New Jersey Devils Grades For Terrible Month Of November

Brett Seney: C+

Brett Seney has been… fine. I mean, he’s been fine. He hasn’t really blown me away, yet he hasn’t done anything to hurt the team. He’s just been there. He plays on the fourth line with Brian Boyle, who’s been varying degrees of successful this season.

The problem is Seney just hasn’t been able to light the lamp. He’s had plenty of chances. He’s seen himself go on multiple breakaways, and some beautiful chances right in front of the net. He just hasn’t been able to light the lamp on these chances. He had four points, which again is fine. He’s definitely not the worst player in the lineup. He just needs to do something more.

He was starting to look really good with Joey Anderson, but things just haven’t turned into goals. If he’s going to keep himself in the lineup, he needs to get a little more than one goal per month. Even if he ups it to three, he’ll be more than fine and will likely stay in this lineup.

Joey Anderson: C+

We’re just going to go ahead and give Joey Anderson the same grade. It’s bittersweet, since Anderson broke his ankle and he will be out for a long time, but it seemed like he just needed a little more time to get actually comfortable.

He had one goal and one assist on the month. He was playing fourth line minutes, and getting a little special teams time, but it was mostly for the defensive aspects of his game. His scoring didn’t really develop like we’d hoped.

A C+ is alright for now. He will do better later, but for now, this is what we get. Hopefully he gets to spend time watching film and learning the ins and outs of John Hynes system.

Brian Boyle: C+

Brian Boyle is the best player on the ice when it is Hockey Fights Cancer Night. He scored four goals in two such nights in November. He scored zero goals besides that in the month.

Boyle was injured for a little over a week, so that also impacted Boyle’s final numbers. Still, he could have done a little more besides that one game with a hat trick. It was an amazing game, and he was the main reason for one of the Devils four wins, but we’d love for him to find that scoring stroke in other games.

He’s not spending as much time on the penalty kill, but he’s still on that unit. Pavel Zacha is taking most of his minutes, but he has a role to keep the puck out of the net. He’s also back on the power play, but that’s nothing to go home about. If he could provide something to this team’s power play unit, his grade will go way up.

Egor Yakovlev: C+

We’ll keep this one quick, because Egor Yakovlev is incomplete for the most part, but he played just enough games to get a grade. He showed flashes of being a startable defender throughout his first few games in the lineup. He is still struggling to secure a lock-down spot, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen.

He still has issues with positioning, and part of that probably has to do with his language barrier. He’s also getting used to the size of the NHL ice. He has very good offensive instincts. If he can use those to his advantages, he could be key to the Devils turnaround.