New Jersey Devils: Miles Wood Must Stop Fighting

Miles Wood’s fight in the third period of the New Jersey Devils’ loss against the Ottawa Senators forced him to miss five minutes. Those minutes were crucial as the opponent scored the game-winning goal.

New Jersey Devils rookie Miles Wood has been a pleasant surprise for the team this season. After joining the team for good at the end of November, he’s scored eight goals and six assists.

Obviously those numbers aren’t out of this world, but it’s his skills on the ice that makes Devils’ fans salivate over the possibilities the team has in Wood.

He showed exactly what he can do on Tuesday night. On a play early in the first period, he raced from one side of the ice to the other. He pounced on the puck in the Ottawa Senators zone near the red line, put a perfect pass behind him to Devante Smith-Pelly who got a great shot off that was stopped by Craig Anderson.

With everything he can do on the ice, one thing he needs to stop doing is take himself off the ice.

This isn’t one of those “take fighting out of the NHL” posts. This is a “don’t let an offensive weapon sit for five minutes” post.

Wood fought the Senators’ Mark Borowiecki after he had upended Joe Blandisi on their way into the offensive zone.

The issue with the fight is twofold. For one, the Devils were still in the offensive zone despite the hit. The players needed all the opportunities they could get against Anderson, who was awesome.

Secondly, the Devils were losing in the third period, and now had to watch one of their weapons sit down for five crucial minutes.

During those five minutes, the Senators went on the powerplay and scored. This put the Devils down two goals with 15 minutes left in the game.

If Wood was available, the Senators very easily could have still scored. The problem is we will never know.

Wood was probably in a bad mood after he lost two teeth the prior game against the New York Islanders. There is a possibility that added to his frustration, causing him to want to fight more. He just needs to pick and choose his spots.

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Head Coach John Hynes needs to have a conversation about when fighting should happen with Wood. Of his five fights (all have happened since late December), this was the first that seemed to come at a really bad time. Hynes just needs to make sure that this doesn’t become a habit.

What’s more, is Wood isn’t winning the fights. According to Hockey Fights, Wood is 1-4 in fights this year. While this is a crowd sourcing website, looking at them it seems like he isn’t usually the winner.

Wood is crucial to the Devils final stretch run. If he can find a way to hone his skill and become a real scoring threat, he will be the offensive punch this team needs. If he focuses on fighting, that may never happen.