The Devils Need A Break
The Devils gut-busting 2-1 loss at the Islanders on Tuesday night was a fitting way to head into the league’s mini-Christmas break. New Jersey had every opportunity to pull that game out—or at least send it into overtime to assure a point—but instead watched as their opponent capitalized on the deciding scoring chance that a more reliable goalie might have saved.
New York defenseman Adam Pelech’s goal with 1:15 remaining encapsulated all that has gone wrong in New Jersey with the season nearing its halfway point. The hard forechecking Devils were caught up the ice as the Isles countered with a 3-on-2 and then Jesper Bratt didn’t track back hard enough to get to Pelech trailing the play. Of course, Simon Holmstrom’s initial shot from the right side that went well wide bounced hard off the back boards directly to Pelech just below the left dot. Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom was able to slide over in time but was flat out beaten over his glove.
A combination of poor executions, defensive coverage, puck luck, and goaltending—it’s been a running theme as New Jersey (20-16-1) has fallen out of a playoff seed. Forgive Devils fans if they imbibe too much during these Holidays.
It’s crazy that single individual plays have had such a ginormous impact. In Tuesday’s more egregious example, Markstrom, who did post a positive goals saved over expected, according to moneypuck.com, had earlier given New York life with a boneheaded play 12 minutes into the second period when the Devils were nursing a 1-0 lead. The Devils were again holding possession in the Islanders’ zone but captain Nico Hischier’s pass eluded defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler at the point. Though Siegenthaler had time to retrieve the puck, Markstrom opted to come way out of his net out to play it first. Unfortunately, Markstrom’s clearing attempt was intercepted by Holmstron, who wasn’t going to miss the empty net.
Like Bratt did earlier in the third period after one of his patented slithers from the right side all the way across the net front. He had Islanders goalie David Rittich dead to rights but couldn’t lift the puck.
It doesn’t seem to matter who’s in the opposite net—Rittich, a backup, also stoned Jack Hughes and Connor Brown on breakaways--because the Devils are holding their sticks so tight these days it’s a bit of a shock any time they light the red lamp. Bratt has one goal in his last 23 games and two in his last 30. Hischier is in an 11-game goal-less slump. There isn’t enough depth scoring on this team to pick up for droughts of these magnitudes from their top-liners.
The return of Hughes on Sunday after an 18-game recovery from a freak finger accident at a team dinner hasn’t had the dynamic effect the organization hoped. The Devils were 31st in the league in goals per game while he was out and scored just once in each of the last two games he’s been back in the lineup.
Remember all the excuses about the plethora of injuries? The team is as healthy as it’s been all season. With Hughes and defenseman Brett Pesce back in the fold, they’re still losing winnable games. And please, don’t pin it on sixth defenseman Simon Nemec’s absence, no matter how hot his stick was before his lower body injury at a practice two weeks ago. The Devils have outscored the opposition, 4-0, with Colin White on the ice manning Nemec’s spot over the last six games, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
I’m also tired of hearing Head Coach Sheldon Keefe talk about process. Finishing plays is part of process. Keefe acknowledged during Tuesday’s postgame press conference that the lack of scoring creates a miniscule margin for error, but he hasn’t found any solutions to the problem.
These next three days off before Saturday’s home affair versus Washington, another Metropolitan Division rival, is the perfect opportunity for Keefe and General Manager Tom Fitzgerald to take stock of their status. Though it’s good news that the Devils are still in the thick of an unusually tight playoff chase despite this 7-12 stretch, it also means that few teams are looking to sell through trades. In other words, New Jersey can’t hope that outside help is on the way.
At some point, though, the heat is going to incinerate both of these guys. I’ve always felt that Fitzgerald took the wrong lessons from the Devils’ 2023 Eastern Conference semifinal loss to Carolina, the first postseason the team advanced in a series since 2012. He became obsessed over the “hard-to-play-against” ethos and transformed a team that was laden with speed and skill through four lines into a bigger and more plodding group. Fitzgerald then brought in Keefe to enforce a stricter emphasis on defending, and while it has significantly lowered the goals against, it has come at the expense of what once was an electric offense.
Looking in hindsight, because I too got this wrong in the moment, perhaps it was a mistake for Fitzgerald to extend Markstrom’s contract for another two seasons at a $6 million AAV. I was overly impressed by the 35-year old’s performance during the Devils’ five-game loss to Carolina in last year’s first round in addition to his record of high danger save excellence. The problem is that Markstrom’s career has shown that he is just too inconsistent to be a No. 1 through multiple 82-game marathons.
And though the Devils aren’t paying Markstrom and Jake Allen a ton in terms of percentage of the salary cap invested in the position, every dollar counts now because of the virtually untradeable contracts Fitzgerald doled out to defenseman Dougie Hamilton and wing Ondrej Palat. The word leaking from the Quinn Hughes trade timeline was that the Devils were unable to offload salary to create room to take on a player of that stature.
It was reported that 14 Devils have some level of no-trade/no-move clauses, which will make it interesting whenever defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic, who for some reason was signed to a 5-year, $20 million extension in March, is eligible to come off long-term injured reserve sometime after the New Year. Fitzgerald will then have to do some cap gymnastics to remain in compliance.
In the meantime, the Devils dearly need this break. I’m hoping the time off will help them get their juices flowing enough to make them remember how they got off to a torrid 13-4-1 start. Otherwise, 2026 will play out as disappointing as this past year.