All six of Jack Hughes's assists this season have been primary assists.

8.

I definitely didn't think this video would take off the way it did... but I also wanted to mention something about it. These laps (and there were more than just the ones in the short clip here!) were at the end of a very tough, long practice. I saw some of the goalies get a little slack online for maybe not moving as quickly or whatever the case may be. But I assure you, this was a hard practice for everyone!

Plus, how unfair is it that goalies have to skate these same laps with all their equipment? Seems unjust if you ask me!

I just had to come to their defense here!

9.

From Hughes to Hughes!

That's the call from both of Luke Hughes' NHL goals so far - at least when it comes to the primary assist!

On both of Luke's goals, older brother Jack has dished the puck his way before it hit the back of the net. The brother duo became only the fourth player in NHL history to assist on a brother's first 2 (or more) career goals and hadn't been done since Henrik and Daniel Sedin's rookie season in 2000 - quite literally before both Hughes brothers (2001, 2003) were born.

Eldest brother Quinn, now the Vancouver Canucks captain, was just a year old.

(Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt, respectively, had the secondary assists on Luke's first two goals.)

10.

Crazy, weird stat from the game against the Islanders: 

The Devils scored four power-play goals (going 4-for-5 ) for an 80 percent efficiency. It was just the 16th time in franchise history the club has scored four goals with the man advantage in a single game.

And it wasn't the first time the Islanders were a victim of four Devils power-play goals. The last time New Jersey scored four in a game? March 1, 2014, also against the Islanders. 

The Devils goal scorers that night in 2014:

Adam Henrique, Ryane Clowe, Marek Zidlicky and Eric Gelinas

Shockingly Jaromir Jagr wasn't one of them... but he did score in regulation!