10 Questions New Jersey Devils Must Answer This Season

10. Can Keith Kinkaid Carry Devils Again?

Maybe this is a bigger deal than it’s being made, but Keith Kinkaid will need to carry the Devils for at least the first month of the season. Starting goalie Cory Schneider will be in the twilight of his hip surgery recovery, but he won’t be fully healthy. He needs to be before he even steps out on the ice.

Meanwhile, Kinkaid will take the majority of the starts while Schneider is out. That shouldn’t be a problem, as Kinkaid took almost every start down the stretch last season. He played eight straight games that mattered at the end of the season. All in all, he played 12 of the last 14 games. He lost two of those starts.

Here’s the issue, we’ve never seen that side of Kinkaid before. In fact, we saw a very different Kinkaid earlier in the season. There were people calling for Eddie Lack and Ken Appleby to get a shot to be Schneider’s backup during the worst of Kinkaid’s performance.

Who knows what changed. Maybe coach Rollie Melancon found a flaw that he fixed. It’s possible that Kinkaid watched film of himself and helped him regain his confidence. Heck, maybe it was blocking a bunch of people on Twitter that helped clear his head.

Either way, a massive question surrounding this team is the play of Kinkaid. The Devils need him to be above average. As long as he isn’t the tire fire that he was at times, they won’t need the superstar like performance they got at the end of the season.