New Jersey Devils: 5 Things To Watch In First Week Of Season
The New Jersey Devils season finally begins on Saturday when they take on the Edmonton Oilers in Gothenburg, Sweden. Here’s five things to watch in the first week of the regular season.
The season is finally upon us. After waiting five long months, New Jersey Devils hockey is back on the ice, and this time it counts. There is so much to look forward to this season, but let’s bring things down a little bit. Let’s take a look at the first week of the NHL season.
The Devils and the Edmonton Oilers join the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers as the only teams yet to debut. That all ends on Saturday. Officially, every team will have started their seasons.
The Devils only have two games in the first week, mostly because they have to travel back from Sweden after tomorrow’s game. There’s so much to look out for on a weekly basis, so we will give you some storylines to watch each week.
This is the first week, and besides Devils hockey in general, here are five things to watch in the first week of the season.
Dealing With Last Minute Injury
The Devils got terrible news on Friday morning, when they learned that right wing Jesper Bratt broke his jaw in practice. It was a total bad luck injury. Apparently, the puck hit off the crossbar and hit him right in the face. That’s not what you want to hear on the eve of the season beginning.
How will the Devils deal with the last-minute changes? For one, the lines seemed to be perfectly set up. Miles Wood, Travis Zajac and John Quenneville look like a trio to finally add secondary scoring depth. Pavel Zacha was finding chemistry with Bratt and Marcus Johansson on the second line. Brian Boyle was playing in between the Texas boys Blake Coleman and Stefan Noesen.
Now, Jean-Sebastien Dea is forced into this lineup despite being on the team for a week. Noesen looks like he’s playing on the second line. Boyle is playing left wing in practice for some reason. It seems like this injury really caused issues for John Hynes. It will be interesting to see what he does on Saturday.
True Test In Facing Defending Champs
Say what you want about the Edmonton Oilers, (I understand they have the best player in the world), but this was a team that missed the playoffs last season. The Devils face a true test when they take on the defending Stanley Cup Champions in the Washington Capitals.
The Capitals offense has been rolling to start this season. They are playing like ringers in a beer league. The defense failed them against the Penguins, but they’ve still scored 13 goals in the first two games. That’s insanity.
The Capitals went 3-0-1 against the Devils last season. It shows that this is a team the Devils still struggle against, despite employing the NHL MVP. Alex Ovechkin and company are still riding high, and the Devils will be dealing with a case of jet lag. How they play in that game with show the mental toughness of this hockey team.
Taylor Hall Begins His Reigning MVP Campaign
Taylor Hall is a New Jersey Devil, and he is the reigning, defending Most Valuable Player in the NHL this season. It’s never happened to this franchise, so we don’t know how this works. Most of us thought it would come with some extra nationally televised games, but either way we get to enjoy this season.
Hall will once again be the star on this team. He’s playing for his next contract this season, so he might play even higher above his head than he did last season. He’s trying to make eight figures per season kind of money. This could be the best season to watch in Devils history.
Not sure what the Devils have planned to celebrate Hall’s accomplishments, but I’d have to imagine it’s something. I doubt it happens this week, but his campaign does begin this week.
Keith Kinkaid Holds Down The Fort
Cory Schneider is starting the season on injured reserve after hip surgery in the offseason. It was a nagging injury that needed to get fixed in a bad way. He will likely still need a few more weeks of work before he’s ready to come back and become the starter again.
Meanwhile, Keith Kinkaid will hold down the fort. Kinkaid was great last season down the stretch, becoming a main factor in why the Devils made the playoffs in the first place. He won 11 of his last 14 starts, while posting some really good numbers. The Devils were scoring, and even when they weren’t, Kinkaid was keeping them in games.
He will have to do that again while the Devils wait for Schneider to return. Kinkaid is in the final year of his deal, so he’s playing for his next contract. Whether that’s in New Jersey or somewhere else remains to be seen, but either way it all starts this week.
Stopping Connor McDavid
This is what everyone is looking forward to this week. Connor McDavid takes on the MVP. Hall versus McDavid will be a pseudo rivalry as long as they stay in their current locations. It will always be perceived by outside media that Hall was sent away from the Oilers because of the presence of McDavid. Whether that’s true or not doesn’t matter, because people will continue reporting it.
Meanwhile, the Devils main goal will be to stop the greatest hockey player alive today. McDavid is going to try to overcome his mediocre core that still didn’t get him a winger, and carry the Oilers as far as they let him.
The Devils will look for force McDavid to leave Sweden with as many points as he came with. That’s no easy task. He had four assists in just two games against the Devils, including a 6-3 drubbing last November. The Devils need to stop him if they have any chance to come back to North America the winners.