Failure To Win Inside Tracks Costing Devils Valuable Points
“If you’re not inside, you are outside, ok?”
The above quote was actually uttered by the iconic character Gordon Gekko from the classic film “Wall Street”, but you have often been hearing something to that effect out of the mouth of Devils coach Lindy Ruff in recent weeks.
New Jersey got beat in the dirty areas around both nets again in a 5-2 loss in Minnesota on Thursday, its seventh defeat (two in shootouts) in its last nine games. Whereas the team was inches from a playoff position on Thanksgiving with games in hand, the Devils (9-8-4) now sit in sixth place in the ultra-competitive Metropolitan Division, on the outside looking in.
Ruff put it mildly when he said, “Our defense had a rough night” in his postgame remarks on Thursday. Ryan Graves, who was acquired in an offseason trade with Colorado to pair with Dougie Hamilton on New Jersey’s top pair, was the primary culprit, exposed with soft play on three goals against.
The killer was the one the Wild scored after New Jersey potted two goals (one on a wicked Graves slap shot from the left point) in the second period to trim its deficit to 3-2. Minnesota entered its offensive zone and found center Ryan Hartman in the slot. Hartman’s wrist shot was stopped by Devils goalie MacKenzie Blackwood, but the rebound was put in by former Devils defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, of all people, at the doorstep to Blackwood’s right to stifle the Devils’ momentum.
Graves acknowledged afterwards that he had to do a better job of boxing out Kulikov, but it’s a recurring issue for this team. Graves is 6-foot 5 and 220 pounds yet too often he doesn’t use his size to his full advantage. On Minnesota’s first goal, Graves could have played Kirill Kaprizov with more physicality when the supremely skilled winger entered the zone along the right wing boards. Instead, Graves lunged and allowed Kaprizov to spin toward the front of the net, where he beat Blackwood from in tight.
In both sequences, the Wild got inside a Devils defenseman to generate and capitalize on a glorious scoring opportunity. And let’s not kid anyone, Graves was not alone in these types of delinquencies--If not for Blackwood’s acrobatics, the margin would have been much worse.
On the other side of the ice, the Devils have a hard time getting inside with possession of the puck in the offensive zone. Many of their goals come on rush plays or pretty tic-tac-toe passing, not from gaining position in front of the opposing goalie to create a deflection or pounce on a rebound. Graves’ goal beat Minnesota goalie Kaapo Kahkonen fairly cleanly, with not much traffic in front, and then Hamilton sprung Tomas Tatar for a breakaway. That was it for the Devils’ offensive production on Thursday.
Left wing Miles Wood was probably the Devils’ best net crasher over the last few seasons, but he’s been out all season with a hip injury that required surgery with no recovery timetable reported. Wing Jimmy Vesey has the tools to help in this area, but he’s just as likely to be wandering around the perimeter looking to make nifty skill plays instead of parking his rear around the blue paint to wreak havoc, especially on the Devils’ woeful power play, where only the Islanders have scored fewer goals with a man advantage this season.
The return of center Jack Hughes from a dislocated shoulder wasn’t expected to alter the equation for this problem, though it sure would be helpful if he played with wingers capable of converting the chances he creates. Some have speculated that the Devils are, or should be, interested in acquiring disgruntled Boston forward Jake DeBrusk, who had been an effective net-front presence during his first three seasons but started to regress in 2020-21 with the moribund play carrying over to the start of this season.
I wish I could offer more clarity on this but I too am on the outside looking in, like the Devils have routinely been on the ice to Ruff’s disapproval.