After a huge loss versus Winnipeg on opening night and a loss versus Buffalo, the New Jersey Devils are facing some silver linings but mostly ugliness over the past few days. To quote the legendary Tsun Tzu the Chinese military mastermind, and philosopher, the saying that relates to the past two Devils hockey games: “
"“If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the general is to blame. But if his orders are clear, and the soldiers nevertheless disobey, the the fault is of their officers.”"
From Game 1 against Winnipeg, the orders obeyed by the Devils players on the ice that night were followed through for the first two periods. After Cory Schneider was injured, it was the fault of head coach John Hynes not giving his defense enough intel to keep Winnipeg’s puck carriers at bay. In the middle of the third and fourth goals, the Devils defense surrendered along the boards in their own zone, meanwhile Winnipeg was able to snipe in two goals from around the high and mid-danger zones.
Another fault of Coach Hynes was that he didn’t do a good job of tinkering his players from several different lines. For instance, Nikita Gusev is a lot faster than John Hayden, and Hayden was given minutes with Jack Hughes of all people. Hayden’s speed really screwed up the flow of Hughes’ game meanwhile Bratt should’ve been on Jack’s right flank. This is why the Devils lost the game on top of missed shots in the 3rd period and overtime. It’s all due in part because the chemistry got lost in transition and communication in the later game was lost.
Back to Buffalo where things fell apart, you begin to wonder more about what this team needs to look at. However, the Devils forward and defensive pairings weren’t really tinkered as much. Jesper Boqvist played rather well and showed he can maneuver and take chances with passes. The fault of the players came when Jack Hughes had three turnovers versus one take away. What Hughes did do right was win 7/12 faceoffs. The Devils gave up three power play goals in three chances. If the team was more disciplined and played within the dots, and kept guys like Sam Reinhart, and Jack Eichel at bay, then maybe it’s a 4-2 game and the Devils can possibly try and score.
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There is a lot of room for improvement, and honestly Mirco Mueller like always is more of a door than a window when in front of Schneider and not getting out of the way for Blackwood. The other thing is P.K. Subban and several other defenders forgot to cover their opponents. Nikita Gusev didn’t complete his check on the Buffalo scoring drive.
To be honest, Mueller needs to be benched, Connor Carrick needs to play, and let everyone else play out on their respected lines. If John Hynes is capable of being a better communicator along with his players and staff this team can certainly turn things around with a few nice adjustments.
Either way, the Devils have 80 regular-season games left. Their next game is vs. the Philadelphia Flyers and this being against a division rival this should ignite the team into playing a more physical but more disciplined game. You have to out smart the Flyers and score first and often. Then let the defense and goaltending start to kick in versus a Flyers team that just returned from Prague, Czech Republic.