It’s Time To Start Worrying About The Devils
When the Devils dropped a 2-1 decision at home on November 24 to Columbus, then the worst team in the Eastern Conference, I chalked it up to the continuation of an early-season slump that isn’t uncommon even among the NHL’s elite. I was convinced that New Jersey would turn it around when some of their injured players returned to health.
The Devils responded by winning three games in a row last week heading into Friday’s match with the lowly Sharks at Prudential Center. San Jose had lost all 10 of its previous road games, having been shut out four times and held to one goal six times for a total of six goals.
Well, the Sharks not only ended their road drought on Friday, they doubled their season-to-date output in one night with a 6-3 victory.
What an embarrassment. Is it time to panic? Maybe not. But worry? Absolutely.
Forget about improving upon last season’s wonderful accomplishments that saw the team set a franchise record for individual points and win a playoff round for the first time since 2012. Just reaching a wild card might not be in the cards this season if this is who they are.
Sure, the Devils’ roster seems to be in flux every day with a new injury—the team announced earlier on Friday that top pair defenseman Dougie Hamilton will be out indefinitely after undergoing surgery to repair a torn left pectoral muscle incurred during Tuesday’s win over the Islanders—but the youth of all their replacements was only part of their problems. The main one, which has reared its ugly head way too often, is that the Devils have not respected the game.
There’s no question that this team is immensely skilled, with numerous players capable of creating scoring opportunities with jaw-dropping individual efforts. However, the other team gets to play too, and they can be just as savvy in not only disrupting those plays, but then also turning them into transition chances of their own.
Virtually all of San Jose’s five-on-five goals came courtesy of lousy Devils’ puck management from trying to make the hero play instead of the simple one. Even superstar Jack Hughes, who now has 30 points in 17 games this season after scoring his ninth goal of the season to get the Devils within 3-2 about three minutes into the third period, was guilty of an egregious neutral zone turnover earlier that Anthony Duclair converted going the other way on the ensuing two-on-one.
That the Devils tried their mightiest to fight their way back into the game was immaterial, because then they became overly dependent on the good fortune of puck luck. They hit iron at least three times and had a goal taken away because the referee ruled that he “intended” to blow the whistle before the puck crossed the goal line. They outshot San Jose, 47-18, and had an incredible 31 other attempts blocked. Sharks goalie Kaapo Kahkonen had a fine game, but it’s not like you’ll see those saves on the top-10 highlights--all but a few of the shots the Devils managed to get through to him found his body.
On the other end, Devils goalie Akira Schmid had a rough night, stopping just 12-of-17 shots. I didn’t understand Devils Head Coach Lindy Ruff’s logic for going back to him after he battled through a 4-3 overtime victory the prior night in Philadelphia. In Friday’s postgame press conference, Ruff called it “a vote of confidence for winning the game” What, he’s Igor Shesterkin now?
Ruff also mentioned that his team needed Schmid to bail them out with some timely saves, as Kahkonen did on occasion. You don’t say—Schmid’s goals saved above average for the game was minus-3.11, per NaturalStatTrick.com. Ew.
That outing put Schmid and 1A goalie Vitek Vanecek 38th and 47th, respectively, in the GSAA rankings among the 48 NHL goalies who have played at least 360 minutes this season. That’s not going to get it done for any team, never mind one that has been so gaffe-prone on defense.
With Hamilton out and sixth defenseman Brendan Smith suspended for the first of two games for a slash on Flyers forward Travis Konecny on Thursday, the Devils brought up 2022 No. 2 overall pick Simon Nemec from Utica to take on big minutes in his first NHL game. While he was credited with two assists, you could see that his inexperience can be a liability in his own zone.
Not that Smith, a drag on the Devils at five-on-five, according to NST’s metrics, is the long-term solution to the team’s back-line woes. I’d still rather see Ruff go with his younger players like Nemec, Luke Hughes, and Kevin Bahl, even if all of them were primarily culpable on various goals against on Friday.
It puts New Jersey General Manager Tom Fitzgerald in a tough spot. He has the wherewithal to shock the system with a trade, more so if Hamiton’s injury recovery extends through the end of the regular season so he can be placed on long-term injured reserve, which would allow the Devils to exceed the salary cap by his $9 million AAV less their current available cap space of about $450,000, according to CapFriendly.com.
We’re just past the season’s quarter pole and New Jersey (11-10-1) is only three points above the cellar-dwelling Blue Jackets in the Metropolitan Division. They’re also just two points behind Tampa Bay for the last wild card slot, though they’d have to jump over three other teams first.
I figure Fitzgerald will wait until after the Devils four-game trip out West starting on Tuesday in Vancouver before making any moves. That includes taking a hard look at Ruff, even if every move he made last season was magic. Has the team tuned him out? There’s only so many times he can bemoan his club for losing battles and puck management before the messenger becomes the problem. As for trades, Fitzgerald already passed on acquiring the snarly defenseman rental Nikita Zadorov, whom Calgary ended up dealing to Vancouver for the bargain price of a 2024 fifth round pick and a 2026 sixth round pick. Fitzgerald might think goaltender is more of a priority.
Or maybe this is much ado about nothing. This team fared better on the road last season too, possibly because they don’t feel pressure to please the fans and instead make better decisions with the puck. Middle-six forward Erik Haula will travel with the team after missing the last three games with the purposefully vague lower body injury.
If the Devils limp back to New Jersey, though, then all hell could break loose.