Devils Avoid Another Disaster On “Hughes-Day”
There’s only so many times Devils Head Coach Lindy Ruff can deliver the same message before folks start wondering if it’s the messenger.
To be clear, Ruff is in no way on thin ice at this time, nor should he be so soon after last season’s accomplishments. However, more than a quarter into this campaign, he’s not getting what he needs from his club to take the next step. He needs better puck management. He needs a higher puck battle level. And he needs better goaltending. Devils fans have heard this all on repeat.
It’s not that the Devils are incapable of such things; it’s that they’ve been too sporadic. And that’s not a characteristic of a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.
Fortunately, the Devils (12-10-1) are so freaking talented up front that at worst, they can tread water while sorting out their issues. In Tuesday night’s opener of a four-game trip out West in Vancouver following Friday’s embarrassing 6-3 home loss to the tanking Sharks, Devils speedy wing Jesper Bratt scored his second goal of the night with 34 seconds remaining to lift New Jersey to a wild 6-5 victory after blowing a three-goal lead in the previous 13 minutes.
The three Hughes brothers—Jack and Luke on New Jersey and Quinn on Vancouver—combined for six points, but the real story of the game was each team’s awful defense and goaltending. The Devils were just a little better in the end.
But it’s not good enough to have sustained success. It would be easier for Ruff to fix if it was just one guy who was holding the team back. Except in this case, it’s everyone. When you see captain Nico Hischier commit an egregious turnover in the Devils’ own zone that led to a Canucks scoring chance, you know something is amiss.
Vancouver’s comeback was ignited by a careless Jonas Siegenthaler giveaway from the left corner onto the stick of J.T. Miller along the wall. One quick pass to NHL leading goal scorer Brock Boeser and it was a 5-3 hockey game. Seven minutes later, another Devils veteran defenseman, John Marion was guilty of failing to tie up the stick of Canucks center Sam Lafferty in front to prevent his deflection of what should have been a harmless Quinn Hughes point shot past goalie Vitek Vanecek. You could sense that the wheels were falling off. Sure enough, Vancouver wing Nils Hoglander took advantage of a juicy Vanecek rebound to deposit the game-tying goal with 3:26 remaining.
The fact that the Canucks were subsequently just as obliging—Bratt was left all alone at the doorstep to bang home the rebound of a Kevin Bahl wrister that was redirected by Hischier into goalie Thatcher Demko—should not obscure how the Devils got to that point. They came out flying in the first period, taking a 4-1 lead. For some reason, though, this team has an irritating tendency to let up. They surrendered a late goal at the end of the period and then stopped pushing after Luke Hughes restored the three-goal cushion with a power play snipe with 34 seconds remaining in the second period.
It’s almost like New Jersey can’t find the middle ground between their sometimes-reckless go-go style and how to execute when playing a safer game. They have yet to allow fewer than two goals against, which they have done just five times in 23 games this season.
Obviously, New Jersey’s struggles in the nets have had a lot to do with that. They are 30th in team save percentage (.882) and Vanecek’s poor outing (Ruff somehow thought he played well because he did make some tough stops) dropped him into last place in NaturalStatTrick.com’s goals saved above average ranking among the 58 NHL goalies who played at least six games. Backup Akira Schmid is in 39th place, by the way.
At least the Devils are entertaining. They are fourth in the league in goals for per game and boast a fearsome power play that went up to a league-leading 36.4% after going 1-for-2 on Tuesday night. Jack Hughes alone is worth the price of admission. However, fun teams don’t always make for winning teams, and the Devils have too often tripped over that line.
There was hope that New Jersey could get healthy of body (their once lengthy injured list has been whittled down to defenseman Dougie Hamilton and forward Tomas Nosek, both of whom will be out indefinitely) and mind while on the road, where they went 28-9-4 last season to set a franchise record. While the Canucks have taken a leap this season, the remaining three opponents, starting with Seattle in a Thursday night national TV contest, are all well below real .500.
Though the Devils narrowly avoided disaster, this was not an auspicious start.