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New Jersey Devils: Kevin Rooney Decision Was A Disaster

By Nick Villano

PHILADELPHIA, PA - OCTOBER 20: Kevin Rooney (58) of the New Jersey Devils takes a shot on net with Philadelphia Flyers Forward Jakub Voracek (93) pressuring him during a game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the New Jersey Devils on October 20, 2018 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA. (Photo by John McCreary/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - OCTOBER 20: Kevin Rooney (58) of the New Jersey Devils takes a shot on net with Philadelphia Flyers Forward Jakub Voracek (93) pressuring him during a game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the New Jersey Devils on October 20, 2018 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA. (Photo by John McCreary/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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The New Jersey Devils made the questionable decision to call up Kevin Rooney from Binghamton while sending down John Quenneville. That decision proved to be a bad one on Saturday.

The New Jersey Devils decided to wait until they played the hated Philadelphia Flyers for their worst performance of the young season. They seemed slow, out of sorts and just unorganized. It was honestly hard to watch.

The poor performance came after head coach John Hynes shook up the lines, and the roster. He sent down John Quenneville, who fought so hard for a spot on the roster and actually had good advanced statistics, so they could bring up Kevin Rooney. The Devils brought Rooney up for his penalty killing, after losing Travis Zajac to a lower-body injury.

The Devils had the option to call up Nick Lappin, Joey Anderson or Brett Seney, who all had success on the offensive side of the puck to start the season. Instead, they called up Rooney. It just didn’t make much sense.

After Saturday’s loss to the Flyers, Rooney was immediately sent back down. The Devils didn’t even decide who they will call up, just that Rooney has no place on this roster. He signed a deal in the offseason to stay with the Devils, a deal that turns into a one-way deal next season. Clearly, the Devils want to see what they have before that part of the deal kicks in, but they didn’t get that in his first NHL game of the season.

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The Devils just have better options in Binghamton. Even with their lackluster play as of late, the B-Devils have talent the NHL club could use in a bind. Honestly, Rooney was low on that list. After his performance, it may be a long time until we see Rooney back in New Jersey.

Rooney’s CF% for his line was 46.15%. He was paired with Brian Boyle and Drew Stafford for most of the game. Boyle ended up scoring the Devils second goal, but that came on the power play.

Rooney was far from the only problem with this game. Jean-Sebastien Dea looked awful on the second line. Nico Hischier had one of the worst games we’ve seen from him in a long time. The defense wasn’t good once Steve Santini went out and everyone was forced to play extra shifts. It was an overall bad performance. However, Rooney was the one fighting for a job. He did not prove he deserved his spot on the roster, and now it’s gone. Hopefully Hynes learned from his mistakes.

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