Preseason Results May Be Meaningless, But It’s Important These Aspects Don’t Suck Devils Down The Tubes Again
The beauty of preseason hockey is that although you can’t be too euphoric after a performance like the Devils’ 5-2 domination of the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night, you also can’t be too downtrodden following the Blueshirts’ 2-1 payback on the second leg of the home-and-home on Friday night at the Rock.
Even Devils Head Coach Lindy Ruff admitted that the results don’t matter given the hodgepodge of personnel out on the ice--for both teams. New Jersey happened to be perfect on the penalty kill in the two games, but Rangers superstar Artemi Panarin didn’t dress on Thursday while perennial Norris Trophy candidate Adam Fox took Friday off. Meanwhile, Ruff said just about every forward he used on the PK on Friday had never done so previously. And might never again.
So why have I bothered watching? I’m looking for a few things not to suck as much as last season:
1) Goaltending
Devils netminder Mackenzie Blackwood took the loss on Friday, but the most important takeaway was that all the traits that made him a promising prospect but were held back by injuries seem to have returned. He didn’t appear affected by the heel that has bothered him for the last two seasons, moving well across the crease, and his positioning was sound. The Devils careless play in their own zone gave him a pretty good test—and he passed with flying colors. In addition, Goalie 1B Vitek Vanecek also has looked solid in his five periods of preseason action, surrendering just three goals.
As has been noted here (and in just about every piece of content related to the Devils) often, New Jersey didn’t just receive subpar goaltending last season—they were dreadful. Bad injury luck had plenty to do with it, but there were still way too many pucks that went through them that had no business ending up in the net. That we haven’t seen any of those bad goals in the first four preseason games can only be a good thing.
2) Don’t get crushed on special teams
Again, this is much harder to judge when the units aren’t all on the ice together. Last season, only five teams had a worse net goal differential on special teams, thanks mostly to a power play that yielded a league-high 14 shorthanded tallies. So, while on its face the fact that the Rangers notched two shorties on Thursday isn’t overly concerning given that the guilty parties responsible for the Devils’ turnovers that spurred the counterattacks won’t be seen in these situations when the games start to count in two weeks, the structural problems that plagued the team last season seem to be recurring. No one is screening the opposing goalie and there’s too many high-risk plays just inside the blue line that, which, when you’re in a 1-3-1 power play formation, too often leads to odd-man shorthanded rushes.
Though New Jersey wasn’t awarded any power plays on Friday, they were just 1-for-12 in the three prior games, with the two aforementioned shorthanded goals against. You can tell that this team is working harder in its five-on-five play; it would be a shame if poor special teams undermined it again this season.
3) The real Dougie Hamilton
To say that Hamilton’s first season in New Jersey after signing a 7-year, $63 million free agent contract last offseason was a bust would be an understatement. He missed 20 games with assorted injuries, including a broken jaw that required surgery, and tried to play most of the season through a broken toe.
Before taking a puck up high at Washington on January 2, Hamilton had posted 20 points in 29 games, not too far off the pace he set during his final two seasons as a play-driving force in Carolina. In his last 33 games, however, he registered a measly 10 points. An ancillary effect was that his defensive errors became pronounced, lowering his advanced metrics at five-on-five.
Hamilton shed his cage and his 26-game goal drought in his preseason debut during New Jersey’s 4-1 victory over the Islanders on Tuesday and then he followed it up with a vintage performance at the Garden, beating Rangers star goalie Igor Shesterkin with a wicked wrist shot through traffic from the top of the right faceoff circle and also contributing with a pair of primo primary assists.
All the NHL’s top teams have a defenseman who can drive offense, whether it’s Fox in New York, Cale Makar in Colorado, Aaron Ekblad in Florida, etc. Hamilton may not be exactly in that class, but he can be close enough, which would be a huge boost to the Devils’ bottom line.
And while I’m at it, let’s me sing a few words of praise for fellow right-handed defenseman Damon Severson, whose puck-moving ability has always made him such a tantalizing player but was given to infuriating (at least in my mind) lapses in his own end. Maybe the most stunning aspect about these games from my perspective has been Severson’s physicality. He’s taking people out on the boards and tying them up in front—in preseason action, no less. What has gotten into him? He’s an unrestricted free agent after the season, you say? OK, I get it.
4) Come out of these games in one piece
Well, we can already cross off “an injury-free preseason” to the team’s goals. Center Nico Hischier exited the opener in Montreal after the first period with what the team announced was “cramps.” I’m not sure how the trainers could have mistaken that diagnosis for the actual hamstring strain that will keep their captain out of action for the remainder of the preseason, but these are the Devils. We have to be thankful we learned the body part.
Who knows if Hischier will be cleared in time for the regular season opener in Philadelphia on October 13 as hoped, nor are there any guarantees that the other core members will avoid a similar plague to the one that knocked the team off kilter last season. As the Devils’ plentiful prospect pool has aged, their overall depth has improved, but they still can’t replace all the high-end talent that went down last season, making this section perhaps the most crucial. At various points, Hamilton, Hischier and Jack Hughes, three of their four most indispensable players along with Jesper Bratt, lost a total of 65 man-games to injuries. Add in the maladies that knocked both starting goalies out for lengthy periods and you can see how a season that began with a wee bit of promise and hope careened off the rails by January, with the Devils missing out on the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season and for the ninth time in the last ten seasons.
Oh, by the way, the Devils went a healthy 4-1 last preseason, for all the good it did them.