Root Of Jekyll/Hyde Devils A Hockey And Psychological Mystery
After all is said and done in the next three weeks, analyses of this Devils season could run hundreds of pages from both hockey insiders and psychologists.
Just since last Thursday, New Jersey skated circles around Winnipeg, a top team in the Western Conference, snoozed through another inexcusable home loss to lottery-bound Ottawa, stifled an Islanders squad fighting for their own playoff lives, and, finally, rope-a-doped their way to a 6-3 victory on Tuesday night inside their personal House of Horrors, Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
You just never know which team will show up on any given night. The result to date is a .500 hockey club (36-33-4) that remains five points behind Washinton for the final Eastern Conference Wild Card slot, though the Capitals have two games in hand.
The coaching change, with Travis Green taking over for Lindy Ruff on March 5, changed nothing. The Devils have gone 6-6 with Green in charge, which included getting buried by the lowly Coyotes in the Arizona desert in addition to the Senators loss. The Devils received standout goaltending in beating the Islanders and Leafs, with Kaapo Kahkonen and Jake Allen combining to save 4.72 goals above average at all strengths, per NaturalStatTrick.com; not so much against Ottawa, with Allen posting a minus 2.2 GSAA.
The ESPN broadcast crew pretty much encapsulated the Devils season when noting that this team has left 15 points on the table (I’d argue it’s more) by dropping games they would have run away with during last season’s record-setting campaign. They have embodied the cliché that their only consistency has been their inconsistency.
You’d expect that from rookie defensemen Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec, but let’s not make the Devils’ youth their excuse for so many egregious errors in the details of the game like board battles, puck management and defensive zone coverage over the course of their 73 games played. Jack Hughes may be 22, but this is his fifth NHL season. And of New Jersey’s 15 other skaters on Tuesday night, only Dawson Mercer, Alexander Holtz, and Kevin Bahl were under 25.
Many of the so-called veterans have been as or more culpable for the wild swings in results. If there is a golden scoring opportunity with 35-year old defenseman Brendan Smith on the ice, there’s a 3-in-5 chance it’s happening against the Devils. John Marino, a wonderful shutdown defender last season, has been on the ice for 100 goals against at all strengths, the eighth most allowed by any skater this season. Of the other seven, only Philadelphia’s Travis Sandheim seems destined for the postseason.
I wish I could tell you the reason why Marino and his mates probably won’t be joining the Flyers and the other 15 qualifying teams for the Stanley Cup Tournament. Injuries? Every team has them. Bad goaltending? Sure, but maybe it could have been covered up like last season if the netminders weren’t left naked so often by the lousy play in front of them.
It certainly hasn’t been for a lack of talent—counting Tyler Toffoli, who had 26 goals for New Jersey before he was dealt to Winnipeg at the March 9 trade deadline, the Devils boast five 20-goal scorers this season. Only Dallas has had more diverse production. Though high-flying Toronto dominated much of Tuesday’s contest, outshooting New Jersey, 45-25, the Devils forwards matched their skill, with Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, and the Hughes brothers pitching in with big-time plays (not to mention grinder Curtis Lazar responsible for three assists). No player in the league is as hot as Meier, who potted his 13th goal in 14 March games.
No, the underlying issue has been the team’s inability to get its (expletive) together every night. In hockey, you’re going to lose some games to a hot goalie despite outshooting your opponent nearly 2:1 like Toronto just did. The vast majority of contests are 50/50 affairs that can be decided by some form of puck luck. You can live with many of those as well.
The Devils instead have blown a large swath of games where they simply didn’t show up on time, as evidenced by their league-leading 51 games where they have allowed the first goal. The next closest teams are bottom-feeders Anaheim and Chicago with 43 games of falling behind. They don’t move their legs at top speed like they can, they turn over the puck in bad areas, and before you know it, they’re down a couple of goals to bad teams. In short, the Devils have gotten what they deserved in those games.
To get to the root of that requires more expertise than I possess.