New Jersey Devils: Three Problems That Need Fixing
By Brian Cooke
The New Jersey Devils are on a four-game winless streak, and most fans are ready to hit the panic button. While I don’t think we need to take extreme measures, there are obvious issues that must change for us to get back in the win column.
New Jersey’s next five games are all against division opponents, so no time like the present to fix our problems.
Problem Number One: The Penalties
This is an obvious issue with the team right now, but I want everyone to think about how much worse it could get.
The Devils are currently 11th in the league for penalties taken, racking up an astounding 165 penalties. Fortunately, the Devils are 7th in PK, killing off 83.7% of power plays. Hopefully, the Devils can sustain how great they’ve played on the PK. If they begin to slip, they will be badly exposed.
Not to mention, all the game time the Devils spend killing penalties is time they can’t create offense. It hurts multiple elements of the game. Bottom line, no more dumb penalties. I’m looking at you Sami Vatanen and Pavel Zacha.
Problem Number Two: The Defense
To put this in simple terms, the Devils are relying too heavily on elite goaltending every night. While final scores may not reflect it, Cory Schneider constantly has to stand on his head to keep the Devils in games.
The Devils last game against Dallas spoke volumes to me. They gave up four goals, but I thought Schneider played a great game. New Jersey has been giving up too many quality chances, and has been turning the puck over in the defensive zone too often.
If Schneider didn’t play at a high level, Dallas could have easily put up another three goals. The Devils haven’t allowed less than three goals in a game since December 27th. Time to get back on track.
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Problem Number Three: The Coaches Challenge
Yeah, it’s time to discuss this. This is something that’s out of their hands, but nevertheless you can’t argue its cost us two points.
For those not keeping up, the coaches challenge reversed two late, go-ahead goals that would have likely given us wins against the Buffalo Sabres and St. Louis Blues. Without going too deep into these revered calls, I did not agree with either of them. Both calls had lengthy offsides reviews. After watching the replay countless times, I believe they were inconclusive. You can make a strong case that both players had possession of the puck entering the zone, but it’s history now. Let this serve as a positive reminder that while we are not playing our cleanest hockey, the Devils could have two wins if those calls were not changed.