The New Jersey Devils have been floundering since the start of the year. One of their major issues is secondary scoring. Kyle Palmieri’s struggles are a main reason for these issues.
Kyle Palmieri will always be the first. He was the first player that Ray Shero stole from another team and turned into a star. When the New Jersey Devils acquired him from the Anaheim Ducks, he was a guy who could score 15 goals but couldn’t stay healthy. Shero sent two picks to the Ducks to give him a bigger role, and he thrived.
Palmieri scored 30 goals in his first season, and led the Devils last year with 26 goals. He was a scoring machine that scored when the team needed it most.
This year, on the other hand, Palmieri has disappeared in the biggest moments. Some of the reasons aren’t his fault. He was hurt by a terrible goalie interference call after scoring against the New York Islanders. If the rest of the game went the same way, that would have been a Devils win. He’s also hit the post more times than I can count. You can’t really blame a guy for coming within inches of scoring a goal.
However, the stats don’t lie. Palmieri, a player who was a lock down first-line player coming into this season, has eight goals. Yes, he’s been hurt twice this season, but as they say the best ability is availability. Taking that into account, this is much less than we expected from the right winger.
The real issues with Palmieri is he’s been awful at 5v5 play. If I asked you “when was the last time Kyle Palmieri scored 5v5” what would you say? Would you say December? November? You’d be wrong.
The last time Palmieri scored a goal 5v5 was before his first injury. It was back on October 19th. It was a crucial goal, because it cut the Ottawa Senators lead in half, in what became a come-from-behind victory.
Think about that. It’s been more than three months since Kyle Palmieri scored a goal that wasn’t on special teams.
I’m sure Palmieri has been hurt by losing out on minutes with Taylor Hall. He’s also been dealing with nagging injuries all season long. Two foot injuries have to hurt his speed, and sometimes those take a while to fully heal. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
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There’s no denying what Palmieri can bring to this team. If I told fans before the season that Palmieri would be playing on the second or third line, most would believe that’s because the offense has been amazing. Instead, it’s because Palmieri can’t find the back of the net. He needs to get more space, because he proved he can score when given that space.
This All-Star break gives John Hynes time to figure out the secondary scoring. Getting Palmieri going will be key to turning around the second and third lines. Say what you will about Travis Zajac, if Palmieri can make his own space Zajac can give him the puck. Zajac may not be the player he once was, but he can still pass.
Palmieri has a chance to turn it around. He has 34 games left to prove the start to the season was a fluke. Getting Palmieri going may jump start this team, who’s been in an incredible funk. This could be the start to another happy time as Devils fans. It all starts with the secondary scoring.