Ruff on Devils loss: 'Everybody should be angry'

A furious third-period comeback couldn't lift the New Jersey Devils out of a 4-0 hole on Monday night as the team fell for the first time in regulation this season, 4-3 to the Florida Panthers.

After the game, head coach Lindy Ruff said there was plenty of blame to go around.

"To a man, we all should be," Ruff answered if he was angry about his team's performance. "Players, coaches, everyone should be angry."

Ruff pointed a finger at his team's slow start to the game that saw them down 2-0 by just past the 13-minute mark of the first.

"We need more desperation, more battle," Ruff said. "It's something we talked about. It's something we didn't get. We had too many passengers in the first period."

Star forward Timo Meier felt his coach's wrath late in the third period. He and linemates Curtis Lazar and John Marino had a single shift in the final frame and Meier, who signed an eight-year, $70.4 million deal to remain with the team in the offseason after arriving from the San Jose Sharks at the deadline, finished his night with just 11:29 of ice time.

Ruff said Meier's benching was a direct result of the German taking back-to-back tripping penalties in the second period.

"You can't take the penalties he took," Ruff said. "We talked about not taking penalties."

The Devils will have the opportunity to bounce back from consecutive losses when they visit the New York Islanders on Friday night.